Hi - can you experts help me? We've only had our 65,000 mile 57 plate FL2 for a few months and are very happy with it - apart from a smell of gear oil (?) in the cabin when doing three point turns or reversing for a bit, especially on gravel or even more so in deepish snow. Everything seems to work fine. Should I be worried or...???

manual or auto  rainy-city
xs

Sorry, manual.

Any signs under the car where its parked of an oil leak anywhere?

no - been keeping an eye out for that. I wondered if it might be some sort of breather tube type problem, but I am deeply ignorant this being my first 4x4. Just wondered if anyone else had experienced similar?

hows the clutch possably a bit of clutch slip as you say its when the gear train is under more strain than going at a steady speed in a straight line or may be a breather hose come off from the g/box or rear axle  rainy-city
xs

Might be worth checking the battery box cover, if thats not aligned correctly fumes can enter the cabin through there.

Re seating the battery box improved mine but its still there sometimes so might be something else.

Jon Freelander 2, 2014 Dynamic SD4 Santorini Black

Thanks for the suggestions so far. Battery box seems fine. As I say, it's only seems to be noticeable with things like reversing, tight turning etc. Anyone else any ideas??

Grasping at straws here....are you sure the smell is not diesel exhaust? You seem to get it when reversing so any gap in door seals or open windows and the fumes will come in. John
07 HSE Narvick Black
Land Rover Series One
Triumph Rocket 111 (sadly gone!)

Yes, I'm sure it's not. Only time I've smelt this particular pong before was years ago when I decided to rebuild the gear box of my old Lotus Elan (that's another story for another time...).
Thought I might have got an answer along the lines of "yeah they all do that" but looking increasingly unlikely; horror of horrors, I may even have to ask a LR dealership to have a look....