Theres more to the story here, and we only see one side, and thats yours REDROVER928.
You said you brought it in for a water pump. I'll guess the water pump failed to the extent that your truck overheated, how severely..nobody knows. You brought it to Land Rover Manhatten.. Manhatten is the most expensive place to get anything from coffee to automobile repairs. I'm not going to get into whether they fixed your truck right or not. It's a delicate situation and is for you to work out with LR Manhatten.
I will say that at a dealership level or any repair shop level for that matter, it is important to up sell needed work, (which I'm sure your truck needed everything they sold you and more,not to mention the additional work YOU requested them to perform), BUT it is also Important that they look after your best interest, this means being careful of upselling work until they are sure (to the best of the technicians ability) that the engine and truck is in fact sound and worth these additional repairs. Of course the additional diagnosis necessary to determine this would be at your cost and possibly as much as the repair bill you got from a Dealer in Manhatten.
Sorry to hear of your dilemma..

@ Disco Mike... Your negative comments about Land Rover Dealerships in general is unnecessary and insulting to all the excellent Land Rover Dealer employees and Techs out there.. (there are quite a few left).
You of all people who claims to be "A Retired Land Rover Service Manager",
"A Member of The Solihull Society"and A moderator of MANY Land Rover Forums should rise to the level of a Land Rover Service Manager, A member of the Solihull Society, and Moderator of public forums and not make such insulting comments..
It doesn't help REDROVER928 In the least to tell her she got F***ed by a dealer, It just adds INSULT to INJURY!!

Cheers

Mike G

Land Rover Gold Level Master Tech
20 Years Land Rover DEALERSHIP Experience

 

My truck never over heated when I took it in for the water pump, I told them I had a coolant leak and asked them to see where it was leaking from, they said the water pump and I gave the go ahead after being quoted the price for the water pump. Big Red OVERHEATED after driving 16 miles towards my house, and I called the dealership ON THE SPOT, they sent a tow truck and took it back, if they had fixed the water pump and reservoir tank cap when they did it the first time it wouldnt have gone back 4 times since. I dont know who you are and truly I dont care.. My truck is not over heating now, however after having the oil pan changed and replacing the gaskets I am still leaking oil after that was fixed. I paid 5687 for some work, but it was ****ty work when you spend damn near 6000$ for repairs the work is guaranteed and being that it is Land Rover I would expect better service and correct repairs off the muscle.

 

I feel bad for you, yes you got screwed.
Not because of the price, but because the work was not performed correctly, the truck should have been road tested before it was returned to you.
The "it's a old Rover" line is a joke, he never should have said that.
Some times things happen that are out of every ones control.
If they replaced the oil pan gasket and head gaskets the only gaskets left to leak are the front and rear main seals, which very well could be leaking, it is common on these trucks.
Not everyone can work on their own car, or wants to, and that is totally 100% fine.
Even the dealer hires bad techs, or the tech could have been having a bad day, who knows, maybe it was defective parts installed, maybe they didnt do the work at all and just charged you for it.
Or maybe they thought the work had been done but had not been done.
You have every right to be mad.
Best of luck and please keep us posted.

 

I'm inclined to blame the dealer on this one.

I took my DII to Carlos at British Auto Works because changing the head gaskets in the dead of winter in an unheated garage just wasn't appealing to me. It was a straight forward repair for them, I'm sure a HG job on a Disco II is like a brake job to them at this point.

After the repair was done, Carlos drove my truck from the Bronx to Connecticut to make sure the repair was solid before calling me to come pick it up.

If the LR dealer she went to was 1/2 has diligent, they would have caught their mistake. Mike G, I know you like to stick up for dealer techs when they get **** on, but even if half of what she's saying is BS, she still got a raw deal to the tune of a lot of money.

 

FWIW Carlos is a dealer tech

 

Oh, I know he told me on my visit, and I wasn't saying that all dealer techs everywhere are ****, that's definitely not the case.

I think one of the root issues is the dealers and their propensity to favor the almighty dollar over doing the right thing, and how that ultimately leads to the negative connotation of anything associated with the dealer, including the techs. If there was more (any?) focus on ensuring that a good job was done, versus getting as much money out of as many customers as quickly as possible, we would hear less stories like RedRover's.

But there isn't, and we don't, and so continues the story.

But then again, that model does lend itself well to keeping the indy shops flush with a steady stream of customers, so maybe it's a necessary evil?

 

A great friend is the credit card, because their dispute systems can suck back the money from the dealer (or any other vendor). Management is familiar with this, and disputes can be more quickly resolved. And you don't have to hire an attorney.

Dealerships have all the same problems of any other service business, inventory problems (no parts, or mis-marked parts); people who call in sick; test equipment that is out of calibration; computer systems that scrmble data; shop horse play and practical jokes; employee attitude and morale; and too much Red Bull (and other bull as well). The dealer has to make a profit, and tries every method. Now "taking advantage" of the under-informed is a poor long term practice. And in particular, women. It is well known that the fastest means of communication is to tell a women with a telephone. A complaining customer tells ten times as many people when they get bad service, as opposed to when they get good service.

Road testing a car is a time honored method that has additional benefits of getting the technician out of the shop for a few minutes of relaxing downtime; being able to hear and feel the vehicle as it works, and frequently you "discover" the musical tastes of the mechanic. I think there is certainly a quality control issue on this one, and customer service practices at the dealership may need a tune up by the general manager. There are a lot of guys on here that could have bought a whole Disco for that money, and had some left over.

Forums like ours can be a guide to expected price ranges for services, and other options. And experience with individual suppliers.

 

x3 on Carlos at British Auto.

indie shop after years at the dealers.

 

They are dip ****s. She said the truck was low on OIL after it was returned to her. I'm incompetent, but I can read a dipstick.

 

Mistakes are made be it at dealership level or independent.
Search the archives and show me 5 posts in the last year of a similar problem with a dealer. and not just one that says "the dealer wants/or wanted $xxxx.xx to fix my rover"
Granted 5k+ is hard to digest when fixing a car, especially if there are problems after the repair.
We as outsiders have no idea of the history of the vehicle in question.
The OP has only given you one side of the story.
The car should have been Qc'd for the repairs made. no excuses.

At said Dealer?? FWIW??

I hope the OP follows up this post with the costs to complete the
other repairs needed, and if/how everything worked out.

Good techs no matter where they work need props...


Cheers