Just got my first Land Rover two days ago and there are a few minor issues with it that seem to be reasonably solvable. Firstly I have the "three amigos" after hard braking, I read the troubleshooting bulletin on it and it seems to be a relatively easy fix. Secondly the passenger side floor board is wet, I have had experience with this issue on other vehicles and a quick forum search has all but verified that I need to clean out my a/c drain hole. Thirdly my steering wheel wobbles occasionally, seems to be a steering damper or uneven brake wear, I pray that its not a drive shaft. And lastly It appears some ***-hat didn't know that oil is not suppose to go on the outside of the motor during an oil change as there is a little oil residue on the underside of the motor, either that or I have a very slight leak, it's not even dripping. I will hit the motor with some degreaser and pressure wash it, then monitor that situation. Soon I am going to do an oil change, and minor tune up as I am not certain how the vehicle has been maintained until now. My questions are as follows:

1. I will be using Amsoil 5w30, with a slick 50 treatment. I have been using Amsoil for years but the slick 50 is new to me. Does anyone have any experience with it? What are your thoughts on it?

2. I generally use Bosch plugs, are there better ones to use for my truck?

3. How much of a pain in the *** is a radiator flush? I have done several of these before but this coolant system seems to be similar to a Jeep Cherokee I had once and I never could get all the air out of the coolant system after the flush. As a result I ran it hot and blew a head gasket. I would hate to repeat that mistake.

All in all my truck runs great, I seem to have plenty of power and everything works as it should. Thanks for answering my noob questions.

 

1. Buy good oil and don't add any crap to it. Discos like Mobil 1 10W40 or Rotella 15W40 (that's a conventional oil) and a good filter like the Mobil 1 301.
2. Plugs are a crap shoot, some say Bosch Plat +4 and others say cheap copper, whatever keeps you happy. It's more important to replace your old spark plug wires with a set of 8mm wires, www.kingsborne.com or Magnacore are 2 options.
3. Easy, pop the houses off to drain, flush and then refill. Download the manual http://www.landroverresource.com/ and then follow the procedure to bleed the air out of the system. It is important to get all the air out, just follow the procedure and you will be fine. Replace your coolant every 2 years, Dexcool is what many use and you will also hear bad things about Dexcool - if you replace your coolant regularly then you will not have a problem with any coolant.

 

Yes the Amsoil will be fine but do NOT go more than 6,000 miles between oil changes.
No do NOT use the Slick 50, if you need a oil additive then you need a different oil.
Read up on oil additives.
http://www.carbibles.com/additives.html
I use Shell Rotella and change it every 5,000 miles.
These engines are VERY hard on oil and you cant do extended oil drains.

Bosch plugs are fine, I use Iridium plugs, but you must use either Magnecor or STI plug wires.

Read though the write up section on how to bleed the cooling system, its pretty easy.
It has bleed screws to help you out.

As for the oil leak, read the tech section.
The valve covers come from the factory leaking on these trucks.

 

Steering shake is not caused by a bad damper, the shake is coming from somewhere else. Read the other posts about steering shake.

 

Sweet thanks for the link to the service manual that will come in real handy. Thanks for the other tips as well. I will not even bother with the slick 50.

 

Something else you need to do sooner rather than later is check your front drive shaft. Crawl under the truck and check the u-joints, the factory drive shaft was fitted with 1 UJ at the front that has a grease fitting, the 2 at the rear end do not have grease fittings. If you see this then you need to replace the UJs as a matter of urgency. The UJs fail and the drive shaft will take out your tranny and do some other mods you will not like. Look in the "Write ups" and "How To" section on rebuilding the drive and other useful tips.
Btw vibration @ 50mph and higher is one sign of a failing drive shaft, followed by chirping and the final sound you hear is a loud boom.

 

Ok so my updated tune up will be as follows:

Spark plugs and wires
radiator flush
Oil and filter
Transmission oil replace
front and rear axle oil replace
transfer case oil replace
rebuild front drive shaft

wow that blows, oh well it will give me a chance to learn some stuff about this machine. any other suggestions?

 

Just take it one thing at a time and as your budget allows.
Do the driveline fluids one weekend, the tune up another...you get the idea.

 

Throttle body cleaning (Spike has a write up on this) and induction cleaning. Cheap and easy to do. Get some carb cleaner and 2 cans of Seafoam (1 in the tank, 1 for induction cleaning)

Eric

 

Tim- download this RAVE workshop manual. You will need it now and in the future.
http://www.landroverresource.com/doc...hop_Manual.pdf