L322 RR Vogue Mk3 to buy or not to buy? Trans failsafe problem

Hi all,

I need a bit of help and advise please.

I am looking to buy my first RR and went to see this 2004 Range Rover Vogue TD6 with 140k on the clock. It was advertised for £5400 with an intermitent indicator light fault, indicators not coming on all the time and some times right indicator and either one of the front low bean lights or rear lights staying on after the ignition had been swichted off and key removed ( i am thinking water leakage to the relays/fuse) I went to see it and found out that i also has the ABS, general brake warning light ( ! ), and the DSC light on. I have made a lot of reaserch about this faults before posting this asking for advise.

The owner mentioned having to disconnect the battery when the lights stay on, as this seems to resolve the issue, at least for a day or 2. So, as per my reaserch, could the disconnection of the battery have caused the warning lights to come on? I am thinking that it could be as simple as turning the ignition on and giving the steering wheel a full lock to right and then the left to clear the lights.

The other 2 problems i found were that the suspension would not lower, the light came on, but it didnt work. No warning light on the dash regarding the suspension being inactive. I am thinking that this again could be due to him disconnecting the battery several times, so the warning does not appear anymore ( i know that its most likely the suspension air pump).

The second fault was that after a test drive, i noticed a knock coming from the passangers front side when going over humps, i am thinking front ball joint.

The over all condition of the car is good, the engine sounds good and pulls very well and the transmission shifts as it should. It just needs a very very good clean as its very dirty inside and out. He said that he has owned the vehicle since February this year and only bought it for long trips to see some family in Manchester, which he says he has covered around 6k miles since then. The previous owner had it for 10 years and there is a decent history with the vehicle.

Due to the faults i found, he came down to £4500 after some negotiation over a couple of days, but I am not too sure if i want to take the risk, as i know i could be wrong and could be very costly to fix the RR. I am mechanical minded and plan to at least try solve most of the problems myself, but then again I might not be able to and it could be very costly.

Should i stay clear or do you think that for that price it could be a good bargain? any advise from you all experienced owners will be greatly appreciated!!

Many thanks in advance

If you are willing to take a olunge and are ready for heartache frustration and the cost.....then maybe go for it.

The lighting issue is most likely the LCM which can get damp. This is mounted on the drivers side a pillar tucked up under the dash.

Knocking is likely the steering bushes or joints on the control arms.

Suspension issues idealy need diagnostics plugged in.

Is the light on on the centre of the switch?

If the battery has been disconnected then it will need the lock to lock reset done to reset the steering angle sensor and then the dsc ans and hdc warning should go, if not then it is time for diagnostics.

I generally dont advocate someone buying a troublesome L322 if they are unsure of what they are doing or getting into.

^^^^^ im with ant on this one be carefull there are many others for sale + never believe any seller of a range rover

"and the transmission shifts as it should"

At 140k if the car is not coming with a gearbox history then it's gamble. My transmission was always shifting as it should until the moment that it run out of gears

Does the car have any signs of wearing a tow bar by any chance? The negotiation on price leaves you some money for parts and labor when you run out of talent (sometimes also know as patience). I would diagnose it with something that is capable of telling you what is wrong with the RR before purchase.

Air susp and gearbox can get expensive. Water damaged modules won't put any money in your wallet either unless they could be salvaged.

P.S Introduce yourself in the new member section before posting.

Many thanks for your replies. Saint.V8... the light does come on, but nothing happens and I think that you are right about buying a RR with soo much work to be done, specially for a first RR. Bitnix... I think you that too are absolutely right about the gearbox. I think the previous owner might have taken good care of it during his 10 years of ownership, but for what i could see, it looks like the current owner has neglected it for the pass 6 months whilst putting in high miles on it.

No signs of it being used for towing, but again, you never know.

Many thanks for all your advise, I think I will just take it and let this one go. I am also thinking of sticking to my initial plan of saving for a couple of months more and get a RR Sports HSE, as it slightly smaller than the Vogue and my wife prefers it as she will be using it more than me.

Many thanks again!
P.s i have introduced myself

You were lucky on the advice. Asking people on here if you should buy a Range Rover is like asking a heroin addict if they should have one more shot before they give it up.

I would say wise choice, if you take this forum as an example, 60% P38 faults , 35% 02-05 L322 faults and the rest later vogue and sport at a guess. If you bank to spend as much again on repairing an early L322 as what you pay for a 'cheap' one you wouldn't be far away

That's the trouble with modern cars, I can visualise the day when they will become disposable items, despite their high initial purchase price, as repair costs rise to the point that the vehicle becomes a financial write-off - which will no doubt please both the manufacturer & tree-huggers alike

If you buy any TD6 L322 with over 60,000 miles on it factor in £3000 for an autobox rebuild.................probably sooner rather than later too ...........ask me how I know
Lucky for me mine went after a week of ownership and the warranty covered it

I'd avoid that one tbh. Not saying you can't solve it. But you don't know what other issues it'll throw up. I suspect that you'd just get fed up chasing all the issues and end up spending a lot more money overall.

