Hi I recently bought a LR2 i6 automatic and am very happy with it (especially as it only costs 1 pound per gallon for petrol here in the UAE ).

I recently tried it on the sand after deflating tyres and selecting sand mode. Everything was going well despite the sand being very soft and deep in places (as you'd expect in the dessert) however after maybe a mile or so the engine lost power, and started to idle, then cut out altogether and would not start as if the battery was low. Information on screen stated "Reduced Engine Performance"..... which was very true! After a few mins it started and ran perfectly however then the same thing happened again and then again. I reached some harder sand and changed mode to general driving and then headed to the nearest main road. There was been no problem since de-selecting sand mode and I drove home over one hundred miles without any trouble at all.

Does any one have any ideas as to what the problem could be? Would it be ok to drive on tarmac in sand mode to see if the problem re-occured? Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated

you will get no sympathies here until you take that paragraph about cheap petrol out of your post

May sand flies invade your bed and the stink of a 1000 camels permate your armpits for ever  At work
At home

"I can't always believe facts I read on the web" - Charles Dickens

winner by default of the tractor vs caravan race

If I could pay a £1 a gallon I am damn sure it wouldn't run right.

Paul

could it be due to the high rev's keeping the car moving in the sand, and turbo overheating of something?

The Terrain Response sand setting only sets up the timings for changing gear, dsc and things like that, so i can't see how the error message only comes on in that mode, but the cars can be the strangest of thing

Sand setting should be ok on tarmac, though they don't advice it for prolonged and hard driving periods

(they do demo how the car can set off quicker in sand mode on the LRE) Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

It sounds very familiar to similar engine problems reported here in other threads in the past - except for the sand driving part. I seem to recall Alex explaining something about the exhaust or fuel mixes not being right under load (which sand driving definitely does). Perhaps you need a dealer to check the computer for error codes - Perhaps Alex can help also?

That was about the quality of fuel and the fact that the engine ECU automatically adjust the spark advance in order to accomodate any type of fuel and not ping/detonate.

In his case, switching to sand mode, made the box to change at higher engine RPM positions.
This, combined with higher temperatures in his country and the increased resistence/stress of a fine and deep sand, lead, in my opinion, to an increased engine/autobox temperature.
Maybe something wasn't right and the engine ECU took the decission to idle the engine and then stop it.
Then the engine/autobox cools down, starts and the cycle repeats.
Take into consideration that on very high temperatures the engine ECU is reducing further the ignition advance in order for the engine to not ping. And reducing advance will translate in a "reduced performance"...
Or maybe it was an error on some component at that higher temperature.
And maybe all these were combined with the fact that DSC/TC saw some wheel(s) slip and reduced the engine torque/output to reduce slip up to the point where combined with the sand drag/resistance the engine stalled. Look in the LR off-road driving book where it says that on soft sand/slippery surfaces maybe is better to switch off the DSC in order to maintain momentum.
Who knows...
But the advice of reading the error codes is a good advice. For sure it has some error codes stored as long as it clearly stated on the dash "Reduced Engine Performance".

Thank you ALL for the relplies, I intend to get it serviced soon so will get the problem looked at then by the main dealer here (Al Tayer). Yeah petrol is cheap here but they want 55 quid for replacement wiper blades and 500 quid for a standard service! its not all good.....