This may help also.

http://www.rswsolutions.com/index.php?opti...;Itemid=73

Doc - not proper offroading, but I work in the Alps with ski chalets, so its mainly steep lanes and rutted tracks at the top of mountains!

Real RR - thanks very much, all this sounds quite accurate. Car would definitely have been deep chilled for a few days before I used it. At this point, I would happily pay for a few hours of main dealer labour, if this is the issue!

Am due to call LR this pm for update, will post here.

Dealer hasn't got around to taking a first look yet... after all they have only had it two days... will find out more on Monday.

I am a bit concerned that they will adopt the 'hammer to crack a nut' approach, and present me with a plan to renew the whole top of the engine or something, even if it is a smaller matter like the oil separator, especially if this is one of the issues that LR is in denial about. Not sure how I winkle out of them exactly what has occurred and what the cause was, especially as it would probably involve paid labour to get to that level of detail.

We shall see...

Bonne weekend tout le monde

Latest from the LR dealer is that 'the cylinders are all full of oil, Monsieur'. Words to gladden any man's heart...

He is already investigating the oil separator valve (NB called a 'reniflard' in french) but hasn't concluded anything yet. He also thinks it could be one of the piston rings ('les segments'). He finished by saying he had never seen or heard of this problem before...

Could broken rings on one or even two cylinders really fill ALL the cylinders with oil? I doubt it. Surely the amount of oil this would involve, and the speed it would have to escape out into the intake manifold then through into the other cylinders, would have led to the mother of all bangs and a sudden engine stop. I doubt enough oil would get past a broken ring anyway, to make a scenario like this possible. There was also no rattling or knocking during the brief time I ran it with the problem.

I also don't see how this could happen with a failed head gasket - again surely oil could not flow into all cylinders, unless every cylinder gasket seal was broken? Pretty unlikely. So hopefully that is not the problem.

On the day it happened, I restarted the engine a couple of times, on the button, with no trouble at all (apart from clouds of smoke of course), it would not have done that with any serious quantity of oil sloshing around in the cylinders.

Sounds more to me like oil must have got into the intake manifold so it could reach all cylinders. I reckon it seeped in when the engine has been off, sitting in his yard.

This fits with what I have read about the OSV problem - pressurised crankcase slowly pushes oil up back through the dodgy OSV, trickling into intake manifold and then to cylinders, leading to hydroblocking.

Feels strange to be wishing that this last scenario actually IS the problem! Lesser of two evils, for sure.

More tomorrow.

update - it was the oil separator valve at fault. The LR dealer here in Switzerland confirmed it. Hopefully pick the car up today or Monday, 900 quid lighter....

its good news that its fixed but what have they done for £900 investigation and replace the oil valve ? onto no6 Range Rover

Everyone needs a hobby

3 hours diagnostic, 3 hours to replace the part, plus the parts and various ancillaries, plus 5 litres of oil as it had all disappeared...

they are main dealer, so labour rate is about 100 quid an hour...

I am sure I am paying a couple of hours labour more than I should, but I am over a barrel - no independent LR specialists or even BMW specialists nearby, plus I am stuck up an Alp with wife, 2 kids and 4x4 Fiat Panda hire car. It is actually not too bad as a little 4x4, but I am 6'6" so it is a bit ridiculous!

They reckoned they had never seen this before, so I imagine they are playing safe on the quote.

Ah well, if I wanted low running costs, I would get a bicycle.

Very common in 5 series with the 'same' engine. In fact our car had this about four months ago - car acted as though she was in self-destruct mode whilst at idle!
My ex-BMW mechanic said it was a bit of a to get to but that is only after loads of investigation (Finally diagnosed it 1hr after I called to mention what I had read on the internet and suggested the CCV...).
£120 cash but as you say you are downroute and at their mercy.
Glad it is sorted for you and can get back to the holiday.
Kind regards,
Ed

[quote="Stuart528"]In Switzerland on holiday, minus 6 all week, drove down mountain today, all fine. 15 mins into drive, all warmed up, all is normal until I feel a bit of hesitation. quote]

At first I didn'd read this post as it concerned a 4.4 V8 petrol engine and mine is a TD6.
Having some time today and reading the first lines of your post, I immediatly recognised these symptoms I evoqued on my TD6 driving down the hill in the alps in february 2009: blue - white smoke coming out of the exhaust just as the head gasket would have gone! After checking under the hood and all normal I continued my travel, now down the mountain on flat roads and my self burner stopped smoking and I drove it further to Belgium with no problems what so ever.
So what happened: driving down the hill, I put the transmission in second or thirth gear manually in order to break on the engine and spare the breaks.Between two sharp curvs I would gas it up and coming to the next turn, loosing the throttle it breaked on the engine. This however changed the engine into a sort of a compressor and succed up some oil into the cilinders where it burned. I had offcourse no hesitations in driving as it is a diesel engine. My TD6 has some 185000 km and only consumes 0,75 litre of oil between two oil services( 25000km).
I'm wondering now if the TD6 has also got a oil separator valve too? In La Plagne on top of the hill, the RR was parked in the garage underneath where it was not frezing.
Anyway, it didnt occur again and I will be going back to the alps first week of february: one thing for sure, driving back home downhill, I'll not break down on the engine that much again

Good question, maybe it has something similar. It is a very common issue with that BMW V8, but I can't say I found anything related to the TD6 in all the research I did online...

# 2 and 10 here, maybe you can go to a BMW-workshop

http://de.bmwfans.info/parts/catalog/E39/T...ld_system/ XJC, RRV8, Series1 86 and 107% of real pleasure

£900 is so much better than a new engine  '09 Freelander 2 TD4 HSE Auto for the Mrs

Using the works Fiesta 1.6 TDCI Sport Van - CHROME FREE THOUGH

Searching for a nice E63 AMG or S8 V10 to replace my "wonky" TDV8

Got the car fixed by LR in January, drove back to UK for a couple of weeks, and have just come back out to Switzerland. Back up the same mountain, a bit of driving around then left the car for a few days.

Set off down the hill, and after 20 minutes, on EXACTLY the same stretch of road, THE THING has done it AGAIN! Clouds of white smoke out exhaust, power loss then ground to a halt.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To say I am unimpressed is an understatement... The car is going back to LR in Switz this afternoon, and I will ask them ever so politely to take another wee look and see if they have any clever ideas about what they screwed up!!