Has anyone come across the following problem on a new-ish 4.4 TDV8 Vogue?

Car is fairly new (Nov 2011) but with about 8k miles. When doing a long (engine warmed-up) journey on the motorway - say upwards of 20 minutes - and when decelerating gently from around 85/90mph to, say, 70mph (clearly, not in this country!!), there is a short stuttering somewhat like fuel starvation. It only seems to happen when you have been doing a constant speed for a while and then you want to slowly decelerate (i.e. not taking your foot off the pedal, but simply "easing-up). The tank is usually around half full and the engine has been performing perfectly normal, then when you ease off a little, all of a suddent there is a short "hiccup" (no more than a second, or two) and the car resumes as normal.

I have had the car in for a warranty repair and was told that they had (downloaded the new software to cure it.." But on getting the car back, the same problem persists. It does not seem fatal but it obvioulsy robs your confidence as you tend to think the car is about to break down and go into limp home mode.


please dont double post..

Exactly the same problem..told Stratsones about it when it went for 1st service and lo and behold couldn't find anything wrong with it. The real pain in the ass is that it is so frustratingly intermittent, if the car would just grind to a halt maybe a fix could be found. I suppose the only real bonus is that the stutter disappears with a prod on the throttle...still it shouldn't happen on a car that costs close to £80k!!!!!

Thanks Wackyjim - as you say, annoying on such a prestigious car and I have to say the three 3.6's i have had were all fantastic. When the 4.4 works its simply amazing, but this blip worries the hell out of you! My dealer seems to be hiding it, but i suspect they have no idea!

Same here. Car is waiting to go back to the dealer for a couple of other things (FBH included) and was going to mention it. Thought I was imagining it so sort of pleased to find others in the same boat.

On the theme of 4.4 TDV8 I find I get real clouds of smoke out of it on brisk acceleration. Not every time and certainly not a case of pottering around for a week and then clearing it out. My car generally does longer journeys and even when I do the 7 miles to the office it usually gets booted up to xx (of course I do not live in the UK). Anyone with the 4.4 get the same?

Nick 2019 D5 HSE Lux SDV6 Indus
55 D3 SE
98 MX5 1.8 RS
gone 17 older variants of FFRR

Get exactly the same problem. Dealer 'cannot replicate.'

Additionally, there should be no smoke whatsoever when accelerating. You need to get your car looked at ASAP. The diesel particulate filter stops any smoke.

As above, the last new gen diesel from LR i had that started to smoke decided that lunch was going to be based around the bottom end of the engine, and then proceeded to eat itself.... LR warranty loved that pig of a job

I think the only way you guys are going to be able to sort it is by maybe getting some kind of live diagnostic tool that you can maybe have recording certain aspects of the car while you drive it to work and back and over the course of a week you should be able to replicate it or work out whats causing it

The diag units are not cheap though, for you guys it would either be the IDS(new testbook), Autologic or Blackbox that would do it properly and not just look for error codes which probably wont appear.

None are extremely cheap to be fair, circa £700+ i think for the cheapest and a laptop ontop to get it working! FFRR MY06 facelift With TDV8 Alloys Zeros/ATR's
Mantec Sump Guard, Rigid Load liner, MY10 BT upgrade.

Good (sort of!) to hear that others are having a similar problem and mine isn't simply a Friday afternoon car.

Whatever the actual problem is I would have hoped that LR would be interested in finding a plug as I assume that this engine will carried forward into the new RR and will need to be perfect, if the stories of £90k plus are true. It's such a shame that an otherwise fantastic engine is compromised by such a small glitch (that said, the feeling that the car is going to conk out at 80mph is hardly confidence-inspiring!)

I have been amazed that a car shaped like a breeze-block and weighing more than a couple of tonnes can accelerate faster than an old XR3 and still return more than 30mpg. Just need this problem sorted!

My car hasn't got to the point of seeming as if it is going to conk out. I just get a little hesitation that a passenger wouldn't notice. Not certain if I want it to get worse (then the stealer won't be able to say "nothing wrong sir") or stay the same.

Hope someone gets there car fixed so I can tell them how to fix it (again).

Nick 2019 D5 HSE Lux SDV6 Indus
55 D3 SE
98 MX5 1.8 RS
gone 17 older variants of FFRR

just had "the answer" from the dealership when I explained to the service manager exactly what the problem was.

Apparently there is a "gearbox mapping problem" on the eight-speed gearbox which Land Rover are presently investigating; but at present there is no cure. For that, read "LR are aware, but are keeping quiet"!

I was told that LR have set up the 4.4TDV8 and eight-speed box to ensure absolute levels of fuel economy (whatever that means!). The outcome is that this glitch is one of the trade-offs and, at present, LR has no answer to the problem.

Apparently, my dealer has had a few customers who have all complained of the same problem and is filing Quality Reports on behalf of each car to LR. The hope is that this will push the probelm to the top of the file so that LR come up with a mapping solution as soon as possible. However, until the problem is solved, there is nothing we can do but soldier on!

When I read what you describe in the original post, what came to my mind is that the gearbox is holding onto a gear too long before letting go and either easing off the lock up or changing down to the next gear. You can feel that sort of thing happen on autoboxes when coming to a stop at junctions and things.

The slowing speed of the vehicle drags the engine revs down too far and the engine either tries to prevent stalling by giving a bit of power or tries to maintain its current rev speed by giving a bit of power. In doing so this fights against the slowing speed of the vehicle ... the ECU's eventually figure out somethings not right and the gearbox gives in and makes a change to remedy it.

The economy on the 4.4 will come from the low end torque and wanting to hold the gears in lock-up as long as possible ( which is more economical ).

My early 4.4 seems to get stuck in a similar position when I've been cruising at 50 to 60 in top gear lock up, and let off the pedal a bit coming to an uphill 30mph zone. The car seems to deliberately hold top gear whilst the car speed falls to the point it starts to falter, then after a few seconds it'll drop down a gear and pull away. V8 or else ...

RFAA

same problem here. it's when you notice when cruising on the motorway after a while in top gear that the engine becomes unresponsive and a larger amount of throttle than you were expecting is required to make it respond....

never noticed it around town.....

engine is making no attempt at changing gear.... so am not sure how it can be a gearbox mapping problem? or is the car thinking whether it needs to change down a gear when a small bit of throttle is applied?

not sure if it happens in S mode...only noticed it in D.

fisha

the problem is not as you describe.

fisha wrote:

When I read what you describe in the original post, what came to my mind is that the gearbox is holding onto a gear too long before letting go and either easing off the lock up or changing down to the next gear. You can feel that sort of thing happen on autoboxes when coming to a stop at junctions and things

my 2012 has same issue,first time it happened i had been cruising at around 70mph and then came to a hill and the car started to judder and would not change gear untill i used paddle shift all returned after a few minutes.Im sure if enough of us shout loud enough lr will sort it.

simon

Have to say, so far not experienced this on mine.

Did 2 long journeys a on motorway recently , 1st 6 hours, 2nd about 5 hours in one go & not a problem at all.

Don't want to jinx anything, but have you all noticed this from the start or only as you've reach "X" thousand miles ?

not had it happen as bad since,but nearly every day i get the car to stutter,its almost like it cant change gears quick enough and struggles to find the correct gear especially at roundabouts when you approach at speed like on a303,its most defo a software issue.

cheers simon