Well not such a happy bunny (no aurprises there!)

Have these two weeks off so last week changed the one dodgy ball joint on the right rear hub at the bottom which was totally shot (no grease, no rubber even). This sorted the ridiculous hub mobility and it was actually driving OK.

So then thought right me, the dog, tent and some wayfarer food packed, am off up to Torridon for a few days wild camping.

All OK through up to the Kyle and then took the Pass of the Cattle down to Applecross. Stunning road if you havent been but the car didnt like it wuite so much and although braking kept to a minimum pretty much cooked the brakes (new pads 2 months ago) with accompanying terrible smell. Ho hum, let car cool down and head to Loch Torridon to camp for the night. Tent up, fire built, dinner cooked and drams drunk.

All seems to be healed.

Or not.

This morning up nice and early, breakfast cooked and off round the coast to go to Achilitibuie and maybe some seafood for lunch. Squeaking from rear started off subtly and then worse and worse til at Ullapool I was attracting a lot of attention so pulled over and greased everything I could see with all ball joints, ARB, drop links and bushes thoroughly soaked as a temporary measure. This made no difference so windows up, radio on til on the road to the coast the noise was so bad I gave in and turned to come back to Ullapool.

Then Oh Joy air suspension fault and normal height only. No grease near sensors so whats happened now?!

Reset with IIDTool but just keeps faulting after a few seconds so will need looked at properly.

Anyway headed home and thankfully didnt go to limp home mode or anything silly.

So have decided the car will be sold when the suspension is sorted though have no idea where the squeak is from as I checked all ball joints and bushes last week when hub bj changed. Only thing I didnt check was ARB bushes though drop links seemed fine. I even greased the handbrake cable.

This decision has reminded me of a list of quotes that I received over the last few months from several people which I shall share at risk of being flamed but its only tongue in cheek as theres obviously reliable cars and unreliable ones.....

From my father (Engineer who tested them among all other rovers/LRs and latterly BMWs) in Death Valley etc ....."should have got a Td5 Disco" Hes old school.

From friend who runs a local garage ....."Dont you need something reliable for your job?"

From local Landrover specialist Independant ......"Yes we fix a lot of these.....they are terrible!" Gee thanks.

From another friend with another garage......"I hate fixing these as they are so badly out together" oops

From Livery Yard owner who had a TDV* followed by Disco TDV6 and now Merc ML something or other....."The best thing you can do with that is get rid of it and get one of these!" He had only ever had LRs til the RR and then shortly after the Disco (the L322 was a pup and so was the Disco, both brand new). Hence the change to the German.

From farmer who had TDV8 and now yet another Merc ML ......pretty much copy and paste the above!!!!

From farmer currently with 2 year old TDV8....."Is yours rusty? Mine is. Think I will get something else"

And to anyone who says they are comfie then tell me chronic bad back right now though thats maybe more to do with the number of horses feet I pick up on a day to day basis.

can you tell I am angry!? Just needed to let off steam!!

And I appreciate everyone on here loves their cars but this is all part of my therapy!!! And if anyone wants a cheap squeaky 05 Vogue with the touchscreen etc then I will probably bite your hand off!!!

T

Rannoch moor:



Glencoe:



And the pass too far:

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge

Just think how stressed you'd be without all that unconditional love from your doggy companion. 2003 4.4 HSE Epsom Green / Sand. Lovely!

This is very true!

Have you considered what you might replace your L322 with? Perhaps another L322 - they can't all be Friday afternoon builds, surely? 2003 4.4 HSE Epsom Green / Sand. Lovely!

Umm no, once bitten and all that. Seriously though I need something I can just forget about reliability wise as its a major pain to be carless even a day.

Not sure whether to split to two cars ie cheap and cheerful 4x4 for work (freelander Mk 1, Trooper commercial etc) and something nicer for other times (A6 avant tdi quattro, A8 or 730d) or something to do both again like a Touareg or maybe XC90 or Audi Q7. Really not sure apart from the change!!!

