well its been quite awhile since i was on this forum - but a recent inquiry has made me want to update my experience(s) with the LR4.
Here it goes....
I have had 2 LR4's (2010 and my present 2014). While you can read my previous rant about the '10 it is now fair to say that my '14 is absolutely FLAWLESS. Not 1 issue since new (may of 2014). Not a rattle, not a glitch with electronics, brakes, radio --- zippo - perfect vehicle!
The new engine in the LR4 as of '14 (SC V6) is sweet -- and if i don't go 80 mph i can get about 19-20 mpg on the open road. The truck is a dream to drive and most of the time my wife wants to drive it - but i also use for hauling and pulling without hesitation. The LR4 looks great on a night on the town or working. Its hard to beat the utility of this vehicle either - recently had the vehicle full with myself and 6 other grownups and everyone was comfortable -- the third row is as good as you will find anywhere ----
The only way i would consider another vehicle is if the LR4 is available with the diesel within the next couple of years -- otherwise this truck is my "forever" vehicle.
Hopes this helps anyone considering purchasing a LR4 ( i would however say to get the V6 as opposed to the V8, or in other words 2014 or later) ---

 

-beautiful and powerful drive
-hi spec interior
-very fiddly back seats to get up and down huge load space when they go flat
-wife loves armrest/driving position and versatility

-front roof liner disconnected after 50 miles (minor bracket repair)
-2 flat batteries 10k and30k miles 2 batteries replaced under warranty
- brakes go quick and screech like a taxi
-front door handle lining and front driver door trim split (replaced)
-total engine replacement at 45k miles 10 weeks after a service job at LR dealer (took 2.5 months to fix)
-steering wheel squeals every time It turns
-loud clunking coming from engine on downshift can't figure out where it is coming from brakes or engine
-never owned a $57k high end vehicle with quite so many issues

 

2012 LR4 18.2k miles, bought new, needed mass air sensor in first month, just replaced engine and battery at 18k all under warranty. Still would not trade it for the world, but get an extended LR warranty. Also replaced tires, brakes and rotors at 18k, and almost never off-road.

 

I just bought a used 2012 LR4 LUX with 46,000 miles. I have a bit of warranty left and went through this research when considering. I had it inspected by a Land Rover Jag dealer and they found a leaking water pump. I bought it anyway and had it fixed under warranty. The back up camera also wasn't coming on and that was also fixed.

I'm debating an extended warranty...

 

Get the extended warranty....absolute.

 

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say all these issues you are having with LR4s are karma-related! It's because you LR4 drivers never seem to wave to other Landy owners!!!

It would all be solved if you joined in the world famous Land Rover Wave!

You know the rule, right? When on the road, you are supposed to wave to any and all Landies and Range Rovers. Let's not lose this 60 year old culture, people...

The Land Rover Wave | FunRover - Land Rover blog & magazine

 

Hi all. I bought a CPO 2013 on 2/5/16 with 40k miles for $39k in the NYC metro area. (I think that answers a few other thread questions on this forum).


I noticed 3 problems in the 1st week:


1) It would nearly stall after coming to a stop when the engine was cold; this sometimes happened when it was warm too.


2) It would downshift and upshift wildly at random times while accelerating moderately. Most often when cold, but it also happened when the engine was warm too.


3) The ride does not seem right. Bumps in the road feel like I'm driving my old 3000gt or S60R. I just upgraded from an LR2. I feel like simple bumps should feel that hard on the car/ride.


The dealer just called me to say they found that the tranny fluid was low and they replaced the hoses to be safe. He assured me the 1st two problems are gone.


I didn't tell them about the ride quality problem yet. I'm not sure it is definitely a problem, but my father's dodge ram with air suspension floats over the road and ever bump on it. I expected the same, or at least the equivalent to the 2011 LR2 with 100k miles I just traded in.


How do I confirm whether there is a problem with the suspension before bringing it back? I don't want to pay for a diagnostic fee if they are going to tell me nothing is wrong. Do I go to an independent mechanic to get an opinion?


I'm pretty sure the shock absorbers are shot. Is this possible? The airbag suspension works just fine, although I notice it micro-leveling/adjusting pretty often when sitting in traffic or at a light.


