Supercharged 5ltr Range Rover Autobiography - 2010 MY
Discussion
I have just bought a Supercharged Range Rover, with just 30k on the clock and it's in immaculate condition. Always wanted one of these.....I love the idea of something that basically resembles a house brick aerodynamically doing 140mph flat out! Has anyone any thoughts/tips on this vehicle? Any advice on reliability or upgrades? Recommended groups or web-sites? Thanks in advance.
www.fullfatrr.com
A lovely bit of kit, I will be back in the big Rangey when I have had my moneys worth out my current RRS supercharged
I put 100k miles on my old 4.4 L322 with few issues, it was a superb daily driver, I just got a deal I couldnt refuse a few years back on the Sport and thought I would give it a try.
A lovely bit of kit, I will be back in the big Rangey when I have had my moneys worth out my current RRS supercharged
I put 100k miles on my old 4.4 L322 with few issues, it was a superb daily driver, I just got a deal I couldnt refuse a few years back on the Sport and thought I would give it a try.
I bought the exact same model/year about 2 years ago, albeit with 90k miles on it now.
Only mechanical issue in that time was a snapped wire on the top of the front driver damper, a common one apparently. Took me 10 mins of googling and 10 mins with a soldering iron to sort out.
The boot tailgate bottom seam on mine is starting to corrode through, again pretty standard, I need to find a bodyshop to sort it out. Oh and some surface rust on the inside of the rear wheel arches where the rear door seals act as a water trap. Quick rub down, rust cure and hammerite has stopped that for now.
And I'm finding that the state of the roads round here have buckled the wheels so it's effected the ride quality a bit.
Other than that 2 services and no other visits to the garage required.
Such a great car to tool around in.
Only mechanical issue in that time was a snapped wire on the top of the front driver damper, a common one apparently. Took me 10 mins of googling and 10 mins with a soldering iron to sort out.
The boot tailgate bottom seam on mine is starting to corrode through, again pretty standard, I need to find a bodyshop to sort it out. Oh and some surface rust on the inside of the rear wheel arches where the rear door seals act as a water trap. Quick rub down, rust cure and hammerite has stopped that for now.
And I'm finding that the state of the roads round here have buckled the wheels so it's effected the ride quality a bit.
Other than that 2 services and no other visits to the garage required.
Such a great car to tool around in.
Well, well. I jinxed it good and proper
Waterpump shat itself tonight. Apparently a common problem on these engines. I've only used the car to do a few short trips over the last couple of months. Tonight did a 30 mile trip on the motorway. When I started the car it warned me that I had low coolant... which I topped up and thought that I should get the pump checked for leaks sometime over the next few weeks.
Anyways, 20 miles of cruising at 90mph on the motorway and I start to hear fanbelt squealing occasionally. Get to about .5 miles from destination and there's steam coming out all around the front of the car. Keep an eye on the temperature gauge and gently nurse it to car park where there's steam virtually pouring out from under all side of the engine cover, with 1 spurt at the back of the engine looking like a stuck kettle on full bore. CAr was NOT sounding good at this point, firing like a diesel.
AA man out, pressure tested, water pissing out of the pump as quick as he could pump it in. Tow truck ordered and carried home. Actually good service from AA tonight, hats off to them.
Once cool the car sounded ok again so hopefully no lasting damage done, the temperature gauge never waivered from centre (I know it's programmed to stay there until it's almost too late ) so I assume it never got to dangerous levels of heat... but I don't think it was far off.
Off to google water pump replacement now to see how bad a job it is. I did the supercharger on my 5.0 S/C jag, so this shouldn't be any more difficult than that. I'll see.
Waterpump shat itself tonight. Apparently a common problem on these engines. I've only used the car to do a few short trips over the last couple of months. Tonight did a 30 mile trip on the motorway. When I started the car it warned me that I had low coolant... which I topped up and thought that I should get the pump checked for leaks sometime over the next few weeks.
Anyways, 20 miles of cruising at 90mph on the motorway and I start to hear fanbelt squealing occasionally. Get to about .5 miles from destination and there's steam coming out all around the front of the car. Keep an eye on the temperature gauge and gently nurse it to car park where there's steam virtually pouring out from under all side of the engine cover, with 1 spurt at the back of the engine looking like a stuck kettle on full bore. CAr was NOT sounding good at this point, firing like a diesel.
AA man out, pressure tested, water pissing out of the pump as quick as he could pump it in. Tow truck ordered and carried home. Actually good service from AA tonight, hats off to them.
Once cool the car sounded ok again so hopefully no lasting damage done, the temperature gauge never waivered from centre (I know it's programmed to stay there until it's almost too late
) so I assume it never got to dangerous levels of heat... but I don't think it was far off.Off to google water pump replacement now to see how bad a job it is. I did the supercharger on my 5.0 S/C jag, so this shouldn't be any more difficult than that. I'll see.
