So my wife got a text from the dealer for the 1st service interval - what it entails and what it costs.

"Your one year is coming up on Dec 24th. The one year service for your vehicle includes an oil change, wheel service (alignment, rotate and balance, nitrogen), air induction service, and cabin filter with HVAC cleaning. $1679 + tax"

I about lost my mind. She has a 2023 V8 Carpathian. According to the manual, at 1 year the truck requires an oil change and cabin filter.

So what the hell is an "air induction service"?

Their reply:
"The air induction service is meant to eliminate any carbon build-up on the intake and exhaust valves in the engine. These vehicles are direct fuel injection meaning the fuel does not hit the exhaust and intake valves like it use to. Fuel and oil are fossil fuels and a natural byproduct of these is carbon build-up when you have ignition." Great non-answer explaining exactly what you'd be doing.

Alignment at 10,500 miles?
"The alignment is recommended once a year due to the fact that these vehicles are running on an air suspension along with the 4X4 system on these vehicles running off of sensors and components that rely on the alignment angles to be within spec. This also eliminates excessive strain on the 4X4 system including your differentials and transfer case."

Tire rotate and balance I'm ok with. But here is their rational:
"You don't want more than a 2/32 variance between any tires due to the additional strain that it puts on the drivetrain with these being full time all wheel drive vehicles. We have seen differential claims under warranty denied if the tread depth variance is more than 2/32 between all the tires."

So then I questioned him on what exactly is required and if I skip any of these additional services, can this void my warranty.
Their reply:
"The owners manual is a baseline as to what Land Rover wants done on the vehicle at the specific conditions under normal driving conditions. In the owners manual, it also states that service schedules for arduous operating conditions are not displayed in the instrument panel. In the Chicagoland area we have routine stop and go driving. We have extreme conditions. We have dusty conditions with construction and keep in mind the ozone days we had this past summer with the soot in the air. Land Rover does not list the air induction in their baseline but with the driving conditions we have here in the Chicagoland area, we as an automotive group and other dealers in the area have these recommendations in place on top of what Land Rover has as a baseline in the owners manual."
But what will you actually be doing besides changing the air filter? No answer.

Mind you, my wife's commute is 4 miles each way on days she actually goes to the office. And, the most off-roading this this truck has seen is the curb at the end of our driveway.

I prefer to do my own service but was considering having them do the first oil change. No chance at that any more!

So I do have an actual oil change question. According to the owners manual, the transfer case capacity is 9.3 quarts for the 3.0L engine and 8.5 quarts for the 5.0L engine. Is this correct? I'm surprised by the lower value for the 5.0L Possible typo?
Also, I'm old school so I'll be draining the oil from the pan and I really like the idea of this "drain plug valve". https://landroverforums.com/forum/20...-119176/page2/
Are all of the plugs, and locations, the same on our engines? Does anybody know which part number fits?

Thanks

 

Pay to play for the dealer to do the work. Independent shop will be a bit cheaper. DIY will be cheapest option. Is this your first LandRover? For for your DIY oil change invest in a fluid scavenger pump. This option is much easer and is what your dealer will be using. Getting all the bottom panels off to get to drain plug is a pain. And welcome to the forum. Dealer tasks and statements are correct. Needed is subjective. Owners Manual Oil info and capacity should be correct or we would see a billion threads here about it. I also have the Fumoto drain adapter on our 4Runner. It works as designed but not really any easer than unscrewing the regular plug. People cut a hole in the under panels to access it. Again much easer to just suck the oil out through the dipstick.

 

Can you take it to an independent service centre?
l bet it would be half the price. l didn't know the new Defender was intolerant of slight differences in tyre wear across an axle.

 

AWD Vehicles this is a true statement. 4WD vehicles does not matter as much unless you lock said diffs. Try going to a tire store for just one new tire for an AWD vehicle. They will shave down the new one to match deepest tire tread of the other three.

