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Seized TDV6 Engine.

T

Taff Smith

In Third Gear
Last week my 2015 Discovery 4 engine seized without warning on the A1 just east of Melton Mowbray, I bought it 18 months ago from Inchcape in York along with three years extended warranty. The engine seized with no warning and no indications from the oil light. I just managed to pull off and in the process nearly was run down by an 18wheeler, I am lucky to be alive.
The engine had 53,000 miles from new, and because I missed a 15,000 mile service 3000 miles ago the extended warranty from Car Car has been voided ( my reason Corvid 19 and out of the country).
When I bought the vehicle it was 28 months from new, L/R will not help and the vehicle (lets say is worth £26k ) is beyond economic repair at £19k for a replacement with no guarantee of it not happening again.
On finding your site I could not believe this is a common problem and a subject of a L/R Service bulletin for incorrect bottom end assembly!
Forget about the cheap ducking and diving at L/R like some spiv selling ties on a street corner, this catastrophic failure nearly killed me, if you have a TDV6 engine think very carefully about who gets in it with you!!

Taff
 
19k for a replacement! They're pulling your chain. Try NWS near whitchurch in Shropshire they rebuild them and either get them to do the lot or find an independent specialist to do the remove refit. Still won't be cheap but a damn site less than 19k!!
 
These do replacement engines .but reading up on them as you say doesn’t guarantee it won’t happen again seems to be a problem with them ...if not maintained properly ? Plus fitting service doesn’t sound bad .
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Sold my disco tdv6 at 150k and it never missed a beat. I would probably buy another too. But was it luck of the draw or good maintenance routines? I think probably the former as the tdv6 is well known for having a weak bottom end but I went in with my eyes open knowing I have the skills to dig myself out of trouble if the thing went bang. Unfortunately that's not an option for most so its a 3k emergency budget!
 
Thanks for the information guys, Land Rover have told me that going over the service period may well have contributed to the failure, does this mean that going past the 15,000 period by 3000 miles the engine could blow up? Can't remember the salesman at Inchcape telling me that??
 
15000 is already too long in my opinion, and it could vary depending on use. Manufacturers have been pushing them out further all the time in the name of the environment. I did mine myself at around 8k intervals.

Not saying the extra milage caused it but another 3000 on top of an already extended interval isn't going to help things, especially if an engine uses a bit of oil..which is normal, and it's not checked.
 
I have the TDV6 engine in my 2014 Ford Territory. Service intervals are 15000kms(9320miles)

I have 96000kms on it now and will be doing them every 10000kms now.

I can't believe how long the service interval is on a Disco.
 
In the family we have a ford Ranger pick up with 250,000 miles on the same engine, a six year old BMW X3 with 70,000 miles that has just cost us tyres and services and we have had a succession of Mercedes sprinter vans 3 litre V6 which we dispose of at 200,000 miles. I love my Discovery but its a practical slogger I need not a thoroughbred race horse!
 
If it didnt run short on oil, then what are they saying caused the failure? Sounds like they are using that as an excuse for an existing problem which they should take responsibility for...
Would it be worth getting an engineers report on the failure and pursuing it if the report stated that the failure was down to manufacturing defects? I think I would be tempted to take this further if it was me...
 
Do you know how it siezed? If its a piston in a bore then its temp and water not oil. I seized piston will slow and engine to a stop quickly but once its cool it will turn again even if there is some piston / ring damage. It may run ok but with smoke. If its oil to the bottom end it will start to seize but then may trash itself as the leverage on the bearings is greater. It will probably not turn again and it if does it will make one hell of a racket. Do you know whether its a temp/cylinder seize or a bottom end / oil seize? They are very different, in causes, repairs and costs.
 
Definitely the bottom end has seized, I have written to Inchcape under the 2015 Consumer Act basically saying that they have sold me a vehicle not fit for purpose, it has taken them ten days to respond.
The vehicle is back in Yorkshire at a non franchise garage and I have authorised a replacement engine fit for a nice round total of £10k, this is a Land Rover rebuilt engine with 24 months guarantee, I shall keep my Discovery twelve months and sell it.
It's interesting that L/R have set up their own remanufacture shop at the factory?
When the sump on the "old" engine is removed and the bearing caps taken off I'll send you some pictures, having now done considerable investigation it appears this is a basic design fault, in that the engine is very short with quite thin webs on the crank, this combined with a very efficient top end (high torque and excellent pulling power0 amplifies crank flexing as the bearing tolerances enlarge. Once the movement is enough the unpegged shells rotate, oil holes misalign and bingo the owner wins tonights star prize a £10k debit!!
As a business man all my life I can see that L/R is between rock and a hard place, there are thousands of these engines on the road, there seems to be no correlation between mileage and failure and given the incredible performance of modern synthetic oils no amount of servicing is going to prevent this happening.
Yes I missed a service, yes it's voided my expensive warranty so I'll just suck it up, pay up and keep borrowing my wifes BMW X3!
Come on Land Rover man up and start sorting this problem out!!
The Discovery 4 is a brilliant vehicle with a crap engine!!
This is my last rebuild!
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I like that, "Garrett" and "Detroit Diesel"?
Re Disco - seems to me its a race against time for LR, either the failures come thick and fast and some US you tubers post detailed and damning vidoes that hit sales of the new Defender hard (the US is good at this) or most cars with the problem are sold on by the initial purchaser and the direct liability link to LR is broken. I was working at Fords when they had a lot of bag PR about corrosion; they made a hard nosed decision that they did not need to act because (at that time) 95% of the cars were fleet sales and the fleet owners sold at 4years and the corrosion came though at 5. In their words "we are not in the business of giving better value to used car buyers.." It backfired badly and makers who solved corrosion (principally French and Japanese) took big chunks of sales off them.
 
It's an Ilmore 2.6 ltr engine run on methanol producing just short of 800 hp at 14,000rpm AND its reliable!! which is more than I can say for my Defender trailer tow vehicle I use to get it to the circuit!
 
Just heard from the people fitting my engine (4X$ RCM) that 3ltr TDV6 engines are on back order from the LR factory and there are none in the country! What does that tell you? What a set of clowns!!
 
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