Well I suppose this is now part one of this little DIY series on my Range Rove L322. I very much look forward to reading your comments on this one and figuring out the next steps!
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I Tried to Fix my Range Rover Myself and FAILED (L322 DIY)
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Bella is quite fitting, lovely content Lucy. Love from the west coast, United States! x
Change the other side. In case it goes the same way. At least you then have one strong one. Definitely soak the rusty one in plusgas let it soak in for a while before trying to remove it
Your lower tailgate looks to be of an earlier generation L322 rather than 2010 facelift as it has no damper bracket. You also look to have the wrong strap to replace it with because it’s supposed to have a knuckle on it to pick up the damper. You will probably find it will need cutting out and the captive nut will come away inside the light cluster so we need a bit of work to fix. It’s a common problem. My current one has the same issue so when I replace the straps, I had to take the light cluster out and put the bolt back on under the light cluster.
Nobody likes a rusty hole
Best cars to drive, worst to own
Penatrating oil
Soak it in WD40 , take light cluster off not a hard job clean all the rust area up get some anti rust paint & I would put a metal plate in the inside of the cluster to strengthen
This is a bit of constructive advice and not critiscism.
As an ex mechanic myself, taking short cuts is never a good idea. There's no short fix to this and ultimately the longer you leave it the further the rust is going to spread.
You know that you are going to have to spend money to have it fixed properly and that's not going to be a DIY job. The P38 Range Rovers before the L322 were the same with rusty tailgates and Land Rover never really improved from there. The fact that one side has got that bad to me is a bit odd. Perhaps there has already been repairs to the opposite side at some stage too, or accident damage etc. I think the clue is with the plug connector under the floor mat being disconnected which was stopping the tailgate from opening. I think that's a second hand tailgate. It's a common place to rust where the lugs and straps connect. The rubber boots are there to stop water getting in but I think they actually do bugger all and in fact allow water to sit there. Someone below said about taking the light clusters out which is a good idea and check the state of the metal behind them. To repair the rust properly, the clusters are going to have to come out anyway so you might aswell have a look behind them now.
Now you know this, I would strongly suggest that you take all the wheelarch liners out and check behind them for corrosion, especially where the lower sills meet the wheelarches. Take all protective covers off the sill and clean the sills properly. The sill covers allow the dirt etc to sit there and the moisture gets in and the dirt etc starts eating away at the metal from the inside out and you don't see it until it's too late.
Whoever diagnosed the switch has no clue what they are doing. I wouldn't go there again. Looking at a wiring diagram would have showed that there was a connector into the main harness and they should then have done checks between the connector under the boot mat and the switch end of the harness. That would have revealed to them that the connector was unplugged.
You’re also missing the damper that fits onto the ball stud at the end of the cable fixing and lower tailgate, part number LRO17455. And the correct cable strap with the ball stud on is LR017461.
Not got a clue. Cheap crap tools don’t help.
You're in danger of rounding that nut off, however penetrating fluid then get some heat on it to expand the metal and break the rust bond.
Use the fully round end of the spanner on it, use a tube over the top for more leverage – remember your physics? – but be prepared that grinding it off maybe the only way.
If any of that works you then need to work out why that area is so wet..
Hi Lucy, two options here. 1. Get an angle grinder and a metal cutting blade and cut the ball off the end so you can get a shallow socked on the nut and 2. Get a pair of footprint pliers. (Mini stilsons) and try those with an extension of some sort. I'm a plumber so I use my top hat box spanner for extra leverage. I often end up using my plumbing tools to fix my Bentley! 🙂 best of luck
Still think "Ange" is the one.. rAnge Rover