Thread: Why Land Rovers have a reputation of breaking down

Originally Posted by superquag

Indeed it is very "ordinary"...

Question must be asked though, as to WHY the wire is burnt... badly placed next to hot engine parts? electrical fault ? And what is the green wire for ? - or going to ???

On the other hand, my own experiences with Jap vehicles is that the wiring harness is more than adequate in terms of connectors, gauge, length and quality. (Two Crowns, Mazda Bongo 4WD, Mazda Capella - 626 - on LPG and '89 Pajero diesel.)

My opinion so far (95 Classic Vogue) is that LR are still locked in the mind-set of rationing, as it was in Britain for some years after WW II, to put it kindly...

James in Gosnells.

The green wire looks like that's a scrap bit of wire they used to extend the red wire. The connector was not burnt, it looks like iis been corroded or pulled and broken by force.
The coil pack was not even bolted to the engine.
I replaced the plug leads ( PITA BIG TIME) and fitted new plugs.
I found i had a problem that it was only running on left bank ( running is not the operative word), discovered today that the right side coil connector had fallen off after I installed the plug leads,. The retaining spring was weak, so it let go. On investigating this problem I discovered the connector, was jerried. I took a stroll to a wrecker and snaffled a 3 wire plug off a Audi and cut the wires and soldered and insulated the wires properly $2 cost.
I still don't know what that orange thing is that soldered to the red wire , it is some sort of resister or something.Maybe something to do eith the LPG system, but I can't find any reference to it in the sequential gas instructions.
I'm going to have another look in the Rave coil wiring diagram and see it it is a part.
One thing though, I can rip and refit the an upper intake manifold and undo and refit all hoses, undo refit aircon compressor etc etc within an hour now.
Practice makes perfect, I have had the suckers off 3 times now in the last few days. It's second nature and I could do it blind folded

"Land Rover, turning owners into Master Mechanics since 1948..."

Probably the resistor is exactly what I have been trying to tell you about, there should be a brown wire with a black cover connected here. The red wire is the correct place for revs sensing. The fitter may have fitted the resistor in line to reduce the effect on the gas ECU. Mind you the ECU doesn't need the resistor, the fitter just needed to select the signal strength in the software.

I suspect the fitter didn't have a small soldering iron available that day, maybe he used the oxy acetylene on grandad's roofer's iron instead.

On my trips around Australia the most common brand I've seen on the trayback is The Nissan Patrol all with the "grenade" 3 litre motor.Not many Tojo's but the ones that broke cost an absolute arm and a leg to fix.On my Cape trips the common fault on the Tojos was the front suspension and up there to get something fixed to need to own a bank.

I feel for you mate - I've suffered similar appalling electrical work. Contacting the place that did it, and explaining my dissatisfaction simply encountered the 'bring it back in and let us fix it for you..' to which they wanted to give me a bill for it.. and still did a dodge job..

Needless to say we "came to an agreement" about the costs of them fixing their own mistakes (24 hours after the original work...). It seems there is no recourse other than using Molotov cocktails, which my wonderful lady reminded me "is not a very politically correct thing to do".

I have a theory on all things Land Rover and reliability.

If you treat it like a Toorak tractor, polish it and get dings and scratches fixed then it will break down and become generally ornery.

I abuse the hell out of mine with laughter and joy and did with the 2a before it and Ive yet to be stranded.

For example, a family friend bought an SII Disco brand new.

Had it kitted with all the ARB guff, Snorkel, Winch and HF talky box with a huge auto antennae.

2 years of gremlin hell with the thing spending yonks in the dealership.

They GAVE it to their future son in law in disgust and we immediately went bush in the thing accidentally launching it off a berm at 60 km on a very narrow track up the back of warby somewhere, the next weekend we slid her sideways into a clay bank on acheron way (I think) and the following day I treated him to Kurth Kiln and surrounds (Because it was close to home at the time).

His future parents were horrified although the damage was not bad but there were brush scratches all over the thing but for the next 5 years the thing never missed a beat and we did all the services ourselves.

Next door neighbour, owned a Land rover county thing and kept it tidy, did some mods etc and insisted on washing the thing once a week.

No end of hassle, gearboxes, fuel systems, interior faults, rattles water leaks and electrical issues.

He began to hate thing thing because of the money it was costing him and started to abuse it, quit washing it and stopped fixing stuff and even (Shock horror) going 4 or 5 thou over on oil changes!

Apparently these early posh wagons prefer filth because he had far less hassle with it after he stopped pampering it.

I believe, firmly that the souls of Solihull are dirty grubby little filth monsters who will play up like a spoilt princess when forced to do things they deem unnatural.

And thus we have cranky Landys and Rangies kiddies!

Originally Posted by tony66_au

I have a theory on all things Land Rover and reliability.

If you treat it like a Toorak tractor, polish it and get dings and scratches fixed then it will break down and become generally ornery.

I abuse the hell out of mine with laughter and joy and did with the 2a before it and Ive yet to be stranded.

For example, a family friend bought an SII Disco brand new.

Had it kitted with all the ARB guff, Snorkel, Winch and HF talky box with a huge auto antennae.

2 years of gremlin hell with the thing spending yonks in the dealership.

They GAVE it to their future son in law in disgust and we immediately went bush in the thing accidentally launching it off a berm at 60 km on a very narrow track up the back of warby somewhere, the next weekend we slid her sideways into a clay bank on acheron way (I think) and the following day I treated him to Kurth Kiln and surrounds (Because it was close to home at the time).

His future parents were horrified although the damage was not bad but there were brush scratches all over the thing but for the next 5 years the thing never missed a beat and we did all the services ourselves.

Next door neighbour, owned a Land rover county thing and kept it tidy, did some mods etc and insisted on washing the thing once a week.

No end of hassle, gearboxes, fuel systems, interior faults, rattles water leaks and electrical issues.

He began to hate thing thing because of the money it was costing him and started to abuse it, quit washing it and stopped fixing stuff and even (Shock horror) going 4 or 5 thou over on oil changes!

Apparently these early posh wagons prefer filth because he had far less hassle with it after he stopped pampering it.

I believe, firmly that the souls of Solihull are dirty grubby little filth monsters who will play up like a spoilt princess when forced to do things they deem unnatural.

And thus we have cranky Landys and Rangies kiddies!

Holy crap, I think you may be onto something there. The only times I've had problems is after I've cleaned it!!!

Originally Posted by flagg

Holy crap, I think you may be onto something there. The only times I've had problems is after I've cleaned it!!!

It's all mind set, some people wash and polish there cars and think they drive better. It's all mind set, it you feel happy then happy things happen.