High mileage L322 5.0 S/C

High mileage L322 5.0 S/C

Author
Discussion

Filibuster

Original Poster:

3,165 posts

216 months

Wednesday 28th February
quotequote all
I’m currently contemplating an L322, again.
This time a 160k miles 2010 5.0 S/C. It is in outstanding condition and has only two previous owners. Lovely dark green and no tints (but black seats and dark matte walnut veneers).

The first owner had the car for 12 years and 140k miles. Full LR service history (same dealer) and the second owner is the son of an indy garage and had it serviced at his father’s place (he’s a car enthusiasts by the sound of it). Timing chain guides where recently replaced (timing chain was not lengthened), but the supercharger is whining atm, which he wants to rectify before the sale. Is this likely to be the pulley? Wouldn’t that be a great time for a S/C pulley upgrade?

What are your thoughts on this?

BTW, I had a P38 Range Rover before and currently own a lovely ‘92 RRC. Also I have a 200k+ miles Porsche 997, which was also a cherished 2 owner car and is tight as a drum and in lovely condition. So I’m not your naive wannabe cheapo, gangsta Range Rover Sport buyer wink

bakerstreet

4,765 posts

166 months

Wednesday 28th February
quotequote all
The engines on these are fairly solid....Its everything else

Gearbox and Transfer box, Both known to have their issues
Air suspension. Many thing can and do go wrong
Electrical gremlins
Rear camera known to fail and very expensive a replacement part.
Rust Rust Rust. Arches will go along with the boot
Leaks. Water can leak into where the stereo main unit live and screws that up
Tyres are expensive....
MPG is comical....

Best of luck....I have one and this is my second L322 too. They are amazing machines and great and covering big distances. In fact I would go as far as saying they are the best tool out there.




Bit more insight in my recent thread here.

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Griffithy

929 posts

277 months

Friday 1st March
quotequote all
When I bought our L322 5.0 (I prefer its classic look over a L405, as it looks a bit too much like a pot-bellied pig for me).

I started with a test drive of a TD6.
At just under 500 yards, it was the shortest test drive of my life.
I slammed 50 pounds on the dealer's table for cleaning the car, as it had been raining, and thanked him warmly for his efforts. The vehicle was all noise and no decent acceleration.

I skipped the idea of a TDV8 as I knew it would be expensive to maintain anyway and why bother investing in a diesel at all.

So I went straight on to a brilliant test drive of a 5.0 S/C.
However, 2 things bothered me. The high purchase price and the black colour.
Both were immediately put into perspective.
The interior fully in sand with discreet black seat piping and black carpets and dashboard, plus gloss black applications were a dream and of course only worked perfectly with the black exterior colour on silver 10-spoke 20" wheels.

The vehicle itself was in fantastic condition and the previous owner was a well-known billionaire's wife.
Interestingly, she kept the car for 10 years and has now switched to a Mini.

All in all, I am extremely happy with the car and it is a wonderful place to be in.
The maintenance costs are in line with those of a vehicle in this class. But at least you don't have the usual hassle of glow plugs and exhaust gas sensors as is usual with diesels.
Fuel consumption is actually no worse than you're used to with a V8 petrol engine at half the power.
As expected. Acceleration is impressive and leaves nothing to be desired.
The chassis is extremely comfortable even on extremely bad roads. However, fast bends are not its thing due to the suspension set-up and the high weight.

I find the atmosphere inside much more pleasant and classy than I am used to from luxury class Mercedes, although I would classify their automatic air conditioning as slightly better.
However, I consider the Range Rover's undersized battery to be a real disadvantage. It doesn't take long before it emits a battery warning when the vehicle is switched off. Experience has shown that it means it. Perhaps an additional battery would help here, but I still need to find out more.

I am a bit disappointed by the towing characteristics. Perhaps it's the relatively soft chassis or the short wheelbase that makes towing trailers not quite as relaxing as I'm used to with the lwb Mercedes and even the old Defender 130.
One thing, however, the huge power of the engine makes you totally forget that there are still 3 tons hanging on the back and fast overtaking manoeuvres with a big heavy trailer are very impressive.

The 5.0 impresses with enormous torque over a very wide rev range. The, by V8 Diesel owners, very often ridiculed 6-speed automatic transmission lacks nothing at all. It shifts smooth as silk and catapults the vehicle gently all the way to top speed. Cruising on the motorway at very low revs is very pleasant as well as economical.

