Thread: Is it a lemon? Or the "character" of a defender?

My experience with warranty claims is that the major Sydney LR dealers are chalk & cheese. I had roof leaks, & then a noisy 5th gear. Not a huge list.

As to the crook dealer: Incompetence, lying to me, lying to LandRover when they stuffed up the first repair, attempting to charge for warranty matters, return with interior ripped out, return with door full of water, return with flat battery. 5th gear rebuild that needed rebuilding 12 months later. I have in writing two completely difference excuses why the leaks wouldn't be fixed. And so on.

Maybe pm me & I'll steer you towards the better dealer.

Regards
Max P

That's not good enough, and I'd be escalating it up the chain until I got someone with enough authority to kick the service people into line.

I've got an '07 110 and am waiting on a new diff from the UK as the old one make a dreadful noise above 100Km/h. It has been 5 or 6 weeks wait now, but the LR dealer has kept me informed (the delay is in the UK) which makes all the difference.

Perhaps you'll end up at another dealer (if that is an option).

Sorry you've had such a bad introduction to LR.

My experience is that the dealers are no longer interested in you once you part with your hard-earned cash. And neither is Land Rover (Aust.) interested in a good reputation!

Strong words? Maybe. But I'm trying to get them to address an annoying noise/vibration issue since last October and they have failed miserably so far in even trying to identify it. I've had 4 different answers from 3 different shops, and they finally blamed my aftermarket accessories to get rid of me! Very shortsighted of them, since anyone talking to me about my truck these days won't be interested in buying a Land Rover...

So yes, welcome to that 'character'!

Thanks to all for the condolences and kind words of support.
For many of you to understand my frustration and then go on to say that it is all worth it once the issues have been sorted does give me a second wind and a glimmer of hope.
Adding to my increasingly comical situation; I opened the passenger side door today and the door seal fell on to the passenger seat; that was after it took three attempts to unlock the passenger door with my remote (opened the drivers side fine). It also rained in Sydney today and I discovered that water is channeled into my cab via the top edge of drivers side door seal in such an impressive way that I feel like donating the car to the engineers of Warragamba dam for research and development.
I attempted to contact the service manager at LR to add these thing to the list of repairs they will attempting next week. I rang and left three messages and sent an email without response. As appalling a service as this is to me I will give them ONE more chance before I name and shame here. I will also take advice given here by not becoming too aggressive with them and keep all records of contact and go above the manager I am dealing with should my problems not be resolved. One minor win was that I did get myself a courtesy car.
I will stay the course for a week or two more and then decide whether I still have the energy to join this friendly club. Until that time I will have to keep my name.
Thanks again.

sorry mate naming and shaming is not permitted on this site...

As frustrating as it can be, it puts the owner of this site at risk.

The top front door seals are an age old problem on the Defenders. They droop and water gets in. You can try crimping them a bit tighter to keep them up but if they are really loose then I'd be looking at a warranty replacement. My rear driver's side door was done for that reason (lower part of seal). Both my front doors do work loose to a degree, but then they are not any worse than my 11 year old Tdi Defender.

One other thing you will encounter which I don't believe any Defender owner has successfully fixed is the rear door windows will rattle open slightly over time and need winding up. They will drop up to a couple of cm's if not checked.

At the end of the day there is still the joy of driving a Defender. Enjoy that part at least.

Originally Posted by dm_td5

The top front door seals are an age old problem on the Defenders. They droop and water gets in. You can try crimping them a bit tighter to keep them up but if they are really loose then I'd be looking at a warranty replacement. My rear driver's side door was done for that reason (lower part of seal). Both my front doors do work loose to a degree, but then they are not any worse than my 11 year old Tdi Defender.

One other thing you will encounter which I don't believe any Defender owner has successfully fixed is the rear door windows will rattle open slightly over time and need winding up. They will drop up to a couple of cm's if not checked.

At the end of the day there is still the joy of driving a Defender. Enjoy that part at least.

we have had two passenger door seals and they both droop...sikaflex is your friend.

as for the rear windows it has been suggested you change the handles around apparently this stops this....

Originally Posted by dullbird

we have had two passenger door seals and they both droop...sikaflex is your friend.

as for the rear windows it has been suggested you change the handles around apparently this stops this....

X2 for sikaflex, when I put new door seals on the old Tdi last year I also sikaflex them all on and have not fallen or leaked yet 6 months on.But you shouldn't have to do this with a new car under warranty, but stick with it and hope they fix all the problems mate.

We have owned our defender for nearly 3yrs 94 tdi and we have never had a problem with the rear door windows rattling open slightly, even over corrugated roads but maybe the previous owner fixed it.