Hi all. Need some wisdom from the hive mind. Bought 2016 LR4 at 73K miles, Crossover pipes previously replaced. Water pump as well. Ran fine until about 75K, when after idling for 10 mins, engine stopped and all dashboard lights came on. Engine wouldnt turn over. Towed it to dealership. They reset the codes. Said couldnt figure out what was wrong. Ran fine until the next time I idled it for 5 mins and again - total shut down all lights on. Took them 3 weeks to diagnose, First they said it's the thermostat, then they said transmission valve body need replacement. For $10K!!! But the first light that pops up before the whole dash lights up is “Charging fault”. None of this makes sense to me, but I'm not versed in this subject. Help please?

 

I have not heard of anything similar, and this may sound strange, but I would start with the main battery. How old is it? It would seem that 4 years and above it can start to become an issue, and often the centre of a many faults. But after 3 weeks with a dealership, I would have expected that they had checked the battery already. That the dealer went from a thermostat to the transmission valve body is odd. Again , no experience, but a faulty transmission valve body I would think, would have been evident from transmission issues beforehand, with maybe gear shift issues. I would start looking at the battery, many have had chaos, but resolved by having a healthy battery. Unless you say it is new or quite recent, that is where I would start, particularly when you highlight the charging fault error.

 

No, this makes no sense to us either. Something is getting lost in translation, somewhere. A control valve body does not cost $10,000 to replace.
And that would have nothing to do with a charging fault.
And niether of these have anything to do with a thermostat.

Precisely, what long list of complete LR codes are being thrown, please.
And perhaps your LR dealer should invest in a tech with some LR experience…

I recall your earlier posts. Did you not “just” purchase this?? Go back to the selling dealer and demand a refund, or court action?

 

OP is in the US, if you buy a vehicle "as-is" there is no warranty, and no recourse. If there is a "warranty" it is only as good as the party servicing the warranty and it sounds like the shop involved has no idea of what they are doing.
So going back to "charging fault"-low charging or starting voltage makes for a very unstable and unhappy Land Rover. Every module in the vehicle needs to have sufficient voltage at startup to initialize properly, it a Bosch thing. A "12 volt" battery is actually more like 13.2 volts or more, and 12 volts is borderline. My LR3 had all kinds of wierd issues when I first got it until I replaced the positive terminal (poor connection) and left thr battery on a charger for a couple days. I would have a feeling like a chain slipping on worn gears and really rough shifting until I addressed those problems.
Not all shops know rovers, in our neck of the woods I'm as good or better than the local shops, and our dealer is 3 hours away. You need a shoop that knows what the probles are and are confident and knowledgable enough to explain the problems to you. We do what we can to help but at some point someone competent has to lay a wrench on it.

 

This LR4 dealership was closer to me than the one where I bought it from. And yes, b/c it's out of warranty I have no recourse.
This dealership is so so busy (it's crazy actually), and I am starting to wonder if they know what they are doing, and I've been getting advice from an independent LR4 shop too, so I tried to pick it up last Saturday (they said they cleared all the codes) to take it to another dealer, but the engine stopped and the "charging fault" light (and then the rest of the lights) came on 6 feet from the parking spot. The tech assigned to my car was out last week with the flu, so I talked to him today and asked him to please try to replace the battery first. I really like this car, and I looked for one just like this (local, Lux model, slip differential installed) for almost a year, but it has now been in this dealership for over 6 weeks! Unbelievable, I know. That's California for you. Thank you to all for you help and advice! Keep it coming!
PS: I"ve attached the list of codes the car was throwing are attached as PDF. This is an earlier version before they "figured out" it was the transmission valve body.

 

Seeing that list of DTC's makes me think charging and battery first.
As for the $10K valve body estimate-tha's the "we don't want to work on it" price.

 

Actually, I would go a step further…. starting with investigating a legal claim.

But if you want to stick with it:
Purchase new batteries. The main and the auxillary.
Then charge them completely
Then install in the vehicle.
Place ignition on, w/o starting motor. turn all accessories off.
Read codes
Clear codes
Start engine
Let come to rhythmic idle
Read codes.

And now we are finally ready to perform a diagnosis of lingering failures.
An approved technician should know this procedure as the back of their hand… it’s written in the workshop manual.

 

I’m having the same problem with my 2016 LR4. Can you tell me how this was resolved for you. Dealer has had my LR4 for 3 months.

 

What is the explanation for the 3 months?
I expect they gave you a loaner…

 

They can’t figure out the problem. No loaner.