Well, not currently; but I was last week.

My second trip to the west from Atlanta in the 110; first time was to the San Juans in SE Colorado. This time I was taking it to Moab for my 27th visit, but first in a Land Rover.

I made it from ATL to just short of Albuquerque on Day 1, about 1250 miles, iirc. Awoke Day 2 with 4.5 hours to go. All was good until the desolate run from Cortez, CO up to Monticello, UT. Started losing power and stalled three times. Restarting was not easy. Had to manually downshift on some long grades, as well as drive slower than conditions would have allowed. Stopped in Monticello in front of NAPA store to investigate.

Pools of oil on the tray beneath the engine and splattered everywhere. Damn! I called LR Roadside Assistance, they started working on a tow to LR Roaring Fork, in Glenwood Springs CO, 250 miles away. Told me to Uber to where I could rent a car and they’d pay for it. Only problem was, no Uber, Lyft, Taxi, Shuttle or Rental Car agency here. I was only an hour from Moab, where rentals abound, but no way to get there. I wound up going up to people in 7/11, Maverick Gas, Ace Hardware and NAPA asking if they’d drive me there for $150. Everyone was sympathetic and willing but it was always, “If you can wait till 6pm when I get off”

Finally called a great guy I know, Joe, who owns and runs Twisted Jeeps in Moab. He has helped me out several times before when I destroyed the winch on front of my Jeep, or needed a place to store the Jeep for a month till I came back for another trip, that sort of thing. He said he would come pick me up if I could wait an hour. That was great. When we got back he tossed me the keys to a beautiful Earl Grey Rubicon, which I used for the next 6 days. I was there for a short 3-day backpacking trip and then off-roading. Friends joined me a couple days later, and we rented a second Jeep when we came out of the woods. Great trip (but I’ve done these trails in Jeeps many times.)

LR dealer didn’t get to it till this Monday (5 days ago). Called almost immediately. “Your oil filter backed off enough for it to sling oil out. We put 5 quarts back in.” I had never gotten a light or an alert or warning. If it hadn’t been for the stalling and loss of power I wouldn’t have even looked under the hood. And while the first thing I would ordinarily do in a situation like that, since I’d just had the oil changed a week before the trip, would be to assume either the filter or drain plug was left loose (I don’t know if they suck the oil out like I do or drain through the plug) and check that. But with no light and all the erratic symptoms I didn’t even think about that. Apparently the electronics stepped in and created conditions that are not the natural mechanical result of the a loss of oil and that had me thinking it was something much bigger.

Anyway… TLDR version: They changed the oil, put on a new filter and cleaned the engine bay of all the oil. Reset the codes it had thrown. Tested it various ways and pronounced it undamaged and good to go. They are prepared to ship it back to ATL now.

Here’s the good part. I called the SA at the high-end Euro indy I use for Porsche, MB and now LR. He knows me and immediately said they would take care of it all, just get him the receipts. “It all” includes, by my initial estimate, about $4500 of expenses I wouldn’t have incurred if this hadn’t happened, including the tow to CO, the shipping home, my airline ticket home, 6 days of jeep rental, the $150 I’ve paid Joe for his kindness coming to get me, the oil change and labor to clean the engine bay.

But yesterday I got more good news. Because I’m still under full warranty (2022, 38,000 miles) JLR is covering both the towing to CO and the shipping back to ATL, even though the repair turned out not to be a warranty repair.

Looking forward to getting her back. I realize of course there could be some sort of internal damage due to running on 4 qts of oil for some amount of time, but whatever ways the dealer tested it he says that’s not happened. Also says if pressure got low enough to cause damage it would have thrown all sorts of warning lights. We’ll see.

Thinking the Defender had somehow sprung a massive oil leak on its own, and wondering if I could trust it anymore on a long trip I was contemplating replacing it with a JL Wrangler (current generation is JL). I already have a 2-door JK (2014) and the JL is nicely advanced over JK in the on-road experience. But it’s still a solid-axle body-on-frame SUV, so it would be quite a step backwards in some ways.

Anyway, learning that this was in no way the Defender’s fault is a nice reassurance. This was its 3rd trip inside a dealership in going on 3 years, and none of them have had anything to do with the Defender’s reliability (2 windshields from direct strikes and now this.) I continue to be pleasantly surprised by its reliability. Just wish I could have given it a few days in slickrock country, having driven that far.

 

Sounds like quite the adventure and the picture is beautiful. Quite crazy all this over a filter that wasnt tightened down. I'm glad they are making it right, but thats a pretty brutal result for some poorly performed maintenance.

 

Oddly not the first time I have heard of a new defenders oil filter working loose. You are the third or 4th person I have seen post something similar. Glad it all worked out in the end

 

Man, that’s crazy.

I can’t remember if you do your own maintenance or not, but for peace of mind, could do an oil analysis on the next oil change. Look for high metals and stuff.

also sounds like for us who do our own maintenance, might tighten the filter a little more than suggested or use a torque wrench, which I never do, always hand tight.

 

I typically do my own light stuff, like fluid changes, and swapping the rear calipers so I can run 18s on the P400. But because I knew I'd cross 40k miles on this trip and wanted a pro to look over everything I took it in for everything to be gone over a week before leaving, specifically so that if anything was done wrong it would have a week to reveal itself before i hit the road. So much for planning!

Anyway, I was thinking about doing that when I get it back and after running it for a few thousand miles. It has brand new oil in it now, curtesy of the CO dealership.

 

Wow that sux. Funny that the filter housing held for 1200 miles before it loosened. I’m going to check mine and put a witness mark so I can tell if it moves.
Had a similar experience with my wife’s company car. She took it to the fleet mechanic for an oil change, next day had an out of state trip. Called me all panicked - car was smoking - turns out the mechanic forgot to put the oil filler cap back on, blew oil all over the engine compartment, what a royal mess.

 

Interesting. The 25 Nm torque spec on the oil filter always feels quite tight (at least compared to metal canister style oil filters). Good to know that it really needs it.

 

Anything being off-roaded needs to be tighter than it otherwise would be as the constant jarring loosens everything up eventually. Thinking back to my motocross days you had to go over the whole thing with a wrench all the time and still on more than one occasion a buddy of mine lost a front or rear axle nut during practice and noticed riding around with the axle hanging halfway out! Street bikes, whole different story, people go years without needing to tighten some things.

 

True, for sure. But I was still an hour away from any off-pavement forays when my 110 shut down.

 

Ah, that's a bummer. You're smart though for having someone at least go over it before you left. Better luck next time. I'm still jealous tbh, all I had was one headache after another with mine and it never saw a trail save for a drive-thru zoo @ Adirondack Animal Land. You actually offroad yours and claim no issues. Story of my life. Carry on and be blessed. lol