Hi there.

New to the forum, and new to Range Rover ownership, had discoveries and defenders in the past, but have moved on now I'm a family man. Bought myself a Range Rover 4.4 v8 2003 3 weeks ago. Only 90'000 on the clock, service history, loads of money spent on it in the last few years by a wealthy previous owner, who threw money at it every time something went wrong. Was over the moon with my purchase. Since buying this beautiful, comfortable, noisy, refined, piece of auto engineering delight, the b***ard thing has cost me 300 quid in O2 sensors, developed a misfire at 1500-2000rpm. Been diagnosed as knock sensors (probably) at a cost of about 600 quid to sort out. Cd changer packed up!!! Oh deepest of joys!!!

So what I'm asking of you guys, is not what can I do to sort this or that problem out. But some happy stories about your range rovers!! To instill in me, the joy and pleasure that I was expecting in owning a Range Rover. I understand that it's still a Land Rover, and will require regular maintenance. And I'm used to that. But this codpiece has got my melon all twisted up!!

Chuffing Land Rovers!!!!

Why do we do it!!!

Steadfast. 😈

this the reason why your 70k car depreciated to about 7k in 12 years , still a bargain and the risks of such an old vehicle .

can happen with any brand

Happy stories fellas!!! Happy!!! Need to feel good about buying this thing!!!

Steadfast wrote:

...But some happy stories about your range rovers!! To instill in me, the joy and pleasure that I was expecting in owning a Range Rover.

Welcome to the forum Steadfast, my happy story is I am now FFRR free as I sold mine a couple of months ago. I now don't drive along waiting for the dreaded 'FFRR bong'


They are great cars, they need lots of attention, whenever a noise develops sort it straight away and only fit genuine LR parts and you won't regret it.

I never bought another FFRR as I didn't wish to spend another two years of my life sorting out someone else cheap bodges at great expense

Stay steadfast Steadfast,

It doesn't sound like you have bought a lemon

Your motor sounds just like mine, same mileage, year and a rich previous owner etc

These cars do wear a bit and so long as you get your head around it then you will enjoy driving it despite having to sort this and that

It's quite good fun (?) using the forum to work out how many jobs you can do yourself to improve the vehicle and then making the improvements

Keep the faith - you will enjoy the car when it runs great

Reecy

It is the only car that when I park it up, makes me look back when leaving it.

When I talked about various cars to buy with my Wife, at the end of the conversation she said the only one that made me grin when I talked was the FFRR

>....Been diagnosed as knock sensors (probably)
Right - a misfire can give this fault - but have you changed the spark plugs recently. I had knock sensor fault - multiple misfire - long story short - one Spark was still the original (80000 miles old) - the rest had been changed by prev owner and he had receipt for 8 being changed (his mechanic never changed this one and didn't tell him) - but this one was jammed solid - took me 2 days to get it out (see my post http://www.fullfatrr.com/forum/topic33308.html?highlight=misfire ). New sparks - no misfire and no Knock sensor fault.

Happy Days  Howard
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2002 4.4 V8 LPG Tartarini
Have RSW AllComms in Cheshire J17 M6 - happy to help.
*Gone: Classic Vogue SE Auto V8 3.9

Steadfast wrote:

has cost me 300 quid in O2 sensors, developed a misfire at 1500-2000rpm. Been diagnosed as knock sensors (probably) at a cost of about 600 quid to sort out. Cd changer packed up!!

Well the first thing to do is find a new garage who doesn't rip you off, 02 sensors are less than £50 and there is no way all of them would need changing at the same time... and Knock sensors are nowhere near £600 with fitting, and I doubt for one minute they are causing a misfire, the misfire is causing the knock sensor fault, I take it it's not a Land Rover specialist as they would know these things....

