Bonus question ... LR3 repair costs

BlackAndTan

Well-known member
Oct 27, 2004
288
0
Since my thread submitted twice I'll change this one to ask: What cost you more to repair, an early-model LR3 (if out of warranty yet) or a Disco?
 
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RVRSRVC

Well-known member
May 7, 2004
1,163
0
Elizabethtown, PA
www.roverlab.com
After warranty expenses: EGR valve ($200), bonnet switch ($15), Currently at 78k miles.
I fix 'em, so I'd have to say D2's help pay for my LR3.
Other customer's LR3's: spiral cassette, an EGR valve, light bulbs here and there. Other than that, they've been only maintenance.
D2's: head gaskets, throttle body heaters, oil pumps, hubs, three amigos, door latches-one car had all 5 failed, heater core, differentials, front prop shafts that sometimes include catastrophic transmission failures, crank sensors, water pumps, almost always need a light bulb.....
 

rcshauger

Well-known member
Dec 29, 2006
544
0
Albuquerque, NM
Sold my 05' LR3 because I had a hose go out and it broke my vacuum pump for the gas tank ($650); broken sunroof motor ($500); intermittant start problem traced to a faulty ground ($400). All of this was within 1 year... My D2 cost that much in a lift and tires... It depends on what you want to do. LR3 will be more reliable and have less go wrong, but when it does it will cost just as much if not more than a D2.

I got an 04' range rover and have not looked back since. It has been great!
 

Big Papa

Well-known member
Jan 3, 2007
1,504
0
McKinney, TX
rcshauger said:
Sold my 05' LR3 because I had a hose go out and it broke my vacuum pump for the gas tank ($650); broken sunroof motor ($500); intermittant start problem traced to a faulty ground ($400). All of this was within 1 year... My D2 cost that much in a lift and tires... It depends on what you want to do. LR3 will be more reliable and have less go wrong, but when it does it will cost just as much if not more than a D2.

I got an 04' range rover and have not looked back since. It has been great!

Good god, were those the cost of just the parts?
 

rcshauger

Well-known member
Dec 29, 2006
544
0
Albuquerque, NM
Vaccum pump and sunroof motor were expensive. I also had a terrible VANOS rattle at start up that started a week after I bought it. Luckily the dealer took care of that. The ground problem was mostly labor that was covered by warranty. The vaccum pump failed due to a broken hose which was not covered by warranty. I had it three times to the shop to find the intermittant start resolution. Coolant temp sensor and thermostat were both replaced on the search for the problem.

To be fair I just paid an upholstery shop to reattach the leather on the back seat of the RR... Ski trips are harsh on the rover's interior, but I got the sand out from Moab too...
 
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adriatic04

Well-known member
Mar 22, 2007
2,506
2
cleveland, oh
IMO you have to wait and see how the LR3 plays out over the next year or two.

Think about just being around here. Two years ago the 2004 D2 was carefree for most people (still is for some). Now that they are 6 + years old, almost all out of warranty and extended warranty, we are seeing all sorts of posts.

How many transfercase/headgasket/throttle body/front cover threads have you read in the last 6 months on here, and its a lot of 04's now. The older D2's went through this when the 04's were still fresh (previously mentioned year or 2 ago).

The 05 LR3 and 06 LR3 might prove to be more reliable but just keep this in mind.
 

Dave Legacy

Well-known member
Jul 24, 2007
360
1
Hacienda Heights, CA
adriatic04 said:
IMO you have to wait and see how the LR3 plays out over the next year or two.

Think about just being around here. Two years ago the 2004 D2 was carefree for most people (still is for some). Now that they are 6 + years old, almost all out of warranty and extended warranty, we are seeing all sorts of posts.

How many transfercase/headgasket/throttle body/front cover threads have you read in the last 6 months on here, and its a lot of 04's now. The older D2's went through this when the 04's were still fresh (previously mentioned year or 2 ago).

The 05 LR3 and 06 LR3 might prove to be more reliable but just keep this in mind.

I cannot agree more.
 

ozscott

Well-known member
My 02 D2 4.0 manual (stick) shift has now got 110,000 miles since i bought it new. I regularly tows 2 tonn and I have used it offroad quite a bit since I bought it, although these days it is getting more soft sand beach use than rock and mud etc. It has been excellent except for the front prop shaft uni joint (very common) problem with dust ingestion and failure in the last 20k (cheap fix with larger unis) and a master cylinder re-sleave required recently also. No three amigos problems past the replacement modulator unit at 20,000 miles when almost new. Its has a whistle that sounds for all the world like the alternator bearing. It has just had a new thermostat and fan hub centre (clutch) but that is just normal maintenance.

