Thread: D2A towing 500kms Snowy Mountain trip with a 3.5T tail

Originally Posted by Tins

Well, transmissions aside, mine is chipped. The old ECU, so it's hard chipped. But that car and trailer in the pic I posted to this thread would have been close to the 3.5, and the car hardly knew it was there. I still has SLS and it evened the load beautifully. I reckon D2s are great tow vehicles. And you have the newer ECU, so there are tunes that give heaps more power, and TD5s handle it well.
If it was mine, I'd consider getting a cooler for the gearbox. It's simple enough to do on a R380, and it doubles the oil capacity.

The Australian R380 on a D2 has an oil cooler. The UK and European did not, according to RAVE. Mine has one, it sits below the intercooler.

Originally Posted by Tins

Factory gauge? They all do that, until it's too late. Don't trust it.

I hate to be a pariah, but given my experience with mine and towing, I'd have that car down to a transmission place for a proper service.

I killed mine:

Attachment 168608

John, I suspect that your towing effort was the straw that broke the camel's back, rather than the cause.

Originally Posted by V8Ian

John, I suspect that your towing effort was the straw that broke the camel's back, rather than the cause.

I agree. Car had done about 280, and was probably due. I didn't say it was the cause, Ian, but I did say that certain things may have averted the failure.
Most of us know that the ZF 4HP-22/4 was not really designed for the application. It was mainly for things like 5/7 series Beemers. Still, it did a good job up to a point. Heat is the enemy of autos, and, given the low oil capacity and small cooler fitted to the D2 it's easy to overheat the box. I didn't know this. I take a large proportion of the blame for mine failing due to this ignorance.
I usually comment on Disco autos so people who, like I was, are ignorant of these simple facts can consider strategies to avoid failures. IMO, a larger sump and a bigger cooler would see people getting much higher mileages out of these autos. Most failures that I have heard of have involved some towing at some point.

Originally Posted by Bohica

The Australian R380 on a D2 has an oil cooler. The UK and European did not, according to RAVE. Mine has one, it sits below the intercooler.

Didn't know that. My D1 had one, but it was fitted by Fred Smith. I assume that it's the same setup? Alloy junction thingy at the LHR of the box?

20160203_200429.jpg

Originally Posted by Tins

Didn't know that. My D1 had one, but it was fitted by Fred Smith. I assume that it's the same setup? Alloy junction thingy at the LHR of the box?

20160203_200429.jpg

Both use the R380. No mention of this in the D1 workshop manual. Here is an image from RAVE. Looks the same to me.
R380 Oil Cooler001.jpg

I am wondering why you didn't simply take your missus with you to drive the Prado back instead of hiring a car trailer and push your D2 to its limits.towing 3.5+ Tone over the mountain.

Originally Posted by trout1105

I am wondering why you didn't simply take your missus with you to drive the Prado back instead of hiring a car trailer and push your D2 to its limits.towing 3.5+ Tone over the mountain.

Push D2 to the limit with a 3.5plus ton load, or take the missus? It's a no brainer.
Besides some one has to look after the kids/cat/dog/farm/ etc.

Originally Posted by Bohica

Both use the R380. No mention of this in the D1 workshop manual. Here is an image from RAVE. Looks the same to me.
R380 Oil Cooler001.jpg

And me.