[MPx]

I was happily cruising around the Birmingham area on Thursday...started going up a hill, revs pick up a little, car slows down and eventually starts to roll backwards. D doesn't work, R doesn't work, 1 doesn't work. Switch off, wait, switch on again but still no drive. Obviously fubarred so RAC recovery to Stratstone Solihull. Display shows "Gearbox in protect mode".

Car has 78k miles. Has had the front diff work (@60k). Has had the replacement rad and gearbox oil change (@75k).

They will be phoning me on Monday with their view of the damage....what should I expect? Anything I need to know about what they tell me?

 

[MPx]

Did the dealer do the fluid change? They could have put the wrong fluid in?

Yep...It was done by Matfords in Exeter. They'd had the car 3 times with the sticking in gear fault and after searching on here I had to insist that they did the rad and oil change against their advice cos they kept telling me that the diags showed no fault found. It appeared to cure the prob so I was chuffed. No idea what they put in - the invoice says

LSTC4863 Oil - Gearbox 6 £14.12 each £76.25

Is that OK?

 

[MPx]

Don't know which RR you have, year/engine etc. You should fill out your sig...

Sig sorted as requested.....
cheers Mike

 

[MPx]

Finally....after numerous calls and several days of being promised the car would be looked at, Stratstones finally had a look at it this morning, nearly a week after they got it. :evil:



They tell me they've found that the oil cooler and associated pipework are "corroded and leaking" resulting in loss of oil. They have no idea if there has been resultant damage to the gearbox. Prognosis is to change the cooler/pipework, refill with oil, and charge me £500+. They then fire it up and see if it drives. If it doesn't then a new gearbox will be required adding a further £4500+ to the bill. Oh b****r !



Particualarly disappinting if they are right. I had well over £1k worth of work done by Matfords in June which included "replace gearbox oil cooler". Seems unlikely that it should have suffered such serious deterioration in 4 months! Me thinks there's more phone calls to be made!
:naughty:

 

[MPx]

If you just need a UCM/T4 plug in, give me a call. That may give you some sort of pointer towards the fault.

Many thanks for the offer Rich - we'll see! My latest thought is to borrow any sort of LR from Matfords, go and pick up my trailer that's now stuck in the midlands and use it to bring back the Rangey, and for them to sort out the mess. I'm sure the dealers together will think of some reason why that's not possible tho!

 

[MPx]

Useful info, many thanks. Lancashire is a long way away....but £2500 saving buys quite a bit of transport!

 

[MPx]

Finally got to pick up the Rangie today (just the three weeks after it was recovered to Stratstones Solihull) so I thought I'd post up the outcome.

I was told the car would be ready by the evening when I rang for an update on Tuesday afternoon, but today (Friday) was my first chance to do the trip up to Solihull from Somerset to collect. I took our old Jimny up so that I could pick up the trailer I'd been towing when the Rangie broke. Then drove it to Stratstone swapped the Jimny onto the trailer and did over 300 miles towing it back - it all worked fine - Phew! Smile back on chops...

So sequence of diagnosis has been:
Call from Stratstones after they'd had it for a week to say Oil Cooler and Pipes badly corroded and leaking needs replacing for £500+. Didnt know about gearbox condition but would be extra £4500ish if needed.
I called Matford Exeter to confirm that they had replaced the oil cooler in June and how come Stratstones are saying its now duff.
Matford call Stratstones and they agree to send paperwork to support warranty claim.
Matford call me to get my agreement - but I'm not happy(!), I've got a real trust issue. I ask Matford for a tow car so that I can recover the Rangie to them and avoid games with Stratstone. Looks on for a while, but in the end I find it impossible to get insurance cover on any temporary loan vehicle to tow my trailer. Eventually give up and agree to let Strastones do the Cooler under warranty.
I call Stratstone to give them the go ahead.
I call Stratstone for update and get told car will be ready quickly cos only one pipe needed changing and there was no issue with the cooler or gearbox.

Bill lists one pipe (UBP000180) for £37 and six units of oil (STC4863) for £97.44 - total bill £336.02!!

Of course one could interpret this as lucky old me only needing only the least possible repair in the circs. Or one could say that Stratstones got caught out hyping an issue but had to back down when it became a warranty claim cos it would be a bit tricky to substantiate when they had to return the new bits. Whatever, their overall treatment of me (unexpected delays, zero communication, diagnostics, credibility and costs) were all sufficiently dire that I will never return there even if I break down outside their gate.
Shame!