I see all the people posting about reliability, which is valid. The important question is how many LR3 owners have ever been stranded? All automobile have their quirks which affect the reliability score, but very few of my land rover friends have ever been stranded, so Im reaching out to all of you to hear your answers. We do all service intervals and our LR has treated us just like my ACURA and my old honda. Smooth sailing.......

I look forward to everyone's responses!

 

There have been a few issues with fuel pumps, and occasionally a starter issue. With the starter, you can usually get it started after trying a few times. And usually the pump itself doesn't go out, but the senders will give you a false reading, so you actually run out of gas even though it reads you have some.
But if properly maintained, these should be the only real issues the car may see.
I've also seen a couple ignition capacitors fail, the part was redesigned in '08, and I recommend changing it at the same time as a tune up if the early style is still on the car.

 

I have never been stranded in a Rover between a 97 D1, 89 Classic, 08 LR3 and 08 RR Sport. I have been stranded in two GM trucks (our of about 4 that I owned), but the Rovers have never let us down in that regard.

 

Dave thank you for your help and insight. I just recently replaced the spark plugs on my 06 LR3 4.4 and read where you recommend replacing the ignition capacitor. Do you or anyone else know the part # for this and is it an easy repair? Thank you.

 

Very easy, pull the engine cover, it's located on the RH side, above the intake, towards the rear of the engine. Single 8mm bolt, and a 3 wire connector. Part number is LR004160. It's about $25, and the new one will look a little different then the old one if its never been replaced.

 

My 06 LR3 left me stranded when a front wheel bearing self destructed in the middle of nowhere. It went from solid and silent to Kaboom! Done within a few hundred yards.

Fortunately in the nearby small town there was a rural Ford dealer. Let me tell you, finding LR specific parts in rural Canada on the weekend is not going to happen in a few hours.


The second stranding was fortunately in my garage when the starter crapped the bed. I took my 70 Volvo P1800 instead. It always starts.


Other than that...A compressor failure etc. But nothing "stranding".

 

The front bearings do fail, and usually will not make a normal bearing noise before hand. I've driven them with really no adverse issues, aside from a little bit of play in the steering, and a slight drift to it, but a good amount of play once the truck was in the air.
I see that as more of a maintenance thing, and suspension and steering play should be checked at each oil change.

 

Mine had over 1" of play when we jacked the wheel off the ground. There was such a noise when it failed that I thought my front diff or driveshaft had let go. It sounded like someone was riding a jake brake beside me while I had the wiindow rolled down. There was no way it could be driven on more than 5 mph to limp it back to town.

That being said bearings do fail. With these sealed hub units people have become lazy. A failed bearing at 100k miles? Yeah that isn't surprising. It is better than packing bearings every other oil change..

 

Stranded once, but it was on my way home from a break job (and break related) so it shouldn't really count. Replaced rotors, pads and wear sensors all around (but attempted to reuse calipers). Apparently, the wear on the rotors (I had DEEP groves where the pads aligned) and the severely worn pads (hence the need to replace the wear sensors as well) had caused the piston in the caliper to not retract as it was supposed to anymore... On the way home from the shop, she started vibrating pretty bad and when I pulled over to investigate, the rear driver's side wheel was smoking... I contemplated (and even tried :$ ) driving her back to the shop, but the vibration was getting worse and I was hoping to (maybe) salvage the new rotor so I pulled back over and called for a tow. Otherwise, pricey repairs? Sure. Overly-frequent repairs? That's a debatable question...it is a 3-ton vehicle with a lot of bells and whistles, so one might argue that repairs/maintenance should be expected, but some of the issues I've seen with mine (like the CD Player malfunctioning - fixed with a software update; tailgate lockout (failed release latch)) aren't weight/size related and are certainly frustrating.