Things To Look for - Land Rover Range Rover Sport

Original 2006 Range Rover Sport  (C) JE Robison Service

2011 Range Rover Sport HSE (C) JE Robison Service

All in all, the 2006-2013 Sport is probably the most reliable Land Rover product to date.  That said, it is not problem free.  Poor maintenance is always a concern, and a high percentage of these vehicles were leased when new.  In my experience, leased vehicles are less likely to receive proper care than privately owned vehicles.  They tend to get somewhat less than the manufacturer service schedule calls for.  Trucks that are above 50,000 miles with marginal care are much more at risk for major failures or premature demise.

Sports come in two versions - standard (with HSE trim option) and supercharged (higher level trim standard.)  Reliability of the two versions is about the same but maintenance costs for the Supercharged trucks are higher.  Brakes are double the cost of standard.  Tires (20 inch in most cases) are quite a bit more.  And the Supercharged trucks can burn through brakes, tires, and full faster.

That said, if you drive a standard and a supercharged truck identically, they will return about the same fuel economy.  2006-2009 trucks have the original Jaguar/Land Rover DOHC V8; 2010 and newer trucks have the upgraded engine with significantly more power.  The exterior,  dashboards, and interiors were facelifted for 2010 also.

The 2006-2009 trucks are virtually identical, as are the 2010-2012 models.  

Original Range Rover Sport interior (C) JE Robison Service

Facelifted 2011 Range Rover Sport interior (C) JE Robison Service

Most late model Sports will be dealer serviced, and you should always look for a car with service records.  There’s no easy way to check service status otherwise.  Gaining access to a spark plug to evaluate freshness used to be a 2 minute job on the first Range Rover.  Now it’s an hour-plus task. The transmission fluid can’t be checked with a dipstick on these trucks.  To service it, you replace the integral pan/filter and fill with fresh fluid from below. 

If you buy a truck with 50k on the clock, and there is no record of recent undercar fluid services I would advise doing them all right away just to be safe.  Newer Range Rovers require special synthetic oil, and we urge you to follow their recommendation with respect to oil and grade.  The late model trucks have gone to an extended oil change interval and we’re not so comfortable with that.  We recommend a more conservative 7,500 miles as an oil change interval and synthetic oil in all years of Sport.  For older Sports we use Mobil 1 0-40.

We also recommend changing the front and rear differential lubes, and the transfer case lube.  Land Rover fluid is used in all three.  We suggest a change interval of 4 years or 60k miles.

If the vehicle has been driven in the city don’t be surprised if brake pads and rotors are worn out at 25,000 miles.  That is common.  Tires are often worn out at about that mileage too, though some of the replacements (Michelin for example) have proven longer-lived.

All of these trucks have air suspension, which is generally reliable.  Compressors tend to wear out near 100k miles and they make a $1,200 repair more or less (2015 $)  Struts can develop leaks and that will wear the compressors out faster.  Sensors are valves are generally rugged.

Pay attention to any warning lights or messages.

Other things to look at:

•  We suggest a scan of all computer systems with a factory-level test system.   These vehicles have many computers (like climate control and security) that do not talk to generic OBD scanners, and they may alert you to significant issues.
•  Have your nearest dealer check the VIN for open recalls and warranty status.  Checking for open recalls is a no-brainer but warranty status is not so obvious.  If a car is flooded it may not have a salvage title, but Land Rover will have been notified if insurance was involved and they will void the warranty.  A voided warranty status and a good title would be a “run-don’t-walk” flag for me in an inspection.
•  Tire pressure monitor sensors have a service life of about 8 years, so you should expect to be replacing them soon or now on older trucks.
•  Alternator failure is common, especially when batteries are allowed to age and overstress the system
•  Check the cooling system for leaks, level, and correct fluid (orange in color.)  Water pumps and expansion tanks are two common leak areas.  Non-original fluid is a red flag.
•  Front and rear wheel bearings are weaker than you’d hope on these trucks.  Failure before 100,000 miles is fairly common.
•  The electric parking brake has been problematic on older vehicles.  The mechanism can corrode and jam, making for a $1,000+ repair and possibly tearing up the parking brake and rotors too.
•  If the vehicle is in an area where they salt the roads chassis corrosion can be a problem.  Brake and fuel pipes tend to rust out before the frame.
•  Lower control arms usually wear out between 60-90k miles.  The first thing to go is the bushings, but the joints often fail 30,000 miles later.  Some shops do bushings only as a cost savings but the whole arm will be needed when the ball joint wears out.  Most of the time we recommend changing whole arms for that reason.
• Sway bars are a problem on these vehicles.  The bars wear where they pass through the chassis bushings, and they develop a heavy thumping vibration.  Replacement is a fair bit of labor as the body must be lifted partway off the frame.

The Range Rover Sport quickly became Land Rover's most successful model.  The Full Size Range Rover (the L322) is bigger and plusher, but also significantly more expensive. And the Sport has the advantage of being a newer design, and somewhat more nimble.

