What to look for in a range rover classic?
Discussion
Hi guys,
Sorry if has been done to death here but although my father had several 'back in the day', which I loved and drove, I have never owned one myself. I find myself lusting after one to pull my race car trailer and for shooting. So it won't do big miles per year, and I am not bothered about LPG. Just want a good'un, but do I:
1) go for a 3.5, 3.9 or 4.2.
2) air suspension - avoid?
3) is rust proofing better in some years, e.g. Post 91?
Or do I look at e next model, is it p38?. There are loads around, but don't really want one so much.
Any thoughts?
Cheers
Sorry if has been done to death here but although my father had several 'back in the day', which I loved and drove, I have never owned one myself. I find myself lusting after one to pull my race car trailer and for shooting. So it won't do big miles per year, and I am not bothered about LPG. Just want a good'un, but do I:
1) go for a 3.5, 3.9 or 4.2.
2) air suspension - avoid?
3) is rust proofing better in some years, e.g. Post 91?
Or do I look at e next model, is it p38?. There are loads around, but don't really want one so much.
Any thoughts?
Cheers
I bought an LSE about a year and a half ago. I must have seen 8/9 LSE's before targeting one over the space of a year. That's the 4.2. Mine has had a fair bit of engine work done to it (racing cams/roads/ecu, full air system upgraded, stainless exhaust, etc, etc).
Engine size is your choice; 4.2 only comes in the LSE (which is 8" longer than std. giving extra legroom in the rear, which is VAST), but also comes in the std. length only in the Autobiography. This I think only came in an horrific (IMO) turquoise, plus they seem to be over-priced and more importantly are almost never for sale, I only saw one on the market in the year I was looking for mine.
Being honest when I reached the end of my search I pretty much concentrated on nothing more than rot. For all those I found I never felt there was anything (dramatically) wrong with the engine. You WILL have problems of some sort, even the best do. I must have spent 800/1000 in the first year of ownership on keeping her on the road, although a lot of this I could have got away with. But I repaired a no longer functioning fuel gauage, a front ball joint exploded (whilst I was driving, but perfectly useable for a period, a few alt probs, which we eventually got down to being an incorrect coil, etc, etc.
I feel quite lucky in respect to the problems I had, I had in fact budgeted a hell of a lot more. You'll hear of people who haven't had problems as well as horror stories. I will pass on the words of my mechanic; "Treat her like a boat: Pay the bills, burn them and forget about them". If your spending decent money I'd suggest getting a knowledgeable mech to check it out.
P38s are interesting. I didn't want one as I'm not a fan of the shape, in fact as a child I remember seeing the P38 for the first time on TV being reviewed and thought to myself 'Jesus, they just made it look terrible'. Anyway, from what I understand they tend to have more (and more costly) problems than the classic. Just go onto Landyzone right now and you'll see that 75/80% of the front page is P38 problems.
Regards suspension mine is still on air. I had a problem last year on the by-ways where it had a 'catastrophic' fault. The car dropped onto the bump stops and was effectively undriveable. I was expecting some major expense, however due to a frozen valve (it was snowing) the ecu had shut it down to prevent any further damage, was just an ecu reset; free from my local as it took 15 mins.
Rust proofing. If you look you can see, under the car and rummage around everywhere. If you find underseal/waxoil under there then the previous owner has taken care of that and is less of an issue. Whilst looking I found the most prominent rust spots where; tailgate, inside front arches (replacement thereof is approx £1200)and then sills.
I bought mine as a long-termer in the knowledge that at some stage I would have the car stripped and the chassis blassted/repaired and sealed. Seems my hand has been forced in that repsect as due to my mother driving her RS5 into the LSE the day I got back for xmas I'm in need of a fair bit of spraying and wanting to change the colour a full panel off job is required, so might as well spend the cash now and get it done. (you won;t need to consider this though!
)
Engine size is your choice; 4.2 only comes in the LSE (which is 8" longer than std. giving extra legroom in the rear, which is VAST), but also comes in the std. length only in the Autobiography. This I think only came in an horrific (IMO) turquoise, plus they seem to be over-priced and more importantly are almost never for sale, I only saw one on the market in the year I was looking for mine.
Being honest when I reached the end of my search I pretty much concentrated on nothing more than rot. For all those I found I never felt there was anything (dramatically) wrong with the engine. You WILL have problems of some sort, even the best do. I must have spent 800/1000 in the first year of ownership on keeping her on the road, although a lot of this I could have got away with. But I repaired a no longer functioning fuel gauage, a front ball joint exploded (whilst I was driving, but perfectly useable for a period, a few alt probs, which we eventually got down to being an incorrect coil, etc, etc.
I feel quite lucky in respect to the problems I had, I had in fact budgeted a hell of a lot more. You'll hear of people who haven't had problems as well as horror stories. I will pass on the words of my mechanic; "Treat her like a boat: Pay the bills, burn them and forget about them". If your spending decent money I'd suggest getting a knowledgeable mech to check it out.
P38s are interesting. I didn't want one as I'm not a fan of the shape, in fact as a child I remember seeing the P38 for the first time on TV being reviewed and thought to myself 'Jesus, they just made it look terrible'. Anyway, from what I understand they tend to have more (and more costly) problems than the classic. Just go onto Landyzone right now and you'll see that 75/80% of the front page is P38 problems.
Regards suspension mine is still on air. I had a problem last year on the by-ways where it had a 'catastrophic' fault. The car dropped onto the bump stops and was effectively undriveable. I was expecting some major expense, however due to a frozen valve (it was snowing) the ecu had shut it down to prevent any further damage, was just an ecu reset; free from my local as it took 15 mins.
