03 oil pump , am I screwed?

[macgyverizer]

Today, my oil light came on. I was on the highway, herd the engine start to klack a bit so I stoped right away. Towed it home and started to do some home work. Yes it falls in the vin range for such problem. Now their is another problem in it. My truck has 77,000 on the clock and out of waranty. What can I do. Should I try to replace the pump and cover, or find a new engine. If so can anyone help me out with ware to get an engine from used I woud say an 04.

Also, what hapens to the engine when this happens? Has anyone else had this problem at such high miles? All the postes i have read said that this happens at much lower miles. help

 

[flyfisher11]

On this board:

Will Tillery aka roverguy.com
Drillbit (Marty)
Paul Grant (Paul's in Conn)

 

[RBBailey]

We were in warranty, they fixed it, and they tried to explain that they fixed it so it is really fixed, but I never really knew how they accomplished it. We didn't have any other problems with it, it ran well, but........


I'd say, have a LR independent mechanic, someone you trust, rebuild the engine, keep the car -- in the long run this will be your cheapest option.

Or, do what we did and sell it, then buy an '04.

 

[white disco]

Mine was out of warranty and out of the country. It took some fighting but LRNA eventually did fit the bill and I got my new engine. Good luck, I don't know how the new owners (Tata) will support this.

 

[agbuckle98]

Today, my oil light came on. I was on the highway, herd the engine start to klack a bit so I stoped right away. Towed it home and started to do some home work. Yes it falls in the vin range for such problem. Now their is another problem in it. My truck has 77,000 on the clock and out of waranty. What can I do. Should I try to replace the pump and cover, or find a new engine. If so can anyone help me out with ware to get an engine from used I woud say an 04.

Also, what hapens to the engine when this happens? Has anyone else had this problem at such high miles? All the postes i have read said that this happens at much lower miles. help

You only lost pressure for a short time, the clacking you heard was the rocker arms, fortunately they lose pressure first and warn you before any damage is done. Put a new timing cover on it and you will be fine. Paying for this job out of your own pocket at a good Rover shop should run you somewhere around $1000.00.

 

[BackInA88]

The way I understand it the problem is not with the timing cover
It is with the dowel holes in the block that locate the timing cover to the block.
The dowel holes are off location which means the timing cover gets mis-located when assembled, causing it to be off position to the crankshaft center line which causes the oil pump to fail.

Do a search.

Steve

 

[agbuckle98]

The way I understand it the problem is not with the timing cover
It is with the dowel holes in the block that locate the timing cover to the block.
The dowel holes are off location which means the timing cover gets mis-located when assembled, causing it to be off position to the crankshaft center line which causes the oil pump to fail.

Do a search.

Steve

Yes, that is true. If it were mine, I would just toss another timing cover on it and run another 76K miles. Maybe stop before that and look it over, see where most of the wear is taking place. Can't you buy offset dowels from summit and re-align the timing cover? Or is it off ever so slightly and off set dowels will move it too much? Anyone know if there is a reference point to measure from to determine how the timing cover is misaligned?

 

[MUSKYMAN]

I thought this was a recall item on 03's?

if so mileage should not matter...call the dealer and start a conversation there first.

if they wont help you go up stream from them.

if you are just not going to get a motor outa them I would swap in a complete 04 motor myself.

 

[rmuller]

No, they never issued a recall... thats what got so many people upset. Sometimes it seems like they wont even cover it under warranty.

 

[macgyverizer]

I talked to my good friend (a land rover tech). He said that It should be ok with a new front cover and pump. He also said that the trucks that were affected all hapened early on i.e 15-20,000 mi or so. So I hope i'm lucky. I,m going to try to get the cover off tonight and look for carnage. I'll let you know how I make out.

 

[white disco]

I was told that a new cover will only delay the problem. The oil pump will still self destruct. Also, mine went out at approx. 52k miles and it was stil covered. On the TSB there is no mileage limit. I would still shoot for the new engine. Something to consider.

 

[lforgue8]

I was told that a new cover will only delay the problem. The oil pump will still self destruct. Also, mine went out at approx. 52k miles and it was stil covered. On the TSB there is no mileage limit. I would still shoot for the new engine. Something to consider.

anybody have a copy of this tsb? id like to see what everybody is refering too because the only info ive seen from rover was a internal tech bulletin.

also if the truck is out of warranty id be surprised that LR would honor a full engine replacment!

 

[deadbeat son]

It has been a couple of years since I've seen the TSB, but I found it on this site in the TSB forum. (Couldn't find it there today though...) The TSB specifically stated the ONLY fix for this issue is a new engine due to the nature of the root cause.

**edit**
A quick search turned up this thread with the text from the TSB:
http://www.discoweb.org/forums/showthread.php?t=55250

 

[lforgue8]

It has been a couple of years since I've seen the TSB, but I found it on this site in the TSB forum. (Couldn't find it there today though...) The TSB specifically stated the ONLY fix for this issue is a new engine due to the nature of the root cause.

**edit**
A quick search turned up this thread with the text from the TSB:
http://www.discoweb.org/forums/showthread.php?t=55250

from what i understand that is not a public "tsb" its just a note for dealer techs to review and follow.......when the d2's were under warranty it was fixed according to that alert but once its out of warranty i still cant see how Land Rover would honor that.....any way the poster is a friend of mine and i feel confident that his block is ok and it just a common oil pump failure.....he was able to shut it down early enough to crack the cover and we will be replacing the front cover only.

 

[jycsalas]

here is the actual TSB or "technical alert" as lforgue8 correctly put it.. =)

 

[deadbeat son]

It's worth trying to get a dealer to perform the service gratis before doing alternate repairs yourself. While you can't see how they would cover it, you never know until you try.

 

[64rovr]

If you guys are simply replacing the front cover, there is one trick that I and others have done on these engines that seems to cure the problem. When I was a dealer tech, we figured out we had to remove the dowel pins from the front of the engine block, slide the front cover into place, and align it using the crank pulley before tightening the bolts. This aligns the oil pump much more accurately than the misplaced dowel pins. I know of several trucks that are still running thousands of miles later using this method, one of them a takeout broken oil pump 4.6 that has since been installed in another tech's Range Rover. I have a '03 4.6 short block takeout as well, and will be doing the same thing in my Discovery.

 

[uglysteve]

My 03 has 83000 miles on it, it is in the serial number range affected by the problem, and I just learned about the oil pump problem. Does any one know what the frequency of failures are. May be we can start a survey tread that tracks the oil pump life of 03's.
Would it make sense for me to pull my timing cover and inspect the pump? May be replace the pump, and remove the dowel pins before failure?
:banghead:

 

[roverMc]

My 03's in that range too, but it's got 130K on it and it's ok so far.

 

[jycsalas]

Maybe installing an oil pressure gauge to monitor the oil pressure will help. If the oil pressure starts to become inconsistent, maybe that's a sign of the pump going bad...