Go drive a GX460 or a used GX470. It’ll be much more what you’re used to aside from no mechanical issues ever.
Timing Chain Class Action
- Thread starter Blue
- Start date
The GX470 might be my favorite all around SUV that I've owned...if it weren't for the fact my frame rotted out.
I've been thinking about getting in the market for an LR4. What's the timing chain assembly failure progression: normal, noisy front end, then kaboom? I also can't seem to find how prevalent failures are. Are they all doomed, or is it more like 10% or so (from the affected years)?
A few things can happen. The tensioner can get stuck down in itself and the engine will clack a little bit and the noise will go away as soon as oil pressure slams the whole assembly out against the tensioner blade. Close to 200,000 miles the tensioner blades and the other plastic guides can wear almost all the way thru then pieces of it start coming off and the chain gets looser over time. Usually stores a cam timing fault before it lets go completely. The old design tensioner and blades had a flat spot that will dig into the tensioner blade over time and makes a lot of the clacking rattling type noise you hear in a lot of them. I've seen a couple of them break the bolts that hold the guides in place. Thats usually a pretty bad failure because the chain gets loose enough to skip teeth. Then the valves get dinked.
But I do think the whole timing chain problem is kind of blown out of proportion. You should be more afraid of overheating one.
I'll try to find the vin break on the new tensioners for you. I'm thinking it's late '14 model year.
The cooler they look, the easier it is to spend money on them.
For what it's worth, here is the TSB info I relied on when searching for LR4s:
TIMING CHAIN GUIDES ISSUE AJ133 5.0 V8
TSB LTB00474NAS3 19 MAY 2015 (section 303-01) Rattle/Click noise from front of engine
LR4 2010-2012 VIN AA513326 to CA652214
LR011900 Timing Chain lubricating jet, lower AA00001 to CA615288
LR034466 Timing Chain lubricating jet, lower CA615289 to CA632917
LR042667 Timing Chain lubricating jet, lower CA632918 to EA720633
LR059161 Timing Chain lubricating jet, lower EA720634
LR032714 Timing Chain lubricating jet, upper (all vins)
LR012004 Timing Chain AA000001 to CA615288
LR032048 Timing Chain CA615289 and on
LR010883 Timing Chain Tensioner AA000001 to CA615288
LR032088 Timing Chain Tensioner CA615289 to DA696317 (tsb ends with CA652214 in this range).
LR051008 Timing Chain Tensioner DA696315 and on (mentioned as fix part in TSB)
LR010769 Timing chain tensioner blade AA000001 to AA999999
LR024839 Timing chain tensioner blade BA000001 to CA615288
LR032090 Timing chain tensioner blade CA615289 to CA628207
LR040977 Timing chain tensioner blade CA628208 to DA696314 (tsb ends with CA652214 in this range).
LR051013 Timing chain tensioner blade DA696315 (mentioned as fix part in tsb, called 'lever')
LR012642 LH Timing Chain Guide AA000001 to DA696314
LR051012 LH Timing Chain Guide DA696315 and on
LR010765 RH Timing Chain Guide AA000001 to DA696314
LR051011 RH Timing Chain Guide DA696315 and on
Attachments
They put out a stupid bulletin that wanted you to pull the upper timing cover out from under the valve cover(leaving the valve cover bolted in place) zip tie the chains around the cam sprockets so they cant move. Then sliding the tensioer blade out and installing the tensioners. It all looked like hacking to me and the one time I tried it I heard one of the cams skip a few teeth while I was trying to slip the new blade in. I replace the chains, I pull it apart and put the timing tools on it. Once you say your replaceing the chain itself then all the mickey mouse cheap ass shit they want youy to do just goes away.
I do timing chains for closer to 3 grand. Its about a grand worth of parts and 20 hours of labor @$100 per hour.
Three grand is much easier to stomach. My local independent mechanic threw out $5-7K when I asked. Their rate is $125/hr. I've heard of some other local Phoenix-area independents that are closer to $3K.
I can tell you your parts are going to cost about a grand. Thats with a 20% markup from me. Then the labor isn't supposed to be smoke and mirrors, warranty time is going to be about 16 hours on a non supercharged engine, maybe 18 plus for a supercharged engine. 1 1/2 times the warranty labor time is kind of standard issue. I'll do them all for 20 hours cause I'm kind of a slut like that.
Yep...love my 460. It's a great platform, and while it lacks the soul of a Rover, it's just super reliable. Great car to compliment a Rover
It’s not shade tree. I’m going to retire kind of in 10 weeks. I bought a shop here in northern Illinois.
I think you should go meet some of those shop owners that come in near 3 large. As I recall you haven’t been “trouble free” with your local shop.
I’ve watched lots of mechanics quote real high on jobs they don’t want to do. Chains is a big ol scary place to go with an engine that would cost $18 grand to replace.
I did my first one in 2010. The real early ones had a small plastic plug behind the intake cam sprocket for the variable lift shittery. It was too small or had too big a bleed hole or something. But like I said that was real early ones and nobody has that issue today.
I just got info on this from Land Rover. It’s not a 100% paid deal. The warranty period will be extended on 2012 to 2014 5.0 engines no matter what it’s in. I think it’s going to be prorated like a battery warranty kind of. It looks like worst case they pay only 40% of the repair