( Warning: lengthy post follows below )

I’ve owned my 2012 TDV8 4.4 for just over a year now. It had 67k on the clock when I acquired it. I’ve added around 10k miles in that time and it’s been a joy to drive.

So, in the interests of helping new FFRR L322 owners, here are my top 3 tips from my first year of ownership:

1.) Service the transmission & suspension as soon as you are able.

With most FFRR’s you’ll likely get some record of routine servicing by the previous owner; as a minimum engine oil & filter. And often this may extend to filters and serpentine belt/idlers. But unless your lucky enough to receive evidence of a full dealership history or a very comprehensive wad of receipts from a good LR Indy it’s likely that maintenance of the suspension and transmission will have been overlooked.

I had the ZF gearbox professionally mega flushed by R&G Autocare in Lancing within the first 3 months of ownership at around 72k miles and it made a subtle yet noticeable difference to the smoothness of the drive. 8 months later I changed the F&R diff oil, transfer box oil and power steering fluid. This further improved the smoothness and also made the drive quieter. In retrospect, had I realised the cumulative effect, I’d have done them earlier and all at the same time. I’d suggest doing these oil/fluid changes immediately to new owners.

I’d also say the same for the suspension. Observation from my ownership and from chatting to a few other owners is that many Fatties “carry” suspension issues and you kinda get acclimatised to them through regular use. After 6 months of driving I “felt” the car was wallowing a bit but it was difficult to know if the suspension setup was out or if I’d just got overly accustomed to the air suspension ride. Using my IID tool I did a ride height and ADS calibration ( thanks to Sam’s Motor and Machine for the YouTube tutorial https://youtu.be/9ot3L4CHPd4 ) and learned that the right rear was 12mm lower than everything else. The calibration reduced the wallowing but it wasn’t until I had a full Hunter 4x4 alignment professionally done by GlenRands at Liphook that the ride really improved. The alignment uncovered wear in various joints and links. Once new parts were fitted ( see point 3 below ) and the suspension was aligned and calibrated to spec it was like driving a different vehicle; the car is now much more “planted” on the road and the handling is more precise. Again, in retrospect, had I realised the benefit of this I’d have had it done as soon as I’d acquired the vehicle.

2.) Exercise all the mechanical functions of the car regularly

Fatties are jam packed with all sorts of moderately complex mechanical and electronic technology………. and 1/2 of it doesn’t get used!

Let’s be honest, mostly we plod up and down A-Roads, dual carriageways and motorways enjoying the “command” driving position and the “wafting along” ride quality of the air suspension, and it’s great. BUT all that mechanical tech underneath us is atrophying away until a puff of smoke or a clunk becomes the harbinger of a rather large repair invoice.

I’ve learned in the last year that if you engage the whole range of mechanical functions regularly the vehicle seems to improve overall. So, for example, I always drop down to access height on parking, under height barriers or in multi-stories just to utilise the suspension linkage range. Similarly, at the first sign of a rough county road, country car park, or deep puddle and I’m up to off-road height for the same reason.

I also engage low ratio to get in/out of my driveway as I find it gives better power control when manoeuvring at low speed ( access for the Fatty is tight where I am ) BUT after the transmission oil service mentioned above, I realised you can drive in low ratio up to around 30 mph. I tried this for 1 or 2 miles though town and to my surprise found that this noticeably improved smoothness of gear changes in normal range as well. I’m guessing that the transfer box does much more under the covers than is apparent.

Lastly, we come to the Auxiliary turbo; the boyish joy of dropping a 2 & 3/4 tonne vehicle into sport mode and booting the accelerator on a slip road whilst watching a rather astonished hatch back boy racer vanish into the distance of the rear view mirror never really looses it’s appeal does it ! ( be honest ) BUT when you glance down at the speedo after a few moments you do tend to fear for the preservation of your driving license! So, I’ve learned to exercise the Aux turbo by using the Command Shift paddles to drop the Fatty down through the box so that I can activate the Aux Turbo at 50 MPH on an open A road. I tend to do this once every week or so to keep the internals moving and lubed….. so far no puffs of smoke so all is well.

3.) Budget for a repairs disaster fund

I’ve owned several prestige vehicles previously, including my first all wheel drive which was an Evoque. All of these I considered “posh cars” and figured that as long as you kept the basic routine servicing up together things would run smoothly…… and so it proved. When I was commuting I covered between 60 to 80k miles in each of these vehicles with ownership periods of between 3 and 5 years and all ran smoothly with basic routine maintenance.

With the FFRR I’ve realised I didn’t simply buy a “posh car”; I bought a fairly complex piece of machinery which needs preemptive maintenance to it’s functional components to keep them working reliably. Also, due to the complexity, some jobs just take a lot of hours labour to do; so the expense is greater even if you use a good LR Indy.

In the first three to four months of ownership I spent my service budget on some necessary stuff that I knew about from the post purchase health check, some wise recommendations I learned of on here such as the gear box Mega Flush and some indulgences such as Dinitrol underseal and retro fitting Apple CarPlay that I could have put off until next year but justified to myself as the car was to be “a keeper”…….. and then the suspension maintenance came along and all of a sudden I have a bill which is 2x all the the other things in one go!

Next year’s maintenance budget is 3x what I’ve spent this year and, as my retirement allows more time, I plan to do much more of the routine tasks myself as well as having a to-do list logged with GlenRands for some of the more complex technical tasks that I don’t have the space, tools or expertise to do at home.

