So this car is 38 months old and gave up on the motorway, Towed back to dealer was told day later it failed do to "highly corrosive" water damage to the "Harness - Mega" and also "Module Engine Control" need replacing. This is not cheap fix at all. So is this due to manufacturer fault that water has seeped in to such parts which should not see water? Not been off-roading and only under 10k miles. Just out of warranty by 2 months and fully serviced by the dealer themselves with last one in May 2023. They say that as standard part of servicing, they do not check/look into such which is surprising considering the expenses when these fail. Any advise highly appreciated. They have waived some cost but still cost few £1000's to pay.

 

Ouch. Sorry to hear this. Do you know where specifically in the Defender the harness was wet ? Under the front floor moldings / plastic floor covers? Or is this underhood?

(if you don't know, I'd ask for the specifics of where the components that are corroded are ... from the workshop)

 

Part they have quoted is under the back frame or by the booth door. LR136795. So water leakage from roof over a long time?

 

Did you mean boot door, ie tailgate? So the rear cargo area is where the problem is. (is that right?)

There was a factory TSB at some point 2 ish years ago that addressed this exact issue (at least in the US market) that said that there are sealing patches in the boot floor, that may have been incorrectly applied at factory causing water leaks to interior.

1st PDF -946 explains
2nd PDF -947 has little pictures of where each is

I would think these documents could be very helpful in your discussions with the dealer, warranty or not. The headline is... #'s 7, 8, 9, and 10 are ALL in the boot. I hope it is helpful in convincing them to do the proper thing and not stick you with this repair.

Good luck. Do keep us posted.

 

BTW after reading this, you can bet I'm going to go drive mine thru a little creek at full wading height for a few mins... then check everywhere for water. And if it exists, straight to the dealer to have this TSB addressed!

 

Ive seen posts on some european nonenglish boards, it's under the hood on drivers side, leakage to ECU connectors, not sure how,

 

Thanks and much appreciated. Sent to the dealers to digest it. One to learn as that maybe dealers should give such an eyeover when doing full service as these parts are darn expensive. It is evident from such damage that water ingress has been happening for a while while car was under warranty which has led to this failure just 2 months outside warranty. And this is not your routine "wear and tear" failure which I would understand. I will keep posted what I get back. As I said, I have not even taken the car wading in any river etc.

 

Just an update: No update from dealer and still silence nor any indication of how long to repair as parts seems to be an issue. Still very surprised that dealer thinks water ingress to such key components is usual "wear & tear" for a 38 month old car under 10k miles and not deemed to be design fault and nor should they be inspecting such or caught it earlier when they fully serviced the car 2 months ago.

 

I'd keep at it with them. You're correct, I would position that in no way is this "wear and tear", unless your Defender had perhaps been in an accident or had a non-dealer bodyshop repair. (did you?)

Were you able to get an answer from them on where the water ingress was? (ie underhood, in the boot, etc)

 

Attaching diagram of the 2 parts they will be putting in. The Harness seems to be the major one covering the whole body. No this car never has been in any accident and all services have been carried out by the dealer themselves. I am just gobsmacked by this level of failure on this car still and dealer saying not their problem and I have to pay some of it. They say its my customer goodwill they have reduced bill but more like not wanting to admit otherwise.