Loosing Count.....

[Andrew Walcker]

OK, I've got a question for the LR guys. How many times a year do you take your vehicle in for repair, or roll up your sleeves and fix something? Unfortunatly, I'm all thumbs and can barely turn a wrench w/out knocking out my front teeth, so I fall into the take my Rover in for repair group. The reason I ask is that my D-90 is in the shop for the third time in 5 months getting something fixed. I'm all over the place from changing out relays, to water pump, radiator hose, headlight switch and now the check engine light came on and it's missing (don't know what it is yet, keeping my fingers crossed). My wife doesn't even ask where the Rover is anymore, she just gives me that "look". I'm not complaining at all, I knew this would be the case when I got my D-90 and actually do not regret it in the slightest. I'm fortunate that I live 10 minutes from Inland Rovers, one of the best Independent Rover shops in SoCal IMHO. I think one of the best analogies I've heard is a Rover is like a Bond Girl, sexiest thing out there but secretly trying to kill you:ylsmoke:

 

[gillti]

While rovers are incredibly cool. . .

I've got a fj60 i'll sell you cheep:costumed-smiley-007

Just kidding Cuz, let me know what is going on with it.

BTW, don't let him fool you, he can turn a wrench with the best of them. At least a couple of banana's worth!
tjg

 

[Andrew Walcker]

Hey, I know who re-built your 60's engine:beer: :costumed-smiley-007

At least the D-90 made it out of the Mojave, so I'm all good when it decides to act up in the City! Maybe that is the problem....

 

[gillti]

That's right, more dirt, more dirt. I can hear it calling from IR right now!

 

[gjackson]

I work on my truck a lot, but usually thats doing upgrades to modifications, or new modifications, stuff like that. I also do all my own maintanence. In the past 2 years only the clutch gave me trouble and that turned out to be a trail related issue, not a mechanical failure. Took 1 day to fix. Of course, I don't have the panoply of warning lights and electronics that you have, so who knows what I'm missing?!

cheers

PS Land Rovers are like mothers-in-law; always sick, but never die!

 

[Andrew Walcker]

PS Land Rovers are like mothers-in-law; always sick, but never die!

Oh, that is too funny! I've owned the D for just under two years and have been catching up on a lot of the PO's issues. I think it has just been going through a phase with the amount of miles (120K) and the age. Most of the items I've been having issues with are the original parts as far as I can tell.

 

[pwc]

Mine's in the shop currently but that was all self inflicted (diesel engine swap) for the reason Graham mentioned "I don't have the panoply of warning lights and electronics that you have" but I don't know if I would have used panoply so well. I would have used "all dem warnin' lites".

Other than self inflicted, well, I'm trying to remember. I think the bad things have faded with time or I just ignored them, like the weak cylinder I drove on for 2 years....

Let me sum it up by saying; yes, my truck is in the shop or needing work sometimes, but if I don't do it, it keeps going.


Now the Discovery I had.....I remember changing out seals in the rear axle, a busted Detroit, fan belt that snapped and broke the nipple to the coolant reservoir......that truck left me stranded on the side of the road with my family at least twice. That truck wasn't as cool as a 110 and it knew it.

 

[Andrew Walcker]

Webster:
Pan'o-ply (-ple) n., pl. - plies 1. Suit of Armor 2. Splendid Display.

Since I don't have any room in the D for my suit of armor I'm going with the Splendid Display as the meaning Maybe that's my problem, my Rover doesn't respect me because of my lack of vocabulary. Probably tired of all my four lettered words:exclaim:

 

[gjackson]

In most cars you only get one light at a time. In a Land Rover you truly get a 'splendid display'!!

cheers

 

[UnfrozenCaveman]

The Disco ('94) seems to need some kind of attention every six weeks or so, but at its age and mileage it doesn't make me feel too badly.

I can usually manage to ignore it for the coldent months of winter, and hold out until its a little warmer in the garage ... oops, not an issue in Riverside We lived there from roughly '60 to '71.

I don't want to mention the other, more boxy, red one with the white top too loudly. In the five years we've had it the only non-maintenance item has been a heater fan that misbehaved.

KAA

 

[Christophe Noel]

I wasn't even over the initial "whoopy" of my first LR purchase before the failures started. I'm sure there are more to come. My wife asked me why I added an additional savings account to our bank accounts. I casually said, "oh that's for Darin." Darin is my Rover mechanic.

A friend of mine had a D-90. When it broke down on the side of the road he said, "A D-90 makes you feel cool even while you wait for a tow truck."

 

[Andrew Walcker]

In most cars you only get one light at a time. In a Land Rover you truly get a 'splendid display'!!

cheers

You got that right! The Check Engine light came on Tuesday morning. About half-way to work it went from constant to flashing angrily (ok, maybe I'm imagining the angrily part) so I turned around and drove it home. It was quiet spendid

 

[Andrew Walcker]

It's a great evening! Talked to Gordon this evening at Inland Rovers and the cause of the Check Engine light and the hesitating is bad spark plug cables. :wings: That's a cheap fix, considering some of the alternatives floating around in my head. The funny thing is that the cables are only about 1.5 years old and are already arching out?

 

[gjackson]

Not all HT cables are created equal. Some can go bad quickly. I've had that with VWs. Great news that that's all it is!

cheers

 

[Christian P.]

let's see....I owned a Discovery Serie II 1999 for about 1 year and half. it had about 85000 miles when I sold it - I drove it for about 20K miles.

During that time, I replaced:

-front drive shaft
-transmission
-power steering pump
-4 springs and shocks
-brakes
-cruise control air pump
-starter
-mass air flow sensor
-oxygen sensors (4)
-transmission shifter cable bracket (a $0.25 clip, but the transmission would not engage anymore)

the transfer case had been replaced by the previous owner. Luckily I did not have to replace the head gasket, a common failure with these models. I did not even care about all the oil leaks.

First time I plugged the ODB-II computer to check the engine light code before I getting it smogged, I think there were something like 27 different error messages.

I had to get it towed back to my shop 3 times. I don't think there was a week passing by without something happening.

But the best story is when the horn mysteriously started beeping at 2:00 am, waking up the whole block. Someone thought it was a fire alarm, so when i finally woke up and looked down over my window, the street was jam packed with 2 fire trucks and 3-4 police cars. I barely made it down on the street just in time before the fireman slammed the hood with his axe....in my underwear...talk about embarassing.

it has to be the most unreliable car I ever owned - but it also was the more comfy, powerful, sporty and was so much fun to drive.

Believe it or not, I miss it. I almost bought another one...