I've owned three TDV8 RR Sports and they've all been impeccable, the recent E70 X5 I owned was an absolute money pit so just take these LR horror stories with a pinch of salt. Also worth noting that BMW 3.0d engines are notorious for sucking swirl flaps into the engine with catastrophic results, not to mention those with turbo failure.

The RRS is leagues ahead of its German 4x4 competitors, I've owned them all so I'm qualified to say!

A few mechanics I know from LR dealerships reckon the TDV8 needs regular oil changes to keep them happy; about 7,000 mile intervals.

DiscoMikey may have a view !

Agreed, the early 3.0d X5 engines were notorious for lunching engines via swirl flaps, which is why they were designed out for the later engines.

The 3.5d in the current car is very impressive but the car is nowhere near as heavy as the RRS, and on anything other than perfectly dry tarmac it really is appalling!

It appears that this car I'm picking up on Thursday has has services according to the schedule but I seem to remember one being slightly late. It's only been done recently but I'm going to do it all this weekend anyway and then keep an eye on it.

I may pop it down to my local specialist and enquire about replacing the turbo oil feed pipes.. If its not a massive job, or not too pricey I may get that done. From now on though it will be getting properly looked after!

My TDV8 has been a labour of love but I've still got it after more than 4 years. When it's bad it's a pain but when it's good...

After being wiped with an oily LR dealership rag for most of its life, it now gets serviced by an indie. I just follow the 15k interval but then that's only about 7 months at the moment. To get it changed at 5k would mean it would be in the garage every other month! The benefit of indie servicing for me is that getting the extras done doesn't break the bank. Which means there is no second thought about getting things sorted. I think that's the problem with these vehicles - people run them without wanting to spend the necessary. Buy one of those (as I appear to have done) and you spend time and money getting them right. Got mine with 45k on it and it's just now coming up to 121k. My hope / plan is to get it to 200k. That will depend on whether the engine behaves, of course! Everything else is repairable at reasonable cost; the engine itself isn't. 2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed

ragpicker wrote:

The 3.5d in the current car is very impressive

Hi ragpicker, hope your purchase went well mate.

The way I look at it I paid 12 grand for a 60 grand car (near enough) and i could have bought a new car for that.

If I had done i'd have lost about 6k already (two and a half years on) but instead my old lass has cost me about 2k and most of that was servicing and a new set of boots so it's not bad. I don't know what she's worth to anyone else - I'll have a look but she still looks 12 grands worth to me !

If something really, truly horrible happens the most I can lose is 12k, not a happy prospect but not the end of the world either.

Meanwhile I occasionally get to drive my best mate, smiling (albeit nervously) down the road.

I wish you the same joy.

Nige  2005 RRS HSE Arctic Frost (more like Scotch mist)

"When you are going through Hell - keep going!" Sir W Churchill

Free plumbing advice to fellow sufferers

Nige, really nice to hear a like minded opinion on these things!

So far I've had no problems really. I had to change a parking sensor but that's it. The rest of the fluids etc I've done have been entirely voluntary.

There is something special about these cars. If it blew up and I lost my money it wouldn't be the end of the world at all, and other than a massive failure I'll be happy to pay to keep her on the road in great fettle!

Cheers dude!

Nicely put, welcome to the addition  2008 G4 RRSport TDV8 current
2009 TDCi 90 current
2018 Discovery 5 HSE lux current
1994 Dakar current