We are now seeing Sports coming through our service department with 200,000+ miles on the odometer and no major failures.  It takes good maintenance to get to that point but the Rovers we've cared for right along to that mileage seem to have plenty of life left in them.

The Terrain Response system made its debut in these models and it provides impressive off-road and bad-road traction.  We have not seen any significant service issues with terrain response; indeed most of the gadgets on these trucks have proven trouble free.

The only disappointment is that there is not a thriving off-road community building around these trucks, as developed around the original Range Rover, Discovery, and Defender.  These are fully worthy vehicles.

(c) 2015 John Elder Robison

John Elder Robison is the general manager of J E Robison Service Company, celebrating 30 years of independent Land Rover restoration and repair in Springfield, Massachusetts.  John is a longtime technical consultant to the Land Rover clubs, and he’s owned and restored many fine Rovers.  Find him online at www.robisonservice.com or in the real world at 413-785-1665

Reading this article will make you smarter, especially when it comes to car stuff.  So it's good for you.  But don't take that too far - printing and eating it will probably make you sick.

When Heat Fails Us

This is the time of year when we depend on heat in our cars.  For most of us, the heat delivers on its design promise.  For a few unfortunates, though, it doesn’t.  The mechanic checks the coolant level, and makes sure the thermostat is working as it should.  If the engine is up to temperature the next place to look is the heater control circuitry.  When all else fails we are left with the possibility that the heater core itself has failed.

Heater core replacement is the automotive equivalent of a root canal.  It's ugly, painful, and costly but sometimes it has to be done.

Heater cores are like small radiators that shed some of the engine’s heat into the passenger compartment.  There are two ways a heater core can fail – by leaking or by clogging.  Leaks are obvious because you’ve got coolant all over the floor.  Clogged cores are more subtle.

Take a look at this core from a 2006 Land Rover LR3.  There’s nothing obviously wrong from outside, but when we cut the core open we saw a different story.  The whole far side of the core is clogged.  Only the left side of the core remains open.

You might think that would cause weak heat, but it actually created a different problem. This Land Rover – like many other late model cars – has separate temperature controls for the driver and passenger.  The air that blows through the core is sent to the left and right sides respectively, so with one side clogged we had normal heat on the passenger side, and virtually no heat for the driver.

This seemed like a control problem but it wasn’t.  When heater cores clog the repair is often a big deal.  In this Land Rover the whole dash had to come out for repair, as you see.  Jobs like this can run into multiple days of labor, and cost thousands of dollars.  And this is no place to cut corners looking for a low bid – this is detailed work.  Every fastener left loose, and every broken bracket is a potential rattle.  There are a hundred electrical connections, and any that come loose are problems for tomorrow.  This is work for someone who knows Rovers and specializes in large interior repairs.

When a job like this is done there will be faults in the airbag system and many other dash electronic systems.  The person who does the work will need to have a factory-level test system to clear those faults and ensure everything is working as it should.

 At Robison Service we are proud to be known as experts in repairs like this.  Author John Robison is a long time Land Rover service manager, and a technical advisor to many Rover clubs.  He’s written many articles on Land Rover service – indexed here.

No Land Rovers were harmed in the writing of this story, and environmentally friendly repair methods were used throughout.  We are located in Springfield, Massachusetts, where we stand ready to provide top-quality service and repair to owners of BMW, Jaguar, Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, and Rolls-Royce and Bentley motorcars.

© J E Robison Service

Hidden dangers in one-piece hubs

Another day, another brake job . . . but not so fast!

Take a look at this rear hub/brake assembly. It's a pretty typical worn out pad and rotor picture, one that we've addressed with a cleanup and new brake parts a thousand times before.  This one turned out different.

Thanks to Land Rover master technician Paul Ferreira for spotting a very subtle flaw.  Once the brake rotor had been removed, Paul noticed the wheel studs were not quite the same length. Take a look at what he saw, and see if you pick it up.  It's a small enough thing that I'll bet 99% of technicians would not give this a second glance.

Knowing that something was wrong, he looked a little harder.  Here's what he found.  I've put arrows and text on the photo to point the problem out:

It's kind of scary to think that the heads were popped off of three of five wheel studs on the right rear of this 2002 Range Rover.  Why did that happen? I have no idea, other than accumulated stress.  Why this wheel and not the others?  I don't know that either, maybe just luck.

The studs must have been broken for a while, because the lugs were all tight even though some were pulled halfway through the hub.  Presumably they pulled a little farther every time a wheel was torqued into place, and they would have eventually gotten to the point where they'd have given way, perhaps suddenly.

The moral of this story - check the wheel studs whenever they are exposed for service.  Sometimes part like this - bits we think of as permanent - really aren't.

(c) 2014 John Elder Robison

John Elder Robison is the general manager of J E Robison Service Company, independent Land Rover restoration and repair specialists in Springfield, Massachusetts.  John is a longtime technical consultant to the Land Rover, Mercedes, BMW, Porsche and Rolls Royce Owner's Clubs, and he’s owned and restored many of these fine vehicles.  Find him online at www.robisonservice.com or in the real world at 413-785-1665

Frame Rust in Land Rover Discovery II models - an Achilles' heel?

