Snagger

It took the Nottingham dealer a month to do the PDI on my wife’s “Assured” 90, it requiring a repair to the high level brake light in the rear window. They completely missed the chafed wiring in the left wing (a common issue, I’m told) that caused the horn to sound continuously when the headlights were switched on on the drive home. We had to leave the car with the Leicester franchised dealer to fix that, which took another three weeks. Their work was OK, and their service far better, but the admin in getting the paperwork done for warranty work on the Approved scheme was a farce. I’m sorry, it LR franchised dealer standards are diabolical. But, as you said, it’s everywhere - I won’t bore everyone with the story of what happened when I bought a second hand Saab and took it to my dealer to have a full service (combining all the points of all services so that everything was done to mitigate a relatively obscure history) x it was the worst motor trade experience of my life.

Yes, 9000i (the “i” stands for integrated, referring to the solenoid pack being encased in the bridge of the housing rather than having a separate casing that can be mounted away from the winch itself (usually in a black plastic box). I’ll be following - it’s the type I have, which I bought second hand from the owners of Protection and Performance and they had just serviced themselves, but I’ve not serviced it since (it has only been used a few times and has never been dunked or gotten muddy, so shouldn’t be too bad).

I think it is important to recognise that JLR franchised dealer workshops and by and large utterly incompetent. I have had a handful of dealings with them on my 109 and wife’s 90, and all were atrocious. They even diagnosed the transmission vibration on my 109 as being from the front prop shaft, even though it was sitting on my garage floor as part of the process of elimination, and replaced a rocker cover gasket (without authorisation) as a cure for the oil loss from cracked pistons, failing to give the compression test results I’d taken it in for and checking compression by holding their hand over the oil filler/breather aperture. If that is the level of incompetence for simple issues, I darent think of how they’d behave over complex problems.

The diesel is just a cheap first step for removing the carbon and grease. The diesel can be washed of with warm soapy water.

Looks like the person I'm not that keen on child of a Mahindra clone of a Jeep and an early Toyota! But it does tick the cheap, simple and probably rugged requirements. I love the way they think an anti-roll bar is high tech!😆

I had a DoubleS system on my 109. The pipes corroded and got ugly scabs, but they stayed strong. The muffler box stayed shiny. The joints were all mild steel, as mentioned above. I was disappointed in the cosmetics over the years. I could probably have got reasonable results polishing it up, but it worked and seemed robust. I have heard a few stories about their mufflers being blocked or disintegrating, though.

I’d soak it in diesel, and then once it softens up, scrub it with a brass brush, ideally like a small toilet brush for the interior and ports. Brass is soft enough not to do any harm and I don’t think it sparks, but that’s why I’d use diesel rather than petrol (that and the fact diesel level won’t drop much in the bucket while it soaks, unlike petrol evaporating off).

I had been thinking that with the political mindset against diesel, would a tuned 2.5 petrol on LPG be a better option that trying to sort out my 200’s oil burn, but this thread sadly answers that. It’s a real shame that those who installed LPG systems in good faith were rewarded by enormous price hikes and now this.

I don’t know if this was already posted, but I thought this was a good analysis.

I don’t disagree. Social media is extremely biased, and YouTube videos are part of that. You can present things in a way that are factually correct but in a way that is misleading, which is very difficult to get corrected by the maligned.

That is using new parts, of course. If you do the conversion with the older front hubs and custom spacers for the calliper brackets (packs of washers would suffice), then it would be cheap as you’d be retaining the stub axles, shafts, drive flanges and using second hand front hubs. You could use second hand callipers, but I don’t like the idea unless they’re stripped and rebuilt, and would need new discs and pads. It’s not very expensive that way.

There must be underlaying truth to the complaints as it’s dire PR for Land Rover, and the company is very litigation-happy - just look at how many companies were sued for having the word Rover in their name, be they accessories manufacturers or specialist garage and repair services. They even tried suing the authors of books,including childrens’ books for the non-trademark nickname “Landy”. So, LR would be all over them if they had any opportunity to shut their channel down.

Maybe they didn’t trust the franchise workmanship, which appears to be justified after the winch fitting.

I don’t know much about tuning, but from what I have understood, the gas flowed heads have a surprising influence (Turner Engineering do it), a VNT turbo charger will give improved response over a wider rpm range, and then there are the boost pins and rings for the injection pump which I have heard conflicting arguments over. It would seem to make sense that having twin air filters would improve air delivery to the turbo, and for a lot of tuning, the exhaust would warrant consideration. You might also need to replace the diaphragm lift pump with a higher flow electric pump. Be careful not to go too far with it or you’ll be shortening the life of the engine or transmission.

How many articles have we all read by mechanics bemoaning apprentices reaching for new parts from stores because the diagnostic computer gave them a basic result, with no further investigation or attempt at repair? LR franchises have one workshop senior technician and the rest are low experience fitters and apprentices. They don’t have any real diagnostic skills anymore. My experiences of their franchises with basic problems on a 109 were atrocious.

Do you think the OP is ever coming back?🤔😆

If the ECUs get bricked for something like that, then that is concrete proof that this car is plain dangerous for use in remote areas or harsh conditions and utterly inappropriate for off-road or working environments.

You’re right. The UK govt has brought it forward 5 years, but I forgot the original date of 2035, based on EU policy. It’s Norway, not the UK that is banning ICE sales from 2025.

No. It was, but 2025 is the new target for the UK from this week for the cessation of pure ICE vehicles. Hybrids a little longer.

When the main markets become restricted, yes, I think there will be problems with parts for the other markets.

Not a chance. I’ve just been seeing a friend who has a Discovery Sport and that came back from the garage for more repairs yesterday. It has been in for warranty work several times per year since they bought it new. LR reliability is disgraceful, but new models are always worse (for every manufacturer). I’d at least give it a couple of years for LR to figure out what the weaknesses on this one are and get the spares logistics up to speed if you’re really set on it, but I’m convinced it’ll set a new low on the global reliability surveys. Besides, the UK just announced that no pure ICE vehicles will be registered from 2025, and the EU is looking to match that, so support for the car after that point will start getting harder and the resale value will plummet.

Looks like the engineers are making decisions based on whether they could rather than whether they should do certain things.

Ok, I misunderstood the initial scenario, and I’d not have been so full of condemnation! Owners like us don’t have the level of knowledge I expect from professionals, so I’d not be as critical if I’d realised the wheel and spacer combination was an owner mod. I still think the typical Khan products an abomination, though...😉 🙂

For the money Khan charge and the claims they make, I stand by the remark. If the track needs to be widened, there are much better methods of doing it, and while spacers or offset rims may be ok in isolation (varying opinions on that in the long term), they most certainly shouldn’t be combined.

The axle casing issue was a problem with the welds between swivel flange and the axle tube. That should be an easy spot. The oversize wheels plus spacers will have put a lot of stress on the wheel bearings, swivels and steering components, and probably some of the suspension too, so when you say 25k easy road miles, you are unfortunately missing the harm that this botched up conversion has suffered. The swivel bearings, wheel bearings and stub axles are all likely to show significant wear and any or all of them could be responsible for the wobble. Offset wheels and spacers exaggerate any play or asymmetry in what the wheels are doing, as well as causing accelerated wear, so they will almost certainly be the underplaying cause. The new steering damper is a gas damper, which by definition shouldn’t be used on the steering. Terra firms don’t enjoy a good reputation, anyway. If the original steering damper is ok, refit it. It won’t be responsible for the problem, though - the damper merely hides wobbles and kicks, but can’t cause them.