I basically understand your idea of a Pulley upgrade. In my experience, however, there is always enough power in stock and I have never felt the need for more power.
From my point of view, it probably wouldn't really be worth the possible negative effects on the engine, transmission and drivetrain.

By the way. Our Range Rover still had the previous owner's destinations in the Satnav.
A very interesting read of the most interesting and upscale places in Europe.
However, if you consider that you would also have had the opportunity to get there by your private jet, it proves that flying is not necessarily nicer than driving your Range Rover.

bakerstreet

4,765 posts

166 months

Friday 1st March
quotequote all
Filibuster said:
I’m currently contemplating an L322, again.
This time a 160k miles 2010 5.0 S/C. It is in outstanding condition and has only two previous owners. Lovely dark green and no tints (but black seats and dark matte walnut veneers).

The first owner had the car for 12 years and 140k miles. Full LR service history (same dealer) and the second owner is the son of an indy garage and had it serviced at his father’s place (he’s a car enthusiasts by the sound of it). Timing chain guides where recently replaced (timing chain was not lengthened), but the supercharger is whining atm, which he wants to rectify before the sale. Is this likely to be the pulley? Wouldn’t that be a great time for a S/C pulley upgrade?

What are your thoughts on this?

BTW, I had a P38 Range Rover before and currently own a lovely ‘92 RRC. Also I have a 200k+ miles Porsche 997, which was also a cherished 2 owner car and is tight as a drum and in lovely condition. So I’m not your naive wannabe cheapo, gangsta Range Rover Sport buyer wink
I have only ever come across one 5.0 FFRR which has had an pulley upgrade (560bhp). The limitation of the car is not the amount of bhp. Remember these things have 500bhp. That is not small now, let along in 2009 when it was launched.

The limitation is the chassis. From about 2010 they introduced some active wizardry with the air shocks which makes it marginally better and it really is marginal.

If you want something thats fast and doesn't feel its going to fall over at any roundabout then Cayenne Turbo is what you want and not a FFRR 5.0 Downside is the early Cayenne Interiors are dire in comparison.

I'm very much 50/50 on my SC if I'm honest. I'm nervous every time the kids get in it as I don't want a football boot stud piecing the leather and there is lots of it in the cabin.

Piersman2

6,598 posts

200 months

Friday 1st March
quotequote all
I've had my 2010 5.0 S/C for about 7 years now. Brilliant car, now sitting at 125K. I've also got 2 XKRs with the same engine in the household, both over 100k miles.

The engines are pretty good , usual things that go are water pump pumps and S/C coupler.

For mine in the last 7 years/50K miles I've had 1 big expense that was the transfer box which shat itself at about 100k miles, that along with a gearbox rebuild at the same time came to £4k. The gearbox needed a new spline shaft into the transfer box as it had almost worn it's splines smooth, no lube used in factory in that joint apparently.

I've recently replaced all 4 air struts for about a grand or so as it was starting to ride harsh and one of the rear struts was burst and had leaked all it's internal oil out.

Other than that just bits and pieces, an air con pipe, condenser, water pump, brakes, tyres, that kind of stuff. I do the spannering myself mainly and the parts can be found cheap if you avoid dealer mark ups.

Body wise I've had the tail gate fixed twice now and I've previously protected the rear wheel arches and will do so again this summer to keep the rust at bay.

It's not been near a garage for about 2 or 3 years, I've been doing an annual oil change myself as the mileage has barely moved since WFH.

I've got all the kit for doing a swap out of the rear brakes and calipers sitting in the front room ready for when I've got time and decent weather. Discs, pads, calipers, sliders etc... all for about £400 so as noted above, parts can be cheap if you shop around.

As to the one you're looking at... check what's been fixed recently, 150K miles there should have been a least some suspension fixes (struts, arms, bushes, etc...) and if you go for keep a £5k slush fund somewhere in case something expensive does go. Oh and check everything on it works and that the bits that don't work are not show stoppers for you. On mine the seats heater/coolers in the driver's seat don't work. I couldn't care less so happy to live with it. If the steering wheel heater didn't work it might be another story! biggrin

RafflesNH

107 posts

121 months

Tuesday 5th March
quotequote all
Piersman2 said:
8<
On mine the seats heater/coolers in the driver's seat don't work. I couldn't care less so happy to live with it. If the steering wheel heater didn't work it might be another story! biggrin
You may want to check out this YouTuber's driver seat climate cheapo DIY repair.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0zLgswBDvw