Rust proofing. If you look you can see, under the car and rummage around everywhere. If you find underseal/waxoil under there then the previous owner has taken care of that and is less of an issue. Whilst looking I found the most prominent rust spots where; tailgate, inside front arches (replacement thereof is approx £1200)and then sills.
I bought mine as a long-termer in the knowledge that at some stage I would have the car stripped and the chassis blassted/repaired and sealed. Seems my hand has been forced in that repsect as due to my mother driving her RS5 into the LSE the day I got back for xmas I'm in need of a fair bit of spraying and wanting to change the colour a full panel off job is required, so might as well spend the cash now and get it done. (you won;t need to consider this though!
)I've restored several of these and just finished an extensive restoration of a rare special edition.
I'll try and highlight the issues you should look for when buying one broken down into sections.
Bodywork;
The outer bodywork, with exception of the bonnet and tailgate's, are made of alloy. They still corrode but can look a lot better than the problems hiding underneath.
Headlight boxes/inner wings/front body mounts - check for rust and holes especially near the bulkhead and the inner wings.
Footwells - lift the drivers and passenger carpets up, look at the very front corners and also a along the fold of the bulkhead. Leaks and dirt trapped on the outer wings causes issues here.
Sills - check both underneath and inside the car, two body mounts each side front and back of the sills should be checked for rust too.
Rear arches/seatbelt mountings - a common mud trap from underneath rots out the seatbelt mounts, can be hard to spot without lifting the carpet which is likely to be glued down.
Boot floor/rear cross member - lift the carpet and soundproofing out the back, with the seats folded forwards. The rear cross-member is fairly well hidden by the bumper and chassis but the end can be sen easily from underneath. Checked for bodged repairs and rot.
Mechanicals;
Engine - these are good for about 120K miles before they start to need a refresh of timing chain and cam. Assuming good oil changes. Check inside the oil filler for black sludge, with a torch you can see the rockers. Dip the engine too and check the oil here. Lack of oil changes kills the Rover V8's.
Gearbox - Auto, dip the box and check to make sure the oil looks clean and doesn't smell burnt, manually shift through all gears and check the torque converter locks up at 55mph (3.9). Manuals check that the gears engage properly and without being clunky.
Transfer box - on a manual transfer box check that the difflock and low ratio engage, the mechanism can seize from lack of use. With a borgwarner box turn on full lock on a loose surface to check for scrubbing.
Axles - rust and fatigue on axle to chassis joints. Slop in diffs and leaking diff seals.
Steering box - these leak and the only way to cure it is a recon box.
Bodywork outer - the ally panels are soft and prone to knocks, the doors corrode top and bottom especially where the ally skin meets the steel frame. Rear tailgates rot a lot. look along the bottom inside the shut of the lower tailgate and around the top frame.
Interior - check the heater blower works, the resistor can be a pain to change. Seats are easy to replace, as are carpets, they often appear on auction sites and forums. Head linings sag, replacements are sold by nationwide trims. You can also retrim one yourself.
I'm sure there are a 1001 things I've forgotten here but as a brief summery I hope it's OK
I'll try and highlight the issues you should look for when buying one broken down into sections.
Bodywork;
The outer bodywork, with exception of the bonnet and tailgate's, are made of alloy. They still corrode but can look a lot better than the problems hiding underneath.
Headlight boxes/inner wings/front body mounts - check for rust and holes especially near the bulkhead and the inner wings.
Footwells - lift the drivers and passenger carpets up, look at the very front corners and also a along the fold of the bulkhead. Leaks and dirt trapped on the outer wings causes issues here.
Sills - check both underneath and inside the car, two body mounts each side front and back of the sills should be checked for rust too.
Rear arches/seatbelt mountings - a common mud trap from underneath rots out the seatbelt mounts, can be hard to spot without lifting the carpet which is likely to be glued down.
Boot floor/rear cross member - lift the carpet and soundproofing out the back, with the seats folded forwards. The rear cross-member is fairly well hidden by the bumper and chassis but the end can be sen easily from underneath. Checked for bodged repairs and rot.
Mechanicals;
Engine - these are good for about 120K miles before they start to need a refresh of timing chain and cam. Assuming good oil changes. Check inside the oil filler for black sludge, with a torch you can see the rockers. Dip the engine too and check the oil here. Lack of oil changes kills the Rover V8's.
Gearbox - Auto, dip the box and check to make sure the oil looks clean and doesn't smell burnt, manually shift through all gears and check the torque converter locks up at 55mph (3.9). Manuals check that the gears engage properly and without being clunky.
Transfer box - on a manual transfer box check that the difflock and low ratio engage, the mechanism can seize from lack of use. With a borgwarner box turn on full lock on a loose surface to check for scrubbing.
Axles - rust and fatigue on axle to chassis joints. Slop in diffs and leaking diff seals.
Steering box - these leak and the only way to cure it is a recon box.
Bodywork outer - the ally panels are soft and prone to knocks, the doors corrode top and bottom especially where the ally skin meets the steel frame. Rear tailgates rot a lot. look along the bottom inside the shut of the lower tailgate and around the top frame.
Interior - check the heater blower works, the resistor can be a pain to change. Seats are easy to replace, as are carpets, they often appear on auction sites and forums. Head linings sag, replacements are sold by nationwide trims. You can also retrim one yourself.
I'm sure there are a 1001 things I've forgotten here but as a brief summery I hope it's OK
I am not knocking the classic would still love one but, I went looking for one as an interim measure but coolant find one that wasn't rusty as hell no matter how much in was prepared to spend.
In the end in went for an early l322 ( p38 too risky ) that had fish and just had a gearbox rebuild ( the most major fault) that has been flawless was about 9k now probably worth about 8k
Phib
In the end in went for an early l322 ( p38 too risky ) that had fish and just had a gearbox rebuild ( the most major fault) that has been flawless was about 9k now probably worth about 8k
Phib
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