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-   -   Restoration of a 2012 Range Rover Sport (L320) | Back to (almost) Factory Condition (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/technical-stuff/260604-restoration-2012-range-rover-sport-l320-back-almost-factory-condition.html)

Hello Team,

Back again with yet another SUV that needed some love after a decade of running or so.

And no, it isn't another Land Cruiser, although it was a close call between this and another LC. :D

The RR wasn't posted earlier because of the car in front of it:


I also had this lovely LX470 Cygnus (left) in for work around the same time, but we'll save that for another thread


This one is going to be relatively shorter than my usual mid-life refresh threads:

• Land Cruiser 1
• Land Cruiser 2

Back to the Range Rover!

The signature headlight with the prominent DRLs looking all sorts of faded and underwhelming:



This one is going to be basically 3 sections:

• General Service, Mechanicals, Electricals
• Interior, Cosmetics
• Final Look

The car is almost at 100k kms, so this much maintenance is not extraordinary.

General Service

I tend to use Mobil 1 ESP 5w30 in a number of applications because while it may not have all the manufacturer approvals, it is a very suitable oil for cars with DPFs, and I've not had a single DPF error come up in any car with this oil.


The made in USA Mahle filter is not only expensive, but also a massive pain to replace. That explains why most Range Rovers I see have original diesel filters, right from the factory.



Mechanical Work

The most alarming and urgent job was to replace all 4 tyres. This is one of them. Absolutely gone to pieces.

They were replaced with 4 new Pirelli Scorpions.

The next order of business was the braking system. All the pads were worn to nothing, and the owner did complain of frequent brake pad replacements with average pad life under 20,000km right from the first set.

In went Brembo Italy pads, hopefully the better performance of these pads will also result in a longer replacement interval.

Old brake fluid. This is supposed to be clear or with a greenish tinge.


Now we get to the more challenging work... Transmission service, with replacement of transmission oil (naturally), transmission filter, transfer case oil, and differential oil. One would be surprised at how often these tasks are ignored.

ZF 6 speed oil, waiting to go in.


Original ZF transmission pan/filter.


Transfer case fluid, which was not only a challenge to source, but surprisingly expensive (2500+ per litre).


Differential oil.


Things only got progressively harder. The engine mounts on this car are one of the most challenging to install, up there with the Mercedes W253, BMW F15, in terms of difficulty and time taken. No wonder they're so often ignored and left to shake up the entire cabin.

We only had to remove a small section of the chassis, exhaust, and who knows what else to fit these in! It took 2 of my guys over 5 hours to complete the job. These mounts were the OE ones, made by Borg & Beck in the UK.


Less challenging but equally important gearbox mounting (new vs old)



Electricals was not much, just that the rear left indicator wasn't working due to a break in circuit inside the tail light. The tail light had to be opened up for that and it was fixed with some soldering. No photos sadly.

Cosmetics and Interior:

It did need a bit of TLC in terms of cosmetics, but nothing major.

• The two front seats needed leather work
• The head lights were faded and needed to be restored
• Roof lining had sagged and needed to be renewed
• Key shell was completely destroyed and held together with tape
• Broken bumper reflector needed to be replaced
• All 4 wheel center caps were missing
• And finally a complete interior and exterior detailing

The reason this thread got so delayed is that I forgot to click pictures of the interior after the work was done! The photos below are after ~7 months of usage, so please excuse the dirt and hand marks that have already come up.

The seat base of both the front seats had worn out completely. This was replaced with the original shade of leather (imported from the UK), which caused a slight mismatch due to the age but has settled in nicely with some usage. The keen eyed folks will notice a difference in the perforation pattern and density - this is because the perforation was done locally and it wasn't possible to do an exact match.



New roof lining:


Another view of the redone roof lining.


A sneak peak of the restored headlights

Final Look!





