D3 breakdown. What do you do?

Hi disco3qld.

When I brought my out of warranty D3 from an auction I was a little neverous and grabbed a RACV breakdown service. I brought it to go to some fairly tough places. It has been them and worse several times now. I think keeping ontop of maintance and fixing issues such as brake light (LED globes rock) replace the brake controler (if it was a vintage which was affected), make sure your alternator and battery is in perfect condition then the eletrical circuts are very solid and not prone to much issues at all. Every systems fault problem I have had was excluding parking brake was realted to the power supply not the systems themselfeves. None have stopped me. LLAMS gets me over, Winch pulls me out and I am more confident getting home in my D3 than in a new in warranty D4 due to the tires I can run.
with about 250000km on the clock mine is about just run in now. I do not have RACV road service as they don't fix they just tow. If I want to go somewhere and have a problem it is or has always been fixable to date. Overheating parking brake saw RACV wanting to tow my car. A Manual realease of the brake fixed it and allowed me to keep going. I did not renew the RACV service.

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Originally Posted by Redback

Everyone worries about the new electronic vehicles and what happens if it breaks down, can your average bush mechanic fix it, and in most cases as long as it's not something major I'd say yes, BUT, this is now a problem regardless of what you drive, most (if not all) repair shops in the bush don't carry the spares they used too and in most cases now everything is ordered in from the major cities.

So really, if you break down, you truck your car to the nearest town and wait for the parts to arrive.

When we travelled to the Gulf, there was an 80 series with us, he did his Air con pump just before Croyden, nearest fix, Darwin, now Darwin Toyota only ordered the parts, he ordered the parts 2 weeks before he was arriving in Darwin as he didn't want to interupt his trip, when he finally arrived, they said the car was too old and contracted it out to another workshop to do the job, so off he goes to the shop, the part ordered was wrong and after waiting for the correct part to come from Melbourne, while working on the car the alternator went, so after 3 weeks, the car was fixed, so you see, even if you have an 80 series your not garranteed that you will get repaired and on your way in a reasonable time.

Just use it and go where you want, don't worry about what if, we don't.

Baz.

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Well said Baz,

Seem to have read something similar in an earlier post :wasntme::p


Cheers Ean

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Originally Posted by stray dingo

I know I'm a newbie here, and maybe speaking out of turn, but thats not what he said. "What would happen if something craps itself out there on my out of warrantee D3?"
For vehicles under warranty, don't LR have their roadside assist service, whereby they suggest they might be able to repair it there, or tow it to a repairer.
When not under warranty, this could become rather expensive to do that, and not all bush mechanics have access to tools to be able to diagnose a fault. If the OP can take a gimzo or two, it could aid him *if* the unforeseen occurred.

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Bang on Dingo!

Thanks guys, as always great opinions here.

Its really about living without roadside assist that worries me, but with Full RACQ, a Hawkeye unit, Sat Phone and full service before heading off we should be right and in the event of a proper break down "torch the bastard and walk away" ! :twisted:

How much are these hawkeye units?

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Originally Posted by Disco3QLD

Bang on Dingo!

Thanks guys, as always great opinions here.

Its really about living without roadside assist that worries me, but with Full RACQ, a Hawkeye unit, Sat Phone and full service before heading off we should be right and in the event of a proper break down "torch the bastard and walk away" ! :twisted:

How much are these hawkeye units?

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Should be able to get 1 on ebay from the UK for around $400. not sure what a Faultmate cost's, would say not to much more.

Cheers Ean

A Faultmate FCR is around $350 - will do everything the Hawkeye does + some, but with the Genesis web portal program due end of the year will do a lot more.

Cheers,

Gordon

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Originally Posted by gghaggis

A Faultmate FCR is around $350 - will do everything the Hawkeye does + some, but with the Genesis web portal program due end of the year will do a lot more.

Cheers,

Gordon

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Gordon,

Is the Faultmate FCR rather than the MSV-2 Extreme and Nano all that is required? Will it do everything that the average owner requires? What would be the benefit of the MSV-2 over FCR?

Thanks

Elsey...

The FCR is similar to the Hawkeye - will read and optionally clear fault messages from all of the vehicle's ecus. This is all you really need for fixing faults on the road.

The MSV2 is more elaborate in that it can also re-adjust various programmed parameters, so you can "experiment" - change some of the car's systems, activate new components that you can add to the car etc.

Cheers,

Gordon

One good thing with a Hawkeye is you can load programs for multiple Land Rovers on the one unit, for Rangies and D4's I believe you may need an adaptor for the plug though.

It would seam comparing prices in this thread that the Hawkeye is no longer one of the cheapest diagnostic tools on the market though.

cheers,
Terry

We live in an era when most advice is aimed at risk avoidance when in reality if you actually want to achieve anything the best preparations involve risk management.

When you breakdown in the bush and off-road. The mechanic who who comes is usually the only one for the region. Recently at Marree we had an electrical fault with my brother's D4. Land Rover arranged for a mechanic who came from Copley (140km away). He seemed like he was straight out of the set of the movie Wolf Creek..... But unlike the movie the vehicle was "sorted".

In conversation it seems the Copley mechanic covers the area for multiple contacts including RAA and the companies that manage the contracts for all the manufacturers including Land Rover.

And so, it seems that when you need them, you need a way to
1. Locate and contact the right mechanic / tow operator. One who will come off road and who can sort out the problem.
2. The ability to pay for their services. The repairer may be reluctant to come if he is not guarenteed payment through a contract.

Address these issues and be prepared as others have said and your risks are "managed". Going into the bush and assuming that because it is unlikely that you will have a problem that you will be OK is NOT a plan. It is negligence.

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Originally Posted by Fred Nerk

We live in an era when most advice is aimed at risk avoidance when in reality if you actually want to achieve anything the best preparations involve risk management.

When you breakdown in the bush and off-road. The mechanic who who comes is usually the only one for the region. Recently at Marree we had an electrical fault with my brother's D4. Land Rover arranged for a mechanic who came from Copley (140km away). He seemed like he was straight out of the set of the movie Wolf Creek..... But unlike the movie the vehicle was "sorted".

In conversation it seems the Copley mechanic covers the area for multiple contacts including RAA and the companies that manage the contracts for all the manufacturers including Land Rover.

And so, it seems that when you need them, you need a way to
1. Locate and contact the right mechanic / tow operator. One who will come off road and who can sort out the problem.
2. The ability to pay for their services. The repairer may be reluctant to come if he is not guarenteed payment through a contract.

Address these issues and be prepared as others have said and your risks are "managed". Going into the bush and assuming that because it is unlikely that you will have a problem that you will be OK is NOT a plan. It is negligence.

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Good on ya Fred,
That's excellent advice! :thumbsup:
Cheers,