In answer to your original question.... see here....

http://www.fullfatrr.com/forum/topic33405.html Pete

__________________________________________________
2014 L405 Autobiography SDV8 4.4 Loire Blue Ebony interior
2011 L322 Vogue SE 4.4 TDV8 Baltic Blue. Parchment over Navy Interior. Sold
2012 L322 Autobiography 5.0 Supercharged Ipanema Sand, Jet Interior. Sold
2002 L322 Vogue 4.4 V8 Epson Green, Ivory over Aspen Interior (Fatty Offroader) Sold
-Click for Project Fatty off roader-

It will always make you feel special

It's the only car I can think of thats pretty much appropriate anywhere - from a red carpet premier, to taking rubbish to the tip, to a shoot to towing a boat/caravan/horse box/trailer - there's nothing else that really does it all in quite the same way.

Keep the faith

I've had two and yes things do go wrong/need doing and its generally expensive but I'm already planning my third as IMHO nothing comes close. Some of my mates judge a car simply by its fuel usage (the more mpg the better) others by performance, some by the ability to carry stuff (mountain bikes) inside and they don't get why I own and like my Range Rover - their loss! Geoff

Hi Steadfast,
I too took the plunge and bought a 2003 FFRR 4.4 V8 in June with double the mileage of yours. As it was well maintained, a good price and from a forum member I travelled 400 miles to collect it. The first month it spent most of it's life with our mechanic. A new autobox (It's 3rd), Rear air bags, rear discs & pads, bushes, full service, etc .etc. and £2500 down the car is getting to where it should be.
One problem regarding misfire with the engine is it's thirst for breaking coil packs. I've changed 3 so far and be aware there are various qualities made.
As far as owning goes it's early days but I love the car and today finally got the LPG working. I'm getting 18.5 MPG which equates to 37 MPG taking price difference to petrol into account. Yes the car is complex but as others have said find a good mechanic, get breakdown recovery and go and enjoy the relaxed and superior driving experience.

what are the main bushes that need changing ?

The first thing I bought after the FFRR was a Faultmate and that is the key to cheaper ownership (other diagnostic tools are available!!).

I've actually found the cost if ownership quite low so paying premium prices can be avoided.

Sort yours and you'll love it!

Regards

John

Rear hub bushes were renewed. The car now feels tighter although still wallows on fast corners but I like that as a sacrifice for the ride comfort elsewhere. Anyway it's a contrast to our other car which has pin point handling but not much comfort.

This is our fifth Range Rover (3 classics, 3.5 and two 3.9's all petrol) a 4.6 P38 and now this L322, same year as yours4.4 petrol. We bought it for £11500 about 5 years back, it now has 116k on the clock, always been serviced by a main dealer but now serviced by a local guy as the dealer never changed the plugs or air filter (we know this because the guy who services it now has a mate who works at the main dealer and he checked for us!)
Anyway, we have to date spent around 15 grand on services / repair ( biggest was a gearbox rebuild at 3 grand) but still wouldn't swap it, well maybe for a 5.0 s/c!

Keep it regularly serviced at a place you can trust.

You will get issues, they are a super-complex vehicle and with complexity comes more stuff to go wrong. I've had 2 which were bad enough to get rid but now I'm on my 4th.

When I got rid of my 2010 5.0 S/C I did look very seriously at other options such as the BMW 5 Series GT, the Merc GL, and even an Audi A6 Allroad. Yes, things were that bad in my FFRR relationship. I drove all the others but none of them had that WOW factor so I bought another 5.0 S/C which has been a delight. A couple of small niggles but nothing to give the wallet palpitations.

If you're handy on the spanners you will save yourself a load of cash at garages. Brakes are simple enough and will have you hundreds off garage prices. It's worth getting an IID tool (Site sponsor here - GAP Diagnostics) as you can then read & clear your fault codes. No more paying a garage 50 quid just to read the codes! Any work you do yourself use quality parts. LR don't make parts themselves, they buy them in from the likes of Lemforder so use OE parts. More than one site sponsor who can help you with that.

AA membership. Enough said.

Warranty might be something to look at. Depends on your appetite for risk.

Preventative maintenance is good too. ATF fluid, diff oils, brake fluid, and generally keep on top of it. As a 2003 it is 12 years old now and will need some TLC as would any 12 year old car.

Most of all, enjoy it. There really is no finer way to travel.