Bottom line is that maintaining a Fatty is imperative for reliable motoring and so recognise it’s mechanical complexity when working out your budget….. it’s going to cost more than you think! TDV8 4.4 2012

Great write up and I agree on all points
Reminds me - need to do my ride height calibration at the weekend  2011 4.4 TDV8 Vogue SE Buckingham Blue with Ivory and clear glass = "Rory"
New Defender D300 90 on order so "Rory" will be going to a new home....!
1974 Series 3 Lightweight = "Millie"
My preferred specialist: www.glenrands.co.uk
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Thanks. Very interesting. On your point about exercising the full range of mechanical abilities of the car in order to maintain them in working order - that's something I hadn't fully considered. Would be interested to know how you came to that conclusion. Aside from the suspension ride height most of us probably don't use many of the other ride options available but assume they should work if ever needed. The low ratio gears at upto 30mph seems a bit of a risk to me but perhaps it's fine. L405 4.4 AB Loire Blue
Tesla Model Y
Audi A6 2012 (sold)
BMW 5 series 3.0 petrol, champagne II edition (sold)

A great write up and thank you for your thoughts. I'm trying to adopt a similar approach with my 2016 L405 (2 months in ownership now!) and have had mega flush and diff oils changed as a preventative measure and 4-wheel alignment. Like the comments made by Bmax01 I hadn't considered using all the features and options to keep them lubed, flexible and in good working order. A good tip as I guess its easy to forget some of the less used options outside your normal day 2 day driving........so I'm now off to press all my knobs and buttons now!!

Enjoyed reading this and I agree entirely, thank you for taking the time to share

The way I see it is like preventative and proactive maintenance +.

For example I am currently steadily accumulating all the parts required for a total rear suspension refresh. All bushes, nuts, washer and associated parts - including rear subframe. (Thank you @Joe90 for your write-ups… )

The rear knuckle bushes need doing so common sense tells me to do all other bushes. And then tackle the front.

You either keep and run a FFRR properly, or you don’t. 2012 4.4 TDV8 Westminster - Baltic Blue, Jet interior
1997 P38 2.5 DSE auto & 1998 P38 2.5 DT Manual
1988 Vogue 3.5 EFI - Manual, gone.
2004 Volvo C70 2.0T convertible, had since new.
2007 Mazda MX-5 2.0 Sport Roadster/Coupé, had since new.
2024 Mini Cooper S cabrio, JCW kit, 2.0, DCT auto

Great post. If you're an AA member, also worth taking their breakdown repair insurance cover, T&Cs apply, but I've used it a few times and other than for brake pipes, they've paid out which helps for those more expensive items, air struts, alternators etc. Worth a look for those older cars out of warranty FWIW.

Also used it on a MK7 Golf GTI when the water pump housing failed, they all do that sir...

This is an excellent article with a lot of helpful advice. As a FFRR owner since January, this makes perfect sense. I bought a 53k mile 2 owner car. Previous owner maintained the car himself and while I have receipts for parts, I don't have exact mileage when they were fitted but he covered 18k in 6 years and so even one mid term oil change would probably have been fine but i suspect it was done every other year or 6k miles. I also have receipts for a battery and starter motor and my garage confirmed serpentine belts, tensioners and waterpump have been changed. It was very clearly a very cared for car but I decided to get diff oils and transfer box fluid done and underseal applied. Car is just approaching 57k and I plan to get the gearbox flush done by 60k more because it probably has the original 2012 oil in it. Will change the engine oil and filter too.
My tuppence worth would be definitely look for a cared for car with history and the lowest miles you can get. I know these cars are capable of stellar mileages and so the mileage one is least important.

On the AA point, I took advantage of their half price offer and bought family cover and took the maintenance cover on the Rangie. It seems like a no brainer and very reasonable. Sadly in 12 months they will want full price but presumably if you cancel you can rejoin a week later as a new customer again?

On the other hand......
If you don't need things like the low gear ratio, Off road height, sunroof, 2nd turbo - don't risk a failure by using them unnecessarily.
Replacing every worn or nearly worn part can easily cost a fortune and they will run surprisingly well as a 'running repair'.
The best bit of help with running one of these is to live near to a good indy specialist. 2012 TDV8 Vogue (L322)

Bmax01 wrote:

On your point about exercising the full range of mechanical abilities of the car in order to maintain them in working order - that's something I hadn't fully considered. Would be interested to know how you came to that conclusion.

TDV8_Tommy wrote:

The way I see it is like preventative and proactive maintenance +.

For example I am currently steadily accumulating all the parts required for a total rear suspension refresh. All bushes, nuts, washer and associated parts - including rear subframe. (Thank you @Joe90 for your write-ups… )

The rear knuckle bushes need doing so common sense tells me to do all other bushes. And then tackle the front.

You either keep and run a FFRR properly, or you don’t.

JayGee wrote:

On the other hand......

Replacing every worn or nearly worn part can easily cost a fortune and they will run surprisingly well as a 'running repair'.
The best bit of help with running one of these is to live near to a good indy specialist.

JayGee wrote:

On the other hand......
If you don't need things like the low gear ratio, Off road height, sunroof, 2nd turbo - don't risk a failure by using them unnecessarily.
Replacing every worn or nearly worn part can easily cost a fortune and they will run surprisingly well as a 'running repair'.
The best bit of help with running one of these is to live near to a good indy specialist.

I have a lot of sympathy with this, but keep them in reserve for the bigger jobs mostly, that has worked out okay thus far & with the AA breakdown repair insurance as a back up for when the, hits the fan. Only one actual breakdown and recovery, brake pipe failure while parked, in very nearly three years. Fair play car.

Bloke wrote:

Also used it on a MK7 Golf GTI when the water pump housing failed, they all do that sir...

This is an extremely useful write-up for a buyer looking to purchase their first L322. Many thanks!

Thank you, pleased to know it’s been useful. I am already keeping notes for my year 2 write up. TDV8 4.4 2012