Thread: Sad sight, annoyed owner.

Originally Posted by superquag

Thjis evening we saw a very sad sight... on Thomas Road heading West, a late model (02/03) Range Rover Vogue... bonnet up and owner holding water container....
Son #1 in our car (Wife's MAGNA) burst out laughing... so to annoy him I stopped and had a chat with said sad owner. For half an hour, as you do.

Short story, this is the second engine since he bought it, water pump twice as well, the radiator, burst hoses and from what he says, a new cooling fan VC... to name a few. Apparantly it owes him in excess of $24,000 in repairs, never mind normal services.

Today it started overheating on the gauge, so he stopped and was in the middle of letting it cool down before adding more water... - His Wife has had to add some recently...

Without going into details, his last brush with a major service which co$t him around $1600.... and an RAC call-out within 15km of picking it up. Burst water hose. To add insult to injury, the work was done by an apprentice and not properly checked afterwards, so he told me...

Naturally we don't carry any consumables in the Magna as it never needs them... so the best I could do for him, apart from stopping him adding cold water too fast and early, was to let him know about AULRO.


>$24K, ripped off by more than one dealer/independant workshop, spent more time off-road (in workshops...) than 'on', broken down - again - with fed-up Wife and screaming infant after being picked up from his FIFO job. - and facing 50 uncertain km to get home.... makes me feel I've gotten off lightly with my Black Hole.

But he agreed that it was very nice to drive.

hi james, a sad sight indeed. it was a v8 right? i have a customer with one and is on rad number 6. the v8 l322 have quite a common problem with excessive cooling system pressures and heat leading to hose and rad issues.
but, some seem not to be affected as badly as others, and afaik the 4.4 engine in the bmw 5 and 7 series has no problems with cooling either...


jc

Don't know who told you they do not have the same problems in the BMW. We'll X5 at least which is also a 4z4.

In Uk at least they self destruct with these same problems on a regular basis. Keeps the price of second hand engines high due to the demand. BMW owners prefer not to talk about it and dealers are well versed in the repairs. Not like Land Rover owners who are more used to dealing with this type of thing.

Ah, I meant the 540 and 740 series, I know a few people with these and no cooling system issues yet, (at least that they have mentioned )

X5 I know little about, infact not a BMW fan at all really.



JC

Aah! but the old 2002 and early 3 series were a nice little car, but my favourites are the boxer series motorcycles

sounds to me they have the wrong radiator cap , to higher presser ?

Originally Posted by justinc

Ah, I meant the 540 and 740 series, I know a few people with these and no cooling system issues yet, (at least that they have mentioned )

X5 I know little about, infact not a BMW fan at all really.



JC

Here we see mostly timing chain and tensioner issues caused by infrequent oil changes and mixing regular oil with synthetic.
A nice green money $$$$ smelling excercise at around $2500. SPECIAL TOOL JOBBIE TOO!

We have one in the shop at the moment that ran its bearings out when the oil changed to jelly at 75,000mls. Dumb Bum Neglect

Exchange engines are $15000 from the dealer and good take out under 75K fetches around $5000/6000 US.

As for cooling systems, yes the hoses take a dump too early, the radiator being all alum tends to spring a leak or two and the expansion tank level crapola unit doesn't work too well and gives the owner no warning when the level goes down. Special coolant is required as well--blue stuff!
The water pump tends to weep and when the cross tubes behind the pump feeding the rear of the block leak they are hard to detect, hence the importance of the expansion tank warning system.

If any of you like DIY engine /tranny installs beware of putting any bolt pull in pressure on the flywheel block housing ears. The area around the starter motor at 3 o' clock and the opposite at 9 o' clock is very thin and you can easily bust off the whole flange leaving the starter motor flopping about in the wind with nothing to fix it to the block.

Someone the other day asked me why a kitchen cooker was in the shop.
I casually answered its for preheating BMW 4.4 blocks so that we can alum weld their flanges without distortion or cracking. Such is life in the grubby hands dept.

I prefer the Jag engine in the later big bodies besides I have never been a Beemer fan. In my opinion if you get telling everyone in the world you are the best some folk start to believe the hype.
Dennis
zedcars

Justinc, - how did you guess it was a V8 ? Visually, looks very neat under all those plastic covers...

Ah yes, he did mention doing in a timing chain, head gasket (or was it two?) and this last engine was sourced/installed "by BMW"

He was'nt overly clear, but I got the impression that the VC fan destroyed its bearing, and the fan shroud still has mis ing chunks. - Nor is it fixed firmly in place, - but I s'pose that can be rectified at the next change of radiator. (which will be his third...) Either way, that episode damaged water pump #2, and it was later replace with a NEW one... #2 was apparantly "fixed" by the last mechanic....when it should have been replaced.
Yes, he has had the run-around with the Special Hens Teeth Coolant...and knows that his engine is supposed to run at a higher system pressure.

Currently it seems to be losing coolant, but the oil is oily - and quite black, which may be another issue - and proper level.
By the way, I was'nt comforted by the lack of fan speed on start-up (after standing 30 minutes) so I added the VC to his 'to check' list of woes. - My 3.9 roars for 10 to 40 seconds depending, then remembers its manners.

I also mentioned engine-block temperature alarms, which I reckon he'll invest in seeing as he's aware of the temp gauge telling him nothing about lost coolant...
- Quite switched on for a Kiwi, eh bro....

He's had plenty of money (FIFO miner) if the 70cm wide tyres are any indicator. Might be a lighter wallet after this round.....

Originally Posted by zedcars

Special coolant is required as well--blue stuff!

The blue stuff is HOAT (version thereof)