How I restored a Range Rover Sport back to almost factory condition

Spent a total of Rs 2.75 lakh to bring it back to almost new.

BHPian Viraat13 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

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.

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:

1. Land Cruiser 1 (Refreshing a 20-year-old Toyota Land Cruiser 100 series)
2. Land Cruiser 2 (Another Toyota Land Cruiser 100 Series)

Back to the Range Rover!

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

This one is going to be basically 3 sections:

1. General Service, Mechanicals, Electricals
2. Interior, Cosmetics
3. Final Look

The car is almost at 100k kms, so this 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, and 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)

Electrical was not much, just that the rear left indicator wasn't working due to a break in the 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.

Continue reading BHPian Viraat13's restoration for more insights and information.