Range Rover and Ranger Rover Sport recalled for fire risks

Land Rover is recalling several model years of the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport along with the 2023 Range Rover V8 to address two issues that may lead to underhood fires. The first (and larger) of the two recalls covers plug-in hybrid variants of the 2018-2022 Range Rover and Range Rover Sport. The second recall covers just a single car — a lone Range Rover — that apparently left the factory without a critical turbo oil drain gasket.

The 2018-2022 PHEV issue is by far the more urgent of the two. Land Rover says 2,300 examples may have shipped with water pumps whose drive belts can become damaged, leading to potential failure of the pump pully. Whether this results in an immediate catastrophic failure of the pump or merely a loss of coolant circulation, the resulting overheating condition can lead to additional problems, up to and including a full-fledged conflagration.

"A concern has been identified on Jaguar Land Rover 4-cylinder petrol PHEV engines where the water pump pully drive belt can become damaged leading to detachment or destruction. Where water pump pully drive is lost, this leads to a loss coolant flow in the engine. The lack of coolant flow can cause the engine to rapidly overheat, and subsequently ruptures an engine mounted plastic elbow in the cooling circuit," Land Rover's defect notice said. "If the coolant elbow is ruptured, this leads to a coolant leak onto the turbocharger heat shield which may lead to a fire in the engine bay which can propagate to the whole vehicle."