I do not know about Germany but here in the US they ARE all STEALERships..their pricing is ridiculous, usually double that of an independent shop. That applies to ALL dealerships not just land rover.

when you go to a dealership you are paying for the illusion that they are the most knowledgeable people to work on your vehicle, which may or may not be true. You are also paying for expensive testing equipment which may or may not be needed to repair your vehicle.

 

113,000 miles on the Disco....

I work for a BMW dealership so I know the business. I see what the prices are marked up for parts and it's ridiculous. My beef is with the service. Land Rover and BMW are both highline vehicles to work on and maintain. Our techs have no problem thoroughly looking over the vehicle to try and properly diagnose something. It's not only a reflection on the dealership and the technician but also the BMW brand. I would expect just the same from a Land Rover dealership. How does my story not add up Spike? The truck couldn't just die driving down the road? Tell me how a snapped timing chain is supposed to make the vehicle react..... The wheels don't stop spinning do they? The engine wasn't locked up because it cranked.

 

I never said that your story didnt add up.
When a timing chain breaks the engine stops running but the car will keep rolling under its own momentum.
I have no idea if these are interference engines or not but I am betting that they are not.

 

I wouldn't be so mad at the dealer, they were just guessing at this point. If I was you I would be glad you were lucky it wasn't a blown engine. From the dealer's point of view, they probably popped a valve cover or ran a compression test(or both) and saw valves were not moving, no compression, etc... and figured the worst. I'm pretty sure if you told them you were willing to pay them to tear into it more they would of found the timing chain and changed their opinion. Who knows.

 

I think he got you mixed up with lipadj46's post.

 

You work for a BMW dealership...well, there you go. They make Land Rover look like pikers. 2x on standard services and worse. Had a 98 740iL and a 2000 M5 and the dealership was the LAST place I would have work done. Had to get my M5 instrument cluster replaced - dead pixels, faulty part, still had to
Pay cause I wasn't a regular - they tried to tell me I had leaky valve covers. When I sold it, the local, high end independent shop said the lead was the size of a pencil tip. That would have been an easy $800 for BMW.

Karma, baby.

 

Engine needs fuel, spark and timing to run. When you lose timing the engine will shut off. Chain or belt. I had a timing belt snap on a 99 Ford Ranger once, truck cut off while driving, same as you. Belts are easier to see though, I popped the hood on the Ranger and saw that the belt (exposed) had broke. Harder to see/diagnose a chain, it's usually boxed up.

It's odd for a timing chain to break though, especially with only 113k miles. Belts get old and need replacing. Chains though can last a long time. hmmm

 

Yeah...no clue how or why it happened. I guess you couldn't see it from the top looking under the hood but it was pretty noticeable from the bottom. My VIN falls in the range of the oil pump issues so that's the only thing I can think of that caused it. The timing chain shouldn't just snap like that.