Okay, you hear all the nightmares about people who own Land Rovers and spend 3k a year in repairs. I own a 2002 Discovery which I have only had for a few months but so far so good other then a front seat not moving backwards but fixed under warranty and I can live with the little quirks like that. What I am looking for is people who can tell me they're at 60-70-80-90-100+K on their Rovers with no big monwey problems. I'm most interested in Series II Discoverys since that its what I own but I'd love to hear about the Series 1 Discos, Range Rovers and Freelanders aswell. Go ahead...make me feel better.
I want to hear good Land Rover reliability stories
1 - 20 of 39 Posts
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10,167 Posts
Well I have a 92 RRC...It has 165,000 miles.....All I have done to it (other than modifications) is basic maint...Oil change, brakes etc... I pull a pop up camper all over Colorado and go 4-wheeling on a regular basis!!!! I have been very pleased with my rover...I haave pulled many people out of trouble and have gotten safely through many snow storms!!! I have driven my rover to Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, Wyoming and all over Colorado. Here is a link to my site http://www.cardomain.com/ride/735661
My parents have a 97 Rangie 90,000 miles.... This rover pulls a 30' camper all over the place....Still 4-wheels and does the ice races!!! The rig is also used as a commuter once in awhile...The rover has been in many winter storms and has pulled out many other SUV's.....2 years ago my parents went to Oregon, Missouri, Yellowstone (Wyoming)... and all over Colorado with the camper.... Over all the mountain passes and long haul there was never a problem!!!!
I also know a guy here in Co who has 225,000 miles on his series 1 disco...and still will not get rid of it!!!! He sold two of his Chevy trucks because his was reliable enough to just need one!!
My parents have a 97 Rangie 90,000 miles.... This rover pulls a 30' camper all over the place....Still 4-wheels and does the ice races!!! The rig is also used as a commuter once in awhile...The rover has been in many winter storms and has pulled out many other SUV's.....2 years ago my parents went to Oregon, Missouri, Yellowstone (Wyoming)... and all over Colorado with the camper.... Over all the mountain passes and long haul there was never a problem!!!!
I also know a guy here in Co who has 225,000 miles on his series 1 disco...and still will not get rid of it!!!! He sold two of his Chevy trucks because his was reliable enough to just need one!!
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87 Posts
I have an '01 DII with almost 75,000 miles on it. I've had to only replace the brakes twice and just replaced the plugs, plug wires & valve cover gaskets. Everything else just regular maint.
Keep it coming, this is already making me feel better, I don't think we get enough of these threads. We always get the "I cant drive more then two miles without my back axel falling off" threads. Oh and I \understand that you don't want to jinx yourself but can we at least know how many miles you've gone without Jinxing yourself?
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1,004 Posts
197,000 miles here on my 1991 Range Rover. It's been in the family since 10,000 miles and it's only let us down once. Reason being there were loose wires going to the fuel pump. Has been and extremely reliable vehicle! I love it!
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2,687 Posts
I've had a 2001 Disco2 for 35k miles now (has 66k on the clock).. the only time its ever left me stranded, was when I submerged it in water up to the windows .. kill my mass air flow sensor, if I knew it at the time, i could have unplugged it and let it gone. Since then, the only things that have happened, front driveshaft u-joint cracked (caught it ahead of time, and upgraded to a tom woods), rear windows dont go down and rear wiper doesnt work.. they are probably both related, but ive been too busy to take it to the dealership for warranty. All in all, i'm very happy with the reliability of it, especially with how much crap I put it through while wheeling.
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2,318 Posts
well not as high milage as the other two, but I have a 2001 DII with 52K miles on it. Never gave me any problems....only things ive replaced are regular maintenance stuff.....brakes, various bulbs, etc.
I seem to be replacing things faster then they wear and brake......get oil changes with all synthetic probably much more then needed......the car is awesome.
Ive had nothing serious brake even with the stress I put it through....in the same time ive had nothing to replace my jeep buddy that I go with everywhere has had to replace two axles, one clutch, one transfer case, and his transmission (not for upgrades....the stock stuff just all broke)....ouch for him :bawling:....makes mine look good
.....I think I have a broken OME shock atm......im checking it out this weekend....what I was doing at pyramid dunes didnt help <see avatar>
*edit* oh yeah....watch my videos below:
I seem to be replacing things faster then they wear and brake......get oil changes with all synthetic probably much more then needed......the car is awesome.
