Disco 5 Transfer Box Issue
 

i picked up our new 2017 Discovery 5 on December 1st. After enjoying it for around one week and 700or so miles it went into the shop on dec 9th with a loud grinding noise coming from the drivetrain. It’s January first and I don’t have it back yet. Ugh. The dealer diagnosed a suspected transfer box issue but needed to confirm with LR North America. LR NA hadn’t heard of the issue but is investigating.

Has anyone else experienced this? Am I the only one? I’m not looking to cause a fuss, just trying to figure out if this has happened elsewhere.

Brian
2005 LR3 V8 SE (traded and sorely missed)
2017 LR Discovery 5 HSE (still in the shop and sorely missed)

Haven't seen this pop up before curious to see how it sorts out

FYI - still don't have the vehicle back.

Brian
2005 LR3 V8 SE (traded and sorely missed)
2017 LR Discovery 5 HSE (still in the shop and sorely missed)

Sorry to hear that your having an issue with your transfer case. Not trying to jack your thread but this only serves to reassure me of my discontent for the Discovery 5..... and Land Rovers continued lack of pride in craftsmanship and quality control. Best of luck to you man. I imagine repairs will be fully covered by the dealership so at least you wont have to pay for the repairs. They better be providing you with a loner to drive though! You should be entitled.

The dealership offered us a brand new Velar as a “loaner” (demonstrator, really) and we’ve been driving it since December. It’s not my favorite vehicle but it did just fine until we had to fire everyone and their skis inside it.

As as far as I can tell the drivetrain isn’t really a weak spot of the new discovery... it just seems like the one I bought is a one-off exception. In some ways I was hoping others had the same experience but nothing so far.

Unfortunately we cant be sure that the drive train is not in fact a weak spot until these new generation Discoveries age a bit and are beaten up. Remember that when the Discovery 2 was new, there was no known issues with the engine, or amigos of the front driveshaft. By the time the D2 aged it became apparent that the provided Rover V8 was prone to premature failure due to slipped liners, bad head gaskets, cracks in the block and overheating. The front driveshaft being non serviceable ment that under the right conditions it will fail and snap thus putting how in drive train. Im not trying to dampen your spirits but maybe keep an open mind to best and worst case scenarios. Again best of luck. Let us know when LR gets your D5 back to you.

Actually we do know quite a bit about the D5 drivetrain because for the petrol version of the car it’s the same as for the D4/LR4 (supercharged v6 mated to the zf 8 speed automatic) Stateside, the diesel was introduced first on the RRS so if I were concerned about reliability (i’M not) i’d Be looking for reports of issues with those cars.

Agree with the guy above me, they did not make the same D2 mistakes, IE they used a proven drivetrain that was already used on the other models.

Apples and rotten oranges to compare D2 and D5. D2 being a blind shot in the dark on a lot of brand new technology without first extensively testing it (with the obvious exception being the ancient and overbored/crappily tooled 4.0L 215). D5 is basically a body swap onto an amalgam of D4 and RRS tech, albeit with newer powerplant options.

Do the following to expedite the your case.

Call the dealer, as for a status update.
They will probably be unable to give you an update, or give you the re-around that they haven't heard from LRNA.

Call LRNA customer assistance line. Have your repair order number, Vin#, etc.

Make it perfectly clear that it is un-acceptable for you to have purchased a new vehicle, had it for a week, and haven't seen it since the second week of December. You are either making payments on a vehicle you haven't driven, or paid quite a bit of $$ for a product that isn't working and is not in your possession.
Commonly known law is that the vehicle must have a major problem that the manufacturer has three attempts to fix. The other law is if the vehicle has 30 days of repair time, it qualifies for lemon law. You are well past that and LRNA should be aware.

You either need your vehicle fixed, or you will proceed with lemon law. the problem will either be fixed quickly, or they will buy it back and put you in another truck.

Source - Dealer tech for European manufacturer.

I owe you guys an update...

its been in in the shop 40+ days now and the dealer called yesterday to tell me that the new transfer box they installed this week did not eliminate the noise so we’re back to square one with it. There is no current diagnosis for the noise but the dealer deems it a potential safety issue so we don’t have the vehicle.

We are still driving a loaner... a new Discovery that they asked us to move to after we put 1,200 miles on a brand new Velar they loaned us from the sales floor in December. Thank goodness. The Discovery is a much nicer vehicle than the Velar.

I have had dialogue with JLR Corporate numerous times and requested a vehicle swap around two weeks ago, just after we hit the 30 day mark. I am expecting a return call anytime.

Wish me luck!