My wife has a 2003 Land Rover Discovery HSE. The engine developed a knock and we took It right in to our local Land Rover dealer. They called us back and said that it has a Camshaft failure. The warranty company wants them to tear the engine down and tell them the cause of the failure and if it's fixable. If they reject the claim we are on the hook for the labor. What causes a camshaft failure anyway?

 

Your oil pump went out.
There is a TSB (technical service bulletin) from LR on this problem.
Search the forum for "'03 oil pump failure" and you will find that this horse has been beaten to death.
Hate to say it, but you wil be paying for a engine teardown because most warranty companies will not cover this, you will need a whole new engine.
How long has your oil light been on?

 

The oil light never came on at all

 

Ok thats good, the first signs of a oil pump failure are the oil light coming on at idle.
Bottom line though your oil pump was not putting out enough oil PSI to keep the engine lubed, thus cam failure.
Sorry about your luck.
If you bought it at the dealer and always had the oil changed at the dealer they may "help" you make sure the warranty company fixes your truck.

 

Well we bought the vehicle march of 08 with 49,000 miles on it. We've had 2 oil changes since then all done by land rover and were going in for the third last week when this was discovered. The car has 67,000 miles on it now. 2 months after purchase the check engine light came on we took it in and they had to replace gaskets on the lower intake. 4 months after that i felt it wasn't running right. Took it in for diagnosis. They had to replace the throttle warmer gasket, upper radiator hose, intake gasket (again), timing cover gaskets, oilpan gasket, cylinder headgaskets. Nothing since then until now

 

Dude!

I'm not sure of what to make of all those repairs. Were they throwing parts at the problem hoping to fix it?

Regardless, they certainly didn't have your financial interests at heart.

 

Wait wait wait, you were changing the oil every 9,000 miles? When LR recommends no more than 7500 miles?
They will not cover you, that is owner neglect, you went 1500 miles over on each oil change.
7500 miles is to long anyway, but then to go 9000 miles?
There's your problem, the oil could not last that long and you fried your engine.

 

Im not sure what the heck they were doing. One good thing is the warranty company said they will cover the engine teardown as long as they approve the repairs. I'm sure the reason for them wanting the dealer to tear the engine apart is to try and find a reason to deny the repair claim.

 

Nooooo, we aren't due the third oil change for another 4,500 miles.

 

It sounded like you said the oil had been changed twice since you bought it with 49,000 miles on it and now it has 67,000 miles on it.
Doing the math thats 9,000 miles between oil changes.
So how often were you getting the oil changed? How many miles between oil changes?