For many of us, our car obsession isn’t shared by our significant others. That leaves us out in the garage, busting knuckles and swearing vociferously, all by ourselves. What if, however, your partner was as interested in the cars you love as you are? That’s the case with Christian and Vera Muth from one of my favorite YouTube channels, LR Time.
If you guessed by the name that they work on Land Rovers, you’d be correct. Not only does this guarantee them an essentially endless stream of problems ranging from leaky A-pillars to snapped crankshafts (seriously, the diesel Ford TDV6 has this issue). It also provides many opportunities for hilarious and good-natured bickering with bonus German accents.
Whether it’s Vera’s shocked “Oh my god!” or Christian talking about the latest debacle or cause for divorce, it’s almost always worth a chuckle, and as a bonus, we get to learn something along the way. I can’t comment on the utility of what I’ve learned from watching since, y’know, I’ve never owned a Land Rover, but I’m sure it’s good.
In their most recent series of videos, Christian and Vera have been rebuilding a 3.0-liter diesel V6 engine from an LR4 purchased at a used car lot. While they initially expected a snapped crankshaft, which they’ve dealt with before, what they got was an engine block with a big hole in it. Not ideal.
The original engine block now useless, they then had to find a replacement, and I guess the second-generation TDV6 engines aren’t that common because they had to spend 8,000 Euros on one from a used parts dealer that they still opted to go through and rebuild.
Sure, this is pretty deep nerd stuff, but it’s also good inspiration for getting out in your driveway (even if you can’t convince your partner to join you) and working on whatever questionable old project car you foolishly spent money on.
