With a whopping 28,000 miles on my 2020 110 X, the left rear shock started rattling as others have reported. Granted my use case is - severe. This truck was in Moab 2 weeks, etc. I have a 7 seater, which raises the degree of annoyance of this repair quite a bit: More disassembly of the interior. The actual shock replacement is fairly easy, even for the home mechanic with hand tools and a basic floor jack.

Here’s a video I took after I disassembled the interior, to confirm the rattling condition.

The shock upper nut hasn’t loosened, but the actual shaft has elongated from bending and stretching. These shocks are not durable enough for what the Defender is designed for. Hopefully someone comes out with a beefier solution or JLR redesigns them.

Mine is out of warranty. I enjoy working on cars myself so tackled myself.

The steps for a 7 seater, left rear, are:

1) Deflate Air Suspension - I used GapIID tool to lower to bump stops. Easy
2) Remove Left Rear Tire.
3) Remove Upper C-Pillar Trim (unplugging 1 electrical connector for the power port)
4) Remove Cargo sill trim
5) On mine - remove the accessory air compressor - which was easy for me because I’d installed it. Remove the cover, then undo 3 bolts, careful not to lose the spacers and rubber mounts, then undo 3 wiring harness connectors. Set aside.
6) Remove left hand cargo trim (unplugging 5 things - LED light, air suspension switch, power port, 3rd row heated seat switch, and in my case, the big plug for the accessory air compressor)
7) Remove Left Rear Cargo Trim panel - clips as described in the service manual - picture below
*** Optional: spend an hour cleaning the massive amount of bloodhound & Labrador hair that was inside the area ***
8) Undo the 3 upper shock mount bolts
9) Under the car, undo the lower shock bolt/nut
10 Remove the shock by lowering it under the car (easy to do, lower, jack the car up a bit more, then it came right out on top of the wheel hub area. If you were up on a lift I’m sure it would come out below. The ground was in the way for me)

Parts list:

• Adaptive Rear LH Shock - LR132722 —> supersedes to LR140076
• Upper Shock Mount Seal LR034276 (the green thing)
• 3 upper mount nuts LR034227
• (If you also need the top shock shaft nut that is LR034278 but I did not)
• Lower big bolt LR038196
• Lower nut LR034277
• 4 new white clips for LH cargo trim LR013135
• 2 yellow clip LR035841 for LH cargo trim and LH lower 3rd row AC vent (note: these clips didn’t fit right. There is no way this is the correct part #. I broke one, had a spare, then had to file them down to get them to fit the 2 holes -- one on the AC vent, one on the lower front part of the cargo area trim by the left rear passenger door. LR dealer even checked parts diagram. Whatever.. be advised)

Installation is reverse. Tricky parts of this job were:
-- I had to use a jack to jack up the shock to get it in the lower control arm, other than that easy.
-- The interior cargo side panel on the 7 seater is a nightmare. I broke every clip. Or every clip was already broken. Also the panel sort of started to separate from itself. The side cargo trim piece is flimsy, and it’s a stupid design if you ask me. Went to the Land Rover dealer. Bought all new clips for $25 because I did not want rattles. Success on that front.
-- I bought a USED shock off ebay off a flood damaged 2024 car with only 4000 miles on it. It came already in the upper mount. So I did not have to mess around with trying to tighten the upper shock nut in the upper mount. It just spins around. If you don’t use an air tool, there’s no other way apparently.

Below are some reference photos that may help someone tackling this job in the future / visuals of what to expect.





This is what you see when remove the side cargo trim on a 7 seater. There’s a metal bracket that must be removed - this bracket is what the cargo tie-down goes into. The black plastic is the rear cooling assist (HVAC) vent. That’s also got to go. You have to remove the vent tube to remove the silver bracket.


Rear of the LH cargo panel on a 7 seater, showing the white clips and yellow one (broken) on the leading edge by the left rear passenger door. Note this yellow clip is the same yellow clip as the one holding that rear vent tube in the above pic.


Full access here - everything removed and wire unplugged (squeeze both sides and pull straight up, very easy).


Parts


Marked wires that need to be plugged in with tape for visibility. I’m forgetful.