Ive had nothing serious brake even with the stress I put it through....in the same time ive had nothing to replace my jeep buddy that I go with everywhere has had to replace two axles, one clutch, one transfer case, and his transmission (not for upgrades....the stock stuff just all broke)....ouch for him :bawling:....makes mine look good
.....I think I have a broken OME shock atm......im checking it out this weekend....what I was doing at pyramid dunes didnt help <see avatar>
*edit* oh yeah....watch my videos below:
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789 Posts
Christmas of 2003, i was at the in-laws when my mother in-law's mother and her son were in a bad winter wrek in his Subaru, Grandmother passed on due to injuries, she was 94, Bro inlaw was in the hospital.
the trip was usually an hour to the hospital but there was a crazy snow storm that night - 3 bloody feet of snow fell on us as me, my Father in-law and mother in-law, took my 99 Disco II and i pushed through that hell bent weather and drove for 3 and a half hours with about 40 feet visibility of the thickest falling snow i ever saw, and being from Canada- that says alot :drive:
When we finally got there My In-laws ran into the hospital, i slowly got out of my Disco, legs numb stood beside my truck and patted her softly on the hood, and said "Good girl, you did me proud."
thats why its hard for me to get rid of her, no matter how many problems she gives me.
the trip was usually an hour to the hospital but there was a crazy snow storm that night - 3 bloody feet of snow fell on us as me, my Father in-law and mother in-law, took my 99 Disco II and i pushed through that hell bent weather and drove for 3 and a half hours with about 40 feet visibility of the thickest falling snow i ever saw, and being from Canada- that says alot :drive:
When we finally got there My In-laws ran into the hospital, i slowly got out of my Disco, legs numb stood beside my truck and patted her softly on the hood, and said "Good girl, you did me proud."
thats why its hard for me to get rid of her, no matter how many problems she gives me.
SCSL said:I would tell you, but I don't want to jinx myself
Touching wood several times here
No longer have it in the family, but my first Rover believe it or not was a Freelander which I owned for 4 years with the only problem being the front RHS suspension unit being replaced.
Sold it last December to buy one of the last SII Discos, which my wife uses and has barely 6K on the clock. My own SII has just clocked 100K with the annoying problem of the magic light show every now and then. My 1984 D90 goes anywhere
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249 Posts
The only major problems with the 5 rovers my family have owned was on the air suspension on a '95 p38. There have been a few small annoying quirkd, but nothing else major.
IMO, I think that the whole reliability issue on modern land rovers started when Jeepers needed something to babg on LR about.
IMO, I think that the whole reliability issue on modern land rovers started when Jeepers needed something to babg on LR about.
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734 Posts
Probably find in the "Fiction" section...................
No really, I have an 89 classic that has had very little major probs as far I can tell, and none since I have owned her. I also have 69 Series IIA that I am getting back together, but it will still start up and purr like RoverX's 20 year olds on the first try.
Would not drive anything else :drink1:
No really, I have an 89 classic that has had very little major probs as far I can tell, and none since I have owned her. I also have 69 Series IIA that I am getting back together, but it will still start up and purr like RoverX's 20 year olds on the first try.
Would not drive anything else :drink1:
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68 Posts
still going strong
110 300tdi. 100k just had new gearbox
150 300tdi 127k no problems and pulls a 3tonne trailer most of it's miles
Series 2 Disco 98' 300tdi 95k no problems
Classic RR 90' V8 conversion to a 300tdi 134k no problems (tdi has only been in for about 10k)
In defence of my 110 it used to be a safari vehicle in South Africa before being shipped back to the UK. It has always has a tired gearbox since I got it (at 60k) Gearbox finally went after a 4000 mile round trip around Spain on the way back to the UK at 4am in the South of France. Had to fly home, pick up my Disco and trailer and go and collect it. Disco still pulls like a train.
110 300tdi. 100k just had new gearbox
150 300tdi 127k no problems and pulls a 3tonne trailer most of it's miles
Series 2 Disco 98' 300tdi 95k no problems
Classic RR 90' V8 conversion to a 300tdi 134k no problems (tdi has only been in for about 10k)
In defence of my 110 it used to be a safari vehicle in South Africa before being shipped back to the UK. It has always has a tired gearbox since I got it (at 60k) Gearbox finally went after a 4000 mile round trip around Spain on the way back to the UK at 4am in the South of France. Had to fly home, pick up my Disco and trailer and go and collect it. Disco still pulls like a train.
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259 Posts
**Knock on wood before I start!**
I bought my 1991 RRC in 1996 w/ ~45,000 on the clock. It now has ~125,000. In that time, it only left me stranded once, turned out to be the ignition amplifier. I've been good about regular maintenance, as well as replacing things when they go due to age or mileage (or a killer deal at the British Pacific deal of the day), most recently shocks. BTW, in 1999, my GF (now fiance) and I drove "Gwenny" cross country and back on a six week adventure. 9000+ miles and the only problem was a blown transmission hose (which was the result of a previous half-a$$ed repair-not the fault of the rover), a broken fog light... and that's it. She ran like a top and loved every minute of it. I do almost all the repairs myself which helps keep running costs low. She only really sees a shop once a year (**knock on wood again**) for fluid changes or a repair beyond the scope of my abilities.
