6 months of D3 owership

[gasser]

I bought the car second hand from a LR dealer in Sydney with side steps, rear aircon, tints rubber mats and adaptive headlights. Best car I've ever owned and am totally happy with it, with one exception: - is changing a wheel the most frustration filled act in the world? The jack is crap, and trying to get the wheel off the lowering cable is not simple. I hope my wife never has to do this. The only other mystery is the wooly velcro on the front seat belt latches - why?

[peterall]

Gasser...you are spot on about the spare wheel arrangement...it was designed by the same muppet who designed the towbar.:)
As for the wooly velco...that's to stop the centre cubby from being scratched...very important you know. :)
Despite all this, I still love my D3.

[WhiteD3]

Gasser,

See the link below. I bought the jack after getting stuck off road with a locked wheel nut, breaking the wheel brace and watching the distortion in the jack:eek:.

http://www.aulro.com/afvb/d3-zone/52937-new-d3-bottle-jack.html

LR replaced the brace under warranty but I bought a 22mm socket and 450mm wrench to suit anyway. $50 from memory.

Re your Mrs' chances of changing a tyre: If she could get the spare tyre down from its hidyhole, jack the car up (oh, and the Gasweld jack is heavy), get the wheel off, I think she'd struggle getting the spare on, then getting the broken one back up under the car or over the tail gate.:wasntme:

[stevo68]

Awww don't mention the jack.....absaaaaaallooooouutttteelllllllyyyyyy ****ing useless. I'd get another jack....and I will tell you why. Long story short....had a flat......used jack......luckily had spare under rear bar.....jack **** itself.....door handle smacked me on the top of my head and car plummeted to the ground. Nothing like seeing your D3 on the ground, brake discs a centimetre into the gravel. Would have been worse if spare wasn't there.

To top it off.....it did something to the fuel guage reading....so when I thought I had quarter of a tank...I had nothing....car ran out....on a blind corner....at night......100km zone. Nothing like seeing lights zooming up behind, braking, skidding etc. Luckily a mate was with me and snatched me and my family out of harms way.

I won't even start on stripping the release wire 3 times :). Other than that...loved my D3,

Regards

Stevo

[gps-au]

Wife changing wheel ?
Buckley's chance...
That's why I have NRMA membership !

[Neil P]

It's got to be one of the worst wheel-change-experience vehicles
around.

[WhiteD3]

Reminded me of my "experience". Quoting myself in Feb 2008 after a GCLRO trip to Ormeau.........

Stikman's now joined us and I find myself in the lead banging up against big rocks. Clear that and find I've managed to put a rock through the wall of my rear passenger tyre. Said tyre had suffered a puncture late last year reccing a GCLRO trip with Inc and was repaired and put back on by a well-knowing tyre repair company.

We spent an entertaining hour or more possibly, with ten blokes breaking 1 D3 wheel brace (LR tell me this morning they'll replace it under warranty), a tension wrench and later a socket (PM me Stikman with the $$). Using 3 jacks (Yes, I'm out this week to replace the scissor jack) and everyone secretly wishing I could actually afford this D3 and hence was willing to drive outa there on the alloy rim (yes, no one said anything but you were thinking it), we managed to strip the "for show" casing off the nut so it was slipping around the actual wheel nut. Lots of groaning at this stage, I can tell ya!

To the rescue came a Patrol driver with a broken leg (no joke) with an old 4 spoke wheel brace and hammer. Somehow the wheel nut casing came away in the brace, which allowed us to apply a smaller socket on the brace and with the assistance of a hammer and D2 bottle jack (to keep the brace square to the wheel), the nut finally came off.

Had fun that day I can tell ya:mad:

[rmp]

Instead of a socket, get a multi-fit wheelbrace. I have one which can do four nut sizes with two heads, and it extends out a long way for easy leverage.

[boop]

yes Agree have had same problem, broken brace, jack and cant get spare out.

We called LR assist - NRMA he has trouble too.

Wife won't drive car because of it.

She wants to get the Landcruiser because of it's spare wheel.

[Neil P]

There is no need to crunch the hell out of wheel nuts.
Molygrease and reasonable torque is quite sufficient.
Tightening until they squeal is WW2 army crap.
I've not had a wheel attachment problem in 1.5 million km
by using this principle.

[WhiteD3]

See that's where you're wrong Neil. My local tyre shop (unnamed but a haunt for Jeep enthusiast) swears blind that D3's lose wheels so they give 'em an extra crank on the rattle gun.

