The Rover-Landers of BC

Hi All

I am looking for anyone that has had good and bad experiences with Duncan Goodchild at Landroverimport.
I initially started positive with Duncan but have since realized how he really operates.
Would like to hear your feedback before I commence small court action against him in the UK and launch an investigation on how he is importing vehicles through Canada Customs.

I will reserve my comments publicly until all the facts are gathered so please do not ask me to expand on my experience. if you message me your phone number I can call you to discuss privately. my emails is [email protected]

Thanks
Chris

Hey Chris, sorry to hear about your troubles, judging by your tag line I presume you don't mean "blown 300 tdi" in a good way. :cry:

I (Vancouver Island) have a 110 Defender with a 300tdi imported at the same time (roughly) as Chris's. Although the vehicle was a little rough around the edges, the engine, gearbox etc. have performed flawlessly, and I have put around 10K on it in since February and am extremely pleased with it's performance with the exception of the steering box, which was brand new but has developed a leak. At this time Duncan and I are working that out. He has sent me a seal kit along with numerous other parts the vehicle needed, at no charge.

Duncan is very unresponsive via email which is the only viable way to get hold of him so that can be a very frustrating issue.

I am happy to respond to any inquiries regarding the above or my experiences with Duncan and Landroverimport.com

Stephen Ford
250-390-9231
[email protected]

Here is how it looks.

Professional diagnosis;

What was supposed to be rebuilt 300TDi is a whole lot of smoke and mirrors.
Number 3 cylinder threw a bearing on the connecting rod and spewed metal throughout the bottom end. Engine coolant is disappearing via a cracked block or head. Appears to have been like this for a while judging by the extraordinary amount of rust in the expansion tank.
Engine was painted with with awful gold flake paint on various components in some cases on dirty parts, to appear like it was rebuilt and clean.
Less than 350KM when it experienced catastrophic failure.
Duncan has offered to replace head gasket or ship engine to the UK for his own assessment.....all the caveats I did not heed has bit me in the ass.

He also absolves himself and his engine rebuild source by placing blame on me in continuing to run engine when it had overheated and was difficult to restart.

Time to start my campaign!

If anyone wants feedback on customer service and integrity with Duncan or landrover import please do not hesitate to contact me.

BUYER BEWARE

I would also post this on the d-90.com forum. I bet there will be a lot of guy's from the states that might have the same issues with him.

Good luck with the case!

I would also post this on the d-90.com forum. I bet there will be a lot of guy's from the states that might have the same issues with him.

Good luck with the case!

skeena river rover wrote:I would also post this on the d-90.com forum. I bet there will be a lot of guy's from the states that might have the same issues with him.

Good luck with the case!

I have connected with a few people contemplating a purchase from Duncan. Hopefully I have saved their money, and more importantly from the headache and stress this causes.

I am just waiting to get back to the UK on business so I can launch a small claims action.

He is obviously peddling more junk in the U.S.

Yep i have seen his name came by several times! Good luck with the settlement? Keep us posted on this subject!

Here are some reasons for the catastrophic failure of my engine.
Turbo unit - looks like it was used as a gravel crusher!
http://i1243.photobucket.com/albums/gg5 ... 00tdi7.jpg

A couple of inches of mud at the bottom of the radiator
http://i1243.photobucket.com/albums/gg5 ... 00tdi9.jpg

Waterpump...and coolant reservoir...look at the rusty sludge.
http://i1243.photobucket.com/albums/gg5 ... 0tdi10.jpg
http://i1243.photobucket.com/albums/gg5 ... 00tdi4.jpg

and this was supposed to be a fresh rebuild??????[/img]

Hi there,

I bought an Isuzu diesel engine with LR adaptor kit from Landroverimport back in 2010. It was a former disaster.
Paid 5K for "told to be great running engine" (that included shipping and custom taxes.)
Engine came completely blown, including leaky turbo, worn out injection pump, dead starter. No help from seller. Spent another 3K (rebuild kit+new starter+injection pump+turbo rebuild kit+injector rebuild kit).
Pics are available here:
http://design-engine.ca/vehicles/Diesel/
Rebuild diary:
http://design-engine.ca/vehicles/Diesel/Rebuild/

