Thread: Sheerluck's project D3

Originally Posted by Disco Muppet

Excuses Excuses

Found it! "Someone" had put it back in the camera......

So, you want interior pics do you?
This was how it looked some time back

Fast forward several weeks, add one new dashboard, two airbags, seatbelt pretensioners, a lot of elbow grease to get rid of the dirt, wire in a USB power adapter, aux sound input for the new satnav, new cheapo chinese satnav with D4 surround, and this is what it looks like now




The driver's airbag isn't fully pressed home, and won't be until I confirm that the steering wheel is on straight.

And today's picture (or is it yesterday's?)

All the boxes of bits that needed to be attached

That was the pile of everything. This was the pile of just body parts.

There's a bonnet, front guard, front crossmember, inner guard, inner reinforcer and the big front end unit.



About $1800 worth of bits

Excellent progress, although I'm not a fan of the D3 shifter nob.
Keep up the good work!

So when are you bringing it through Drive Thru ?

Mrs hh

Originally Posted by The ho har's

So when are you bringing it through Drive Thru ?

Mrs hh

The target was to get it finished by today. It might be a couple more days yet.

Now is a good a time as any to do a bit of a write up on the mechanicals, especially seeing as I didn't manage to post photos every day this week as promised.

Even though the body was a little worse for wear, the oily bits have turned out to be in better shape than I'd hoped.

I've done a full flush of all fluids so far except the gearbox. (That was only done 50k km ago, but I might well do that yet as soon as I get all the other parts finished.)

I changed the timing belt, even though it was only done 50k km ago, basically so that I should never have to change it ever again. Part of the reason was to get a look at the oil pump, and change if necessary. It was necessary. As was the water pump. The timing belt replacement was really quite simple, and the methodology and components really logical and well thought out. The rear HPFP belt replacement was not.

In doing that, I learned a lot about the ease, or otherwise, of accessing some of the main components. For example, the alternator is really quite straightforward to access and remove. The starter motor, on the other hand, is not. If that ever goes, I will be paying some other poor bugger to replace it.

In replacing the diff and transfer oils, I was concerned about about the front diff, as it had a look about it of having been overheated. However, the oil that came out was in quite good shape, and there was only a little bit of "fuzz" on the magnetic drain plug.
That said, the drain plug and filler location for both diffs and the transfer box are easy to get to, the main issue is getting hold of appropriate oils without needing a second mortgage.

The transfer box fluid (genuine LR stuff) I bought on eBay for $65 for 2 litres. The front diff oil (Castrol SYntrax Long Life) I found in Auto One for $22/l. With my D3 having a rear e-diff, it needs a different oil for the rear. And predictably it is liquid gold $40 /litre.

In doing a test run around the property today, I got the "suspension rising slowly" message. There's also a bit of a hissing from the front somewhere, so I'm wondering if I didn't manage to fix the leak from the front air pipe properly.

That's tomorrow's job.

I have been following this thread with great interest; more so, I guess because I very much enjoy the writing style, particularly the missing SD card drama.

As such, my startled first reaction re the finished interior shot above was "O my, my, the steering wheel is on the wrong side!"

Well, at first glance, that is how it looks from here in the New World.

Of more relevance, I noted the comments about changing oil in the differentials and I got to thinking about the LR4 style front differential breather cap I installed a year or so ago on my 3. I thought I would mention it as I actually think upon removal of the original breather, that it was near plugged, and that this was one mod that did make sense and really cost only cents, comparatively. The link below outlines the change.

DISCO3.CO.UK Photo Gallery - Breather Cap Front Differential installation