Actually refused my request not to use the rattle gun until I said I'd take my business elsewhere:D

[Neil P]

Anyone approaching my vehicles with a rattle gun will
get a tyre lever over the head. I stand and watch ........ have done
for 35 years of purchases ........ ;)

I'd like to see the photos of all the crashed D3's with a wheel missing .....
You shouldn't believe 'em TBH

[gasser]

good to see everyone else thinks the setup of wheel changeover is a horses arse too. Fortunately both my flats have happened at home so I've had other tools to use. One thing though, I'm pretty sure the OM says to put the suspension at its highest setting and then jack it up - doesn't this mean the crap jack then has to raise a good distance until it hits the chassis rail? When I did this, my (LR) jack ran out of vertical travel and I had to drag out my trolley jack. I've since fully lowered the car and then jacked it with much better results.

[Timj]

If you have level ground on which to jack the car up I found a method almost by accident that seems to work. With the car in normal height you put the jack underneath the lower control arm (there is a nice little dent that it fits into) and start jacking. It gets to a spot where the computer realises that something is not right and it self levels itself and the wheel just lifts itself off the ground waiting for you to take it off :D. Use an axle stand under the normal jacking point if you want to ensure that it can't come down. I'm not sure I would want to try it on uneven ground but it worked very well in the garage. I used my trolley jack and it made life very easy.

Apart from that I have bought myself a jack that should do the job if used in conjunction with the standard one when offroad. Can't remember if it was Repco or Autobarn but I got it from one of those. Use the standard one to support and jack withthe other one.

Tim.

[WhiteD3]

good to see everyone else thinks the setup of wheel changeover is a horses arse too. Fortunately both my flats have happened at home so I've had other tools to use. One thing though, I'm pretty sure the OM says to put the suspension at its highest setting and then jack it up - doesn't this mean the crap jack then has to raise a good distance until it hits the chassis rail? When I did this, my (LR) jack ran out of vertical travel and I had to drag out my trolley jack. I've since fully lowered the car and then jacked it with much better results.

Yes, the manual says raise the car to off road, leave the door open (to lock the suspension) and jack it up. On level, solid ground (ie garage floor, not off road) the LR jack will do the job. I assume that the requirement for raising the suspension is safety related so I would not circumvent it.

For $100 you can get a bottle jack with a 450mm reach which does job well and with a lot more confidence than with the LR scissor jack. Money well spent.

[CaverD3]

Leaving the door opens stops the vehicle from going into extended mode when you lift a wheel.
Difficult for short folks to get back in.:D

Air Jack is really the only way to go with the D3.:BigThumb:

[Jamo]

Oddly enough, mine's started ignoring the door-open-don't-go-into-extended-mode thing. I have to pull a fuse or disconnect the battery.

She still won't change height normally with a door open, though. Can't work it out.

[CaverD3]

Yours has been doing a lot of odd things ltely, Jamo. :Rolling:

[Jamo]

:D:D:eek::Thump:

[gasser]

OK - so what's 'extended mode' ?

[CaverD3]

D3 has five different suspension height settings:
Access
Normal
Off-Road
Extended
Super Extended

If you are in off road height and exceed 40kph it lowers to normal height. If it thinks it is stuck it automatically goes into Extended mode.
If you still need more height to clear then you can put it into Super Extended mode by pressing the brake and holding the 'up' button for five seconds.

[300+]

If you are at off road height and the system detects that it has grounded out it will raise a bit more (extended mode).

You can then make it go into super extended by pressing the brake pedal and holding the suspension lever up for a couple of seconds.

Cheers, Steve

[rmp]

D3 has five different suspension height settings:
Access
Normal
Off-Road
Extended
Super Extended

If you are in off road height and exceed 40kph it lowers to normal height. If it thinks it is stuck it automatically goes into Extended mode.
If you still need more height to clear then you can put it into Super Extended mode by pressing the brake and holding the 'up' button for five seconds.

Just to be pedantic there are two more. It lowers 20mm? when driven over 160kmph, and there's a dealer-only rest-on-bumpstops mode.

[gps-au]

Air Jack is really the only way to go with the D3.:BigThumb:

I saw an electric scissor jack @ the camping show the week but an air jack, now that would be nice (definately not an exhaust one).

[CaverD3]

You need to get a bung if you get an exhaust one, for the the other exhaust pipe.
If you have an air one you'll need one of these::D

Discovery 3 - Air Off Kit - Discovery 3 (http://store.mitchellbros.com.au/discovery-3-tow-hitch/discovery-3-air-off-kit)