I've had my SDV6 for 4 months now, from new, and the electrical faults/problems have started, some within the first few weeks. I know I should take in to the dealer but I know they will say they cannot find a fault.

I get Gearbox fault, Transmission Fault, Suspension Fault, Reduced Performance, the screen doe's not always come on and the wing mirrors do not always return back to normal position after reversing. Most of the error messages you can still drive with but the reduced power requires you to stop, switch off and lock the car for a couple of minutes then restart and it is fine again.

I changed my '08 HST because it was always going in for similar problems, along with others, only to be told "we couldn't find any problems but we have cleared all of the error messages"

4 years on and they still haven't got the Sport sorted.

We spend a lot of money on these vehicles and I expect better quality and reliability.

I really like Range Rover Sports but cannot put up with the problems and the hassle of returning the car all of the time, so may end up changing for something else, but what?

Are any modern cars better or is it something we need to get used to due to the amount of electrics in a car and the lack of a proper wiring loom?

I think you just have a bad one. Problem is the most simple of things with modern cars can be difficult to trace due to the complexity of systems.

Was your built Friday morning? Mike

2014 Facelift Discovery

Absolutely ridiculous. Sorry to hear you are having problems. Change the dealer probably? Vadim A.

Hi,

I heard a story similar to this at my stealers the other day.

Turned out to be a trapped wire in the loom under the dash.

Snag only happened if the dash flexed and caused the wire to rub/short out. Change of dash loom sorted it.

It might be worth getting your dealer to really prosecute the snag and not be fobbed off.

Scrumps Somerset - Where the apples do grow and the cider do flow!
2021 Defender 90 D250 HSE in Tasman with white roof.
24MY D300 AB - Verasine Blue - 😀
19MY SDV6 AB - Byron Blue - Gone
17MY D5 SDV6 HSE - Firenze Red - Gone
16MY SDV6 AB -Aruba Silver - Gone
13.5MY SDV6 "HSE Black" - Baltic Blue - Gone
10MY TDV8 HSE Galway Green - Gone
14MY D4 HSE in Scotia Grey - Gone
05 TD5 D90 CSW in Cairns Blue

Foxy had this problem with her 11 plate sport too, she also had a problem with the battery terminals not tight enough which caused all the lights to light up on the dash and reduced performance to the point where it stopped. Take it straight back to the stealer. No better still, next time it happens, call out L/R assist that way if it has to go into the dealer for repair you will get a like for like courtesy car, if you just take it back to the stealer you will end up with whatever they have kicking around which might no be suitable for your needs. But i think this sounds like a friday afternoon car mse, not friday morning.

Thank you for your replies.

There should be no such thing as a Friday afternoon car these days.

The trouble with calling LR Assist out or taking it to a dealer is that as soon as the car is switched off and restarted the fault has gone, then you are told "We couldn't find anything wrong. When it does it again bring it back for us to check again"

Are there any good dealers in Birmingham? I have not heard any good reports about any of them.

When you spend 60K on a vehicle this shouldn't happen.

Thank you Andrew

It will of logged a fault code in the ecu so L/R will be able to identify the problem through this.

Did you buy it new? Reject the vehicle. 2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed

Ady 555 wrote:

Foxy had this problem with her 11 plate sport too, she also had a problem with the battery terminals not tight enough which caused all the lights to light up on the dash and reduced performance to the point where it stopped. Take it straight back to the stealer. No better still, next time it happens, call out L/R assist that way if it has to go into the dealer for repair you will get a like for like courtesy car, if you just take it back to the stealer you will end up with whatever they have kicking around which might no be suitable for your needs. But i think this sounds like a friday afternoon car mse, not friday morning.

They dont work many Friday afternoons though although i think they are at the moment Mike

2014 Facelift Discovery

ARHRRS wrote:

Thank you for your replies.

There should be no such thing as a Friday afternoon car these days.

The trouble with calling LR Assist out or taking it to a dealer is that as soon as the car is switched off and restarted the fault has gone, then you are told "We couldn't find anything wrong. When it does it again bring it back for us to check again"

Are there any good dealers in Birmingham? I have not heard any good reports about any of them.

When you spend 60K on a vehicle this shouldn't happen.

Thank you Andrew

As mentioned above, get L/R Assistance to recover the car next time it happens.
The dealer will be under more pressure from L/R to fix as they have strict recovery targets (so I was told by a dealer. You'll also be put in a comparable car.

Agree, it's not right, but problems occur, for me, its not all about the problem, but how quickly it's resolved that can often give you a good/bad perspective on things.  ON THE WAY: BMW F21 M140i
MERCEDES GL350 - Metallic Navy Blue w/Grey interior

GOING: BMW F31 335D MSport+ xDrive Touring
GONE: Land Rover Discovery 4 HSE - Stornaway Grey w/Black Interior (wish we'd kept it )
GONE: BMW F10 520D MSport - Carbon Black
GONE:MY12 RRS SDV6 HSE Sumatra/Ivory/Grand Black Privacy glass

I think that as cars become more complex, resulting in many reasons why things don't work, dealership will struggle more and more to find faults.

Diagnosis via a computer and clearing faults without finding and fixing the root cause of the problem is akin to doctoring x-rays to hide a fracture rather than putting a cast on, the problem will likely come back.

As for whether this is only a Land Rover issue ? A friend of mine has had ongoing issues with his mercedes not wanting to start, £200 for a new key-fob made no difference, next step is £800 for a dash strip down and more parts, but no clear indication whether this will actually fix the problem.

IMO, dealers (and manufacturers) should be more focussed on fixing a problem and accepting responsibility for the increasing complexity, rather than asking the customer to pay for infinite workshop £120 hours of labour until the problem is finally found. In the example above, where the key wasn't the fix, there should be a full refund to the customer for example. But that's not good for the bottom line in an industry that appears on paper to be struggling to survive.

And I don't think you should pay for a diagnosis and fault-clear, this takes no skills whatsoever, my mum could do it. 

"Roads ? Where we're going there are no roads." Back to the future.

Totally agree - As earlier post's including mine have mentioned, the tiniest of faults eg a trapped wire or rubbing wire, can cause serious issues and given the miles of cables etc - its so easy for everyone to experience a different fault cause by different systems interacting in the wrong way.

Unfortunately there isnt a simple answer - other than good cable management and routing, monitoring etc but when x system relies on y being good within tiny margins, problems are always going to occur when the systems are out. Mike

2014 Facelift Discovery

These machines have computer code akin to products from Microsoft.

It's worth trying a 'hard reset' - disconnect the battery for at least 30 seconds then reconnect. Unless its a bare wire type of physical fault it might clear it.

^^^^ I wouldn't be trying that on a new motor