Thread: Serious desert trip with a D1 300Tdi...asking for trouble or AWESOME??

Which desert trip are you doing first.....?? Or did I miss you mentioning it??

Got a D1 300tdi with 488k on it,.. And been taking it through the central desert country a good few times, including Anne beadell, connie Sue, great central, gun barrel, eagle hwy.
No expert by any means, but a few experiences I'd like to share...

Owned the disco for about 8 years now, and it is my daily drive, so I know the noises it makes under various circumstances, which is helpful in keeping an eye out for minor& major problems (like exhaust mounts coming loose)
Been maintaining it myself all the way to the clutch and cyl head, so I know what's been done and when.

one of the worst things to happen on a trip was to burst my oil cooler. My low coolant alarm had been going off for a fracture of a second every couple of days since coming off connie sue highway, which I put down to a tiny air bubble in the system, and since temp stayed ok I dint worry more than that. I then travelled up gcr to Alice and back. Finally found a heap of oil in my overflow tank when I was at Tjukajirla --- cleaned out the system, bypassed the oil cooler with some garden hose and slugged it back to Perth stopping every 100k or so... (The hose did split shortly before York, evacuating about 5 litres of oil but I was able to catch it due to the change in engine noise

...... And it all happened again 2 years later....

Cause:: 'cheap' as **** radiators.
Make sure-sure that the oil cooler (which is integrated to the radiator) is NOT the plastic type.
Corrugations WILL kill it!!!

Another big thing which I believe gets overlooked easily are the heater hoses which run behind the cyl head. They cop a lot of heat so close to the engine and can rub against the head causing them to fail...

And they definitely don't like being overheated!!

Capability wise ....I always always always have this discussion with people driving 'fancier' 4x4s - and yes. For me fancy starts with electric Windows (btw they failed as well once, window stuck open until I swapped it with the switch from another window

4x4 capability is not mainly determined by the make/model of vehicle and its accessories but by the driver knowing how to use it.

drive safe and enjoy!!!

There is some seriously amazing advice and experiences being discussed here, thank you so much everyone, what a great pool of knowledge we have here!

This will all be so invaluable when the time comes to actually take a trip, and the entire lead up to it starting right now!

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Interesting reading..... Is your a Auto or Manual? For Desert Trips that u do, how much fuel did u take and where did u store it?

What sort of economy did u get from your D1?

Rob

Originally Posted by Discovery-94

Got a D1 300tdi with 488k on it,.. And been taking it through the central desert country a good few times, including Anne beadell, connie Sue, great central, gun barrel, eagle hwy.
No expert by any means, but a few experiences I'd like to share...

Owned the disco for about 8 years now, and it is my daily drive, so I know the noises it makes under various circumstances, which is helpful in keeping an eye out for minor& major problems (like exhaust mounts coming loose)
Been maintaining it myself all the way to the clutch and cyl head, so I know what's been done and when.

one of the worst things to happen on a trip was to burst my oil cooler. My low coolant alarm had been going off for a fracture of a second every couple of days since coming off connie sue highway, which I put down to a tiny air bubble in the system, and since temp stayed ok I dint worry more than that. I then travelled up gcr to Alice and back. Finally found a heap of oil in my overflow tank when I was at Tjukajirla --- cleaned out the system, bypassed the oil cooler with some garden hose and slugged it back to Perth stopping every 100k or so... (The hose did split shortly before York, evacuating about 5 litres of oil but I was able to catch it due to the change in engine noise

...... And it all happened again 2 years later....

Cause:: 'cheap' as **** radiators.
Make sure-sure that the oil cooler (which is integrated to the radiator) is NOT the plastic type.
Corrugations WILL kill it!!!

Another big thing which I believe gets overlooked easily are the heater hoses which run behind the cyl head. They cop a lot of heat so close to the engine and can rub against the head causing them to fail...

And they definitely don't like being overheated!!

Capability wise ....I always always always have this discussion with people driving 'fancier' 4x4s - and yes. For me fancy starts with electric Windows (btw they failed as well once, window stuck open until I swapped it with the switch from another window

4x4 capability is not mainly determined by the make/model of vehicle and its accessories but by the driver knowing how to use it.

drive safe and enjoy!!!

I'll echo everyone else and say maintain it properly, don't skimp on suspension quality, keep it as light as possible and drive to the conditions. Daily under and over checks will help locate any potential issues if travelling on rough tracks.

Enjoy!☺

Yep keep it stock, there will never be another car like it.

Originally Posted by Robmacca

Interesting reading..... Is your a Auto or Manual? For Desert Trips that u do, how much fuel did u take and where did u store it?

What sort of economy did u get from your D1?

Rob

Mine is manual.
I took 2x20l Jerry cans on the roof for the first few trips, and think some extra is definitely a good idea as you have to consider turning around/speeding up for whichever reason.

(My travelmate had an allergic reaction half way up connie sue highway, which we didn't know whether it was something more serious, so also always consider your own health not just the vehicle... Including emergency situations you might not generally encounter, when you're a few days trip from the next roadhouse/station on rough as guts tracks you don't want to worry about additional things like 'do I have enough water/fuel to keep me going)

Economy wasn't all too bad to be honest, I don't have the figures in my head right now, but didn't really need more than the stock tank, filling up every option I got, however I was glad I had the spare litres, as I said if you have any other issues you don't need the additional worry.
For recent trips I downsized spare fuel to 1x20l, and I recently got a deal on a long range tank, which I'm super excited to connect--hopefully sometime soon!!


Cheers.

Our D1 300Tdi auto averaged 13 l/100 kms across the Simpson, but normally 10-11.

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