My mate's late 02 (with the changed headlights) 4.0 V8 Manual bought from the same place new with a much lighter life than mine, blew off the oil pump and luckily did not cause engine failure.

I think with Rover in particular there are good trucks and not so good trucks. Much depends on whether Manchester has won or not that week...

If you look at AULRO here there are few complaints about D3/D4 yet in the UK there are quite a lot, but then again that may reflect the sheer greater number of units sold.

To the fella above who sold the D3 for lemon type issues and got onto an 04 RR that to me does not make a lot of sense if the move was to get a vehicle that was more reliable (even more complex than D3). Having said that his RR is clearly a Wednesday vehicle and well bolted together, so it worked for him.

At the end of the day the simpler the vehicle the less likely to have dramas. My 02 is manual trans (and the clutches on the petrol models last well) with coil springs at all corners, no ACE, no heated seats, and a Webasto after market sunroof (ie not the Rover one :)). As a result of that and regular brake flushing and activating the traction control at will (dash mounted high low switch after installing a D1 output housing with CDL) the braking system stays in good condition, and there really is little to go wrong. Compare that to the higher end D2's optioned up and the later shape and you can see where the potentials for problems lie. I am not at all against the modern equipment, and indeed it can prove extremely useful off road and on road, but when it fails it then becomes a liability. All of these things need to be considered when choosing the truck - if absolute reliability out in the middle of nowhere is the essential requirement, including the ability to do things yourself then a well maintained D1 (like my 170,000 mile 95 D1 with all original drive train) is the go; if you want a still simple enough truck where even if the traction control goes south you have conventional 4WD, and you also want better handling and refinement go a basic D2 with CDL; if you want all the bells and whistles with reliability BUT where a breakdown has the potential to be hard to self-recover from and you want luxury on road and off and lot more room, power, torque, economy then go the later shapes. Thats my 2 cents.

Cheers
 
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lforgue8

Well-known member
Jul 23, 2006
1,216
0
MA
adriatic04 said:
IMO you have to wait and see how the LR3 plays out over the next year or two.

Think about just being around here. Two years ago the 2004 D2 was carefree for most people (still is for some). Now that they are 6 + years old, almost all out of warranty and extended warranty, we are seeing all sorts of posts.

How many transfercase/headgasket/throttle body/front cover threads have you read in the last 6 months on here, and its a lot of 04's now. The older D2's went through this when the 04's were still fresh (previously mentioned year or 2 ago).

The 05 LR3 and 06 LR3 might prove to be more reliable but just keep this in mind.
AMEN TO THAT.....i would add air sus compressors as they ge beat up under the truck and very common failure
 

Dave Legacy

Well-known member
Jul 24, 2007
360
1
Hacienda Heights, CA
KyleT said:
lr3's will need front bushings/ball joints between 60-80k miles as well.

Got a quote of about $1100 after alignment from the dealer yesterday. I think price varies quite a bit depending on location. Fortunately I don't need a replacement yet.
 

discostew

Well-known member
Sep 14, 2010
7,733
1,024
Northern Illinois
KyleT said:
lr3's will need front bushings/ball joints between 60-80k miles as well.


Yes they will . we have to cut the adjustment bolts out with a sawzall to get the control arm out. At any given hour in our shop someone is at the press w/ a set of control arms doing exactly what kyle said. We put the control arm bolts in backwards and coat them in anti sieze to help a little. I have not yet seen a sunroof motor fail . I have seen lots of wire splice corosion causing the sunroof to not work. someone mentioned a egr valve,that must have been the v6 engine . I still think the worst thing that can happen to a lr3 is when the battery vents and destroys the wire harness and transfer case ecu witch sits right behind the battery.I have driven disco1's for a long time and have owned my lr3 for about 3 years now, I like the lr3. It tows great,the jag engine has plenty of power and it just feels much more refined all the way around.but I dont drive it in the winter. when there is 2 feet of snow I still prefer my disco1. Plus we like to say "you can drive it in 18 inches of water,but dont leave it out in the rain." (water intrusion is the root cause of most if not all electrical issues with tis truck)
 

GDA

Well-known member
Jan 13, 2007
86
0
Dallas, Tx
I just did a full brake job on a 2007 V8 LR3 with 79k miles. Complete job-rotors, pads and sensors all around. Costs alone for factory parts was pushing $600 and from what I can tell thats what the dealer charges just for a pad change.