Thanks,

Roman
[email protected]

well this has taken some time to compile as a response so as to make sure i get the facts right...... but here goes.

i supplied chris with a land rover defender, originally camel trophy.
he complained that the engine smoked and leaked oil so i agreed to send him another engine and even come and fit it.
i picked the land rover up, and could not make it smoke no matter what i tried to do. i removed the engine, traced the oil leak to the oil drain plug. roverlanders own cory paulger can attest to this.
chris told me he didnt think the engine was rebuilt so the head was removed to find nice fresh cylinder bores. this engine is now sitting with stephen ford as a spare for his tdi 110 i built him or conversion for a discovery should he need it.

the latest engine was one bought from a reputable builder..... and after fitting it i heard nothing from chris till i got an email. i wont copy the whole email here but here are the facts from it in his own words......( i can post the whole email if requested.)

pulled over when the engine was pushing higher temp than normal and rattling a little under load, found expansion tank bubbling and oil low
let it cool and added oil
went to restart and it would not turn fast enough to fire engine
had a fellow help me push start it and all seemed fine so drove on
a few KM later engine noise, blue/gray smoke and engine shaking so pulled over to the shoulder.....

subsequent emails determined that the amount of oil added (7/8 quart, 0.82 liters) was what should have taken the oil level past full on the dipstick however it was still not there, meaning the oil level was below the minimum mark when oil was added. particularly at highway speeds this can be detrimental to an engine as you can imagine.
so, why is chris saying i did not warranty this engine ? well not just to do with the oil, though that gives me an indication of what checks were carried out before doing this trip in the vehicle. it is more that after the engine overheated and would not restart chris took it on himself to force it to do so.
That said, i did offer to pay to ship the engine back and look into what the problems were and fix them with him being responsible for costs if it was apparent he was at fault, however he demanded i pay for it to be fixed by his own choice of shop which i was not prepared to do.
he then threatened court action against me and my subcontractors (i was happy for him to take me to court and happy to give him any details he needed to do so)
this is all documented in emails between us along with his next email that demanded that i pay $6000 for work he had done on it or he would post his version of things all over the internet. quite frankly i would rather he take me court......

to comment on the pictures....
the turbo compressor wheel breakage looks fresh to me, it was certainly not that way when it was fitted so something has been sucked into it.
the 'sludge' in the radiator.... well it was a new radiator and a rebuilt engine that was bare and will have been flushed out during the rebuild process. even if it had not been flushed out how can an engine have enough sludge in it to fill the bottom of a radiator to 3 inches ?


its easy to sling mud, and if you sling enough then some will stick.
in short, out of many hundreds of customers over the years i can count only a few who have encountered problems that were not sorted to their satisfaction.
Roman had a complaint about his engine after warranty had expired, in this case again i offered to send parts to remedy the problems, even though there was no warranty, the posts were removed from roverlanders where he expressed his complaints at that time and i heard nothing from him till now.

Duncan,

I sent you a request for head gasket via Gmail a while ago and never heard back from you. If needed, i have it in my "sent" folder.
Yes, I have implanted the engine 3 months after receiving it which waived the warranty. This, however, does not change the fact that the engine's condition was hugely misrepresented.
For 8K i sank into the engine to this day I could have bought Delica or some other decent running diesel vehicle. Instead, i'm driving a "temp" beater for over 2 years. My Rover has NEVER been insured or driven since beginning of conversion - still sitting on my friend's property, b/c that freaking replacement chinese pump won't fit the engine well now.
I'm not looking for any settlement - will be happy if other customers will get better service.

Regards

roman, i did not get an email from you, i did have problems with my website email and eventually changed to gmail. this could be why.
what is it you need to sort out with the pump ?
i will see if i can help with it.....
email is [email protected]

I expected such commitment back then. Now it's rater late in my case

Boys, Boys, Boys, Let's all try and play nice.

Roman, Duncan, Chris, Stephen and Cory as well, I can't help but notice none of you are actually Rover-Lander's this year, come on boys we'd love to have you all in the fold. I'm sure a little hug fest between members in good standing would help to resolve a lot of this discord. :)