Looking at an 02 plate Range Rover which has the following issues:

Noisy o/s wheel bearing
Air bag light on (possible reset of passenger seat sensor?)
Remote locking not working - battery or reset required?

Any ideas of potential cost of the above to be fixed so I can factor it in to a buy price?

And any other words of wisdom?

Thanks

 

Wheel bearing went (completely, serious grinding) on my Disco 3 and they're pretty cheap to replace. May as well do them as a pair; ~£25-30 each for fronts.

Airbag might just be a big pothole hit and needs a reset, but also check the connectors under the seat. Best to get it connected up to a computer and check the fault codes.

Locking may just need the key re-synced.

 

Crashed and flood damaged?

 

I don't think so - any way of checking? Obviously interior would show signs of something? What made you ask that?

My biggest worry is the gearbox - having just got rid of a Volvo XC90 with an iffy gearbox.

For the money I want/can spend (£6-6.5k) they are al 100k+ mileage wise and worried I'll end up with a gearbox repair. Missed out on a couple that already had rebuilds!

 

Funny you mention the box, I'm working with a guy just now who's box has just gone on one of these.

 

XC90 or the Range Rover?

The XC90 AW 55-50's are notorious!! Plenty of people offering rebuilds for £1200+vat mark on them. Not sure what one for the Ranger Rover would set anybody back!

 

Being honest I'm not 100% sure which model it was, I know it cost £1800 quid to fix though, whether it was a new box or a rebuild I'm not sure.

 

What made me ask is my opinion that any fault on a used car should not be explained away because if it is something minor a seller would be a fool not to correct it, although that happens to. I was just thinking of the worst case that could explain the constellation of faults, and that is being crashed in water.

 

Fair point John

Would an 02/03 L322 be compatible with one of those ODB2 Bluetooth thingymajigs?

I've read somewhere the CAN isn't fully supported in that model.I can then just plug in my reader and check faults with my phone

 

Ex-L322 owner checking in.
Unless you can DIY then I would suggest you look at the costs of using a good indi LR dealer (£50/hr). I spent on average £4k a year keeping mine on the road. Every time it went in the bill was £1k. I don't even want to think what the bills would be at main dealer. There is very little you can do without test book - and even then you need to know the systems.

The final straw was the gearbox - on its second time of failing I threw in the towel and it got chopped in for another car.

Excellent cars, when they work. Ours worked perfectly in -20c, 3 feet of snow and went places other cars would never get. Then nipping to the shops you would get gearbox errors, suspension fails, etc etc etc..

 

OBDII works but will only show engine related faults. Everything else is via test book. You can get clone test book s/w but its still fairly expensive and limited to 1 x vin.

 

Cheers mate on the above ....

the trouble is how can I check fault codes on a car I'm going to look at without taking it for a drive to a dealer?

Gearboxes scare the crap out of me - what were your £4k bills for each year? That's a lot of cash - was that the norm or did you have more than your fair share of issues?

ta

 

It needed new bits almost every time it went in for a service. Standard service was about £350 but then bill was always £1000-£1200. Things like pipes, bushes, battery, plugs, coil packs etc etc.

Then there were the failures which needed a separate visit which were:

Gearbox (£1500)
Fr NS Susp Airbag (£600)
FR OS Susp Airbag (£600)
Susp compressor (£400)
Alternator (£600)

If its not had a gearbox rebuild then its doing very, very well. The ZF 5 speed is really a pile of crap.

When the gearbox started to play up again I just got rid. So many people I know who have them report similar problems.

There are a few good forums, have a browse of the Full Fat Range Rover forum.

They are great cars, but they don't age well in terms of reliability. If you could find one that already had a lot spent with proof then perhaps it would be a good buy for a couple of years - but we kept saying "nothing else can break now" and then a week later something else would go wrong.

Never again.

 

ODB will tell you any engine fault codes.
As for any other errors you would just have to go off any dash lights / warnings. Either that or take it to a local indi for a plug in (that's what I would do).