The final itemized bill was something like this:

• Key Shell
• Exhaust mounting replacement
• Alignment
• Washing & dry cleaning
• PUC
• Wipers
• Interior and exterior detailing
• Headlight restoration
• Roof lining
• Seats repair (UK leather)
• Tail light indicator repair
• Oil filter
• Air filter
• AC filter
• Diesel filter
• Engine oil Mobil 5w30
• Front and rear disc pad Brembo
• Brake pad sensor
• Power steering oil
• Gear box mounting
• Transmission filter
• Transmission oil
• Engine mounting set
• Differential oil
• 4x4 Transfer case fluid
• Brake fluid
• Wheel caps 4 pc
• Bumper reflector
• Tyres

And I know a lot of you will ask, so... total spend was 2.75 lakhs, with tyres.

I think that's a pretty decent amount for a RR of that vintage, 2.75 big ones. One of my favorite models personally, these look absolutely smashing in darker colors and low profile tyres.

I'm glad to see someone take care of these gentle giants. It's not so uncommon to see older Luxury cars on the road and more often lying at the side of the roads begging for attention. Timely maintenance and a little upkeep (2.75L in this case :coldsweat) goes a long way.

Totally agree - it is a beautiful machine and a delight to see it chugging down the road.
Amazing commitment to spend 2.75L - like they say - beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder ;)

So I guess more than the parts cost and reliability, the difficult to repair/maintain nature of the components and layout causes owners to slack on maintenance.

How would you rate the easiness to work upon the Range Rover vis-a-vis a Land Cruiser of similar vintage? Also the difference of parts costs and availability between the two.

It's a 90L car from 2011, 2.75L on maintenance isn't that big a deal IMO. It's still a first owner car, so for him the value of the vehicle is more than the actual market price.

Difficult to repair nature induces laziness in the service personnel (not owners, how would they know?) who hesitate to recommend the right jobs. Tough jobs are also expensive and I imagine no one wants a grumbling customer escalating to higher ups about the huge bill/estimate when all they asked for was an annual service. rl:

RRs have more complicated electronics while the suspension of the LCs (especially rear) is more complicated than most. The Range Rover also has air suspension, but it didn't need any work. Air suspensions can be problematic too, but so can the Toyota AHC hydraulic systems.

Overall the Toyota's are simpler, but some systems are equally complicated like ABS, AHC.

Availability of good quality spares is fairly poor for both, and customers are always hungry for proper parts, be it Toyota or JLR genuine or from good aftermarket brands.

Thank you Viraat for the lovely threads on restoration. I have a small question. I live in a tier 3 city. My running is super low, approx 5-6k per year. I want to buy a preowned luxury car but the good FNG service unavailability (distance to nearest metro >350 km) prevents me from taking that leap. I would not have thought twice if I was in Delhi or Mumbai.

My question is which brand and specific models would you suggest within the 15L budget which I could consider based on reliability and low maintenance, ease of parts availability etc?

Thank you

Thanks for sharing. Great job on this RR. I absolutely love the colour, gorgeous.

I think you nailed it with the jobs you did, as you mentioned, often overlooked by owners. But when all is said and done, if these are the only jobs that needed doing, everything else, especially all the electronics working you have a really good one here.

RR don’t have a very good reputation on long term reliability with many owners. Lots of niggles apparently. After just over a year of fiddling and sorting out my 1998 Jeep Cherokee I am itching for another car. I have been looking at some RR too. Yours is certainly inspirational.

Jeroen

Excellent thread and the car is looking like new! Great job reviving this beauty. I think this is the best looking Range Rover Sport till date.

I am a bit confused with this photo as the tailgate seems to be from a 2012 updated model where they made it aluminium and removed the split tailgate. As far as I know the 2012 updated model with 8 speed ZF and single tailgate was not sold in India. From the rest of the thread I realised it is the older model with 6 Speed ZF. Has the tailgate been changed or just the Range Rover lettering has been moved to the upper part of the tailgate?

We used the Pirelli Scorpions for 2 years and had a lot of trouble with them. Did not like them at all, so changed all of them to higher profile and sturdier tyres.

Thank you for preserving an icon. Its a lovely RR in an exquisite colour! Superb work and Truly inspirational.

As an owner of a similar-in-age but humbler-in-marque, CBU import, prestige car, all that you have done and shown here, resonates very much with what I have also done over the last 3.5 years of ownership.

These kinds of cars are a labour of love. They demand significant investment of money, time and heart.

If one can’t give freely and lovingly of these three, then best to buy something more mainstream.

Gorgeous restoration! Always good to read your threads.��