Regarding your coil, cooling and injector issues....were there any warnings? Were there symptoms of their pending failure?

I take "stranded" to mean it happens out of nowhere and you're calling a tow truck.

 

No, no warnings. Nice, honest, call the tow truck situations
At least, nothing was obvious, I should say. Before the injector issue I did have an intermittent lean code I was unsuccessful in tracking down the definite cause of. It was seemingly cured by those new injectors though.

 

Yeah that's pretty crazy. I would think there would be misfires and stuff like that. No love from the IIDTool in clearing the injector/coil issues and limping home?

What were your cooling issues, by the way? If they had to do with a failed bleeder valve, I can understand that. I guess that should be another caveat in describing the longevity of the engine. Gotta change that valve for a brass one....then you're golden.

 

The 1 injector just had a total failure so couldn't be cleared up via code clearing. The engine would only run in limp mode at that point.

The 1st time that I had a cooling issue stop me, it was a failed thermostat housing - that was my second LR3.

Second time I didn't actually go to much trouble to diagnose the root cause. Symptoms were a hose blown off the radiator by pressure buildup.
That was this past summer with my current LR3 - #3 - and I knew it was due for some cooling system maintenance anyway so I just replaced the whole system. Gave me a nice driveway project for a few weeks (including taking my time and waiting for parts to come in etc.)

 

I do find that the thermostats are prone to failure...something to get checked (visually) every 50k or so. I haven't heard of a lot of injector issues. Back to the OP's question, maybe we can all agree that the 4.4 is a great engine but certainly has things to keep an eye on and if that's done, there aren't a lot of common issues that will leave one stranded. Part of the calculus, of course, is the deferred maintenance you inherit when you buy it pre-owned, which they all are at this point.

 

Yeah, I'd agree that in general the 4.4L engines are pretty solid and reliable themselves.. The usual problems tend to come from secondary systems or overheating. Mine is still going strong at 162k, and I've seen others with much higher miles post that theirs are still chugging along well.

 

I have 220k on one of mine, 130k on the other.

 

Thanks for all of the great feedback. I'm still struggling with a suspension fault. The local independent shop has now replaced the compressor twice and done lots of electronic fiddling. The suspension faults happen when I go to off-road height. I'm hoping to play off road when the weather turns so this makes me nervous. Does this mean the air springs are next or is it likely that I have an electronic gremlin of some sort? Apologies if this has already been discussed, I failed to find a thread that answers this.

 

You'll need to post the specific codes and some sensor data for us to be able to hopefully help you figure it out. To get those you'll need an advanced bidirectional scanner or the GAP tool that is specifically geared towards Land Rovers. If the shop isn't experienced with Rovers then you're likely to waste a lot of money paying them to try to figure it out.

 

I was afraid that might be the case. Unfortunately a GAP tool isn’t in the budget just now so I’ll just keep at it with the local shop. They are Land Rover only and seem quite competent so hopefully we will get there soon. Thanks for the guidance, and wish me luck.