Hello everyone, I’m new to this forum ,just registered.... obviously I have an issue with my LR2 2007 auto: I’ve got home tonight and when turn off the engine I’ve heard a tapping sound !!! Very unusual and loud.... looking on forum I’m almost certain that is the throttle body, my question really is if it’s safe to drive to my garage which is 10 mile away?. May thanks

Safe, yes, you cannot do any damage to the car.

There are three possible failure modes:
1) it will fail wide open - great the car will drive as normal.
2) It will fail closed - your stuck as the engine will not start, or may just about tick-over, but will no be driveable.
3) It will fail partially open - car will start but with reduced performance anywhere between 5% and 95% depending on where exactly it is when it failed.

Our died, the AA rammed a screwdriver through it to force it open, and I drove like that for 3 weeks until I had the time to replace it. Tangiers Orange - gone, missing her
Replaced by Ewok what a mistake - now a happy Disco Sport owner

I believe that the main job of the throttle body on a diesel is to help stop the engine when you switch off. 3 x FL1 2 manual + 1 auto
5 x FL2 4 manual + 1 auto
Now Discovery Sport P250 MHEV SE

When my one failed, I bought a new one but laziness prevented me from fitting it straight away! I even took it on holiday with me when we went to the Peak District for a week in case there were any problems. Did about 750 miles in a week with no ptoblems and eventually fitted it a week or two after I got home. Past: FL2 TD4 HSE Auto
Evoque SD4 Dynamic Lux Auto
Present: Audi A3 S Line.

Mine was not giving too much grief when I changed it but why wait until it dies completely as at the time it only cost £100 for the part and nothing to fit FL2 MY10 TD4 GS traded in at 2 years
FL2 MY13 TD4 GS Current

Mine, from silent to embassingly noisy was pretty instant. I imagine a a couple of worn teeth allowed reasonably normal operation until the day it tripped up and stripped them all.

Are you suggesting that a perfectly functional part should be binned and replaced just in case?

It’s called preventative maintenance and as practiced by good engineers, I happened to be trained by that old fashioned school but I retained the old unit to slip on to sell it to you.  FL2 MY10 TD4 GS traded in at 2 years
FL2 MY13 TD4 GS Current

Unless you have a main dealer accepting your knackered parts and selling them on then clearly that is not what happened at all now is it.

Preventative maintenance is great... replace time limited parts and consumable before they reach the end of their prescribed service life. Nothing wrong with that but, "Oh look, my throttle body is working perfectly, I'd better change it" stretches the bounds of credibility somewhat. Your parts bill for unnecessary parts must be simply enormous.

It

See I was brought up as a maintenance engineer so Bob has my vote on this.

It's about cost, if a factory stops production for 30 minutes it could cost hundreds of thousands (think JLR) or if they fail to deliver then the penalty clause is more than a weeks production profit (think delivering bread to Tesco or any other large retailer), so replace it before it fails does become your mantra. Even more important if YOUR life depends on it (think going for a drive in the desert).

Closer to home I am a contractor, if the car fails to start I loose £200 a day, several days and you loose the contract - there is always someone waiting in the wings ready to replace you. So preventative maintenance is a way of life, unless of course you don't intend to drive through the desert, or you have another vehicle waiting in the wings, or you work for a government body where it is relatively difficult to get rid of someone just because they miss a couple of days.

One of the many reasons for driving a Land Rover - when the weather does eventually turn bad I can get the 40 miles to work, even if those who live 4 miles away can't.

PS the Freelander ALWAYS got me to work. Tangiers Orange - gone, missing her
Replaced by Ewok what a mistake - now a happy Disco Sport owner

HappyNomad wrote:

. Your parts bill for unnecessary parts must be simply enormous. It

The question of 'maintenance' against 'replace on failure', as well as the cost of holding sufficient spares, has been an 'engineering' versus 'finance department' war for a long time.

