Maybe I'm just being stubborn....I agree that the feel is immediate in the front; just not so sure I'll feel it in the rears and currently it feels like it has for 13 years.

Shocks are what, like $600 per? That's $1200 for parts; probably 3 hours labor on a good day; so that's $1500.....sales tax puts it at $1650. The rest was my "rounding error" but yes you are right, it's not $2000, not even at the dealer. Even if I can get it done for $1350 I'm not sure it's worth it unless I knew that they were needed. Then again that would make it good for another 100k, which for me equates to 30 years.

Has had anyone changed ONLY the rears after 127k miles and noticed a difference? That is the question. My fronts are done, which makes my situation a bit unique.

Does that job require an alignment after they are R&R'd?

 

$366.40 per on ebay with free shipping(Arnott lifetime warranty, new not reman)
$732.80 for the set
Labor is 3 hours(book time) @ $120 an hour+ $360

Grand total $1092.80

No alignment necessary when doing struts front or rear.

I have a customer who's rears went out before the fronts, no more rebound. He did the rears then realized he wanted to do the fronts based on the difference.

https://www.ebay.com/i/362320337735?chn=ps

 

...and how did you (or he) determine "no rebound" on the rears? Seat-of-pants? Or is there a simple test/check that I can perform? Thank you.

 

The typical way is to get on the back of the vehicle and bounce up and down, then jump off and see if it keeps moving. His did not do that, too much. Then we took mine over a speed bump and saw that it behaved differently in the back then his, same bump. His had an extra bounce.

He was also complaining of sway when changing lanes on the freeway, said it was dangerous.

 

I see....okay, thanks. I will check that out.

 

I have a 2009 HSE, one of the last made, the only thing it does not have is the rear locking diff. It had 145000km when I brought it a little over two years ago from a dealer at $16K! since then Ive done all the required PM, added Wranglers, EBC rotors and pads, a fixed tow hitch and a few other minor things. For its age its condition is about as close to perfect as I would ever expect with no dings or dents. If I was to sell it, I would be very lucky to get $15K and that's CAD$. Dealers will always overcharge, so don't fool yourself thinking a private sale will get the same price as a dealer.

At the end of the day as others have said, after a certain point the complexity of these scares off most normal folks who are looking at a 5-10 year old vehicle. They don't want to have to spend their time and $500 on a diagnostic tool or $1000 at a dealer just so they can figure out that a failure of something really simple causes a catastrophic failure of the main drive systems as Land Rover are crap at system design. The people who buy them are the lunatics like you me, and the others who frequent this forum and are happy to get their hands dirty to figure out issues, its part of the package of owning one.

To really scare you - two years ago I saw my old 2006 HSE up for sale just before I brought my current one. I paid around $17K in Dec 2012 and it was listed two years ago for around $5K as the last owner had not kept up with its needs and there were a few issues. It was actually being sold as seen as a trade-in. I even took it for a test drive and walked away as I knew the work and repairs needed would cost far more than I would ever get back.

Bottom line, if yours in in top condition and you don't need to sell it - don't. If you need to sell for money or other reasons, accept you are going to loose money.

 

The idea of buying a vehicle for a low price and expecting to fix a few things and then sell it for a profit is really not a good approach to vehicle ownership.
With all the things I have added to my other vehicles, when it came time to sell, I was amazed that I got even close to what I thought would be a reasonable offer. I don't buy one to flip, I buy it to keep and use.
My current LR3 needed things that no reasonable inspection would have uncovered, but, unless I had had the total history of the vehicle from the LR dealer and the PO was honest (HA) there is no way I could have known that I was going to put in to it as much as I paid for it.
I now have a near or as close to near a fully functioning LR as could be expected. Even the guy that works on it says that I have one of the nicest LRs around, that he has seen.
Since I use it in the brush and off road, for what I believe it was intended, although it has some minor scratches and a ding or two, I treasure it.

Happy trails

 

 

Had both of my pillar trims come off

Passenger side will never do that again with that snorkel pinning it down