I would also suggest you look at V8 powered examples. Often better looked after, have a different gearbox and arguably more likely to find a tidy one. The mpg difference also isn't so great if you are only doing 3000-4000 miles a year. Probably only £20-30/month real term.

holidaychicken said:

I would say wise choice, if you take this forum as an example, 60% P38 faults , 35% 02-05 L322 faults and the rest later vogue and sport at a guess. If you bank to spend as much again on repairing an early L322 as what you pay for a 'cheap' one you wouldn't be far away

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Got that over time? Seem to be more L322 recently!

Faults will probably balance out between the P38 and L322 as the L322 gets older and cheaper and will probably overtake. Certainly a lot of spares or repairs L322 V8s coming up on eBay with the timing chain guides gone on the M62

If you thinking the 2.7 RR Sport then I don't think there is much help on the forum for that thing

Not mentioning the £500+ for road tax per year.

After reading the replys to the original post ! ...............Walk away mate and save yourself a lot of money & grief that thing sounds like a load of trouble.

I did walk away form that one, but unfortunately I just went up to Scotland and bought myself a 2003 RR Vogue 3.0 td6 with 160k mikes on the clock, but full service history up to around 145k and a massive pile of receipts from the main dealer from when it was new up until about a year ago. The receipts include, the suspension, suspension air pump and a rebuilt gearbox at around 120k miles. I test drove it for a few miles and it seemed to be in perfect working order. No knocks, good gear shifts and a strong engine. Also the interior was immaculate and no lights on the board, the only complaint would be a lot of missing pixels on the OBC display. The exterior has a few blemishes that are expected for the year and mileage, but nothing to worry about.

Now, I said unfortunately as after about 2 hours into our way back to London and on a hilly side i got a bing and a message on the dashboard, now I couldnt exactly make up what it said, but i could make out the word transmission and then another that said Stop.. Something something and then the RR felt like it just wouldnt shift up and it was stuck on 3rd gear is my guess. (you cannot imagine how fast my heart was racing and just couldnt stop thinking about the comments on here about the transmission failiures). I stopped, turned everything off, gave it a 5-10min rest and re started it. It was fine again, but after about 20mins, i got the same issue again. I stopped and left it alone for about 15-20mins, then it was fine again. I then drove it for about 1.5-2hours non stop, without any issues.

When i stopped to refuel, i called the AA, as I saw a few of their vans attending break downs at the services, so i figures they wont be too long. They arrived 15mins later and he plugged his machine to it, he said that he couldnt connect to the engine, but that he managed to connect the the transmission and ECU and that there were no faults at all. I drove the car with him following me for about 10mins and as soon as i started pushing it/putting my foot down, it happened again. When we stopped, he jumpped on the drive seat, drove it for the same distance and nothing happened.

Long story short (sort of) he suggested to either spent the night somewhere close and take it to a specialist, or just just drive it gently, which I did, with no issues what so ever. So I imagine that that is a welcome to the Range Rover ownership for me. To be honest, apart from that, the car drove spot on and being at home now and after doing a bit of reading, I am currently looking for a transmission oil cooler. Is this an easy DIY?

Just for info, i paid £5250 and it has had only 3 previous owners.

Many thanks again for any info and advise

I would be preparing for a gearbox sadly. The message it was trying to display was probably TRANS. FAIL SAFE PROG

I would be driving it back to scotland and getting a refund as you are on a slippery slope potentially to a £3k bill by the time you chase the transmission fault around.
There is no way that fault wasn't present when you bought it so you are within your rights to get a refund.
Transmission repairs sometimes only last 10k miles unless the valve body is replaced / recon.

Transmission oil cooler is fairly easy, i also replaced the pipes, and the torque converter, and rebuilt the transmission, and transfer box(although that didn't really need doing) and luckily for me i have the ZF5HP24 box which is much stronger than the GM box in the diesel...

Oh no! Really? Shoot! Is it worth even changing the oil cooler? Looking at the invoice, it says Gearbox, T/converter, gearbox oil, oil cooler, Replace oil cooler, re-stud exhaust manifold.

holidaychicken said:

I would be driving it back to scotland and getting a refund as you are on a slippery slope potentially to a £3k bill by the time you chase the transmission fault around.
There is no way that fault wasn't present when you bought it so you are within your rights to get a refund.
Transmission repairs sometimes only last 10k miles unless the valve body is replaced / recon.

Transmission oil cooler is fairly easy, i also replaced the pipes, and the torque converter, and rebuilt the transmission, and transfer box(although that didn't really need doing) and luckily for me i have the ZF5HP24 box which is much stronger than the GM box in the diesel...

Click to expand...

+1.

Engine and gearbox is covered if you bought it from a dealer so they refund or fix.

Dont despair........it CAN be fixed , just be prepaired for any Range Rover to break your heart as it attempts to break your bank , but up and running properly they have no peers