Sadly Land Rover are not alone. I know owners of all the quality german cars who have had friday cars, Also who better to see all the faults and problems than the independent garage, they only repair cars that are broken/unreliable and do not see all the ones that never put a wheel wrong. Good luck which ever way you head after this experience. 2019 D5 HSE Lux SDV6 Indus
55 D3 SE
98 MX5 1.8 RS
gone 17 older variants of FFRR

Good point Nick.
I think I just feel low as its easily the most money i ever spent on a work car and easily the most unreliable and that includes saab, BMW, lancia (x4!), Skoda, Ford, Subaru and with some of these used as work horses and bought for prices rangeing from 1000 to 9000 and with my job they tend to get a bit of a battering but this has just been silly.
Maybe I have just been very lucky in my time
T

Had an XC90 , great car never had any faults with it saying that i only had it 7 months then went downhill an got a FF TD6 …. before the SC and the TDV8 …

I think you should go for an Audi Q7 definitely

Yeah I think I need to go actually try a few things. Am secretly thinking I shouldnt have got rid of my C crosser - 40mpg, mahoosive boot and never had a problem at all in 70,000 miles.

OK, I've had ML's, 2 of them. Both were as bad as anything else. German build quality? They're built in the USA, they fall to bits and they rust.

Brother's got an X5. 35 Diesel. 23mpg anyone? 10 plate car on it's 2nd battery, 3rd set of tyres in 30k miles, let him down on the motorway. 58 grand for that POS.

OK, the D3 can be problematic, so can the FFRR. But look at their complexity, especially compared to a D1 for example.

If you want hammer based engineering then get a Defender 300TDi. Nothing on that which can't be fixed with a hammer of one size or another.

Trouble is, we all like the creature comforts. I can live with the shortcomings of a LR when compared to the different, yet equally aggravating shortcomings of a bland eurobox/yanktank/japcrap. A Toyota Landcruiser is many things, but when I drove one it just didn't make me smile. Merc ML, BMW X5, Audi Q-ugly, and many more which fail to deliver.

The only half sensible alternative would be a Trooper, but the youngest of them is 6 years old and, that 3.0D engine was not without issues. And that's another thing you've missed. Your 05 is 7 years old. It's allowed to have a few moments surely??

I'm sure you'll do whatever you feel you need to but at least be honest about stuff up front. Everything mechanical is going to fail at some point. And the last properly built Merc was the W124 E Class, despite all the protestations of Merc owners.

Best of luck anyway.

Dom

I thought there might be a defensive attitude but its all in good nature honest!

I just think they arent up to the job they were possibly made for. And we can all talk about individual cars and luxury levels but take my old E46 330d estate. It had every single electrical add on thats on the RR apart from the air suspension obviously. In 50,000 miles or so taking it to well over 100,000 I changed pads once and did the servicing then an engine mount when i sold it. And it looked brand new at that point. No wear on the leather at all. And that was a low sporty car crashing up and down farm tracks every day.

I guess my point is I take a lot of stot from farmers who especially up here dont like spending money, and here at least you dont see any apart from the managers driving LRs, they all use MLs, Subarus and Audis.

Get an Audi Q7 ….

What is forgotten here is Range Rover is made by Land Rover, a vehicle that was originally simple enough to be repaired in fields, jungles, deserts etc. when they broke down, and they did on a regular basis. They were also terrible to drive with crap brakes and vague (is this where the vogue comes from?) steering, crash gearboxes and as waterproof as a sponge.

The Range Rover has evolved through the past 30 years to what we have today and the L322 is a million years ahead of its predecessors. No they are not perfect, they do break down, they are expensive to repair if you can't do it yourself and ofter expensive to repair even if you can do it yourself, but a properly maintained FFRR and I don't just mean a FLRSH vehicle (as we all know LRS is crap) is as reliable as any other vehicle on the roads today.

The secret of a good FFRR is preventative maintenance, fix it before it breaks, or as soon as it starts playing up. I have read dozens of posts here on the forum of members who have had warning lights on for 3 months, or suspension inactive for the last 6 months and then when it eventually breaks the FFRR is to blame...I can't get my head around why they don't have it sorted at the slightest hint of something breaking down...

My FFRR was a right piece of sheep dip when I bought it, I knew what I was buying and I knew I would have lots of work to do and I did everything that was required. I have a well sorted vehicle now that I am more than happy to take anywhere without worrying.

47p2 wrote:

I am more than happy to take anywhere without worrying.

Bet you wouldn't take it to Barrowfield ….