If anyone can help me out, here, it would be greatly appreciated. Apparently, I have a bad rear main seal. The fix is about $1800 per the dealer. There is a definite oil leak, and I thought it might be something simple, such as a loose filter or something. TheFreelander has 48,000 miles on it, so there was no way I thought it would be something this major.

The warranty ran out at 40,000 miles. But is there anything I could do to plead my case to Land Rover directly? I just paid $1300, two months ago for an upper intake manifold assembly that was broken and other things. It seems to me that a main seal should last the life of the vehicle. Certainly, if it had 150k miles on the clock, I couldn't complain too loudly, but at under 50k, I believe it must be a defective part.

Any suggestions?

 

I would suggest you have another shop verify what is leaking, wouldn't be the first time a diagnoises was wrong. Plus a dealer will always be more expensice then a small shop.
As far as pleeding your case to Rover, right now Ford has them on such a tight leash that you won't have a chance in the world to get help from them.
Go get another shop to look at it.
Mike

 

I figured as much. As I mentioned, I just paid $1300 a couple of months back, so I just wanted to see if I could avaoid an expenditure of this magnitude, back to back. Is it unusual in your estimation that a main seal to fail this early? Have you had any experience with this?

 

I am not as familiar with FreeLanders as with other Rovers, but in general this is not common.
Mike

 

I wouldn't think so. I put a call in to the sevice advisor, to see if there's anything they can do. I'm sure he'll offer to come down off the price by a couple hundred or so, but it'll still be way, way more than I think I should be paying for this. I can wait awhile to have the fix done. The drip I'm experiencing is minor for now, about two to three drops on the garage floor per night, after parking.

Originally, the dealer said that an oil filter was loose, and that caused most of the dripping, but that this was an issue, too. I figured I'd wait a few days, and see if the tightening of the filter made a difference (I was hoping the guy was wrong, and that's all it was). It's been three days, now and while the dripping is definitely less, I don't think it's stopping, completely.

I think I'll try LandRover USA anyway, and see what they say. It can't hurt. Failing that, I'll probably end up taking it to a reputable, independent shop, as you recommended.

Thanks for taking time out to answer with your suggestions.

 

The other thing you might do is degrease the engine then power scrub it. Now while clean, but some engine oil dye in and track exactly where it is leaking from.
Mike

 

Thanks for everybody's responses and suggestions on this.

I have greatnews! I spoke with the service manager on this issue a few days ago, when she said she'd investigate my situation, further. She had my advisor call me back today with the news that they are going to take care of the whole fix for me, with the exception of the parts. That will run less than $200, out of an $1800 job!

The more information I got on this, the more it became apparent that thishad to bejust a defective part. There's no way a main seal should go on a vehicle with this few mileage on the clock.

To their credit, the dealership decided to help me ut on this. They instructed me to bring the vehicle in on Tuesday morning and they'll have a loaner car waiting for me, and take care of this problem.

It's easy to complain when things don't go right, so I like to give credit when it's due, also. Kudos to Dimmit Land Rover of Clearwater, on US 19 North!