Being an owner of an 03 DII I would not look forward to having to do a full suspension rebuild on this air suspension LR3 HSE that I worked on this morning. I'd bet to rebuild with factory parts that would cost quite a bit.

That said, I have been helping care for her LR3 for the past 2 years and outside of taillamps, rear door actuator and this brake job its been trouble free for about 25k miles.
 

d1driver

Well-known member
Oct 19, 2005
3,153
1
Pittsburgh, PA
In 5 years, LR3's will be cheap to come by, and eventually, we will see them offroad all over the place. I saw one offroading last weekend in snow over rocks, up steep hills, etc. Lets just say I can get a D2 for cheap right now, but I am saving my pennies for an LR3.
 

dannyballs

Well-known member
Sep 26, 2008
332
0
Chicago
I've been looking in the market for a few weeks now. I have spoken to 6 LR service managers in the Chicago market and all of them have indicated that their warranty repair work for the LR4 is down around 50% vs the LR3. Not sure what the baseline number of repairs for the LR3 was; however, all of them implied the quality is continually rising. Not sure if that is a lagging indicator of the time spent with Ford and if we can continue to expect to see the levels of quality rise under Tata. Anyone else in a different market have similiar experience? It would be interesting to hear comments.
 

NVRover

Well-known member
Apr 20, 2004
1,366
0
52
Broken Arrow, OK
I have owned 1 D1 ('96), 2 D2s ('00 & '02), 2 RRs ('91 & '97), and 1 LR3 ('05). The LR3 has hands down been the least problematic of the 6 land rovers I have owned. Its also the most fun to drive. We bought it from Red Mountain Rovers in B'ham, AL 2 years ago with 55k miles. It has 107k on it now. Only major issues have been a transmission sensor and resealing the front windscreen. That's it.

Buy an LR3 and dont really worry about it. The issues posted previously also occur on Chevy Tahoes, GMC Yukons, Ford Exploders and Expeditions, etc.
 

Narzuhl

Well-known member
Oct 19, 2004
62
0
Leesburg, VA
Had mine about a year.

Problems so far. Shifter cable (yes cable) seized and had to be towed to the dealer. $300 later installed.
Odd electrical issues where GPS or radio would not have sound or freeze. happen about 1 every 3-4 months. Have done nothing about it. Turning off the vehicle and on...we are back in business. When the GPS Froze i had to unhook the battery.

Done before I got it, most of the service recalls like the control arms.

Aside from that Sunroof drains, side molding falling off, little plastic parts breaking inside (like.
the 3rd row seat handle)

It has been a good Rover.
I need to find an independent shop as the dealer is killing me and Elizabethtown PA is to far. First service at the dealer with new brakes and the sunroof issue fixed was a 3K bill, coupons and discounts got it down to $2500. Almost sold the damn thing after that.

Take what ozscott said to heart. It has always seem to be the way with all British cars. Like most, I have owned several from Land Rovers to Triumphs and the original Mini's . It is hit and miss. I had two 1967 TR4a's at the same time at one point, one never had any issues and ran like a clock. The other was a electrical nightmare. Both were bone stock and aside from paint color, were exactly the same neither had never been altered.
It seems somethings have never changed.
 
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discostew

Well-known member
Sep 14, 2010
7,733
1,024
Northern Illinois
rcshauger said:
Sold my 05' LR3 because I had a hose go out and it broke my vacuum pump for the gas tank ($650); broken sunroof motor ($500); intermittant start problem traced to a faulty ground ($400). All of this was within 1 year... My D2 cost that much in a lift and tires... It depends on what you want to do. LR3 will be more reliable and have less go wrong, but when it does it will cost just as much if not more than a D2.

I got an 04' range rover and have not looked back since. It has been great!

If you had your sunroof motor replaced I would bet money the guy had to fix the red lin bus after he replaced the motor. that wire would have cost me $0 to fix. If your talking about your DMTL pump for your gas tank then that makes the opposit of vacuum/its called pressure. You seem to be addicted to paying to much for simple repairs.