At last: a Range Rover

Hi all. How nice to find such an in-depth forum for our 'trusty' Land Rovers and such. I had a year 2000 Mk1 Freelander for 15-years (so sad to let it go - still have regrets) and only changed gaskets (not me - but a cool guy who didn't charge the earth) twice - the second time mainly as I thought a reconditioned head and all parts (he never charged me for the exchange parts?!? - just the job in hand) would make it run better and also another head gasket change was tempting, as it was drinking coolant yet again. Loved that car!
But a year ago I finally, accidentally, went for a test drive in a 2012 Range Rover Westminster TDV8 Grey (I only initially went to measure the height of the seat tops from the ground oddly enough) and after seeing the look on my misses' face (sat next to me) as we smoothly and speedily took it up the road - we brought it. We did go check on about a dozen other mostly Range Rovers throughout the range, but nothing matched the Westminster, in our opinion.

Well that has to be the largest "into" i've ever seen..

Check the Small oil feed pipe going into the EGR cooler, it splits the oil seal... Look at the top rear of the engine... If you can get it on a ramp you might see two streams of oil on either side of the gearbox.


Best Post this in the Range Rover subsection this is for intos only.

Oh and the Alt should charge the battery regardless of how many gadgets are operation..

Put a Meter on the battery it should be 14+ volts with the engine running.

Hi and welcome to landyzone
range rovers are a nice place to be in

Welcome to the forum and thanks for reminding me that owning a freelander is a better choice.

Col

Welcome to the forum

Henry_b said:

Well that has to be the largest "into" i've ever seen..

Check the Small oil feed pipe going into the EGR cooler, it splits the oil seal... Look at the top rear of the engine... If you can get it on a ramp you might see two streams of oil on either side of the gearbox.


Best Post this in the Range Rover subsection this is for intos only.

Oh and the Alt should charge the battery regardless of how many gadgets are operation..

Put a Meter on the battery it should be 14+ volts with the engine running.

Click to expand...

Yes sorry for the long intro, Henry... I've deleted most of the more problematic stuff I added. Got a bit carried away - sorry!

No apology`s needed on this forum, your lucky if a thread stays on track

Henry_b said:

Well that has to be the largest "into" i've ever seen..

Check the Small oil feed pipe going into the EGR cooler, it splits the oil seal... Look at the top rear of the engine... If you can get it on a ramp you might see two streams of oil on either side of the gearbox.


Best Post this in the Range Rover subsection this is for intos only.

Oh and the Alt should charge the battery regardless of how many gadgets are operation..

Put a Meter on the battery it should be 14+ volts with the engine running.

Click to expand...

Thanks for that info Henry... I'll keep this until I next go to the garage I trust most at the moment - write it down and present it. I'll wager he'll still scratch his head and look vacant though. I found a link and lots of big pics of how to remove the EGR cooler - blimey what a load of undoing removing required for this. Haven't had the burning smell for a bit - am happy with that.

Hippo said:

Welcome to the forum

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Thanks hippo... Nice to be here. I guess you have to bring the smiley faces and that from outside the forum?!? I got my wrist slapped a few days ago here for using (LOL) as I couldn't find a way of showing I was genuinely smiling, and not angry. Oh-well... Have a good day!

Paramount said:

Thanks hippo... Nice to be here. I guess you have to bring the smiley faces and that from outside the forum?!? I got my wrist slapped a few days ago here for using (LOL) as I couldn't find a way of showing I was genuinely smiling, and not angry. Oh-well... Have a good day!

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We do have our own smilies but not many. There's a smilie face at the top of the reply text box. Click that, then they appear in a row usually above or below the text reply box.

Hippo said:

We do have our own smilies but not many. There's a smilie face at the top of the reply text box. Click that, then they appear in a row usually above or below the text reply box.

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Cheers!

Hippo is a special case, he has his own smiley - it’s like his blessing

Westminster....mmmm....nice
Any pics of it?

RangeRoller dt said:

Hippo is a special case, he has his own smiley - be glad to have his blessing

Westminster....mmmm....nice
Any pics of it?

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Yes I'll have to get some piccies of the beastie up here, RR... To be honest, even though I've had her (the RR) for over a year now, we've never actually taken any pics of her. The only pics I have are the ones taken at the Land Rover '''specialist''' garage whom I purchased her from, when she was up for sale. They are nice photos but mostly have the shop name in the background - and I don't like them any more: as they were un-helpful, slow in getting round to issues (took them eight weeks to get the second fob working as they gave it to me on delivery day not working - as well as the vehicle looking like it had just gone through the Dakar rally or something?!? WHAT! ) and didn't even know how the bonnet double cranked back so as to gain access to stuff like the battery, for example, which packed up after only five weeks of my usage - nice! £200 for what I later found on Bay of E for £154.00 delivered to door: and they said they wouldn't charge for labour, considering. Yeah right!
So I don't want to advertise the (east Sussex) LR garage - just in case some other poor soul thinks they may do well going there...
Yes she is a dream to drive - so silky smooth and stealthily quite (8-speed auto) and heavenly comfortable as long as the oil burning smell as mentioned above doesn't occur...
I'll have to have a good look round the forum to see if there are any GENUINE Land Rover Range Rover garages (or whatever we call them these days) that actually know what they are doing with this big beasties! As so far I haven't happened across any...

