Whilst I love my range rover there are a couple of things that let it down...

1. The noise. On the motorway, at 70mph, the noise in the cabin is much higher than I thought it would/should be (or remembered during the very short test drive)! The engine sits at 2500 revs which contributes to some of the noise (to the point i'm starting to wish i'd bought a petrol now). But, and I know it's sad, I downloaded an iphone app called 'decibel ultra' (because of the noise levels) and with the radio switched off the average level is 90db on the motorway! The same as a lawnmower or a car horn. Now that seems pretty high to me for a 'luxury' vehicle! Does anyone else fancy downloading this free app to see what their level is? Anyone got any suggestions to making it quieter?

2. The ride. Again, even on the motorway, cats eyes feel like i'm running over real cats. Every single bump in the road can be felt. I don't remember it from the test drive but then I was so busy being directed by the salesman and the test drive was so short, i'm not surprised! I tried the tip of lowering tyre pressures but that didn't work! Can anyone else suggest how to sort this? Could it be related to the constant air suspension inactive warning?

I just want the car Jeremy Clarkson spoke so highly of!!

I've never been in a diesel one so no idea what they sound like in comparison to mine, but what is the most prominent noise? Is it the engine, or is it tyre roar? Or can't you tell?

As for cats eyes - I feel them through mine too. Clearly the car can handle some bump frequencies better than others, but not impossible that your dampers are due for renewal. Personally I think the 'magic carpet' ride is overstated on the older models. It's not quite like that at all (although it's a hell of a lot better than my '54 Audi on 45 profile tyres was!).

And you should *never* alter your tyre pressures just to get a better ride. Your tyres should be set according to what the factory state. It's a safety issue as incorrect pressures will affect stopping distances as well as handling. And to top it off you'll get wear on the outside edges of the tyres if you run them at too low pressure (wear in the middle for too high). You'll affect MPG as well with low pressures.

I just noticed you said you have air suspension inactive. I'd say sort that out before you can judge the ride quality properly, but assuming the suspension is at the right height and not on the bump stops then I don't think ride quality should be affected.

I'll try and test that app in mine tomorrow if I can get it upto speed but it should feel soft enough!

Don't get me wrong it's never going to be as good as a hydraulic Citroen, especially older ones, but should still be decent enough.

I test drove both the petrol and deisel versions before buying, and the deisel is a bit noiser, but most of the extra noise I found was during acceleration. When cruising I found them about the same - I remember this clearly, as I too thought both should have been quieter.

Can't telk you what dba level it is at though, as it is still off the road busted...

kingpleb wrote:

...it's never going to be as good as a hydraulic Citroen, especially older ones. ..

CX fan here. Also the GS, I've had 8... maybe I was mad. Or still am, with 2 land rovers  Graham

____
Gone: 10MY L320 RR Sport HSE, Ipanema Sand
Gone: 20MY Jaguar iPace HSE, Silicon Silver
Gone: 17MY RR Evoque SE Tech, Loire Blue
Gone: 08MY Discovery 3 XS, Stornoway Grey
Gone: 07MY FFRR TDV8 Vogue, Stornoway Grey

Nothing moves you like a Citroen!

I guess you've got to remember that it's not exactly the most aerodynamic shape! The post 05 has better sound insulation, and on my S/C at motorway speeds it's most just wind noise, which is pretty subdued at legal speeds, but can get highish 'on the autobahn'

Road noise depends a lot on road surface, a poor surface and it goes from near silent to road roar.

To reduce noise, check door and window seals, check sound deadening under bonnet, check tyre pressures, if you have a little more money to burn, change tyres for a lower noise brand, if you have more money to try swapping the diesel engine for a petrol one, preferably an S/C and you'll get the better noise suppression which comes with the facelift. Oh, and get it LPG'd since it runs quieter on LPG too!  Range Rover-less at the moment - Pining!

Whilst the display does show 'air suspension inactive', every now and then it does work properly. Even then, however, it's not particularly Citroen like! (I once had a Xantia that I bought for £150 and it was by far the smoothest ride ever!).

As for noise:

The engine runs at 2500 revs at 70mph which eventually gets annoying. I don't think I should really hear the constant sound of the engine on a car that was so expensive from new unless accelerating! As for accelerating it sounds like a tractor!!

There is a lot of tyre noise on the motorway, however, this is more to do with the road surface, as on smoother surfaces it's barely noticeable. (I am running on 18" Goodyear Wranglers, are they particularly noisy anyway?)

The biggest annoyance is the wind noise. I thought it would have been quieter than my BMW I part ex'd it for, but it's not!

I wish now i'd taken it for a longer test drive but the salesman had a pre-determined route which could not be deviated from. This included a motorway section of 1 junction on which I couldn't get to 70mph for longer than about 10 seconds because of heavy traffic! I thought "it'll be fine, any problems will be sorted by the dealer and the reviews say how quiet it is!"

Having sounded like i'm moaning, it is extremely comfortable and it does make me smile whenever I see it (even after destroying its looks with side steps)!!

Can't say I have a lot of wind noise in the FFRR, but I did have a constant whine which I put down to the rear axle.....It turned out to be a wheel bearing that was well gubbed, now everything is nice and quiet.

As for a carpet ride............well there's no way the FFRR could be described as that. There again if a FFRR was compared to a Classic RR then I suppose you could bend the truth a little

I guess it depends what you mean by "wind noise". If it is whistling, then this isn't right. There are a few threads on this already regarding proper fitment of the caps that cover the pillars.

If it is just kind of overall 'roar' then not sure what can be done about it. I checked your report of rpm at 70mph and this shows it is in 5th gear, so it's not as though it is sitting in 4th or something (27.8mph per 1000rpm in 5th gear).

You probably need to sit in another TD6 and see if it is the same.

I did my "measurement" with a Galaxy S phone with a similar app. At 70 mph I had 69/70 dBA, so nice an quiet. Road surface smooth, A/C was at approx. 15% fan speed (I could hear it in the background) outside temp was 34 C at the time so didn't want to switch the A/C off to see if it would make a difference. MY 2010 5.0 SC Galway green and sand interior!!
Have the Faultmate MSV2 Extreme to be tinkering with the settings etc. !!

Yours isn't a diesel though remember. The OP has a TD6 which is known to be less refined. Don't know if it should be 20db less refined though.

I'd check your exhaust or turbo isn't goosed, 90 db is louder than any of our tractors and thats double the noise of my RR

It's possible a lot of the noise measured was external noise created by other vehicles on the motorway, very noisey places motorways with heavy traffic.
I would have thought it almost physically impossible for a RR td6 to create 90db internally at any speed.