Hi. So yes I am a girl so please forgive my lack of mechanical knowledge or terminology. Bought a 05 LR3 with 118,000 miles 2 weeks ago. Day 2: the air begins to have issues and I realize some shifting issue's. (didn't drive it really on day one) Long story since then of taking it to a few mechanics then Land Rover for a diagnoses.
Story goes like this: turn on heater and it is making a mild squealing sound intermittently and gets louder as you turn it up higher. Also, the air was blowing hot air only on the passenger side of the car from front to rear. The drivers side blows freezing cold air. Then gets worse over a weeks time and is so annoying then just shuts off and won't turn on again. When I try to turn it on it makes a small mechanical moving part kind of a noise like maybe a flap opening and then closing near glovebox but that is all and won't turn on. First mechanic says blower is bad but then removes blower and tests it and it works fine but has some play in it. Checks all fuses and says that they are fine. Says it is an electrical issue. This is a friend without any experience with Land Rovers. Next mechanic: Says it is a resistor and blower issue and changes both. Test drives it and has it blowing but as he returns minutes later it stops again. He says the blower is losing power between blower relay and fan speed module (resistor) and that they do not do electrical at his shop. Take to land rover next: they have hard time figuring out where electrical problem is coming from and can't finish the first day. They say "checked the hvac head unit and was good jumped across to where relay sits and found no power to the relay. Pulled **** fuse and it is blown. Replaced it now working but air temps are all different. Needs new evap/heater box. temp blend door is faulty."
Sooooo, my questions are if it was a fuse then why didn't mechanic one and mechanic 2 find this? So I replaced the blower and resistor when ends up being a fuse? And as far as the box, they say it is $2700 for them to replace so how can I be sure this is really the problem? Could it be something else causing the different temps? Also, if it is that wouldn't there have been some codes coming up regarding this malfunction? So far in this experience I got a lot of what seems to be "not knowing for sure" so how do I trust this heat box diagnosis? Uggggh
Next: often when push accelerator it hesitates and then jumps/lurches. Then when approaching stop toward end does a hard downshift jump/lurch. Almost got creamed one day turning left in traffic because it hesitated for so long and left me hanging in the lane of the oncoming traffic. I got onto this site researching that and over and over people say it is a software update issue and that most people had this problem corrected with the update. Sooooo Land Rover says this about that "checked updates and some available. also found the trans sleeve leaking. with the amount of miles on trans it would not benefit doing either repair or update as it could cause the trans to fail completely. recommend r&r the trans" this they say is around 9,000$.
So I have this car for 2 weeks with these issues and find this out and want to pretty much cry. I have wanted a Land Rover forever and I sure don't have 12,000$ to throw at the repairs. I am hoping to hear from some experienced people that there are other things that could be causing these issues that are less expensive and simple fixes. Any advice would be so much appreciated.
Story goes like this: turn on heater and it is making a mild squealing sound intermittently and gets louder as you turn it up higher. Also, the air was blowing hot air only on the passenger side of the car from front to rear. The drivers side blows freezing cold air. Then gets worse over a weeks time and is so annoying then just shuts off and won't turn on again. When I try to turn it on it makes a small mechanical moving part kind of a noise like maybe a flap opening and then closing near glovebox but that is all and won't turn on. First mechanic says blower is bad but then removes blower and tests it and it works fine but has some play in it. Checks all fuses and says that they are fine. Says it is an electrical issue. This is a friend without any experience with Land Rovers. Next mechanic: Says it is a resistor and blower issue and changes both. Test drives it and has it blowing but as he returns minutes later it stops again. He says the blower is losing power between blower relay and fan speed module (resistor) and that they do not do electrical at his shop. Take to land rover next: they have hard time figuring out where electrical problem is coming from and can't finish the first day. They say "checked the hvac head unit and was good jumped across to where relay sits and found no power to the relay. Pulled **** fuse and it is blown. Replaced it now working but air temps are all different. Needs new evap/heater box. temp blend door is faulty."
Sooooo, my questions are if it was a fuse then why didn't mechanic one and mechanic 2 find this? So I replaced the blower and resistor when ends up being a fuse? And as far as the box, they say it is $2700 for them to replace so how can I be sure this is really the problem? Could it be something else causing the different temps? Also, if it is that wouldn't there have been some codes coming up regarding this malfunction? So far in this experience I got a lot of what seems to be "not knowing for sure" so how do I trust this heat box diagnosis? Uggggh
Next: often when push accelerator it hesitates and then jumps/lurches. Then when approaching stop toward end does a hard downshift jump/lurch. Almost got creamed one day turning left in traffic because it hesitated for so long and left me hanging in the lane of the oncoming traffic. I got onto this site researching that and over and over people say it is a software update issue and that most people had this problem corrected with the update. Sooooo Land Rover says this about that "checked updates and some available. also found the trans sleeve leaking. with the amount of miles on trans it would not benefit doing either repair or update as it could cause the trans to fail completely. recommend r&r the trans" this they say is around 9,000$.
So I have this car for 2 weeks with these issues and find this out and want to pretty much cry. I have wanted a Land Rover forever and I sure don't have 12,000$ to throw at the repairs. I am hoping to hear from some experienced people that there are other things that could be causing these issues that are less expensive and simple fixes. Any advice would be so much appreciated.
Funny story is that I could never get a Land Rover before but the mitsubishi montero limited has the similar look so I have had 2 of those and loved them. They drive stiff and solid. The Landy is of course a much more luxurious vehicle and has the floaty drive. But I had an Escalade that had similar on track programs and it was a luxury vehicle but didn't have this feel. I feel like I should find one at a dealership and drive one like mine to see if that is just the way they feel. Tempting to burn out some frustrations in the sand though 
