Expensive semi-synthetic oil was dripping from the bottom of the engine

It’s been a topsy-turvy month in the life of our Range Rover Sport. As well as its normal day-to-day duties of lugging my photographic kit to various shoots, it also transported me off on a well earned break to the Yorkshire coast. Here the Rangey came into its own, covering the dull motorway miles with ease, then, with the auto ’box switched to Sport mode, relishing the challenge of minor roads. It even returned a healthy 28mpg along the way.

Upon returning home the odometer was showing just under 15,000 miles, meaning it was time to book the Range Rover in for its first service. Due to work commitments the earliest convenient slot was almost a week later, on a Saturday morning, so after a few more busy days BF58 finally arrived at Marshall in Peterborough 646 miles over the allotted mileage.

While the service was being carried out I had the use of a courtesy Land Rover Discovery, but by midday I was back to collect the Rangey and pay the bill of £327.76 (over a third of which was for 8.5 litres of Shell Helix semi-synthetic oil). With fuel and plenty of washer fluid being the only other costs the car has incurred to date, this doesn’t seem too high a price to pay for 15,000 miles of luxury 4x4 motoring.

Happy that the service had been done, I carried on with my weekend – viewing houses. All went well until around 3 o’clock on the Sunday afternoon, when the oil light started to flicker on the dashboard. Okay, I thought to myself, maybe it just needs a top-up. Luckily I was right next to a Halfords, so I pulled into the car park. Getting out I thought I’d just have a quick look to see if anything was obviously wrong. It was. Expensive semi-synthetic oil was dripping from the bottom of the engine.

As I was around 70 miles from home, I decided a call to Land Rover Assistance would be the best option. They suggested it would be wise to have the car recovered back to the dealer who serviced it. On a weekday this wouldn’t have proved too traumatic, but it was Sunday so the dealership was closed, and to further complicate matters I needed to be mobile by 5am the next day to get to a photo shoot.

After several more phone calls we managed to arrange a hire car to be delivered to my home address, but I still had to get there to sign for it. Over the next few hours a complex sequence of events unfolded to get the Rangey taken away and me delivered back home, but it all came together quite smoothly and by 8pm I was at home with a Fiat Ducato van sitting outside ready and waiting for the following morning.

Returning to pick up the Range Rover a few days later, Marshall put the leak down to a faulty oil filter. Now, I know that any mechanical item can go wrong, but it seems unfortunate that the only problem I’ve had with the car occurred just after it had just been serviced…