My 2003 Freelander SE3 has been great too. I bought it in Dec. 2003 for a steal, and have done about 25,000 miles on her. Nothing as impressive as the range, but several road trips up and down the east coast and some moderate off-roading. It's also been very reliable, only problems were an idiot light which did not affect drivability (fixed under warranty), a punctured tire (no fault of the truck), and 2 or 3 minor trim pieces which fell off.
I think staying on top of my mainenance is a big reason behind my good fortune w/ my rovers, sometimes I just don't know what other people are doing that causes them to have so many problems.
But I feel dipped in green, and besides intending to keep Gwenny for as many years as the car-gods see fit, I intend to always have a Land Rover in my stable. They're that good.
I bought my 1991 RRC in 1996 w/ ~45,000 on the clock. It now has ~125,000. In that time, it only left me stranded once, turned out to be the ignition amplifier. I've been good about regular maintenance, as well as replacing things when they go due to age or mileage (or a killer deal at the British Pacific deal of the day), most recently shocks. BTW, in 1999, my GF (now fiance) and I drove "Gwenny" cross country and back on a six week adventure. 9000+ miles and the only problem was a blown transmission hose (which was the result of a previous half-a$$ed repair-not the fault of the rover), a broken fog light... and that's it. She ran like a top and loved every minute of it. I do almost all the repairs myself which helps keep running costs low. She only really sees a shop once a year (**knock on wood again**) for fluid changes or a repair beyond the scope of my abilities.
My 2003 Freelander SE3 has been great too. I bought it in Dec. 2003 for a steal, and have done about 25,000 miles on her. Nothing as impressive as the range, but several road trips up and down the east coast and some moderate off-roading. It's also been very reliable, only problems were an idiot light which did not affect drivability (fixed under warranty), a punctured tire (no fault of the truck), and 2 or 3 minor trim pieces which fell off.
I think staying on top of my mainenance is a big reason behind my good fortune w/ my rovers, sometimes I just don't know what other people are doing that causes them to have so many problems.
But I feel dipped in green, and besides intending to keep Gwenny for as many years as the car-gods see fit, I intend to always have a Land Rover in my stable. They're that good.
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714 Posts
Hear, hear!Roverdude said:
I've only been stranded once: a blown tire (deep in the Bolivian hinterlands, unfortunately).
Though I've had to do major repairs to the Beast on many occasions, in all cases I can trace back the problem to inattention and shoddy patches to the required repair. As I clean up these issues, I'm replacing everything with heavy duty parts.
My Disco I has 77k mi - I bought it 4 years ago with 52k.
I can't imagine ever driving anything else.
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207 Posts
Land Rover reliability
I'm not sure I'm really qualified to comment here, but I will anyway
1st Land Rover was a Series IIa 109" pick up with a canvas tilt. This was a company car in Lagos, Nigeria. Used around town to convey anything needed for an earth moving equipment company and by me for weekend trips into the real bush outside the city with friends.
I did have a puncture once.
2nd was also a Series IIa lent to me me to drive back to UK from Lagos, over the Sahara. The couple who had driven it South had decided to pack it all in at Lagos and fly home, shipping the LR. Since I was about to go back to UK on leave and wanted to cross the Sahara too, I offered to drive it back for them. Amazingly, they agreed ! The vehicle was suffering from a severe lack of power. It was quickly seen that the hose from the air cleaner to the manifold had collapsed, strangling the engine, so this was replaced, curing the problem. We did service it and drove it 7000 miles back to the UK to it's owner, who had to replace an injector pipe soon after.
3rd was a Series III, in Kano, Nigeria, also used for earth moving equipment maintence by the engineers in all kinds of remote bush places. The luxury of synchromesh on 1st and 2 nd gears was a bit of a revelation and made gear changes a lot slower, but actually useable for the inept. The new padded dash made us miss the old bottle opener dash, but we quickly learnt how to get around that
No problems at all that I can remember
4th was an ancient Series II 109' station wagon that I wanted for my next trans sahara trip, Lagos to London. This one I found up in Ibadan, a bush town on the Kano road and it was for sale at a very low price as a non runner. It was 14 years old and had been used from new as the main transport of a film company in the bush in Cameroon, filiming wildlife, then had spent the last few years as a hunting vehicle for the German Consul. I don't think it had seen a tarred road in it's 14 year life. We tow started it and drove it back 60 odd miles to Lagos, replaced the starter (which was the problem) and drove it around a bit. We then gave it a major service (wheel bearings, oil seals, etc included) didn't touch the engine or gearbox as they were fine and drove it to London in the UK right through the middle of the Sahara. We did have one problem, the radiator cowling fell off onto the fan and made a huge noise ! You've never seen anyone de-clutch and switch off as fast as I did ! Thinking a rod was through the block ! Anyway, we just removed the cowling and continued. This of course was in the remotest part of the Sahara, about 480km (300 miles) from the nearest town or village. We did have to clean out the carb, just North of In Salah, as it had blocked up with sand.
