Over 150k miles

[samcarloso]

The lr4 has been out for 5 years now. Has anyone reached 150k miles with little to no major issues? And if so does your lr4 seem like it's still going strong?

 

[danrhiggins]

Looking forward to the answers to Sam's question. Having burned nearly 30K in my first year I need to 1) budget my miles a bit better and 2) hope that I can get 150K out of this baby! Or more! I don't mind spending money fixing the things that one would expect to wear out. I just don't want to have to start all over. So what's the word? Is 150K a reasonable expectation with normal maintenance/replacements? What if most of the miles are freeway/highway miles?

 

[umbertob]

My 2006 RRS made it to 208K miles in just over 7 years of ownership without breaking a sweat when I sold her and purchased the LR4 2 years ago (I would have gone for another Sport at the time, but I needed the extra room.) My biggest expenses were a couple of fromt suspensions (I did off-road that car regularly, so can't really complain too much about messing those up), front wheel hubs, an inordinate amount of front and a couple of rear sway bar bushings, one set of LCAs, a noisy belt pulley, a truckload of brake pads and discs and 3 batteries - 1 under warranty. EAS compressor was replaced once, under warranty, as well as a valve block for the rear suspensions. That was pretty much it. No engine failures, no transmission problems, no expensive electronic modules going bad, no suspensions crapping out in the middle of nowhere, ever. I got stranded once, due to a silly plastic coolant bleed valve breaking on the freeway and causing a complete loss of coolant, a well documented problem with LR3s and older RRS that doesn't affect the LR4. I have AAA so even that issue was just a relatively minor annoyance.

The outstanding reliability of that truck is a big reason why I am totally sold on the brand, it's not just because it is a beautiful and capable vehicle: other than the gas bills (which my company pays for) my cost of ownership was quite reasonable for such an expensive vehicle. If my LR4 turns out to be half as reliable as my Sport was, I'll be happy as I fully intend to go another 7 years and 200K+ miles with this one. I don't babysit my cars either, I just religiously keep up with a regular maintenance schedule from an indy shop that I trust. The only additional precautions I am taking with the LR4, are getting a full fuel induction service performed every 15K miles (to prevent carbon buildup due to the Direct Injection - recommendation from a LR Master Tech I know and listen to) and change oil twice as often as recommended by the factory. I have 72K miles on my 2013 already, and so far it has been even more reliable than my Sport.

There, I just jinxed myself.

 

[danrhiggins]

You just made my day, Umberto! I don't mind the costs associated with routine maintenance and replacing things that wear out due to reasonable use. I don't mind the costs (part replacements, fixes like broken bumpers) associated with moderate off roading. In the long run those costs will be less then purchasing another, new ... wait, there won't be a new LR4 available in a few years. I guess there is the outside chance that the new Discovery will in fact retain much of what I love about the LR4 and make some improvements. But I'm not planning on that.

On the topic of more frequent oil changes. There seem to be a number of people who do this. I haven't started that process yet (though I'll do my next change in a few weeks and that will be twice in one year - but at the recommended 15K mark.) Is there any potential downside to doing it more often?

Also, anyone know a truly good and trustworthy indy in the Denver area?

 

[mbw]

I did my first oil change early, but have been following 15k, since 15k miles.

I just did my front and rear diffs at 30k.

About to need rear brakes at 30k, maybe could go till 40k before rear pads. (im really easy on my brakes)

It is a bit expensive to have stuff done at the dealer, but its all warrantied and less work for me. I think I will do my own brakes though. Oil i could, but I dont even want to deal with the cleanup or taking the oil somewhere. They charge a lot for the diffs also, like $120 each diff.

 

[danrhiggins]

Thanks. I'm going to take mine in for a 30K check in the next couple of weeks. I want to get it done before I head to AZ for the Overland Expo as I expect to do some side trips along with way and I don't want any 30K issues showing up. I just rolled 28K so that is close enough. I expect they will check brakes, diffs, etc. But I'll make sure they do.