That is very spooky! Water pump went on mine on Wednesday!!
Prior to it failing, I thought I could smell coolant under the bonnet and had topped up the reservoir with half a litre. Like you I thought I would keep an eye on things.....
My wife was driving it and said temp warning light came on. She called me and I told her to drive it home (about a mile). When she got home, steam from under bonnet as you describe. Green Flag guy called and pronunced water pump US. Prior to my getting the car I think it had stood for quite a while, and as I say it's v low mileage for its age, so could be a failure related to low use and me giving it some healthy 'beans' when I first got the car!
Anyhow, have been meaning to fettle engine bay, so doing that now to get off film of coolant that has deposited itself all over the shop!
Let me know how you get on with your water pump swap out. Hope all is well with the engine. Dumb question but, as you look at the engine, where about is the pump located?....
Prior to it failing, I thought I could smell coolant under the bonnet and had topped up the reservoir with half a litre. Like you I thought I would keep an eye on things.....
My wife was driving it and said temp warning light came on. She called me and I told her to drive it home (about a mile). When she got home, steam from under bonnet as you describe. Green Flag guy called and pronunced water pump US. Prior to my getting the car I think it had stood for quite a while, and as I say it's v low mileage for its age, so could be a failure related to low use and me giving it some healthy 'beans' when I first got the car!
Anyhow, have been meaning to fettle engine bay, so doing that now to get off film of coolant that has deposited itself all over the shop!
Let me know how you get on with your water pump swap out. Hope all is well with the engine. Dumb question but, as you look at the engine, where about is the pump located?....
Just spent an hour or so getting the old pump off.
Bit of a PITA job, the pump is situated directly under the air inlet / throttle body / supercharger snout. Removing the air inlet T-piece between the air filter allows you to see it. There's only four bolts (torg bolts) holding it on but it's quite fiddly getting in there especially when the sun is beating down on the back of your head.
As soon as I loosened off the belt the pulley on the water pump was flapping around. With the pump off the car it's evident the bearings on the pulley have totally collapsed, in fact I found five actual ball bearings in the crevices under the pump once it was out. Knowing just how bad the collapse was I'm glad I didn't have any further to go on my journey and it would confirm the belt squealing I was hearing on the motorway was the pump jamming up every so often whilst doing 90+mph
.
I can't find anywhere to get a replacement pump in a hurry so will order the latest version of the pump, the plastic connector that fits on the back of the pump, a new 'o' ring for this, and a new section of coolant outlet pipe as the one in the car is still stuck on the outlet of the pump and will no doubt be buggered when I strip the pump down to have a closer look at it. That'll be about £150 in parts based on searches last night. Then I'll bolt it all back together next week.
Interesting though. The only warning from the car I had that something was amiss was that 1 warning of low coolant last night although thinking about it I may have topped the coolant up 2 weeks ago when I was checking the car over. So I'd lost maybe 3/4 litre of coolant in maybe a couple of of hundred or so miles, but hadn't really thought it that big an issue as that was over a 4 week period. I had thought there was a rumbling/grumbling noise from the engine recently but had put that down to the supercharger... I suppose I should have investigated that noise a bit more thoroughly.
Lesson would be that if your 5.0 supercharged or 5.0 range rover or jaguar engine starts loosing coolant... get the pump checked quick!
As an aside, these engines are actually quite easy to work on. I've now done the supercharger coupler on the jag, and the water pump on the range rover, so I should be self-sufficient in how to fix these engines now. Which will be handy as you can guarantee the water pump on the jag and the supercharger on the range rover will need doing in the next few months!
Bit of a PITA job, the pump is situated directly under the air inlet / throttle body / supercharger snout. Removing the air inlet T-piece between the air filter allows you to see it. There's only four bolts (torg bolts) holding it on but it's quite fiddly getting in there especially when the sun is beating down on the back of your head
.As soon as I loosened off the belt the pulley on the water pump was flapping around. With the pump off the car it's evident the bearings on the pulley have totally collapsed, in fact I found five actual ball bearings in the crevices under the pump once it was out. Knowing just how bad the collapse was I'm glad I didn't have any further to go on my journey and it would confirm the belt squealing I was hearing on the motorway was the pump jamming up every so often whilst doing 90+mph
.I can't find anywhere to get a replacement pump in a hurry so will order the latest version of the pump, the plastic connector that fits on the back of the pump, a new 'o' ring for this, and a new section of coolant outlet pipe as the one in the car is still stuck on the outlet of the pump and will no doubt be buggered when I strip the pump down to have a closer look at it. That'll be about £150 in parts based on searches last night. Then I'll bolt it all back together next week.
