What's with all these class-action lawsuits lately? Land Rover was just slapped with one thanks to Attorney Mark Anderson in California who filed suit on behalf of all 2004 and 2005 Land Rover LR3 owners in the state. Turns out that the tires on many of these LR3 SUVs are allegedly wearing unevenly, which causes them to make loud noises when the vehicle is moving. The piece we link to from KGO-TV Channel 7 in the Bay Area highlights the trouble of one man, Lew Colon, whose LR3 developed the noise after only 5,000 miles. After some complaining, Colon got Land Rover to give him three new tires, though he had to pay for the fourth. After another 6,000 miles, however, the tires started to wear unevenly again and the noise returned. At 25,000 miles now, Colon's still on that second set.
Land Rover has issues a technical service bulletin about the abnormal wear with instructions for service technicians to use new suspension settings. It would seem that the company at least acknowledges the rapid and uneven tire wear can be traced back to a flaw in the vehicle's suspension design, but so far it has not issued a recall to fix the problem. In the meantime, Colon and the rest of the LR3 owners in California will be filing suit against the automaker to seek a solution.
Thanks for the tip, Oliver!
[Source: KGO-TV Channel 7]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
mkbruin @ Jan 18th 2007 5:39PM
uneven wear as in 'I am too stupid to rotate my tires on a regular basis (every other oil change)?
or
uneven wear as in 'I am borrowing my front suspension design from a 1997 Exploder, and I have the crappy ball joints to prove it'?
Define 'uneven wear' please. If we are talking about cupping, the manufacturer should not have to waste any time/money/effort battling crap like this.
Guess what everybody, Attorney Mark Anderson in California just added $500 to the cost of every LR sold...
Richard Warren @ Jan 18th 2007 5:40PM
"What's with all these class-action lawsuits lately?"
An attorney with nothing better to do smells money, more money for them, not us.
British_Rover @ Jan 18th 2007 5:46PM
Couple of things...
There are no 2004 MY LR3s as the vehicle launched as a 2005 MY in October of 2004.
The LR3 does not share any parts with an explorer. It is on a unique platform to Land Rover called T5. About the only thing similar between the two is they both have the rear halfshafts running through holes in the rear frame assembly.
The uneven tire wear is for the most part confined to the inside of the rear tires. I haven't seen it on that many LR3s honestly and I think driving style has something to do with it. It is a problem though because I have seen it on a handful of LR3s and in some cases it can be very severe and show up very quickly. Land Rover has the TSB to correct the suspension settings and they have a pro-rated program set up to reimburse people that have had accelerated tire wear. Depending on how many miles you got out of the tires before they need to be replaced they will cover part of the cost.
Michael Karesh @ Jan 18th 2007 5:55PM
One major reason for all the class action lawsuits is that they can be very lucrative for lawyers. One that Honda recently settled netted the lawyers $5.8 million, far above their expenses of $290,000. Pretty good ratio.
Details in this thread I posted at the odyclub.com:
http://www.odyclub.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=36223
Plenty of meat in that forum for people who get off on Honda's transmission problems as well.
epp_b @ Jan 18th 2007 5:58PM
It's American lawsuit which immediately deems it "frivolous".
PJ @ Jan 18th 2007 6:31PM
"Waaah! I bought a 5,500 lb truck and it goes through tires quickly! And it's noisy! Waaah!"
I'm sorry. I realize there are certain expectations when you shell out $40-50K for a new vehicle, and there are multiple sides to every story. But sheesh. This reminds me of the folks who complain when their high-def cell phone/word processor/internet browser/MP3 player/game console goes through batteries... shock... more quickly than their old Nokia brick.
chicagoguy @ Jan 18th 2007 6:37PM
I recently traded in my 2005 LR3 HSE for a 2007 Audi Q7 because of this very problem. I went thru 3 sets of tires in 30k miles, Land Rover customer service was miserible, finally the dealer figure out it was an "alignment issue" and said the truck was fixed, as soon as I started noticing uneven wear on the fourth set and when driving the car people could hardly talk to eachother over the noise I knew it was time to kick the piece of shit to the curb.... very happy with the Audi by the way.
JL @ Jan 18th 2007 6:44PM
Same thing happened on my Nissan 350Z on the front tires. Nissan bought me two sets of tires in 25K miles, but I sensed that they wouldn't pony up for the third set. So I traded the car in on an M3.
Drew @ Jan 18th 2007 6:55PM
JL - you are a crappy driver my friend
Joe @ Jan 18th 2007 8:12PM
Yeah, there was not a 2004 LR3. On a side note, I thought that the Q7 would be a nice replacement for my P.O.S. 2005 LR3 that has been in the shop over 60 days for repairs since I bought it. I am filing a lemon law suit against Land Rover. Yes, their corp. customer service is terrible, but the dealer service has always been pretty good.
Ray @ Jan 18th 2007 11:01PM
Keep in mind the LR3 comes with Goodyear Wrangler HP tires which, in my personal experience, aren't the greatest tires to begin with, good suspention setup or not.
Katie @ Jan 19th 2007 11:15AM
Well I can tell you from experience, this isn't limited to the LR3. I had a 2002 Discovery that the tires cupped horribly. And it was becuase they were Goodyear Wranglers. Horrible tires. I called Land Rover corporate and they conceded that the tires weren't good for the truck but they continued to put them on the Land Rovers anyway. They even told me that Michelin would be a better fit.
But they wouldn't buy me new tires, despite the fact that I had had other cars that I hadn't destroyed the tires on so quickly (so I doubt it was my driving style). I called other Land Rover dealerships to see if they knew of the problem, including the dealership I purchased it from in Hinsdale, IL, and they said they knew from experience that if you put Michelins on the truck, the noise went away and they didn't wear out nearly as fast. It's a combination of crappy tires and the truck. The tires weren't a good fit for the truck.
But on tire sites I've visited, these particular Goodyears had the same problem on other SUVs and vehicles, not limited to the Land Rover. They wear quickly because they're crappy tires.
Brian @ Jan 20th 2007 1:06PM
The Goodyear Wranglers HP are horrible tires! Look at their customer rating on TireRack.com. I got less than 20k out of mine on my 2003 Land Rover Discovery and stopping in the snow and ice is a joke even when they were new.
On my Jeep Wrangler I had Goodyear Wrangler ST's when I got it new. I changed to a Firestone MT and the vehicle drove completely different. Slick roads w/o 4WD and stopping w/o antilock brakes were never a problem.
Tires really make a difference and Goodyear puts out some pretty poor examples of a tire in my mind.
Rene Koesler @ Jan 24th 2007 9:02AM
I hate to burst all of these "Whaaaa" bubbles, but after 2 years, and 22000 miles I have yet to experience any problems with my early 05 LR3 HSE - it's been perfect. The tires show normal wear and have at least 50% tread left with no cupping - after one rotation.
Not so for my Toyota, Mercedes, and BMW....they are POS.
rmaguire @ Apr 16th 2007 6:35PM
I would like to hear from any Canadain Land Rover buyers who are having trouble with tire wear on the LR3. I am at 96,000 and need another set of 4. This will be the 4th set. Let's talk.