Thread: 2009 Range Rover Sport 3.6-litre V8 turbo-diesel Engine Blown Up!

Originally Posted by Scouse

Sometimes too much publicity is a bad thing for the owner. Just keep it nice & polite, don't let it get out of hand in the public domain & you'll come out the other side with a nice new engine.

You can bet you bottom dollar that LR visit AULRO. I, and others on here, know for a fact that they do.

Too true,

No bad eggs here thus far.

The update is as follows:
I flew back to Perth (I also work away) last Tuesday my sister also flew in the same day so we took a trip down to the dealer and they had found a hole in the block plus another small hole in the sump as well as a puncture marks in the casing from inside out.




This was found to be as a consequence to a breather pipe becoming dislodged at the top of the engine. Hidden by the shrouds of course.

The typical $2 part causing irrepairable damage. The hose clamp is suspected to have not been tight enough and the rubber hose has come away from it's position allowing the oil, which is apparently recirculated through this pipe (my thoughts are that it is part of the EGR system like a breather pipe?), to be expelled towards the firewall. As a consequence to this the engine has obviously lost oil and then oil pressure in quick succession casuing it to (my presumption again) spin a bearing and attempt to seize. Now we are talking about a vehicle driving at the posted speed on the open road in excess of 100kph. So when the engine has effectively seized my sister has felt a chugging sensation with the vehicle loosing power and pulled to the side of the road. This would have been the time where the rod has attempted to exit the block.

The two hose clamps you can see at the top on that approx 2" diameter by 2" long rubber hose are apparently the cause of all her problems.


I hear you ask....didn't she hear anything? Didn't the oil light come on the dash?

Well, the only thing she heard was her Harmon Kardon audio system that Range Rover have kindly fitted to these vehicles cranking out the solefull beats of what ever she listens to at a rather high volume.
The lights, well yes, they came on when the chugging sensation was felt and when she pulled to the side of the road was when the dash displayed that the engine was shutting down which I assume is something built into these cars to offer the motor some protection if a failure occurs? Once stopped smoke was then seen emmitting from the bonnet and this is when she noticed the approximate 20metre oil slick trail on the road behind.

This is what the Rangie looked like last Tuesday.


When we spoke to the dealer, the Service Manager assured us that he would be "looking after the customer" and that this was an unheard of issue for Land Rover and that there would have to be a fair amount of investigation into the reasons as to why this has occurred.

Currently the motor is out and has been disassembled and a report has been sent to Land Rover Australia. We are currently awaiting their reply. I spoke to the Service Manager yesterday and they had been asked by LRA for more information of which they had replied to the relevant questions.

I hope that the outcome is favourable and that we don't have to take the matter further. The last thing we want to have to do is to fight tooth and nail for a positive outcome on a vehicle that is so new and was so expensive to purchase initially. Especially for a now 27 year old girl who has worked extremely hard and saved her pennies for a very long time to buy the car of her dreams.

The only complaint thus far with the service received is that I have had to do all the chasing. The dealer hasn't once called us to give an update. It has only been after I have left messages to find out the status. I had also asked to see the vehicle and engine in strip down mode and this did not occur. I was told that they needed the hoist and had to get the vehicle off, even though they new that I was available for the week as I was on break and only love 15minutes away. Other than that they have been good to deal with. I'm off to work for another 8 days and my sister flew out yesterday for 2 weeks, so I'm not sure what the progress will be like over the next week or so.

Please note# that the above descriptions and events are depicted in my words not my sisters. Conclusions have been made which are based purely on the information provided by the servicing dealer and from my mechanical experience as a mechanic of 15+ years.

Good news

Land Rover is back on my next car purchase short list.

I know you can get 'service agreements' for cars, 'insurance policies' really.

But I reckon they're just excuses for expensive repairs and parts, are there any competitive 'pure' insurance policies available instead? NRMA?