Finally, the car has "new" tires and brakes although the dealership wouldn't tell me how many miles were on them. My depth guage said they're missing 25% of their usable tread. I haven't had a chance to check their pressure, but they are definitely on the low pressure side since I picked it up (decent bulge in the sidewalls). I'll check them tonight when I pick the car back up from the dealer. I'm pretty sure when they're up to the recommended pressure, the ride will get noticeably worse.


Sorry, this is my first thread and I'm probably ranting; but has anyone had any issues with the shock absorbers going bad? I see plenty about the air suspension, but what about the rest of it. Could the previous driver have ruined them in 40k miles?


Thanks,


James

 

Hi James,

Congratulations on your purchase! Sorry to hear of your issues. How much longer do you have warranty? These things should definitely be covered, as for a diagnostic fee that is not good customer service, especially if you just purchased the vehicle. They should have sorted these things out. Besides you should be milking your warranty as much as possible during this time.

>re: your first issue, I have not heard of this happening, definitely force the dealer to inspect that. AFAIK the 2013 models were not equipped with "stop-start"?

2) the shifting issue should be solved by resetting the transmission adaptive values, and new fluid/pan. Otherwise it could be a bad throttle position sensor? If they mentioned low fluid, this is NOT good. They should have swapped the pan/filter, put new fluid in, and changed the sleeve in the tranny. A firmware reset for the ECU means the transmission will re-learn shifting patterns from a factory base setting. I would highly recommend pushing them to fix this asap. It sounds like they did the bare minimum to get you out of the door.

3) You may be surprised to find out but the way tire pressure works, the HIGHER the psi, the BETTER the ride. Take a look at the max pressure allowed for the tire and go up to at least 38 psi front, 42 psi rear (only if the tire is safe for those pressures, it should be). This may help some. As for the rest of the ride quality, you may have bad control arm bushings up front (maybe rear). Do you get a clunking sound when going over bumps at low speed? Have the dealer inspect the bushings and tie rod ends. The strut (spring and shock absorber) is actually a fairly robust design and they don't usually go bad beyond leaking air at the end of their lifespan.

Re: the suspension leveling thing, this may be calibration related. Try to get the dealer to recalibrate the suspension, this is not normal to level during operation (at a stoplight for example). It may self-adjust at the end of a long trip when the engine is shut off, so you might see it lowering a bit at rear axle when you're walking away from it parked.

Hopefully this is more info you can talk to the dealer about. IMO that's shady if you bought a vehicle from them with a warranty and you have to pay just to get things looked at.

 

Thanks so much for your quick response. I will definitely get these things checked out. I have the warranty for the next 3 years and 60k miles so I don't have much to worry about. I just want it to drive the right way, right away.

I'm used to paying for diagnostics fees at the NYC Land Rover dealership on my LR2. It was out of warranty so I had to pay for them to look at it, but if something was wrong and they did the repair, it was covered in the repair cost.

I had an argument with the salesman and dealership owner when I bought the car (kind of a long story). So I didn't want to go in with everything. The repair sheet says they replaced the hoses, reset the computer, and refilled the fluid. I'll drive it for a while and see how it feels. On the way home, the tranny seemed fine so hopefully it stays that way. I'll have the shocks looked at a Mavis. Why Mavis? Because every time I go for tires, they say I need new shocks. So if they say the shocks are good, then I know they're definitely good. I'm sure I'll get the most out of my warranty, but for now, I just want to make my 24 hour round trip drives to my wife's family's area (QC) without any issues.

*btw: why don't they make the gas tanks bigger if the gas mileage is so bad? I don't mind paying for the gas at these prices, but I see the gas station guy way too often now. (He wants to come over and have dinner and stuff. )

 

Hi James - as DavC says the lower control arms at the front are prone to wear. Particularly the rear bushing on the lower control arm at the front of the car. Typically hear a clunking sound over low speed bumps (and on sudden braking). Any tyre and suspension shop should be able to see quickly if this is an issue. A pretty easy repair but a few hrs of labour. Unfortunately warranty may not cover it - they often exclude bushing replacement as a 'wear' item. But I'd have thought dealer should make you whole of that's really the issue

Good luck - let us know how you get on