maintenance history since new 2013

[ttforcefed]

i misread the oil reading - all is good lol

 

[MRLR4]

@MRLR4,

I’m afraid to expose the obvious…. I’m not sure you have a well “maintained“ vehicle. And the $6500 price tag should have been a warning bell.

Nope. $6500 is what a good condition car goes for. Previous owner spent well over 10k in repairs in 3 or 4 years. Retail is 8k, trade under 5k. Lexus GX460 is about double. This is why. Dealers know.

Don't get me wrong, I planned to do most of this anyway. Just not immediately. 4 failures in 2 months that left it undriveable. Luck of the draw? Maybe, but at 140k you do need to be prepared for it on a Rover, which is atypical for modern cars.

BUT be your own wrench and it's a vastly cheaper car than a Toyota/Lexus or Jeep. I love the dumb thing, but I'm not going to make excuses for it either. It's a 5th or 6th car, so I can deal with it.

 

[itsaguything]

But you have me at a disadvantage…. what is the year of your vehicle.
And again I table the argument that if one cheaps out on maintenance, repair bills will be higher.
For example, with the many types of materials used in the construction of engines today, it is a mistake to not change all fluids on an aggressive schedule. Even coolant loses its inert status over time. Other components too: we all know about brake fluid and its ability to absorb moisture…. and brake fluid lines are steel, go figure.

 

[f1racer328]

With my own experience, more things start popping up around 100k miles on our vehicles.

If I were buying an LR4 I'd look for a 2013-2016 with less than 80k miles, and the HD package. Of course those will cost more, and still have the same problems though.

 

[MRLR4]

It's a 2011, but that's not really the point. Someone else claims to have paid about $25000 in 3 years on a 2013. Another guy paid nearly $3000 for rear rotors and a PS pump. I would have paid $7000 in a two months of ownership for minor/common things, most of which wouldn't be usual failures on any other competently designed car. That's outrageous. My main point was the ridiculous numbers of potentially expensive failures one after another. To be fair, mine was a highway cruiser, which may have extended service life on some of these things past end of life, and when I started short-tripping it and using it hard, stuff broke. I figured it would. Like I said, it ain't a Toyota. Many of the failures are such common failure points that some of it is just regarded as standard maintenance by many here.

The bright side of my post is that these repairs don't have to be expensive, and the cars are seriously underpriced if you can work on it yourself, replace all of the failure-prone, badly engineered or shoddy quality parts, and buy one with the timing chain done. Many of the parts are now available as "generics". So, if you are considering buying an older, high mileage LR4, expect substantial repair bills from the dealer. Bills potentially so significant that buying the car in the first place or continuing to own it will prove to be a very, very financial bad decision. On the other hand, if you can do basic repairs yourself, they are now ridiculously cheap to do. Just don't go to the dealer or Autozone. Maybe $200 for all crossover parts excluding tools. $100 for the water pump. $135 for a diagnostic tool that properly scans all systems and does everything you could want except ECU coding. Batteries for $170 at Walmart (which can be replaced in 10 minutes and properly reset with said $135 diagnostic tool). A full set of rotors and pads is $250. Power steering pumps are $160 for a Bosch. Air solenoids can be rebuilt for about $25. Whole new air pump for $150, or rebuild the old one. All 4 air springs are under $500. Dealer prices? Triple or quadruple those numbers, just for parts. Land Rover's parts division and its dealers are unabashed gougers.

What makes no sense is continuing to bring these things into a dealer after 100,000 miles and 10 years old. If you can't fix your own car, but the crappy Chinese parts and bring it to someone who will put them on by the hour. The engine internals, transmissions, and differentials at least, are fairly reliable. The rest of the old, worn out parts can be replaced for a fraction of what many are paying to have this done by a dealer, or even by an indy using OEM parts. And by and large, they are not complex repairs. The only non-OEM part that just flat out didn't work was the MAF. Finding a reasonable aftermarket MAF that works is the next challenge since the JLR part is (surprise, surprise) one of the most expensive MAFs around, and you need two.

So far, the bound up steering shaft was fixed by magic in a can--penetrating spray/degreaser followed by a liberal application of penetrating grease. Goes on liquid, dries to grease. An oddball (and expensive for stuff in a can) product almost no one knows exists. Only 2 or 3 companies even sell it. A comparable product is at (https://www.amazon.com/CRC-Heavy-Penetrating-Grease-Aerosol/dp/B00BYEE0RU). I'd forgotten about this stuff and hadn't used it in ages until my dad mentioned he used to have the same problem decades ago on plow trucks, got tired of tearing them apart, and starting spraying this on instead. We'll see how it holds. So far, so good. If it craps out in a few months, it takes literally 30 seconds to spray on more.

My goal is to spend as little as humanly possibly on this thing, so we'll see how it goes from here... Although, I did go an blow a grand on new wheels for it, but that doesn't count.

