I'm getting a bit frustrated. I'm wrenching on my old stuff all the time. The newest vehicle I have is 20 years old and pushing a quarter million miles. My DD is 22. Blew a front main seal on the way home from work the day my father passed. At least it's good to know that a LS400 has a dash that tells you "Low oil level in the oil pan" instead of just an idiot light that translates as "Game Over." New front main seal, timing belt (hey, old one had to come off and had >10 years on it anyway), new water pump and a massive block of my "spare" time. Back on line, but now needs a left inner tie rod, which I have in stock, but wanted to get the car back online after my thumb surgery, so I put it off. Went to pull the ZAV in to the shop to address the miss at 4K RPM, and the alternator is dead. To do an alternator on a Land Cruiser, you have to at a minimum pull the fan shroud. At that point, and with the alternator loose. I looked at the radiator which needed to be replaced with the one I have sitting on the deck, only 6 more bolts and I was about at the 1/3rd way point for a full timing belt/water pump. So, kept digging.
Anyway, I'm getting tired of my old stuff forcing me to wrench, instead of the wrencing I want to do, like the Locost or a Europa or something. So I was thinking, always a dangerous thing, and those 2008-12 LR2's, 6 cylinder Volvos. Near as I can tell, the only thing that goes wrong is the rear diff at 30K, and they have all been fixed by now. I sailed on a ship once with a 5 cylinder Volvo motor. Dunno, 10K HP? more? Probably. Turbocharged. It didn't break either, unlike the ship I sailed on with American made V16 Diesel motors. POS.
So, it seems to me that like a 2011 LR2 with 95K on it would be a nice reliable vehicle that I wouldn't _have_ to work on. And, as a bonus, I'd have something I could show at our English car show. What ya'll think?
The total extent of Volvo/LR 3.2 engine problems I have encountered are burst crankcase breather diaphragms, which make the cutest whistling noise from the crank seals, (Simple) and two examples that have chewed the internal accessory drive, which may or may not eat the engine iof the bearing gets bad enough to spin the shaft in the block. (Not simple.)
The rest of the Volvo is a well rustproofed, dissapointingly Fordish transportation appliance. I presume the Rover will have some German/Anglo complexity/stupidity added for truth to heritage.
In reply to Fueled by Caffeine :
Iggy,
I have the 4th gen 3SGTE RAV4. That's my newest vehicle. Problem with it: I keep getting two sensor codes. It runs fantastic for a while, then when it is all warmed up, turns to pooty. I barely made it home from work this week with it. I've checked everything on those two sensors, replacing the sensors, checked the wiring, everything checks out. I am suspecting the ECM, which has become unobtainium. Probably the caps in the ECM, a known problem. There are cap services out there or I could do them myself, but it is one more thing to berkeleying berkeley with. See above list. Even after I get the ZAV back together, it's still going to have that miss that I can't find, and theres actually quite a bit of rust (by Texas or California standards; by Michigan standards it's "rust free.") The list of PM it needs is not short. The RN Truck has given me issues this summer too: Outer tie rod, alternator, drag link, etc. I'm getting tired of berkeleying with old E36 M3 and that's why I am thinking about this 2011 with sub hundred K on it.
The other thing to get is a tdi Touareg buy back. You can find a 2012 with less than 100k miles the balance of a 10 year 100k full warranty and a 4 year tdi powertrain warranty for less than 20k
If you're looking at the LR2, get a LR3 instead. The Jag V8s in them are great, the transmission is a ZF 6HP, and they run on Bosch electronics. Pretty solid trucks.
Iggy,
While ya'll know I'm a Toyota Fan Boi, I really want something that I can also show at the car show, and a RAV just doesn't go there. One of our members did show his Honda Civic a few times. It was actually made in England. And we had a Maserati bird cage replica that we let show under some made up class, or just "display," I forget (the guy claimed the windshield was English...) but I don't think a RAV4 is gonna fly there.
BL,
Yeah, V8, Jaguar, etc., is all cool and everything, but I'm kinda wanting something I don't have to berkeley with all the time. I seem to have enough of that. If it had a Chevy V8, Toyota V8, OK, I'd think about it, but Jaguar V8? Yeah. That just spells "you will have to berkeley with this on at least a monthly basis" to me.
Gotcha. I read the request as I wanted a daily and the car show bit was only a small bonus. If that’s a priority, what about an awd Jaguar XF.
In reply to Dr. Hess :
I'm >< close to getting an LR4. Everything I've read says that 2013 is the best (and last) year for the 5.0 V8 in the LR4. They improved the design and it's much much better.
In reply to Dr. Hess :
Good luck. That seems cheap.
You always roll the dice, but that's not a buy-here-pay-here lot. They are a huge top end car dealership. They have a Lotus dealership too. The CarFax is the cleanest of any I've ever seen, and they list what they did to it after they acquired it: Changed the oil and replaced a light bulb. Total price (excluding tax, and license, as that is done local to me in AR, not in Dallas) including delivery to me here was 8900.35. There was some email negotiation to get to that. They are FedEx'ing the paperwork to me, which will be here tomorrow before noon (and we all know what THAT service costs, Saturday next day before noon) and will take my company check for payment.
Adrian_Thompson said:
In reply to Dr. Hess :
I'm >< close to getting an LR4. Everything I've read says that 2013 is the best (and last) year for the 5.0 V8 in the LR4. They improved the design and it's much much better.
Yes these are basically Fords. I was shopping them as an option as I like the size of them and they are very well appointed. The stigma of the pre ford motors and the liners that slip has made these deprecate in a similar way that the poor quality of Merc’s in the 2000s has hit the later Merc’s that have excellent quality and reliability.
I think the post 2010 LR4 is probably one of the best deals out there at the moment for that kind of vehicle.
looks good. As much as I like my Disco, I am not sure I would buy either an LR3 or LR2. The LR3 was the first with such much electronic dohickiness and the LR2 is the second generation Freelander. I hope your new truck serves you well
Anyone know a source for a factory shop manual? Not the ebay "download..." things. I've been burned 4 out of 4 times on those and I give up.
Fueled by Caffeine said:
The other thing to get is a tdi Touareg buy back. You can find a 2012 with less than 100k miles the balance of a 10 year 100k full warranty and a 4 year tdi powertrain warranty for less than 20k
I just did that myself. 2011 CPO with 71k for $19k.
mw
Dork
9/29/19 11:21 a.m.
Since we are talking about rovers, how bad an idea is the 2010-2012 Range Rover sport supercharged?
In reply to mw :
My niece just sold hers for $1200 with a bucket full of timing chains and valves sitting in places they should not be.
In reply to mw :
Not dead sure on the year, but supercharged Range Rover. Wouldn't be older than that.
Bubba passed 3 days ago at 12 years old.
To go with the new car...
A new dog. Here's Meisje.
Very sorry for your loss. I don't even want to think about when any of the 3 we have now aren't here anymore.
But cheers to the new dogger!
