Thread: D1 360xxx kms

What engine do you have? Mine is a 300tdi, it's an auto but the manual gearbox on the disco is a solid unit as well, and I'm on 436k and it starts instantly and runs perfectly, if they are looked after properly they just keep going, don't let them overheat and keep changing the oil, that seems to be the secret.

Perhaps need to define “life”. If you mean years or miles , provided it’s 300tdi, it should be good for quite a while yet. They often get well past 400k, especially with regular service and sensible driving. Ours is a bit under that figure but I’d still take it anywhere. Make sure you find out when it last had a timing belt, they need changing every 80000 km.
If you mean a spirited drive by “life”, you won’t get that, but that gives you more time to enjoy the fantastic places it can take you.
They are pretty simple and parts are quite reasonable, so a good bet for someone who isn’t afraid of a little work and grease.
Good luck and people on here are very helpful and interested in hearing about your car.
Cheers,
Woolly.

There are a couple here in WA that have over 1 million Km's on them and are used as escort vehicles for loads heading up North. If you keep up the maintenance I dare say it has a bit of life left in it!

Appreciate the responses, will go check it out when restrictions ease up.
Yep manual tdi. Timing belt has 40000km on it I believe. Is it true the 300tdi doesn't have the same head problems that the td5 are known for?
Aside from rust and not blowing smoke anything else I should look out for (that i can spot with my untrained eyes)?
Thanks again guys

It'll be the things that you don't expect, and can't inspect that will cause you problems at some future point.
My theory is you love the vehicle and will stick with it.
It will almost certainly have issues, no matter the depth of the inspection you attempt to do.

My priority is simply condition of the car/body/interior. Are the plastics all broken/snapped etc. These are the bits that are getting hard to get. Rust .. obviously. Avoid if not keen on welding.

Took me a long time to finally find one at a decent price with the features I do, more importantly DON'T want. I'm not a big fan of older gen ABS and Airbags, but wanted auto.
I think the auto Tdi is the better overall drive than a manual version.
Almost all the auto models had airbags and ABS tho. So it was a waiting game till one came up that wasn't a weekend warrior hack.

I felt comfy that the owner did look after the vehicle a bit too.
I got mine with 330K on it, now has 410K.

Except for my ineptitude having buggered up the timing belt(didn't do up the damper bolt properly!) .. the only issue mine had was the transfer case. Spun a bearing, one night it jumped out of high, then the bearing just screeched for a couple of months till I had the chance to sort it.
Just had to put up with the noise, but never broke down. Drove 1200klms to have the mechanic do a one day install of a recon TC, as mine is my daily, and had little time for it off the road.
When I bought mine, it had a brake controller(but I don't tow) .. and my only concern was for diffs thinking that a previous owner may have towed something heavy. Diffs are perfect, axles all good, etc. But it was a TC bearing that went bang(so to speak).
I have no issue spending $s on a long term vehicle.

I did have an issue with 'overheating' with it, but it was a very specific issue. Only happened with AC on on days over 35-ish degrees. Even on a 30° day with AC on, it ran fine(maxed at 90-ish on the coolant temp).
Took a while to figure it out. But now pretty much sorted. All it was is that there is a small plastic deflector panel up front low down at the radiator. Mine was mangled, so I pulled it out(not thinking). Pulling it out allowed air to flow down under the radiator instead of through it.
As mine was mangled, no use to put it back, so I made up a 'scoop' instead to get a bit more air from under the bullbar and also up into the rad. Sorted!

Everyone else will say this same thing! Do NOT rely on the temp gauge for engine temp. Mine would run up to about 117°C that I've seen and the temp needle don't move from it's normal posi. I have an LCD temp gauge setup. So whatever you get, plan for a engine temp gauge .. either coolant based on block/head based .. I really don't think it makes any difference which type. Also EGT gauge is a 'must have' too.
The other thing you will need to do is be sure the coolant system is in top nic too. Don't believe the seller that "it's been recoed". If it's not obviously so, assume it's a BS selling point. If you get one, give it flushes, maybe best just to get a rad place to clean the rad out properly. I reckon I took about 6 months of many flushes to finally get all brown looking gunge out of the engine/rad.

As I remember the TD5 head issues are all old news .. almost certainly 99.99% of them have been sorted, and it was due to plastic dowels used.
From what I see on the web tho(various sources) TDi heads seem a bit more fragile, in that head gaskets seem to be a recurring issue. Not a hard fix tho for most folks with enthusiasm. Mine is fine(knock wood), doesn't feel like it's ready to go soon.
Remember that the vehicle is old so expect to have to maintain stuff that isn't usually a service item.
Stuff like brakes will most likely be worn out like discs .. so new discs will be needed. I had a bearing issue on LH front. Being a paranoid type, and wanting a durable outback vehicle, I fixed the front, but found the stub axle a bit too worn for my liking.
Idiot me, should have expected it, as I've had experience with my old RRC. Anyhow, used the new bearing to just get it sorted and then bought all the bits to do all 4 stubs and bearings one day. About two years later I got the time to do it all .. incl the front I did previously.
Preventative maintenance! But like I said before .. I don't mind spending $s to keep my cars 'reliable'. Turned out only one other stub was worn as well but now all 4 new .. should do about till about the 700K mark I reckon.

Sorry for the long post, but I'd say that if you reckon you're eye is untrained, I'd say just go by the overall body condition as the main consideration. Obviously look for signs of other abuse. If auto check that the fluid is clear red, no darkness at all(but you want manual I think). Look for any signs of having blown out coolant. So look on the driver side of the engine bay for water spray(most likely green coolant, maybe rusty looking brown gunge) .. etc.

tdi should blow some smoke. I've never seen one that doesn't puff out some black stuff on first start up, then clears. I'm thinking if there is zero smoke at all .. maybe there's no oil left in the sump!