5th one is my current Defender V8, now done 215000km (165000 miles), 10 years old and just done a 3500km (2700 miles) bush trip into the remotest parts of Botswana and have many many magnificent wildlife pics. I did have to catch up on negligence on the part of the previous owner, including an overhaul of a transfer box which seemed to be lubricated by river water, but that's life. It did fail me on the road once, commuting ! The ignition switch failed and left me stranded at a client's premises and stuffed up my day's schedule
Still, that covers 35 years of Land Rovers briefly and 16 African countries so far.
I suspect it would be difficult to persuade me that Land Rovers are anything but reliable
Regards,
Brian
I'm not sure I'm really qualified to comment here, but I will anyway
1st Land Rover was a Series IIa 109" pick up with a canvas tilt. This was a company car in Lagos, Nigeria. Used around town to convey anything needed for an earth moving equipment company and by me for weekend trips into the real bush outside the city with friends.
I did have a puncture once.
2nd was also a Series IIa lent to me me to drive back to UK from Lagos, over the Sahara. The couple who had driven it South had decided to pack it all in at Lagos and fly home, shipping the LR. Since I was about to go back to UK on leave and wanted to cross the Sahara too, I offered to drive it back for them. Amazingly, they agreed ! The vehicle was suffering from a severe lack of power. It was quickly seen that the hose from the air cleaner to the manifold had collapsed, strangling the engine, so this was replaced, curing the problem. We did service it and drove it 7000 miles back to the UK to it's owner, who had to replace an injector pipe soon after.
3rd was a Series III, in Kano, Nigeria, also used for earth moving equipment maintence by the engineers in all kinds of remote bush places. The luxury of synchromesh on 1st and 2 nd gears was a bit of a revelation and made gear changes a lot slower, but actually useable for the inept. The new padded dash made us miss the old bottle opener dash, but we quickly learnt how to get around that
No problems at all that I can remember
4th was an ancient Series II 109' station wagon that I wanted for my next trans sahara trip, Lagos to London. This one I found up in Ibadan, a bush town on the Kano road and it was for sale at a very low price as a non runner. It was 14 years old and had been used from new as the main transport of a film company in the bush in Cameroon, filiming wildlife, then had spent the last few years as a hunting vehicle for the German Consul. I don't think it had seen a tarred road in it's 14 year life. We tow started it and drove it back 60 odd miles to Lagos, replaced the starter (which was the problem) and drove it around a bit. We then gave it a major service (wheel bearings, oil seals, etc included) didn't touch the engine or gearbox as they were fine and drove it to London in the UK right through the middle of the Sahara. We did have one problem, the radiator cowling fell off onto the fan and made a huge noise ! You've never seen anyone de-clutch and switch off as fast as I did ! Thinking a rod was through the block ! Anyway, we just removed the cowling and continued. This of course was in the remotest part of the Sahara, about 480km (300 miles) from the nearest town or village. We did have to clean out the carb, just North of In Salah, as it had blocked up with sand.
5th one is my current Defender V8, now done 215000km (165000 miles), 10 years old and just done a 3500km (2700 miles) bush trip into the remotest parts of Botswana and have many many magnificent wildlife pics. I did have to catch up on negligence on the part of the previous owner, including an overhaul of a transfer box which seemed to be lubricated by river water, but that's life. It did fail me on the road once, commuting ! The ignition switch failed and left me stranded at a client's premises and stuffed up my day's schedule
Still, that covers 35 years of Land Rovers briefly and 16 African countries so far.
I suspect it would be difficult to persuade me that Land Rovers are anything but reliable
Regards,
Brian
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60 Posts
2002 Freelander here. Yeah, I know, first model year and all - I just couldn't hold myself back. It's been a jewel. Only one outright failure (other than the POS sunroof) which was the cooling fan ECU failed full on. It's never left me stranded. Regularly take it 50+ miles into the boonies with no worries.
Having typed this, it's probably sitting on its belly pan out in the garage leaking every fluid it has!
Having typed this, it's probably sitting on its belly pan out in the garage leaking every fluid it has!
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