BE..............................Aware!!!.......
Justin
on 03/04/2016
Comfort Rating: 3
Performance Rating:
3
Interior Rating: 2
Reliability Rating:
1
Safety Rating: 3
Technology Rating:
2
Value Rating: 1
Possibly......No....... (it is) The worst vehicle I've ever come in contact with (my wife's truck). Thing was a ticking time bomb from the moment we purchased it. Wished I did more research on it before we bought it. She's always loved Range Rovers. I happened to be looking around on craigslist (probably the reason it was such a lemon to begin with) when I came across this nice 2001 HSE in (what seemed to be) good condition, with 110,000 miles on the odometer. Test drive (of course) went good. Truck started right up, shifted smooth, had plenty of power (thanks to that gas guzzling 4.6 V8), rode a little stiff but figured that was do to the air suspension and low profile tires. All seemed well, so we bought it and took it home. Maybe an hour goes by after its been parked from not being registered yet. Come outside and the front driver's side of the truck is dropped to the floor. Low and behold that infamous Range Rover air suspension (that I now know about). I should've been more worried about the up arrow (indicating an issue with the air suspension) on the cluster being illuminated but the fool (me being more of a fool) who sold it to us says "I think it means its fully lifted". So I look around online and see that the air bags are pretty cheap and somewhat easy to fix. They also refill and lift the truck after its running so I don't worry too much. I'll just do them myself when I have some time. About two weeks later, we drive the truck up to my father's house for a visit (1h 50m drive). All went well until it was time to go home. Started it up to let it warm up for a few minutes, then it randomly shuts down. Try to start it back up and nothing. It cranks but never fires. A couple minutes go by and it starts, but maybe 30 seconds later it shuts down again. At this point my wife is fed up with this thing since we just got it. I do a quick search on the forums and describe the issue. Crank position sensor is the culprit. We have it towed to a local mechanic my father goes to and luckily it was a pretty easy fix. All seems well again until the following weekend when the Mrs. goes out to the city with some friends. I get a call and she says "the truck shut down, is in the middle of the street and is smoking very bad". Now I'm completely pissed and ready to take this truck to a junkyard and get to crush it myself. I asked her if she noticed the temp gauge over in the red zone and she said "yes". Now I'm more worried since she doesn't know how long it was overheating before it shut down on her. She rarely pays attention to her gauges while driving. Her mother just so happened to be meeting up with her at the event her and her friends were going to so she wasn't alone since mom was nearby. A gentleman was walking by and helped pushed the truck off to the side of the road. Luckily she wasn't on the highway anymore but on a busy city street. After the smoke somewhat cleared he reveled one of the top radiator hoses came loose and popped off. I'm still home at this point since she said shes going to leave it where it is and her and mom are going to head to the event. Next day comes and we drive to where the truck is. I get the hose back together, fill the radiator with some antifreeze and we start on our way home. Not long after, its starts overheating again. I'll skip ahead since this story is already long enough. We eventually get it home from NY (we're in NJ) after repeatedly pulling over and stopping to let it cool off and refill. First thing I notice after getting it home is there is a huge hole in the Y connector pipe connecting two upper radiator hoses down to the lower radiator hose that also connects to the external thermostat housing (first design I've ever seen like that but whatever). Hole was more than likely a result from overheating. Anyways, get that replaced. Still overheating. Replace the thermostat, still overheating. Replaced the water pump (which was surprisingly easy), still overheating. I even go as far as drilling out the thermostat (from within the ridiculous housing that doesn't let you replace it the normal way) and running it straight open and the b**** is still overheating. All that trial and error and the head gasket was the cause from the beginning (which caused it to initially overheat and pop that hose loose). Antifreeze level was always good and wasn't leaking but hey I guess s*** happens, haha. All in all, maybe we just so happened to get a lemon and you'd never have those same issues. But after owning it and doing some extensive research, the bad faaaaaaaar outweigh the good with this truck. I remember one person even saying "It should be illegal to sell this thing". Sorry for the long story. I just wouldn't want anyone else to make the same mistake. If anything, buy one new and get a full lifetime warranty because apparently even the new ones are a big pain in the arse as well. You and your dealer will become very acquainted. Hope this story helps. ~peace~
VIN SALPM16471A447366 may have been
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