 

[Finlayforprez]

My 2006 RRS made it to 208K miles in just over 7 years of ownership without breaking a sweat when I sold her and purchased the LR4 2 years ago (I would have gone for another Sport at the time, but I needed the extra room.) My biggest expenses were a couple of fromt suspensions (I did off-road that car regularly, so can't really complain too much about messing those up), front wheel hubs, an inordinate amount of front and a couple of rear sway bar bushings, one set of LCAs, a noisy belt pulley, a truckload of brake pads and discs and 3 batteries - 1 under warranty. EAS compressor was replaced once, under warranty, as well as a valve block for the rear suspensions. That was pretty much it. No engine failures, no transmission problems, no expensive electronic modules going bad, no suspensions crapping out in the middle of nowhere, ever. I got stranded once, due to a silly plastic coolant bleed valve breaking on the freeway and causing a complete loss of coolant, a well documented problem with LR3s and older RRS that doesn't affect the LR4. I have AAA so even that issue was just a relatively minor annoyance.

The outstanding reliability of that truck is a big reason why I am totally sold on the brand, it's not just because it is a beautiful and capable vehicle: other than the gas bills (which my company pays for) my cost of ownership was quite reasonable for such an expensive vehicle. If my LR4 turns out to be half as reliable as my Sport was, I'll be happy as I fully intend to go another 7 years and 200K+ miles with this one. I don't babysit my cars either, I just religiously keep up with a regular maintenance schedule from an indy shop that I trust. The only additional precautions I am taking with the LR4, are getting a full fuel induction service performed every 15K miles (to prevent carbon buildup due to the Direct Injection - recommendation from a LR Master Tech I know and listen to) and change oil twice as often as recommended by the factory. I have 72K miles on my 2013 already, and so far it has been even more reliable than my Sport.

There, I just jinxed myself.

Umberto... Could you give me more details on the full fuel induction service? I'm at 17,000 miles and mirror your ~7,500 oil and filter changes, but thinking I want to do the fuel induction service.... Thanks!

 

[umbertob]

Straight from the horse's mouth (as performed by my local LR indy shop):

We do a BG Induction service, other people like seafoam which can be done much easier by the consumer, there's a decent overhead in equipment for the BG stuff. But to clean out the intake, you need to do more then just add something to the fuel tank, as that will only go through the injectors, into the intake valves, and into the combustion chamber.

But with the BG, an Induction service is as follows... Get the engine to operating temperature, start the machine. The machine is a pressurized chamber that sprays the chemical into the intake in an atomized form. Idle is raised to allow the spray to flow through the system, and not puddle up in the intake tube, but not fast enough that it doesn't have time to 'soak' into any build up, around 12-1300 rpm is a good base. As it process is preformed, the throttle needs to be swept at times, from closed, to open, this allows it to clean the throttle body better, and creates high velocity air to move what has been loosened up into and through the combustion chamber and burnt off. After the service the engine needs to be driven, and allowed to run for a while to burn off anything else. To finish we reset the adaptions, and clear out any fault codes that may have stored as a result of the service. A fuel additive (44k) is added to the tank to help clean anything left behind over the next tank of fuel.

He recommends this service often - once a year if possible (given my high mileage I have it done every 6 months or 15K miles on mine) to prevent carbon buildup that Direct Injection engines such as ours are especially prone to developing. He charges me an hour of labor plus cost of the cleaning chemicals.

 

[danrhiggins]

My MY14 is having the 30K done today. My (very good) service rep told me that they are just about to get trained on a new/different system for the SCV6. A fluid based system.

Was also told that my brakes are good until the next service interval. Awesome!

But they are servicing the power steering.

 

[Finlayforprez]

Straight from the horse's mouth (as performed by my local LR indy shop):



He recommends this service often - once a year if possible (given my high mileage I have it done every 6 months or 15K miles on mine) to prevent carbon buildup that Direct Injection engines such as ours are especially prone to developing. He charges me an hour of labor plus cost of the cleaning chemicals.

Thanks so much! So I take it this could not be done at the dealership?