Interesting though. The only warning from the car I had that something was amiss was that 1 warning of low coolant last night although thinking about it I may have topped the coolant up 2 weeks ago when I was checking the car over. So I'd lost maybe 3/4 litre of coolant in maybe a couple of of hundred or so miles, but hadn't really thought it that big an issue as that was over a 4 week period. I had thought there was a rumbling/grumbling noise from the engine recently but had put that down to the supercharger... I suppose I should have investigated that noise a bit more thoroughly
.Lesson would be that if your 5.0 supercharged or 5.0 range rover or jaguar engine starts loosing coolant... get the pump checked quick!
As an aside, these engines are actually quite easy to work on. I've now done the supercharger coupler on the jag, and the water pump on the range rover, so I should be self-sufficient in how to fix these engines now. Which will be handy as you can guarantee the water pump on the jag and the supercharger on the range rover will need doing in the next few months!
Piersman2 said:
Just spent an hour or so getting the old pump off.
Bit of a PITA job, the pump is situated directly under the air inlet / throttle body / supercharger snout. Removing the air inlet T-piece between the air filter allows you to see it. There's only four bolts (torg bolts) holding it on but it's quite fiddly getting in there especially when the sun is beating down on the back of your head.
As soon as I loosened off the belt the pulley on the water pump was flapping around. With the pump off the car it's evident the bearings on the pulley have totally collapsed, in fact I found five actual ball bearings in the crevices under the pump once it was out. Knowing just how bad the collapse was I'm glad I didn't have any further to go on my journey and it would confirm the belt squealing I was hearing on the motorway was the pump jamming up every so often whilst doing 90+mph.
I can't find anywhere to get a replacement pump in a hurry so will order the latest version of the pump, the plastic connector that fits on the back of the pump, a new 'o' ring for this, and a new section of coolant outlet pipe as the one in the car is still stuck on the outlet of the pump and will no doubt be buggered when I strip the pump down to have a closer look at it. That'll be about £150 in parts based on searches last night. Then I'll bolt it all back together next week.
Interesting though. The only warning from the car I had that something was amiss was that 1 warning of low coolant last night although thinking about it I may have topped the coolant up 2 weeks ago when I was checking the car over. So I'd lost maybe 3/4 litre of coolant in maybe a couple of of hundred or so miles, but hadn't really thought it that big an issue as that was over a 4 week period. I had thought there was a rumbling/grumbling noise from the engine recently but had put that down to the supercharger... I suppose I should have investigated that noise a bit more thoroughly.
Lesson would be that if your 5.0 supercharged or 5.0 range rover or jaguar engine starts loosing coolant... get the pump checked quick!
As an aside, these engines are actually quite easy to work on. I've now done the supercharger coupler on the jag, and the water pump on the range rover, so I should be self-sufficient in how to fix these engines now. Which will be handy as you can guarantee the water pump on the jag and the supercharger on the range rover will need doing in the next few months!
Very interesting. The failure on my car was v similar to yours - gradual loss of coolant and then failure without any other warning signs. Thanks indeed. Keep us posted!Bit of a PITA job, the pump is situated directly under the air inlet / throttle body / supercharger snout. Removing the air inlet T-piece between the air filter allows you to see it. There's only four bolts (torg bolts) holding it on but it's quite fiddly getting in there especially when the sun is beating down on the back of your head
.As soon as I loosened off the belt the pulley on the water pump was flapping around. With the pump off the car it's evident the bearings on the pulley have totally collapsed, in fact I found five actual ball bearings in the crevices under the pump once it was out. Knowing just how bad the collapse was I'm glad I didn't have any further to go on my journey and it would confirm the belt squealing I was hearing on the motorway was the pump jamming up every so often whilst doing 90+mph
.I can't find anywhere to get a replacement pump in a hurry so will order the latest version of the pump, the plastic connector that fits on the back of the pump, a new 'o' ring for this, and a new section of coolant outlet pipe as the one in the car is still stuck on the outlet of the pump and will no doubt be buggered when I strip the pump down to have a closer look at it. That'll be about £150 in parts based on searches last night. Then I'll bolt it all back together next week.
Interesting though. The only warning from the car I had that something was amiss was that 1 warning of low coolant last night although thinking about it I may have topped the coolant up 2 weeks ago when I was checking the car over. So I'd lost maybe 3/4 litre of coolant in maybe a couple of of hundred or so miles, but hadn't really thought it that big an issue as that was over a 4 week period. I had thought there was a rumbling/grumbling noise from the engine recently but had put that down to the supercharger... I suppose I should have investigated that noise a bit more thoroughly
.Lesson would be that if your 5.0 supercharged or 5.0 range rover or jaguar engine starts loosing coolant... get the pump checked quick!
