Buying a D3

[curiouslyso]

Hi All

I'm new to the group and my name is Vivian. I have recently discovered 4WD and love it. I'm considering purchasing a D3 2008 turbo diesel but the trouble is most of them have done more than 200,000 k's. Is is ok to buy car in this condition for example is the engine built to last a lot longer? Or will it start to cost me heaps? I love the cars but my budget sort of restricts me, I would love to hear your experiences and opinions. I also would love your recommendations.

Thanks in advance.

Vivian

[AnD3rew]

Hi All

I'm new to the group and my name is Vivian. I have recently discovered 4WD and love it. I'm considering purchasing a D3 2008 turbo diesel but the trouble is most of them have done more than 200,000 k's. Is is ok to buy car in this condition for example is the engine built to last a lot longer? Or will it start to cost me heaps? I love the cars but my budget sort of restricts me, I would love to hear your experiences and opinions. I also would love your recommendations.

Thanks in advance.

Vivian

Lots of people here will have smart advice for you. There are lots of D3 s on here with those kinds of kms, but having said that thats getting up there, you need to make sure the price is commensurate with the high kms. You will need to make sure that at those Kays it has had the transmission oil flushed at least onece, preferably twice and has the steel transmission pan, it should also have had the timing belts and the coolant pump housing changed at about 160,000kms from memory.

I would also like to see it haveIng had the air compressor replaced with the newer model.

Also get the front lower control arms checked for wear. And if the shock absorbers haven't been replaced they will be in the way out and that can be a fairly costly excercise in these cars as it is a toss up between paying the labour for the fiddly job of replacing just the shocks which sit inside the airbags, or paying the money to replace the whole shock and airbag unit but less for the labour for the simpler job.

Make sure you take it to a mechanic familiar with these cars to check it before you buy it.

[Discoagogo]

For what it's worth I bought a MY05 petrol. I shied away from diesel for several reasons based on what I'd read mainly to do with the time intervals between belts and casting failures on oil pump housing and tming belt tensioners. I have done 60 k on the v6 engine with no troubles but the vehicles ARE expensive to maintain ( undercarriage bushes and drive shaft 4k fitted by dealer is just one example) plus they do have some very odd foibles such as dirty brake light switch causing suspension failure or blown stop lamp causing transmission to drop into safety mode ( have had both). When I bought mine a mechanic told me it would be the best vehicle I'd driven and he was right I'm happy with the car great to drive and tow but dear to maintain, buy one if you can afford it.

[rar110]

I've bought a landy with high km. So I'm ok with that kind of vehicle. Price is the obvious attraction. There are some reasonable deals out there. Younger vehicles are better than older ones as it's likely such a car has done more HW km which has lower impact on a vehicle. You can pick up a 07-09 D3 for low $20k. Some have even paid less.

However, you need to be careful. A properly serviced, maintained and looked after vehicle with higher km is an ok risk. The interior condition is a good indicator of previous owners attitude to looking after a car IMHO.

Any D3, even a low km vehicle without a complete service history and an inspection that shows a heap of stuff that needs fixing is higher risk IMHO.

[TerryO]

If your only option for maintenance is a LR dealer then it will be expensive to maintain. Just as important as buying the right Disco is finding a good independent mechanic who knows his stuff, this in general will save heaps over the time you will own the vehicle.

Yes there are silly things like brake light bulbs that can occasionally cause issues, so always fit original LR bulbs as they do seem to last longer and it's fairly easy to carry around a couple of spares and a spare brake light switch if your concerned.

There are D3's out there with reasonable low mileage on them, but most are petrols. Unless your planning on doing lots of heavy towing and or you drive daily in heavy city traffic then a V8 petrol because they are often much cheaper to buy can make lots of sense to own. If you drive daily in heavy traffic and or tow a heavy van long distances on a regular basis then fuel costs can be an issue. Driven normally in light traffic or country driving then the V8 is surprisingly economical and depending on what you pay often you will need to do a couple of hundred thousand kilometres before your in front financially with a diesel. Plus most V8's are HSE's.

Another thing to take into account is maintenance costs on a petrol D3 in general is low in comparison to a diesel.

