So as an epilogue to this story, I had PCB land rovers install the box with the high capacity sump cover. I drove it <100km of bitumen and parked it at the transport company for the D2 to be transported to Perth WA for its new owner to pick up. We bought a 2013 D4 instead.

A few reasons why, none of which were due to ‘unreliability’, but we’re quite happy with the D4. U’d be a bit more happy if I could actually find time to take the D4 off road tho. It’s only ever been a shopping car and there are no scratches underneath or on the paintwork at all!