Add to this say, the cost of training personnel to component level, versus that to just change out whole units, and then tools, etc, etc.

Getting the answer wrong is often known as the 'price of non-conformance'.

From an engineering point of view, when taking on a new maintenance contract, this needs to be calculated using a lot of previous experience and understanding of the product and its parts.

If you run any type of engineering establishment you will be used to trying to nail down this equation and getting the funding to allow the contract to proceed.

In my experience there is not a perfect answer, it is a case by case decision, especially as you have to also please the customer ----- which is Ourselves. FL2 XS SD4 Auto 2010 2012-2017 (21k - 91k miles) (MY2011)
FL2 Metropolis SD4 Auto 2014 2017- (16k - 77k+ miles) (MY2015)
Metro in its 11th Year of (Extended) LR Warranty / Full LR Service History
(Expensive, but Trouble/Worry free - hopefully?)

Yorky Bob wrote:

HappyNomad wrote:

. Your parts bill for unnecessary parts must be simply enormous. It

My spreadsheet covering all serviceing, all parts, oils, batteries and tyres for my car for the last 7 years is at less than £2 per day and my car is only going 6,000 miles before a oil change or much more. The Haldex was serviced by Bell amongst all that and every oil was changed in year 4 as going to 10 years is anathema. As I have not borrowed money to buy and run the vehicle any extra indulgence is quite affordable. The car has let me down twice, egr valve and jockey pulley for ancillary belt and the cost of sorting it out is included in that daily cost.

What has yours fully cost you to include running costs, breakdowns any extended warranties and finance charges over a similar period ? I did 5 year apprenticeship at the top end of the trade did you ? If you did your opinion may hold water but if not do not lecture to others what is necessary or not please. My throttle body was changed well in advance of failure once it rattled once, not when it was destroyed leaving family stuck far from home and that’s exactly the basis for good pre thought out maintenance.

So effectively, your throttle body had announced its imminent failure before you changed it. You did imply that you routinely replace parts by way of planned preventative maintenance but clearly, changing a part that has audibly announced its imminent failure is reactive maintenance. A difference somebody of your evidently vast skills may be expected to recognise.

Happily my car, bought outright, as are all of my cars, has never let me down. It has been main dealer serviced according to the schedule and beyond normal wear and tear consumables, It has had three - yes just the three new parts during my ownership -

a wheel bearing that was replaced as soon as it was confirmed as a wheel bearing and not a diff bearing (Bell Engineering) - I knew I should have changed all four and the diff long before that failure manifested itself.

a door lock that I apparently should have replaced well before it suddenly stopped working and

a leaking brake light that I should have fixed with a tube of bathroom sealant according to a very learned five years at the top the trade expert.

Does buying a shiny new genuine LR key fob casing count as poor preventative maintenance Mr Expert?

The cost of owning and operating my car is entirely a matter for me... nothing whatsoever to do with you in any way, shape or form but in reality, I have no idea beyond saying it has to date cost me relatively little for its type. No extended warranty, no finance, no really costly failures you see. Just running costs, servicing and consumables plus the three new parts above. Oh, and soon a new battery which probably counts as a consumable rather than a part. Life is far too short to worry to the nth degree about the cost of owning a car but happily I don't have to. Cars cost so live with it - if it needs fixing, just fix it and move on.

The rest of your post is the normal rude rubbish you seem to excel at. You really can't imagine just how little I care about your claimed expertise, your £2 per day analysis or whether or not my opinion counts for anything as far as you are concerned. If anyone is guilty of lecturing anybody, may I respectfully suggest you look inwards before attempting to transfer you own rather unpleasant trait to me.

Happily there are decent and helpful people here. Your input to any question I may ask really isn't required.

Now, I wonder if I can use bathroom sealant on my head gasket or to repair a puncture. Worth a try if the experts routinely use it for car repairs eh

Happy New Year  FL2 MY10 TD4 GS traded in at 2 years
FL2 MY13 TD4 GS Current