Hey all!

I'm one of the rare owners who plan on keeping this RRS for decades. The wife and I have a Discovery 2 we picked up a year ago and have been slowly making the rounds of catch-up maintenance and repairs as a result of neglect or ignorance from the prior owner. Now that the Discovery 2 has been around for a couple decades, there are things we know about them now that I'm sure early owners wish they knew to prevent issues we see today. Things like... replace Dex-Cool with something else to prevent gumming up of coolant passageways, or... hey, replace the front driveshaft with a serviceable one because someday these will all break and punch a football-sized hole in your transmission ... all come to mind.

It got me wondering if things like that exist for the RRS we should be addressing now.

I was at the LR dealer yesterday to schedule a warranty repair (rear-passenger door won't open from inside...) and as I was walking out ran into the head of the service department, Wes. Super great gent who is so good at working on Land Rovers that he won some LR tech competition in Vegas a couple years ago. Anyway, I told him what I wrote above and asked if he's seen any chronic issues with the L494. To my surprise, he said that he's seen very very high mileage 3.0 and 5.0 intake valves and though they did have carbon build up, they were much cleaner than he expected, especially compared to other notorious motors like BMW's 335i engine.

He did say though that they've been replacing fuel injectors like they were wiper blades. He said they get so fouled up that now as part of their six-month service, they're running a can of BG44K through the fuel system. He said that's helped a lot, but needs to be done routinely.

Another item he noted that is causing a ton of problems (both the 3.0 and 5.0) is the coolant cross-over pipe leaking or bursting, both of them, the one in the front of the block and rear. He said the replacement part LR is sending out has a different weld, so thinks LR knows about the issue and is making an effort to fix it. The fix is preventative replacement. He also mentioned that these have been popping around 50-60K miles. Said he even had one explode while on a test drive. When this happens, as is the same anytime the motor overheats or loses coolant pressure, is to SHUT IT DOWN immediately. Quote, "You think Disco 2 motors react poorly to overheating, you should see what these motors do."

Aside from those two main issues, he said that with regular maintenance, these motors will last forever. Affirmed too that with the aluminum chassis and all (aka will not rust) these are awesome cars for long-term ownership.

Anyway, wanted to pass that along. Maybe we can use this thread to add other wish-we-knew-then issues as more members join.

Cheers all!

 

Brandon318--
Thanks for this post. Been thinking about getting an L494. Like you, I've spent the last year or so doing catch-up maintenance on the '04 D2, and don't mind doing it. There's a '15 for sale nearby with 57k miles. Any way to tell if it has overheated?

 

Not that I'm aware of :/ No easy way, at least. I would probably run it by a tech? 57K is still too young to have had the crossover pipe burst based on all the tales I've heard, but still worth examining. Well, I guess same as a Disco, you can probably get a sense for how well the cooling system functions by connecting an OBD tool. I have a bluetooth OBD reader and a temp gauge app on my phone that's great. Real time temps. It's insane how hot these motors run. Normal temps are around 215-225.

 

Great post and thank you for your kind advice for us L494 owners! Im having an issue with the transmission, not sure if anyone else has this symptom, but every time i put the car in drive and let go of the brakes, the car jerks into motion. Also, as i am slowing down for a red light, the car also jerks. Any thoughts? Maybe a trans fluid and filter change should help? Thanks!!

 

hello, i am having similar issue with my 2014 l494. did you figure out the issue?