This seems to be the way of things nowadays. There are no real "mechanics" any more.

 

Good news: the fault was identified by the dealership and indicates the BISG needs to be replaced.

Bad news: part is on back order from JLR. ETA 3-8 weeks.

This is a really poor beginning for a brand new car that we intend to use to tour outback Australia. Most of the kilometers traveled so far are to and from the dealership!

 

BISG are failing on other brands too.
Check audis for instance.

 

Is it a failure if it never worked properly?

 

well, it's not like JLR is making those, but probably wrong condition / tolerance /threshold for the unit took place or bad luck or whatever (like not enough cooling). We had some failures on MHEV system here as far as I remember.
There are only a handful of producers and they are not durable by any means.

 

JLR is one of the many manufacturers prioritising sales ahead of maintaining a parts inventory, so they can take some criticism for the fact that I'm going to have an unusable new car for 3-4 months.

If the dealership were really committed to keeping me happy, they'd pull a BiSG from a new D300 on the lot and put it in mine! Never going to happen though.

 

This was my feeling exactly when my alternator crapped out with 1300miles on my brand new Defender a few weeks into ownership. No eta on parts and I'm constantly getting marketing flyers for new specs and builds. There is no reservoir of parts. None. There should be.

Make a lot of noise, demand to speak to the higher ups. Demand a part from Nitra. Demand a comparable replacement vehicle. Just be a mannerly PITA and require constant daily updates on parts. I went so far as to send my dealer links to the part needed on ebay. They wouldn't have a bar of it of course but miraculously they sourced the part via Jaguar and I was back on the road in 3 weeks.

I hope things work out for you. It's incredibly disappointing to have this happen on any vehicle. One you have pegged for an Aussie tourer is a real kick in the nutsac.

 

Haha - the dealership don't want to know me. When I asked the service manager to have someone from the dealership ring me who is accountable for my overall experience, they told me to call JLR Australia Customer Relationship Centre. I will of course, but very unhappy experience so far,

 

Not sure about the Aussie center, but the yank customer care team were about as helpful as a fart in a spacesuit. Emailed me about 1 month after I was back on the road to see if they could assist with my repairs.

Quite the baptism into LR ownership. It really sucked. Love my Defender but have little to no faith or trust in the dealer and customer support.

 

I sent an email to the salesman I bought the car from as a last resort and he is making things happen. I wish I'd contacted him earlier. The service manager should never be let near a customer.

He did some digging and found that the reason for the BiSG shortage is that it is a recently redesigned part with the old part being superseded.

The dealership has a new, but superseded BiSG that they offered to fit until the redesigned one arrives in 6-8 weeks which they will then swap in. Some of this will be at the expense of the dealership since they can't make a warranty claim for all of it.

Not ideal but at least I'll have use of the car while waiting for the part.