If you do go to see it check:

Mirrors fold in and out.
Air susp goes into low, normal, high.
Check its running smooth.
Check hi/lo gearbox works.
Check for leaks from sunroof
Heated seats all round and wheel should heat up quickly.
AC should be freezing cold.
Check breather pipes at rear of block are in good condition.
Check for water ingress in headlamps.
Check is got a proper LR battery and the proper battery cut off system is still in place.
All books and keys.
Check CD changer works and will change between discs.
Check spare wheel well is not full of water! There is a bung in the spare wheel well this should be in place.
Check electric seats go in all directions and electric windows work.
Mirrors should be heated, and if auto dimming make sure glass has not been replaced with non auto dim glass (£50 vs £500).
Check coil packs are all the same and genuine BMW parts (if petrol).
Check WABCO air cyl (under OS sill) is free from dents / dings etc.
Check headlamp wipers work.
Check front and rear parking sensors work.

HTH!

 

Legend mate

thanks!!

 

One of our bosses recently bought a 2002 V8 Vogue (with lpg conversion).
Only 60k on the clock when she bought it but she has had nothing but problems. I think she paid £7.5k for it back in August and must have spent another £3k at least. One of the failures was indeed the ZF 5 speed. I believe the reverse band went and cost her £1200 for a recon box.
It is always losing coolant, even though most hoses have been replaced, it cuts out when moving in slow traffic and various other issues have cropped up in the last 4 months, such as air bag light, air suspension computer throws a hissy fit every couple of days then sorts itself out...the list goes on!

She has got to the point where she has spent so much that she really has to keep it.

Honestly fella, if you are buying a 100k example, expect issues and lots of them.
These cars are expensive to run and are not far off Porsche 911 money to run.

You have been warned.

 

Cheers Gear Head

I have been warned away from the LPG converted ones - seems that for whatever reason (not sure how accurate it is) the LPG sets off all kinds of weird stuff - dash lights etc etc.

To be fair - my Scooby wasn't the cheapest to run, felt like it was always in the garage for most months!

Not sure now on what to do!

Want to get one for the space although I am also considering an A6 TDi Quattro 3.0

Thanks for all the advice so far guys

 

Buy a van if it's space you want!

 

Lol - don't think my wife or two kids would like that!

 

One of the big problems for us was getting the car in and out of the garage for work - every time something went wrong we had to drop it off which meant both of us driving up there twice and being without it for a couple of days. Becomes a real PITA I can tell you.

 

Yes it would be the constant disruption to familly life and the normal routine that would simply wear you down and destroy any ownership pleasure

I do like RR's (and had one for many years) but now just could not put up with it

With 5 kids to continually ferry around - and cross continental ski trips to organise

Is the reason I have a Toyota Landcruiser Amazon - simply an awsome bit of kit

 

Yep that's why the Australians say "If you want to go to the outback go in a Land Rover, If you want to come back go in a Land Cruiser"

 

yep, when breaking down is a simple matter of life and death

no wonder they call them the Taliban Taxi

 

Love that!

 

Yep I would say Land Cruiser too! You see them all over the real rough parts of Aus and they always seem to just keep on going!

 

Not just in OZ either, i've seen them all over the world off the beaten track, deserts and jungles if you want to be able to go pretty much anywhere trouble free it's a Toyota or Isuzu 3.1D mine has had 7yrs of abuse and just keeps plugging on, when it dies i'll get a Landcruiser Amazon.

 

Where have you been

Posted that over a year ago

https://www.scoobynet.com/showpost.p...8&postcount=13

 

Well my best mate that lived there about 8/9yrs ago told me that when he bought one, fixed a rear axel problem put 30k miles on it traveling all over OZ and made about 1000 bucks on it when he sold it a couple of years later, never let him down either.

 

Aha, good stuff

I have posted this article before, a financial times piece that articulates the dominance of the Landcruiser

Quite a good (short) read

http://howtospendit.ft.com/cars-bike...d-of-the-lands

 

There's someone on PH who bought a 54 plate for £18800. In three years he had to spend £45k on it to keep it going.

OUCH!!