You are best off finding a local independent (Indy) garage that is familiar with Landys, in particular your vehicle. They are out there and are generally enthusiast themselves so know their stuff more.
In my example - no one that trained with Jaguar learned how P38’s work, then stick a BMW engine into the equation and there’s all sorts of head scratching. Most don’t believe its like that as standard. Luckily there is a local garage where owner is off-roading nut and is familiar with Landys, he can do more than any LR franchise dealer and is fraction of the price

RangeRoller dt said:

You are best off finding a local independent (Indy) garage that is familiar with Landys, in particular your vehicle. They are out there and are generally enthusiast themselves so know their stuff more.
In my example - no one that trained with Jaguar learned how P38’s work, then stick a BMW engine into the equation and there’s all sorts of head scratching. Most don’t believe its like that as standard. Luckily there is a local garage where owner is off-roading nut and is familiar with Landys, he can do more than any LR franchise dealer and is fraction of the price

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Sounds great having the local guy as you mention - at least enthusiastic it seems - to help look after your vehicle: and not bump up the price simply because of the name of it... I have two LR RR specialists garages at 5-minutes and 40-minutes distance, but both have proved unworthy of the LR RR logos they fly - total BS merchants simply out to rip you off. It is so annoying. I had the same bother with my Jag XK8 a few years back now, with a Jaguar '''specialist''' outfit in Eastbourne who the rumour was: they would charge you £400 just to walk through the door. I remember bumping into people outside like myself, who were close to tears, after having had this '''specialist''' garage tell them their beloved Jag was falling apart with rust, and would need £10,000 work to make it right and safe, when the vehicle had recently passed an MOT elsewhere! I told that guy to go get a second or even third opinion - as this didn't sound like trustworthy advice. I got rid of my Jag not long after that - not feeling I could trust anyone with such a vehicle.

I agree. Youve got to find a local Indy that knows your vehicle, have very very deep pockets, or do it yourself.
I have many friends here that will show me how to do it, as they know if I am capable or not. My Indy is there incase I get it wrong or something goes bang. He’s not making money from the next vehicle sale or working the desk so his mind is on the job itself. They are out there and not being a mechanic yourself how do you tell the difference?!? many of them worked/trained with LR but they don’t pay so great on times yet charge the customer stupid rates so the fitters go out on their own.

RangeRoller dt said:

I agree. Youve got to find a local Indy that knows your vehicle, have very very deep pockets, or do it yourself.
I have many friends here that will show me how to do it, as they know if I am capable or not. My Indy is there incase I get it wrong or something goes bang. He’s not making money from the next vehicle sale or working the desk so his mind is on the job itself. They are out there and not being a mechanic yourself how do you tell the difference?!? many of them worked/trained with LR but they don’t pay so great on times yet charge the customer stupid rates so the fitters go out on their own.

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That's the hard fact of owning such a beast - I guess.

Can be. i bought my Landy off a mechanic that couldn’t diagnose or fix it so was cheap. He warned me I wouldn’t be able to do it myself but here we are!
Little did he know that the guys n gals here have proven to be far superior to any main dealer techie, and could tell me what was wrong by proxy. Even explain to the point where a complete amateur could do it himself. I am proud of them and what they have taught me - in their time for free. This is why I now help others that are stuck as I was

RangeRoller dt said:

Can be. i bought my Landy off a mechanic that couldn’t diagnose or fix it so was cheap. He warned me I wouldn’t be able to do it myself but here we are!
Little did he know that the guys n gals here have proven to be far superior to any main dealer techie, and could tell me what was wrong by proxy. Even explain to the point where a complete amateur could do it himself. I am proud of them and what they have taught me - in their time for free. This is why I now help others that are stuck as I was

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Crikes that's a job well done, RR: that you got your Landy (we don't have a confirmed name for ours yet) diagnosed/sorted when the mechanic was left scratching his mechanical engineering head and, as you say, with the gracious help of the many peeps of Landyzone!!! What an achievement. Whereas (hate to say it) but I'm still at the 'don't like to touch it' stage where I'm afraid even to blink or sneeze when starting (even opening) just in case something pops up, crops up, or arises. I must have turned into a complete wally since my earlier days clambering and falling off mountains just for starters... If we get back safely without a single hitch from a full days driving we usually mumble: "Well that went well today!" We have had oodles of alert code warning things pop up on the dashboard (once on hard acceleration [the CD player was on?!?] from standstill to get up a wee hill - and once overtaking (post 70mph+++) on motorway) which was scary first time (end of the world) but had it checked (more scratched heads) and they looked back through alert codes but nothing was up?!? I just OK everything now, on the steering wheel buttons, and re-start, which usually clears the code alerts for a few weeks.

I understand the initial weariness, something about the P38 that’s different they have an ‘attitude’ on times.

there’s important things anyone can check like tyre pressures/fluid levels. you’ll get more comfortable to pull your intercooler out or change spill pipes (once you see how easy & cheap it is compared to garage £££)
Itl make world of difference so you keep going there’s so much documented in past posts that any problem has been sorted before and if you don’t understand ; someone here will explain

Mine is called ‘Princess’ - a stroppy bi**h that knows she is ultimately in charge. She made a lot of beeps at first, I was convinced to upgrade my battery (1000cca 120Ah) by a member Datatek. I was unsure as the beeps indicated particular faults, but sure enough new battery and nearly all of them disappeared.