 

I plan on doing the oil change, tire rotation, cabin and air filter myself. No chance this needs an alignment already.
And definitely no chance I'm paying $1700 for it. There's an independent shop close by that'll work on it, but I kind of like getting the satisfaction of doing this stuff myself.
What I'll miss is the stuff that the "multi-point inspection" picks up.

 

The first service is relatively simple. Especially since Land Rover, after 6 decades (along with other makers) put the oil filter on top of the engine. It drains all by itself, so no filter squalid mess when changing that. Yes, the tiny investment in an oil sucker will pay for itself by not letting the dealer do the oil change. Atlantic British sells the magic oil, pressed from the bones of non-endangered whales, or so it seems according to the price. Gads, it is like buying 8 quarts of printer ink! My airplane Aeroshell multigrade is cheaper. The filter for the cabin and airbox can be had on Amazon or Atlantic British. I can't recommend the oil sucker enough. There are those that feel you need to get every drop of oil out, but you never can anyhow. We don't have lead in auto gas anymore, so the low lying residue is almost non-existent. Modern dispersant oils, which you are hopefully using (I have no idea where you would get any other type), does just that disperses the blow-by, so it remains in suspension. And, indeed the lower skid plate is a royal PIA to remove. I didn't remove it for the oil change, I removed it for a tool that just had to go to the furthest reaches of the underside when it got knocked off the radiator. I swap tires seasonally, since that white stuff keeps falling from the air, covering the ground, like right now. I have two sets, winter and summer. So I end up having my wheels checked at least once a year. If you go off road a lot, as I do, it does mess with your alignment a tad.

Really the big benefit of going to the dealer is they do service bulletins. Things they admit are wrong and fix them for free. I take all my receipts and even the box ends from filters and oil with me to show that, no, I use OEM stuff. Besides,"I have a Federal license to work on airplanes, do your techs?" Frankly I would not own an airplane if I could not work on it myself. You think the dealer is a bit high on price, Ha! Go to a Textron Service Center. I am now looking like I will need my 4th battery. Yesterday I was in the field before the big snow today. After driving for 45 minutes on I-40 and 30 minutes off road. Zingo, when I get back in after unloading, doing the checks and reloading all the survey transmitters back in the back. I get the fart noise and the warning, "please start car, low battery." You need the change the battery 4 times for every oil change, or so it seems for me. What a crappy charging system/battery combo. My seldom driven Series IIa during the 24 months Flight School at NAS Corpus only used two batteries, and it sat 95% of the time. Like, where would you go in Corpus Christi that was any better than where you were?
Do it yourself, save some money and learn something. BTW, the cheaper air filters are nearly the same, if not change them 3 times more frequently, by the price you can.


Oil & Filter
Should you want OEM Cabin Filter
Should you want an OEM Air Filter

 

Thanks for your response and the links as I haven't purchased anything yet.
Does the 5.0L really hold less oil than the 3.0L?

 

No dipstick in the V8 to suck out the oil. For the injectors, add a bottle of Techron to the gas tank.

 

It's possible that the oil pan has a smaller capacity since the block is larger. I would go with whatever is in the service/owners manual.

 

Oh that is harsh, no dipstick. Makes me feel even better passing on the V8. I did look at my Defender workshop manuals and guess what, no V8 section. So apparently it is still a state secret. I was checking, as many of the new, no service to the engine and transmission units actually do in fact have a plug that is used for that kind of access. Just where it is, is a bit of a mystery, without the manual. I suppose buying a service tech a cup of coffee may yield some answers, unless somebody has sneaked into the JLR offices with a tiny Minox camera and made off with the V8 service information. I didn't pay attention to who JLR sourced the V8 from, I had thought that it was not an in-house engine design, like the Jag V8's before. Perhaps the OEM of that engine may have service information as to the secret location of the plug, albeit associated with another vehicle.

If there is no plug, then taking off the skid plate is one of the few options left. I do miss being under the car with pulverized raccoon poop sifting into my eyes.