 

[itsaguything]

Yep, I could be driving all kinds of other vehicles. But I want my LR4, even with its high level of care.

 

[ugmw177]

IMHO, the Lr4 was pretty cutting edge on the tech side when it came out. A lot of those systems are more "fragile" then the typical suv-truck set up like traditional coil springs and shocks etc. The plastic cooling parts really suck but if not mistaken BMW started this many years prior to the LR4. Never thought plastic intake manifolds was a good idea but cooling pipes in the V of an engine way worse. It seems the big problem now is that an aged LR4 is worth very little at retail and just a couple of major repairs outstrips the value immediately. THe only real unforgivable issue I see is the timing chain tensioners. building something like this on a high performance v8 or v6 carring a 2.5 ton vehicle around and many times off road that takes major car/engine disassembly to correct was just criminal on the part of JLR.

 

[ktm525]

It's a 2011, but that's not really the point. Someone else claims to have paid about $25000 in 3 years on a 2013. Another guy paid nearly $3000 for rear rotors and a PS pump. I would have paid $7000 in a two months of ownership for minor/common things, most of which wouldn't be usual failures on any other competently designed car. That's outrageous. My main point was the ridiculous numbers of potentially expensive failures one after another. To be fair, mine was a highway cruiser, which may have extended service life on some of these things past end of life, and when I started short-tripping it and using it hard, stuff broke. I figured it would. Like I said, it ain't a Toyota. Many of the failures are such common failure points that some of it is just regarded as standard maintenance by many here.

The bright side of my post is that these repairs don't have to be expensive, and the cars are seriously underpriced if you can work on it yourself, replace all of the failure-prone, badly engineered or shoddy quality parts, and buy one with the timing chain done. Many of the parts are now available as "generics". So, if you are considering buying an older, high mileage LR4, expect substantial repair bills from the dealer. Bills potentially so significant that buying the car in the first place or continuing to own it will prove to be a very, very financial bad decision. On the other hand, if you can do basic repairs yourself, they are now ridiculously cheap to do. Just don't go to the dealer or Autozone. Maybe $200 for all crossover parts excluding tools. $100 for the water pump. $135 for a diagnostic tool that properly scans all systems and does everything you could want except ECU coding. Batteries for $170 at Walmart (which can be replaced in 10 minutes and properly reset with said $135 diagnostic tool). A full set of rotors and pads is $250. Power steering pumps are $160 for a Bosch. Air solenoids can be rebuilt for about $25. Whole new air pump for $150, or rebuild the old one. All 4 air springs are under $500. Dealer prices? Triple or quadruple those numbers, just for parts. Land Rover's parts division and its dealers are unabashed gougers.

What makes no sense is continuing to bring these things into a dealer after 100,000 miles and 10 years old. If you can't fix your own car, but the crappy Chinese parts and bring it to someone who will put them on by the hour. The engine internals, transmissions, and differentials at least, are fairly reliable. The rest of the old, worn out parts can be replaced for a fraction of what many are paying to have this done by a dealer, or even by an indy using OEM parts. And by and large, they are not complex repairs. The only non-OEM part that just flat out didn't work was the MAF. Finding a reasonable aftermarket MAF that works is the next challenge since the JLR part is (surprise, surprise) one of the most expensive MAFs around, and you need two.

So far, the bound up steering shaft was fixed by magic in a can--penetrating spray/degreaser followed by a liberal application of penetrating grease. Goes on liquid, dries to grease. An oddball (and expensive for stuff in a can) product almost no one knows exists. Only 2 or 3 companies even sell it. A comparable product is at (https://www.amazon.com/CRC-Heavy-Penetrating-Grease-Aerosol/dp/B00BYEE0RU). I'd forgotten about this stuff and hadn't used it in ages until my dad mentioned he used to have the same problem decades ago on plow trucks, got tired of tearing them apart, and starting spraying this on instead. We'll see how it holds. So far, so good. If it craps out in a few months, it takes literally 30 seconds to spray on more.

My goal is to spend as little as humanly possibly on this thing, so we'll see how it goes from here... Although, I did go an blow a grand on new wheels for it, but that doesn't count.

While I agree with most of your post I suggest that running a $100 non OE water pump is false economy. Been there, done that and was replacing again in 5000 miles. Also could you post a link for 4 air springs for $500? Would also be interested in 4 rotors, 2 sets of pads for $250.

 

[MRLR4]

Beck Arnley for the $100 WP. Actually a decent brand. Springs for $500 are Suncore. Probably not great, but better than old broken ones. Rock Auto is about $800 for "known" brands. $250 pads and rotors are Detroit Axle (Chinese imports) or any number of brands from Rock Auto. Plenty of parts that can cut bills by thousands on older higher mileage LR4s and make them quite economical.

 

[f1racer328]

After installing cheap aftermarket control arms, I’ll never put **** parts on my vehicle again.

35,000 miles and I’m ready for new control arms already.