Thread: Anti Land Rover Mechanics. Lazy? Ignorant? Other?

Combination of lazy, ignorant, thinking they already know it all and just plain no ****ing idea. My mechanical background is on heavy earthmoving gear and i've spent plenty of time under the bonnet of Toyotas. My first taste of the green oval was with my 2013 defender which has only ever been to the dealer for the oil pump recall, everything else has been done in the driveway at home. Transfer case, both diffs, axles, CV's, a turbo failure, suspension and general servicing.

In my experience LR have some really dumb ideas where you just scratch your head and wonder why, they also have some friggen awesome and inovative ideas that just make sense! Removable swivel balls and rear stub axles come to mind. Aaaand sometimes their awesome ideas just lack the awesome execution to go along with it but ohwell whatevs.

There's no doubt they are far different to working on the jap vehicles. Some things nicer some things worse in my opinion.

So in a market like australia where the majority of cars on the road are asian built and a budding young or old experienced mechanic see something even slightly different to their normal clientele the alarm bells ring and all hell breaks loose because every other day they can pretend they know everything and are gods gift to spanners and operate on autopilot all day, heaven forbid something different come through the door where they have to think outside the box

When they work in an area like say Mataranka where all the cockies drive 70 series , of course they will mainly work on them.
I took my RRC to the mechanic to drain the fuel tank and got the usual BS, but he walked underneath and said , gee they have a good chassis.
The group of cockies there then said that Land Rovers don't last in the bush based on their experience from 30-40 years ago.
But they also reckoned that the new LC V8s were nothing on the old six turbo diesel .

The bush experience is mainly with 70 series and the fact is they are tough as hell and rough as guts.

My experience with Toyotas is in a 40 series and that had 100km seats. After 100km you couldn't stand it any more, and the passenger floor got so hot that 2 truck mudflaps didn't insulate it, but geez it was reliable. All the school kids used to love being picked up in the side facing seats with no seatbelts. Probably go to jail for that now. Wife had one very strong leg from the unassisted drums.

Regards Philip A

The attitude is not isolated to the bush though, plenty of anti land rover nob gobblers in town to

When I took the D1 to Derby for my daughter, I couldn't get a local mechanic to even do an oil change - not even the ex-LR agent.

"Land Rovers are too hard to work on and I don't have a workshop manual."

"That's no problem, there's a WS manual in the Disco."

Still wouldn't do do it so I went to the local spare parts place got the oil and filter and did the change in a fellow AULRO member's driveway.

Originally Posted by komaterpillar

In my experience LR have some really dumb ideas where you just scratch your head and wonder why, they also have some friggen awesome and inovative ideas that just make sense! Removable swivel balls and rear stub axles come to mind. Aaaand sometimes their awesome ideas just lack the awesome execution to go along with it but ohwell whatevs.

That seems pretty consistent with what non-LR mechanics say who helped.

TrevMech in Kununurra said something along the lines of "I'll work on anything. They're all cars. Some are different to others."

And the guys at Auto Excellence in Broome more or less said that they often wondered WTF Land Rover designers were thinking. The Auto Excellence guys said they weren't LR experts but were learning more and more about them all the time. They admitted they they had previously shied away from work on Land Rovers but after the local dealership closed down they decided that they couldn't just turn work away because of a green oval badge. There was a definite willingness on their part to learn about Land Rovers (ably assisted by the chap who runs the local LROC) and I think they secretly liked having a bit of variety.

Yep I agree with you both lads. I drove our 2010 defender around the country last year and she performed very well. Like you komaterpillar, I had to replace a turbo; most likely due to 2 things - chunks of carbon coming loose and damaging the fins after I closed off the EGR at 60k and also due to the turbo being cooked by the stupid cat converter. I replaced the turbo with a lm 2nd hand one in 2hrs and put silicone hoses in too.
Also had some minor issues with ABS sensors, minor wiring issues and a leaking diff.
All these issues were fixed by me in the bush or small towns with the tools I lugged along. I have the BAS remap/intercooler package and used the app to read & clear a few minor faults that came up.
Overall my $50000 4wd served us very well for 42000kms.
A land cruiser or patrol loaded to 5t + would have cost me at least 30% more to run and any of the issues I had could well have come up in tojos or nissans not to mention that they (used to) cost 30 - 40% more to buy also.
God does not make cars therefore none are perfect, however bang for my buck, serviceability, strength and basic practicality are what defenders are all about and I'm happy with mine.
Going up the old Tele track a 2015 110 busted his front diff on the first climb out of the creek due to driver error. We disconnected his front tail shaft and he drove the rest of the track to Bamiga in 2wd towing a 2t camper trailer! The mechanics at Bamiga had 4 tojos and a number of rangers and nissans to repair - that they had towed there with an old RR - their recovery vehicle. It really depends whether you're happy to get your hands dirty, carry a few tools and spares or if you want to call in the cavalry to bail you out. I'm a builder, not a mechanic, but a little knowledge, a LR manual and some sweat got us around with minimal service/repair costs.
Most people that criticise LRs have never owned one.

It is not just Land Rovers which have this deep seated bias against them in the mechanical game. After a disagreement with the Jeep service department over ownership of my cheque book I couldn't find a workshop which would take on the task of servicing/repairing my JKU Wrangler.

Most people who work on cars are trained in procedures and flounder when required to think. And of course they're too stubborn to admit they don't know how to think their way through an unfamiliar job. Personally I'll have a go at fixing anything once I understand its operation but then I'm an engineer by training not a mechanic.