Thread: Are 4WDs too high-tech for the bush?

I think all the worry we have about electronics will fade away as we get used to them and understand better how they work and when you get cheap
Diagnostic tools available. I meet some Russian defender Puma owners this year And all were happy with the 'state' of the car and had 'learned' about electronics special tools etc . I also met some German tourists on their BMW touring bikes in st Petersburg Russia in July and they has tricked out reasonably new bikes, they had spent two months in Russia in the outback no problems at all even with so called bad Russia fuel, they had also done a trans Africa on their bikes, I asked if they had any fears re electronics , they said no and reckoned they had learned all about the bike, it's systems and had a diagnostic tool set and some spares that were essential to keep going and said the younger guys were really good at fixing anything electronic easily and if it was bad they had a sat phone and could phone someone if stuck I guess the message is we have to learn new things as we go along and probably not that difficult to learn in reality . Main thing is to keep driving our trucks and enjoy them .

Originally Posted by TonyC

You see Pricey, that's were you are so wrong.
You will always be cool in a Defender, it doesn't matter if the air con is crap and it's 45 deg and your soaked in sweat and about to to expire.
You will always be cool in a Defender because Defenders ARE cool
Noisy and leaky they may be, but they will always be cool.

Tony

If you think so mate

As I've said on a number of threads recently - happy for people to think defenders are cool coz it keeps the price of the same year disco's nice and low. So you be sweaty, uncomfortable, wet and dusty and I'll drink my latte in a disco with climate control and all the fruit. I'm happy not to be cool.

OK, let's forget about electronics. Something like changing the fuel pump drive belt on a 2.7 TDV6 Discovery3, & RR Sport. From LRM, Nov. 2014, no. 196.


Compared to the cam belt change, the fuel pump belt drive should be quick & simple. Poor access makes it difficult. The workshop procedure involves removing the body first, though it is possible to do the job laying over the engine and reaching down the back of the engine, working with a mirror & by feel. Drop something vital, damage an adjacent part, or disturb something that will cause problems later, [all possibilities. Break a belt in a remote area? ] BTW, the drive belt for the 2.7 litre engine is not timed to the pump or engine, so it's a simple matter of taking the old one off, fitting the new one with a new tensioner.[ Easy........]


[However....,] That's not the case for the later 3.0 litre TDv6, in which the pump needs to be accurately timed to the engine, making it a more involved job.[ I'm not knocking the D3, or D4, great vehicles. They have the electronic wizzbangs to make my Mother in Law a great 4WDer. [ If she was alive, bless her ] Admittedly, the fuel pump belt only needs to be changed every 105,000 miles or seven years, along with the camshaft drive belt. Let's hope they are not made in China. Bob]

Originally Posted by bob10

OK, let's forget about electronics. Something like changing the fuel pump drive belt on a 2.7 TDV6 Discovery3, & RR Sport. From LRM, Nov. 2014, no. 196.


Compared to the cam belt change, the fuel pump belt drive should be quick & simple. Poor access makes it difficult. The workshop procedure involves removing the body first, though it is possible to do the job laying over the engine and reaching down the back of the engine, working with a mirror & by feel. Drop something vital, damage an adjacent part, or disturb something that will cause problems later, all possibilities. Break a belt in a remote area? BTW, the drive belt for the 2.7 litre engine is not timed to the pump or engine, so it's a simple matter of taking the old one off, fitting the new one with a new tensioner. Easy........


However...., That's not the case for the later 3.0 litre TDv6, in which the pump needs to be accurately timed to the engine, making it a more involved job. I'm not knocking the D3, or D4, great vehicles. They have the electronic wizzbangs to make my Mother in Law a great 4WDer. [ If she was alive, bless her ] Admittedly, the fuel pump belt only needs to be changed every 105,000 miles or seven years, along with the camshaft drive belt. Let's hope they are not made in China. Bob

I guess it's still better than if the cam belt broke in a Tdi where the head gets destroyed. Is it 50,000 or 70,000km intervals?

Originally Posted by Slunnie

I guess it's still better than if the cam belt broke in a Tdi where the head gets destroyed. Is it 50,000 or 70,000km intervals?

Simon come on, you know that never happens

Don't mention Lucas

Originally Posted by Slunnie

I guess it's still better than if the cam belt broke in a Tdi where the head gets destroyed. Is it 50,000 or 70,000km intervals?

Not sure i would call bent pushrods and maybe a broken rocker destroyed!

Originally Posted by Redback

Simon come on, you know that never happens

Don't mention Lucas

True! Admittedly I own neither as my TD5 is the pinnacle of reliability, but in reality for both the tdi and the tdV6, only a severe pessimist would be carrying those parts to repair and in reality they would be both being dragged out. If it were a severe pessimist, they would be in a 4bd1... or would that be a sadist.