Hello everyone.
I've just joined as I plan to be a LR4 owner in the near future! Currently looking at a 2013 LR4 for sale near me (SoCal). It has the 5.0L V8 (obviously) and about 100k miles. The body and interior are in great condition, the engine sounds good but there is an oil leak with oil around the half shaft area on the driver's side (left side of vehicle).
I've read about all the various reliability issues with engines etc....so I'm particularly focused on making sure I find a good vehicle to purchase.
Here are a couple of photos. Can anyone tell me the most likely source of the leak and how difficult/costly it would be to fix?
I can manage decent number of jobs myself but if it means taking off more than say the intake and radiator to access, I wont get into any major 2-3 day jobs...I'd then have to take it to a shop.
Thanks for any advice. I want to get this answered before I make my final decision to buy or not.
(PS: I did look at a couple of 2012 models with over 100k but the engines sounded so 'rattly' I was scared off. Ha ha)

Mark

 

Cannot help you on the source of the oil leak for that area but if a 5.0 is "rattly" run away as fast as you can because it probably means the cam chain tensioners are worn and chain is loose...big expensive job on the jlr powerplant.
Unfortunately LR stated oil changes on these could go 14k mile intervals...way to long with that design so i would find one with quiet cam chains and associated parts with history of oil changes every 4-5k miles. My son's 2011 has 90k miles on it now and engine is quiet as a church mouse...religious oil changes with synthetic 5w20 and jlr oil filters ever 5k miles

 

Thanks for the advice on the oil changes.
No, I don't plan to touch any LR4 with a noisy engine
Hopefully someone out there can help with the oil leak question

 

Can’t tell what I’m looking at int the photos, but most common oil leak is the valve cover or timing cover. Getting the valve covers off (and you need to do that to get the timing covers off properly I believe) is not exactly easy from what i’ve read, though doable for the home mechanic if you like to do that sort of thing. I think all the injectors need to come out.

 

Thanks for the reply. Sounds expensive and time consuming
I'm planning to look at the vehicle again tomorrow and will take a scope to try to see where it's leaking. I'll check around the valve covers first. Thanks again