The work zone


Jacking and using jack stand. Love the sliders during maintenance.


Bad shock I’m removing


My New Ebay Shock


The new hardware


Nut removed, Lower Bolt still in.


Lower mounting bolt/nut removed


Upper shock mount removed. Look at that very small slot inboard of the bolt hole - it’s an odd delicate aluminum casting that is part of the car’s unibody. Fascinating. I think that’s to allow water to drain out.


Had to use the jack to compress the shock enough to get the bottom bolt through.


Replacement shock in!


And this is what it looks like when it’s all put back together on a 7 seater. Note the missing yellow clip on the HVAC vent to metal bracket.

 

Superb stuff.

I wonder are my rattles just related to all the missing damaged clips my dealer didn’t reinstall correctly. 11 months after their version of this and I have a terrible rattle.

I think I’ll need to do the disassembly and diagnostic video at some point.

with all the broken clips it should be an easier job.

 

Interested to see the damage to the top of the old shock.

 

Found this, not sure where are original ones made/
Shock Absorber Lr140076 Lr132722 Lr132724 Lr158959 Lr140227 L8b218w003cc For Land Rover New Defender 2020- Rear Left Electrical - Buy Lr140076 rear Shock Absorber shock Absorber Electrical For New Defender Product on Alibaba.com

 

Interesting @TeddyG . I do hate to see this.

Mine says “MADE IN GERMANY” -- both the new one and the old one.

The top of the fluid reservoir (the little canister off the side of the shock) is different - it’s domed instead of flat. A visual difference. . They’re also copying JLR logos --blatant counterfeiting and even if they did not do that, these companies cranking out lookalike accessories and passing them off as genuine JLR is trade dress infringement . Trade dress is what protects the distinctive design and look of a product — even without logos — from being copied in a way that confuses buyers. But this is really blatant counterfeiting for a sales channel like Alibaba - JLR will come after these guys pretty quickly, I’d presume. Porsche certainly does.

My take on these type of products: Aftermarket components are of course fine and dandy, but counterfeits is another story. Aftermarket products (good ones) are tested, etc. But counterfeiters -- If they cut corners on their business model, I’d not trust them not to cut corners on materials, testing, or safety. And with something as critical as shock which is technically a safety component, tough gamble to take.

 

Buying auto parts online is getting very difficult to ensure that you're getting genuine OEM parts these days. Even on Amazon it is quite easy to buy what you think are OEM parts but they are cheap knock offs that even come in fake OEM-looking packaging. I bought a fuel tank selector valve once on Amazon for $85 after someone linked to it - the OEM part from a dealer/distributor was $350. Well, I installed it (after taking a thorough diesel bath - fun!) and everything was hunky-dory.... for two weeks... then it stopped working. Then it started leaking from the valve body itself.

I now only buy parts from dealers or from the actual OEM part manufacturers Amazon storefront - usually accessed from their website.

 

That labeling on that aftermarket shock is shameless. They really have copied everything right down to the sticker with the part number on the box.

Reminds me of some Durabatt AA batteries I once purchased at a road-side stand in Paraguay.

They lasted about 5 seconds.

 

Update: in a completely un-surprising turn of events, my RIGHT REAR shock is now rattling as bad or worse as the one I just replaced. It was fine just 800 miles ago. I’ve put 800 miles on the L663 since I replaced the LEFT REAR (in this thread above). Our offroad trip this weekend really put it over the edge. Ratltle-rattle-rattle.

Annoying.

But it would make sense that they failed at the same time. Although I’ve certainly offroaded this thing medium-heavily, I think it’s rubbish that they’re failing like this.

 

What a bunch of Dunlop crap! I will need to replace my right rear soon and I was contemplating on replacing both right and left since I was going to be in the back of the car anyway. Now you just confirmed for now on to replace both. Jeez!

 

After my experience, indeed I wish I’d just done both at the same time.

The one thing I’d say, is at least on a 7 seater, there’s no “overlap” of work. In other words, the disassembly is completely different left side to right side. You’re not saving any time doing both at the same time. Other than being in the mindset to do the project, clearing out space in the garage, organizing tools, ordering parts... which is something.