Questions about taking an l322 to the Pyrennes.

[Leon.]

Hello all,

 

new member of the forum hoping to gain from some of your expertise and experience. 
 

I am by no means new to LandRover or travel but I am certainly new to LandRovers without a chassis and travel with children. I have booked Ferry to Santander in August 2020 and need to be in the med two weeks later so I have two weeks to explore the Pyrennes with my wife and two children (aged 4 and 2).

 

i am hopefully going to take in some gravel roads but must remain vigilant that I will not only be exploring with two small children but I will also not have my trusted defender for this trip. The Range Rover being chosen for its air conditioning and superior comfort when asked to travel large distances in a short time (eg. Home again) 
 

The children are not strangers to long periods of travel in the car and have spent much time away from the tarmac. My concern with them only evolves around there inability to look after themselves should the L322 live up to its reputation for reliability and I suppose most parents desire to protect there children more than themselves. 
 

I am looking for any help regarding preparation of the vehicle, a standard 3.6 l322, possible routes and must see places. 

im not looking to ‘overland’ the vehicle but sergested arias to look at, invaluable spares etc. 

im looking for routes like the tabacco road Into Andorra provided the surface remains similar to 2016. 

the Rout books by Vabriction look very good but having watched some videos online some of the trails look more than I’m after but some look perfect. Hence advice on condition of routes is very helpful. 

I thank you all in advance for any help and will continue reading around peoples trip reports etc. 
 

regards,  Leon 

[FridgeFreezer]

As long as you've got a mobile phone, a credit card and European recovery you should be fine, you're not going *that* far from civilisation.

Load it up with tools & spares you'll just break something sooner.

[Leon.]

That’s definitely true but I wasn’t really  thinking about spare shock, airbag, alternator etc. more along the lines of bulbs, fan belt and fuses etc.. I feel there must be little invaluable items over and above what’s in the cubby box of a tdi defender for such a modern vehicle. Or am I wrong. 
 

how about scanning the 3.6tdv8? Is it like a td5 where not any generic scanner will do so a nanocom is always worth having because the local garages modus won’t do or do any generic fault code readers work so there is little point taking anything because nowerdays most garages have a reader of some sorts. 
 

there is also the adage that whatever spares you take you’ll need something else. 
 

how about before leaving? What should be checked on an l322 or is it just a thorough visual instruction, top up fluids and go...???

[L19MUD]

How many miles has the L322 done? If it was mine I would check/think about the following

 

If they have never been replaced the Intercooler pipes at the top of the engine tend to split. They are easily changed  - you can fix them with some duck tape though in an emergency

EGR valves - may be worth taking the pipes off to see if they are gunked up? Personally I have blanked mine (£30 kit) and even on my 2010MY don't get any errors

Tyres

Fluids

I would take a small tool kit with sockets, spanners, pliers and screwdrivers plus some duck tape and cable ties. Won't take up much room and for anything else you can ring for recovery

 

Have fun and make sure you post pictures!

[FridgeFreezer]

I'd take easy but critical bits;

• Fan belt
• Maybe a crank sensor (these are often single point of failure) or whatever else is small/cheap/easy but can disable an L322 if it fails.
• Fix-a-flat (gets you off the roadside ASAP)
• Maybe a gallon of water (plain water can be coolant, screen wash, drinking)
• Maybe a jubilee clip or two big enough to do the biggest "critical" hose on the vehicle

I sometimes carry a sort of 3-in-1 jump starter / air compressor / light thingy but fairly rare that I bother.

If you're in mainland Europe you're not far from being able to buy almost any other basic part to make repairs, especially if you have breakdown cover. Anything bigger than that goes wrong you're on a flatbed to the nearest dealer anyway!

[Leon.]

Thank you both. 
 

there the kind of bits I was thinking about. 
 

does anyone know of things to add such as a crank sensor? Exactly that kind of thing, small bits that stop you dead. A map sensor also possibly. 
 

Turbos are changed and eggs were cleaned about 1500 miles ago after a turbo failure. The car has 104,000 miles on the clock. 
 

small metric toolkit and a jump thingy will also come. 
 

tryres are new and a full service will happen before I go. Gearbox serviced at 95,000 miles  

thanks again. 

[FridgeFreezer]

I doubt a MAP sensor would stop it, just make it run in "limp-home-mode"... with no crank/cam position sensor it can't see the engine turning hence why they're usually the thing that will stop it dead.

[Leon.]

I see. 🙂

[L19MUD]

A map sensor won't stop it, just put it in limp home mode as Fridge mentions, same for the inlet manifold sensors and also the camshaft position sensors (It makes an estimate based on the other bank so both have to fail). Crank sensor will stop it but I have never had one fail on a TDV8 L322

 

I would stop worrying and just go and enjoy! :-)

 

 

[Ed Poore]

I took my L322 down on long trips to the south of France and up to the Highlands (the Highlands involved more off-road) and to be honest the only thing that's likely to cause issues are flat tyres and the battery. A decent service before hand and recovery and a decent spare tyre should see you through. An IID tool is invaluable thing to have regardless because you can read all the faults and clear them which might get you out of trouble.

I can't quite remember but I seem to remember the fan belt on the 3.6TDV8 is a pig to do, I only did it when I was replacing the alternator so had to remove more stuff than normal.

Fridge's recommendation of water is a good one because it's often those that while you can wait on recovery you often think if only I had some water then I could make it to the next service station. I used to carry a small (typically 1l) bottle of oil, maybe a 5l bottle of coolant and a couple of other items like that in the spare wheel well or the storage box to the right under the floor in the boot, the IID tool lived under the Venture cam in the dash. It's those things that will just make life easier if you do lose some coolant or oil that allow you to top it up enough to get to the nearest petrol station / garage rather than having to wait 4-5h for the recovery lorry.

An extreme case was travelling up to Scotland a few years ago, the 110 had had a serious off-roading weekend before going up and there was some serious off-road up there. On the M6 north near Kendall a wheel bearing failed, it ended up delaying us 36h and costing about £600 (included finding a hotel that had a spare room that night and would take a dog) to carry on. On subsequent similar trips I've started carrying a pair of wheel bearings and the necessary tools because it'll only take me half an hour or so to swap one out rather than a day and a half delay and hassle of trying to find parts and a garage. But I would emphasise that this was on a trip where the vehicle spent a good deal of the time bogged over the top of the wheels...

[Leon.]

It sounds as though I should just stop worrying about the Range Rover being all modern and stuff. 
 

re your story of the 110 wheel bearing. I have a similar one where I waited many hours in a small welsh village after a jaunt on the beach that followed a few resent days in similar mire. Something I learned years ago was to keep a small bottle of fizz and champagne glass stashed amongst the spares and tools I keep in my classic cars. Ok the fizz is never cold but once a recovery is fully confirmed things never seem so bad with bubbles. It helped that day with my 110 wheel bearing, it helped when my midget HG blew 250 miles from home, it helped when my Bentley breaks failed 150 miles from home and Iv no doubt it will one day help again. 

[Ed Poore]

I like that alternative!