Range Rover V8  Timing Chain Replacement

Background

Jaguar developed a high-feature V8 engine called the AJV8 in the early 2020. The Land Rover variation is called the AJ-V8 Gen III, and it's a 5.0 liter V8. It's used in:

2009–2015 Land Rover Range Rover Sport

2009–2022 Land Rover Range Rover Sport Supercharged

2015–2022 Land Rover Range Rover Sport SVR

2009–2014 Land Rover Range Rover

2009–2021 Land Rover Range Rover Supercharged

As it is in such widespread use, its weak spots are well-known, and proven solutions have been developed to address them. Having worked in hundreds of them, we at CarHavn EuroTech know them very well. The Range Rover V8 engine does has two well known weak points:

- The cooling system

- The timing chains

The cooling system's expected failures come from the water pump, the thermostat, and many of the plastic pipes that live under the intake manifold. They are made of plastic, and they naturally have an expected life of about 70K miles. We always recommend replacing them before that milestone.

The Issue

The timing chains suffer from a common issue: the recommended oil service interval is 10K miles, which is absolutely insane for a hot, big V8 engine. Extended oil service intervals impact the plastic guides, the links in the chain, and the tensioners.

Like a fine Swiss watch, your engine has a precise internal mechanism where the power generated in the pistons is transmitter to the camshafts. The timing chain job is to transfer that power to the crankshaft, which turns the transmission. This needs to happen very precisely, as the engine turns approximately 500-7000 times a minute.

Even though timing chains were supposed to be lifetime, reality has shown that they need to be replaced in the Land Rover V8 engine as early as 70K miles, and every 100K miles thereafter. The reason is a combination of design choices, materials, and the horrible recommendation to change oil every 10K miles.

The most common condition is a stretched chain due to timing chain guides made of plastic material prone to premature failure. With excessive slack, a timing chain is very dangerous, as it risks getting out of sync and destroying the engine internally.

Symptoms

A failing timing system has some specific signature symptoms in this engine.

• Rattling or whine in the timing chain area
• Elongated crank times (sometimes)
• A Check Engine Light on (sometimes)
• Diagnostic Trouble Codes set in the car's computer (sometimes)

Repair

This is a major repair that needs a highly-trained Land Rover mechanic, very specific high quality parts, specialist and expensive tools, and a laptop to perform final adjustments.

We use exclusively Land Rover original parts for this delicate job.

CarHavn has completed hundreds of Land Rover V8 timing chain jobs successfully!

Additional Work

When doing the timing chain, a number of parts need to come out. We always advise our guests to take advantage of the opportunity to save on labor, and upgrade parts like: water pump, thermostat, drive belts, coils, and spark plugs, oil filter housing gasket, valve cover gasket. These can be done for the parts price alone, or minimal additional labor.

Result

A smooth running Land Rover V8. All of our customers can feel the difference in the way the car drives, but most importantly, you will be avoiding the high and expensive risk of a massive mechanical event in your engine.