Originally Posted by DavC

In reference to the question about the dealer I have a few points, which may be the exception, NOT the rule.

I would say to try and go to the nearest dealer you have. Makes things easier for you if you need something. This is if you get a good vibe from them and trust what they tell you. You can expect them to be a little standoffish at first but build a little relationship and it usually goes great afterwards, albeit a very expensive relationship. They will get things done. The dealer in my area now serves pretty much affluent soccer moms and the really wealthy people, so I had to throw them a little business on a few small maintenance items before my service advisor started to get the sense I would be a regular customer with them. Once they like you its awesome.

Unfortunately even if you have the best dealer (I use DC's Tyson's dealership as an example of this), you can't expect them to "school" you on everything there is to know about your rover, there is WAY too much information to grasp, but you can ask about certain things and they will answer honestly. You usually interface through a service advisor who can get the techs to talk to you about certain things but this is hit or miss. If you're lucky the tech might point out a future problem spot to get ahead of, or let you know what parts to use, how to get at a certain area, or give you a cost benefit analysis on repairs, but this is rare.

My advice here is to get your foot in the door with a dealer and slowly try to get more time with the techs. They're generally the ones with no reason to bull**** you. They don't have the same skin in the game as the service advisor, who does want your money. Do as much research as you can on forums that way you can ask the right questions or know how something works before you start paying for some crazy repair.

Just play it cool and understand that you're servicing a super heavy luxury machine, so they break bolts from time to time and call you saying they need it another night, or someone fouled up and they need a part from another dealer, etc. They really appreciate it if you aren't that guy who stands there with sunglasses on indoors and a rolex worth more than their mortgage, turning away from his phone long enough to yell at them because his shiny new range rover isn't out of the wash 30 seconds ago.... All my dealers have cut me some pretty huge breaks just because I was nice and hang out for a bit.

As for tools no, the oreillys scanner will not get you very far. Look up GAP IID tools and the hundreds if not thousands of threads about how awesome they are. $$$, but so worth it.

EDIT: all my talk about dealers is nice but if you are on a budget and yeah the dealer is expensive, a great indy tech is amazing too. I have a guy that takes care of anything I can give him. Same principle, take it easy, build a good rapport, offer some small business and go from there. Hasn't steered me wrong yet.

Originally Posted by Boulderhead

One last thing I would check before you fork over the funds and is quite easy to do. Get the thing on a lift and check the wheel bearings for play (top to bottom). These are about $250 a piece from these guys (which have just about every part you need).

Land Rover Parts & Rover Accessories From Atlantic British | Discovery, Range Rover, LR3, LR2, Defender, Freelander and Land Rover Series Parts & Accessories

The job is straightforward and not much more involved than new pads and rotors.

Also, see if they will throw in the fluids needed to service the front diff, transfer case, and rear diff (couple hundred bucks).

Originally Posted by illbuildit

Making the drive tomorrow to pick up the rover. We've been at it a month now and I feel way better about our choice after talking to you guys. It's mainly for my wife but she says she's doing it because I like it so much. Whatever! We're getting excited though

Originally Posted by EstorilM

Congrats and good luck.

I forgot to mention, don't worry about historic codes. I FREAKED OUT when my LR indy mechanic showed me "all fault data" and it was literally pages of error codes. I thought I was doomed.

Turns out it's normal - something as stupid as you accidentally turning key off then starting motor again quickly can throw a bunch of soft fault codes for ECM voltage and random stuff for example. The sunroof modules even store error codes. Hell I think the COOLER in the center console has a module that can report fault codes!

Combine these with a ton of "confused" transmission codes over many years (random shift pattern that TCM didn't like maybe) etc, and you end up with pages of faults.

Saw it on my LR3 when I did a scan w/ a real LR computer and wasn't worried at all. Active codes and an active CEL are the only ones you should really worry about right now.

Oh and you'd know very shortly if the control arms / ball joints were bad.

How did they diagnose an intake valve oil leak problem btw?! ..and that should be more than 1k too lol. I'd be majorly skeptical of that diag unless he saw an oily plug and made a guess, but I doubt he pulled plugs for a pre-purchase inspection!