[winaje]

I bought my D3 with full LR service history and a known scrupulous previous owner, it had 310k on it when I bought it. I do everything so far myself. If you can get full service history, PARTICULARLY the 168k service with timing and high pressure fuel pump belts replacement documented, then go for it.

[PeterOZ]

The question in my view would be what sort of kms has it done? If mainly all city driving then it may not have had a lot of rough work. Though stop start is not ideal either.

Agree with others in that they are very expensive to maintain so do find find a very good mechanic who knows them. Here in Brisbane there are a couple of good indies who are muich chepaer then the dealers who will rob you blind.

If you can do a few basic things yourself then even better.

If as you say budget is tight then really do your research as the Discos will chew cash very fast in repairs and maintenance.

[PhilipA]

Why not have a talk to British off Road at Forest Glen . They are your nearest Specialist and will have a lot of experience with D3s. They may even have one to sell to you.LOL .

In any case you should get them or another specialist to thoroughly check any car you think you love. It will be well worth the $2-300 they will probably charge.

My personal opinion is that older D3s are a bit of a wallet risk due to their complexity, and ability to throw computer based wobblies.

It depends on your ability to handle possible outlays in the low thousands if something does go wrong, what I call contingent liability.

There is no doubt that they are loved by owners, But sometimes love can be blind if you go by the money they have spent on them.

I speak from not being a D3 owner but being exposed to lots of them in the Range Rover Club of NSW. Being an Old Fart, I prefer my D2 .

Regards Philip A

[jon3950]

There is no doubt that they are loved by owners, But sometimes love can be blind if you go by the money they have spent on them.

I speak from not being a D3 owner but being exposed to lots of them in the Range Rover Club of NSW. Being an Old Fart, I prefer my D2 .

Interesting. I found 5 years of D2 ownership to be a lot more expensive than 5 years of D3 ownership.

Cheers,
Jon

[AnD3rew]

Interesting. I found 5 years of D2 ownership to be a lot more expensive than 5 years of D3 ownership.

Cheers,
Jon

Yep I sold my D2 the minute the warranty ran out because if I had been paying for all the repairs it had under warranty it would have cost me many thousands. My D3 on the other hand I have had for 6 years.

[PhilipA]

Turbo's replaced due smoke that issue never came back
Front end vibration Fixed with a whole host of new front end parts and steering wheel
GPS Antenna replaced
Rear Shocks and airbags replaced at 50k (lots of towing with a big van) warranty.
Oil consumpstion monitored settled down ok uses very little now



This is Mowog's recent post on D4. How much do you reckon to fix if it was out of warranty. Turbos=mucho thousands, Front end vibration= thousands, GPS antenna=hundreds going by LR prices, shocks and airbags= thousand or so

The other big issue is whether the transmission fluid has been changed and when on a 200KK car. This is the big one at $7-9K.

What about lower control arms, compressor, shocks, airbags, timing belt change/breaking block, possible bearing failure through no tangs, various engine limp home needing reboot.( I don't know where this leads as 2 D3/D4 did this over Christmas on a club trip,) 19 inch tyre price and fragility ( so get 17s). Rear diffs failures seem to be increasing also.

To me the safest one to get would be a low K V6 S with coil springs from a contingent liability point of view. Second probably a V8 with low Ks, preferably under 80K.( although I would probably weaken if a nice V8 came along)
That is just my opinion and probably what I would do now that fuel is down and I have done the lap twice so range is not such an issue.
Regards Philip A

[TerryO]

I speak from not being a D3 owner but being exposed to lots of them in the Range Rover Club of NSW. Being an Old Fart, I prefer my D2 .

Regards Philip A


The last time I was out with the RRC of NSW near Lithgow I had to tow another members D2a with a broken diff up the steep hill it broke its diff on and then out to the road, so he could get it home.

I did this in my good old diesel D3.

My D2a has cost me just as much, if not more, to maintain as the D3 and both have done similar miles, horses for courses I reckon.

If I had to choose either the D2 or the D3 the D3 would win hands down every time.

While I prefer a V8 D3 or D4 over a diesel D3/4, I don't mind admitting the diesel is in many situations a better thing all round, just not when it comes time to fix something.