Thread: Restricted performance alarm

Thanks to all for the replies and helpful info. Got it again once on my return trip - will start by seeing what the dealer says this week.

Hi all,

I am reading alot of these threads with interest as I have purchased a D4 back in 2013. (HSE - SDV6) I have also had restricted performance issues twice as well whilst towing a camper trailer in hot weather, yet I have not had any error messages at all show up on the dash and LR in Townsville have not been able to get any fault codes from the vehicle at all. My last situation was towing from Townsville to Charters Towers on the long weekend in Jan and about 20kms out of the Towers, on a slight incline in the road the vehicle lost most power. To the point it was like the turbo's were just not working at all. When I got to the Towers, I popped the bonnet to see if there was anything out of the ordinary and found that whilst I revved the engine the air-intake pipe from the intercooler to the front of the engine block was collapsing, (See photo) basically stopping the proper flow of air to the engine. Once the vehicle had cooled down everything returned to normal, however I am wondering if this maybe the fault that is causing all the loss of power issues. LR Townsville have said that it could be a split pipe, however there would be a large amount of hissing from all the air escaping if that was the case. It has been very warm here lately 34+ days and the day that this happened, it was 38 outside with a dry hot wind blowing. I am waiting on a further response from Land Rover to see if they come back with anything else. I will let everyone know of LRA's response if and when I get one.

Cheers,

Hugh

Hugh - that long intercooler pipe is made from laminated rubber - and while the most common failure is a split at one of the bends (usually the top), another failure mode is delamination. The outside of the hose may appear intact - the inside could be cactus!

My suggestion - replace it once - with a silicone hose!

Good luck.
Cheers,
Rob

For the time being if there's a LR dealer nearby take it to them and point out the flattening hose. They should find the problem before you leave but may need to order a new hose. There could be a blockage elsewhere.

Thanks for your responses guys.... I have mentioned this to LR in Townsville, but they are still wanting to find out more info from LRA. Apparently they did get some info from the vehicle and it has been sent all the way back to the UK for further analysis, although they said that there were no fault codes??? I will be insisting that this pipe is replaced, but find it questionable on how this has happened and wonder after reading numerous other posts here if others have suffered the same issue which has lead onto other faults occurring. Has anyone else had to replace this pipe at all? I will pull it off tomorrow to check the inside of the pipe.

Don't get me wrong, I'm hope I'm not sounding like I'm whinging about my D4.. I love it... But I brought it to tow a big camper, and when I go bush, I go bush. I don't want to be stuck in the middle of nowhere. It's just put a whole big dampener on the reliability of the vehicle now which is a big disappointment....

Mine's done 150K country kms with no hint of the problem.

Edit: Maybe the aforementioned elbow in the air intake in the guard should be checked for signs of having collapsed.

Ok so it got the better of me and I've just pulled the pipe off to have a look. Looks all ok on the inside, no de lamination at all. A small amount of oil thou? After I reseated the pipe and tightened, I got my son to rev the engine whilst I looked at this pipe again. Completely opposite to what I saw in the Towers... Pipe looked like it wanted to explode, so I'm guessing that the turbos are definitely working. Makes me think then that it might be the isolation valve sticking, not allowing air to flow thru, hence why when it sticks, it sucks the pipe in as the engine is trying to get air, but when it works, it works....

Oh well something else to mention to LR tomorrow

Ok, update to my issue. LR Townsville have said its not the isolation valve, but an oil leak on one of the turbos. (Didn't say which one but its a big job to replace) They will be replacing the turbo, relocating the oil return pipe into the sump above the height of the max oil level and flushing the entire inter cooler system to get rid of any excess oil. LR have said that this is the problem that oil is getting sucked back into the turbo due to the low oil return pipe, and has destroyed the seals. This then puts excess oil into the air intake pipes and causes the valve to stick due to excess oil and carbon build up.

I've asked them to still look at the sticky valve, and they are going to look into this further when I next drop the vehicle in on the 23rd. Numerous other UK forums I've read have said there is a SB out for the sticky valve? So much so, it's even on the Jaguar forums as being able one of the biggest issues with the 3.0 SDV6 motor. Has anyone seen this SB in Australia?

My issue is that if I had blown a seal on the turbo, I would be seeing at least a little bit of smoke, under normal, and especially under heavy acceleration. But I don't. Now I'm not one of those lite footed old Land Rover drivers, which everyone gets caught behind and whinges and grumbles... I like using my right foot, it's pretty heavy... Especially when I pull up next to my little sis in her Land Poozer. I still believe it has something to do with the sticky valve, but I guess only time will tell. .

BTW, I can't complain about the service I've been getting from LRA or in fact Tony Ireland LR in Townsville either. Been very impressed so far, even after hearing many bad reports from other LR owners in the area.