As an aside, these engines are actually quite easy to work on. I've now done the supercharger coupler on the jag, and the water pump on the range rover, so I should be self-sufficient in how to fix these engines now. Which will be handy as you can guarantee the water pump on the jag and the supercharger on the range rover will need doing in the next few months!
Piersman2 said:
I bought the exact same model/year about 2 years ago, albeit with 90k miles on it now.
Only mechanical issue in that time was a snapped wire on the top of the front driver damper, a common one apparently. Took me 10 mins of googling and 10 mins with a soldering iron to sort out.
The boot tailgate bottom seam on mine is starting to corrode through, again pretty standard, I need to find a bodyshop to sort it out. Oh and some surface rust on the inside of the rear wheel arches where the rear door seals act as a water trap. Quick rub down, rust cure and hammerite has stopped that for now.
And I'm finding that the state of the roads round here have buckled the wheels so it's effected the ride quality a bit.
Other than that 2 services and no other visits to the garage required.
Such a great car to tool around in.
My experience was very similar to this. Loved it.Only mechanical issue in that time was a snapped wire on the top of the front driver damper, a common one apparently. Took me 10 mins of googling and 10 mins with a soldering iron to sort out.
The boot tailgate bottom seam on mine is starting to corrode through, again pretty standard, I need to find a bodyshop to sort it out. Oh and some surface rust on the inside of the rear wheel arches where the rear door seals act as a water trap. Quick rub down, rust cure and hammerite has stopped that for now.
And I'm finding that the state of the roads round here have buckled the wheels so it's effected the ride quality a bit.
Other than that 2 services and no other visits to the garage required.
Such a great car to tool around in.
I spent the last couple of evenings fitting the new pump. As expected a fiddly job the main fly in the ointment being the little plumbing style connector on the new pump being a bit crap as it's not quite the same as the old pump. This caused me about an hours angst this evening and I'm still not sure it's quite right.
However, all back together now, ran the car up this evening to check for any error codes. Nothing reported, which is a bit strange as I haven't topped up any coolant yet. But I'll buy some more tomorrow and get it topped up and up to temperature to check for any leaks.
Thankfully the engine sounded unharmed with the new pump fitted, all smooth and no unpleasant noise, back to the usual sewing machine tappity-tappity.
However, all back together now, ran the car up this evening to check for any error codes. Nothing reported, which is a bit strange as I haven't topped up any coolant yet. But I'll buy some more tomorrow and get it topped up and up to temperature to check for any leaks.
Thankfully the engine sounded unharmed with the new pump fitted, all smooth and no unpleasant noise, back to the usual sewing machine tappity-tappity.
tvrtuscans said:
upgrades
This might have changed on the 12MY - don't know - but look at changing the bolts that secure the rear lights. They have hex heads and with a thin spanner it is possible to undo them while the boot remains closed and locked. Rear light theft is an expensive fix. The details are somewhere on ffrr.com - not sure where though. Did mine as soon as I got the car.
No wonder the little plumbing style connector seemed 'wrong'... I'd pulled out the release collar thinking it was a transit dust cap. 
Took an hour this evening to put things right and fit a properly sealed section of pipe in there.
Topped up coolant and took car for a quick run only the get warning that engine was overheating within 2 miles. Pulled over and popped the bonnet to see the coolant rising up the water tank and overflowing out the top. Hmmm... Thankfully after 5 minutes something 'popped' and then lots of gurgling and the contents of the coolant bottle disappeared back into the engine. I assume there was an air lock of expanding air around the thermostat , which stopped the thermostat opening quickly enough. 5 minutes of hear soak and the thermostats pops open allowing the air to disperse and the water to flow in. It seemed all good after that, drove home and topped up coolant again. I'll take it for a few runs tomorrow to make sure everything is reliable and coolant level stable.
Took an hour this evening to put things right and fit a properly sealed section of pipe in there.
Topped up coolant and took car for a quick run only the get warning that engine was overheating within 2 miles. Pulled over and popped the bonnet to see the coolant rising up the water tank and overflowing out the top. Hmmm... Thankfully after 5 minutes something 'popped' and then lots of gurgling and the contents of the coolant bottle disappeared back into the engine. I assume there was an air lock of expanding air around the thermostat , which stopped the thermostat opening quickly enough. 5 minutes of hear soak and the thermostats pops open allowing the air to disperse and the water to flow in. It seemed all good after that, drove home and topped up coolant again. I'll take it for a few runs tomorrow to make sure everything is reliable and coolant level stable.
My Rangie is now up at my local specialist having a new water pump fitted. Even tho it's v low miles, being a belt and braces kind of person, I am having an oil and filter change, transmission and diff oil change and new battery at the same time. Next will be a geo check at Blackboots - Chesham - Google them!
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