Thread: high mileage D3 diesel

Originally Posted by disco2_dan

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94 Queens Road
Five Dock
(02) 9712 8001

ATV Automotive

www.atvautomotive.com.au/
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try this guy his not far from the car sales yard and his a land/range rover specialist, ive heard from quite a few people he knows his stuff

The owner of ATV's name is Frank, they know there stuff.


cheers,
Terry

I have spent a fair amount of time reading posts on here regarding the reliability of the D3 and to my mind it appears that the main issues involve the auto box and the air suspension. This makes me wonder why the manual s model without air suspension isn't more popular in this country where breaking down in the bush is not a good idea.

Probably because they don't break down as often as you would think from reading the horror stories. Plus the air suspension makes the ride so much more comfortable and flexible. Try taking out your coil springs before going into a car park or ducking a branch - or simply press switch to go into access mode.

Cheers,
Rob - yet another unsung D4 survivor from a 16,000km trip across Australia this year (Sydney-Flinders-Oodnadatta-Uluru-Kakadu-Gibb River Road-Mitchell Falls-Broome-Sydney). Previous survivor of many D3 trips.

Yep, I'll take the air suspension over the coil springs any day of the week (except that day when I was on the bump stops).

Likewise I'm prepared to put with servicing the auto rather than a manual box both in town and off road.

Sorry to bore people by giving life to my dead thread, but I got to sydney today and drove the car. I was hoping to hate it so I could stop waking up in the middle of the night muttering 'I should buy that D3',, but it wasn't that bad.

There is no attempt to hide the mileage,and everything seemed to work, and yes you are right about the air suspension and auto box (which shifted smoothly).
The only thing mechanically I could pick was possibly a slight wheel bearing noise, but it could of been just me being hyper alert to any squeak.

Also when the Eastern European bouncer/car salesman moved it, he floored the accelerator, and as it shot off down the road there was briefly noticeable plum of black smoke from the exhaust.

I think I'm going to buy it, if anything it can be the aulro longtermer..I will either once and for all put anybody off buying a high mileage one if it all goes bang, or open up the sad neglected high mileage D3's that are dying a lonely death on some car yard to a new owner.

I will not be the newbie moaning about the reliability of these things. I will fix anything that goes wrong with it like I have done with all my cars. Anyway I will be too busy posting on a DIY suicide forum if it gets all to much...

Originally Posted by hizzy

Sorry to bore people by giving life to my dead thread, but I got to sydney today and drove the car. I was hoping to hate it so I could stop waking up in the middle of the night muttering 'I should buy that D3',, but it wasn't that bad.
..

Good luck Hizzy! Don't worry about reviving a dead thread - I am sure there were a few curious readers wondering whether you would take the plunge.

Hopefully all will go well and you will become like most AULRO people and will love your D3/4.

Pat

Keep us up to date on how you go with the D3 all the best withit hope all goes your way ...

Thanks guys, but haven't done it yet..keep getting cold feet,,my wife says I'm crazy, but if I do it today will be the day...