NOTE:  I have an update to this essay describing a repair technique we are using successfully on many trucks beginning in the summer of 2015.  Read more here

The 2003-4 Discovery was one of Land Rover’s most successful models.  Unfortunately, significant problems have begun cropping up as the trucks have aged.  I’ve written quite a bit about the engine block problems, which got a great deal worse in the late 4.6 models.

 

2003 Discovery fording a stream in Western Massachusetts

Now we are seeing a new problem – frame deterioration.  This is a particular concern in trucks that are driven off road in mud and then on road in winter New England. The frames of these “affordable” Land Rovers are suddenly rotting out.  My investigation of frames was precipitated by one truck that came here with rust after we’d looked at it and seen nothing at all the summer before.  The rust that came through this winter was so severe that the owners (and myself, frankly) had a hard time understanding how it could appear so quickly.

I looked into what went wrong with that truck, and compared it to six other Discovery II models at Robison Service last week.  What I found is, to say the least, troubling.

Take a look at this photo of the rear underside of a typical Discovery II.  You can see some surface rust in this photo, but it’s nothing alarming.  Yet a closer inspection reveals cause for concern.  If you look at the frame rails you see they have a weld running down the bottom centerline. This weld is rough on the inside, so it can trap debris if it gets into the frame.  The next problem is the braces for the trailer hitch.  The points where they bolt to the frame rails act as barriers, also trapping dirt inside the rails.

Underside of a 2004 Discovery showing beginnings of chassis rust

Now we get to the hidden part of the problem . . . I took this situation to our Land Rover tech support contacts, who told me something pretty surprising. It turns out Land Rover reduced the frame thickness of Discovery II models by more than 30% as compared to the Defender and earlier models.  So the frame in these vehicles is significantly lighter than the frames of earlier Rovers, which were themselves no paragons of corrosion resistance.  This was done to save weight and gas but it has had the result of making them weaker and less durable.

To add insult to injury, it turns out Land Rover decided not to galvanize these frames so there is little to prevent them from dissolving if corrosives get inside.

Corrosion inside a Land Rover frame, see with an inspection camera

Another unpleasant result of this weight reduction is that the thinner frame rail walls are now fracturing from metal fatigue up front where they are exposed to heat cycling from the catalytic converters.  The shock towers are another weak point.  The truck we got in last week announced its problems by breaking a rear shock mount.  But an examination of six other DII examples at our shop showed stress cracks in the same location is three more vehicles – this is a problem that will rear its head for lots more people soon.

Note the vertical line of fatigued metal to the left of the upper shock bolt.  A breakage waiting to happen

Off road enthusiasts have long known that mud can accumulate in frame rails, and they should be washed clear after driving in mud.  In fact, Land Rover frames have holes in the low spots to allow mud to drain.  Unfortunately, the DII frames don’t drain fully because of the rough welds on the bottom, and the passage of some bolts that act as barriers.  When a frame gets filled with mud, and the truck is then driven on salted winter roads, the salts get concentrated in the mud and they destroy the frame from inside faster than I would have believed possible.

This is a serious weakness that is made very apparent with the increased use of liquid snow melter on snow country roads.  When that stuff gets into the mud inside a frame it stays damp and its incredibly corrosive.  And the inside of the frame typically has no protection.

 

This frame rotted at the weak points I describe after filling with mud and winter salts

The ultimate cure for these trucks is going to be the fitment of heavier galvanized frames, like we to with Defenders today.  However the lower value of the Discovery II models is going to make that decision a tough one for many owners.  I suspect frame rust will send quite a few of these trucks to the scrap yard.  But there will be enthusiasts who fix them, just as there are enthusiasts who pay us to rebuild engines, transmissions, and everything else on these trucks.

With restored Defenders costing over $100,000 and scruffy examples selling in the $40s a Discovery II with a rebuilt motor and galvanized frame starts to look like a more comfortable and good performing alternative that's almost as trail worthy and a lot more road worthy.  Doing a frame in that context, along with a top hat or flange liner engine makes a lot of sense.  Add some trail mods and you are still under $40 with both usability and a lot of capability.

Rovers North has just started selling galvanized DiscoveryII frames.  It will be interesting to see how the changeover works out.  These trucks have more “Stuff” underneath than a Defender.  I would not be surprised if a frame change takes 100 hours and a pile of bushings, mounts, lines and pipes.  Frame replacement is likely the most expensive repair one could undertake on these vehicles, potentially exceeding the cost of a flange liner 4.6 engine job.

(c) 2014 John Elder Robison

John Elder Robison is the general manager of J E Robison Service Company, independent Land Rover restoration and repair specialists in Springfield, Massachusetts.  John is a longtime technical consultant to the Land Rover, Mercedes, BMW, Porsche and Rolls Royce Owner's Clubs, and he’s owned and restored many of these fine vehicles.  Find him online at www.robisonservice.com or in the real world at 413-785-1665