Thread: D4 Abuse

Originally Posted by mikehzz

I had to laugh when I read this on another forum re whether a D4 is any good...

"I had a new 3.0L TDV6. SE
In 2010 we drove from Rocky to Karumba - Lawn Hill - Savannah Way to Darwin - Kunanurra - Gibb River Road - Bungle Bungles - Mitchell Falls - Kalumburu - Broome - Cape Levque - Pilbara - Gunbarrel Hwy - Uluru - Alice - Chambers Pillar - Finke - Oodnadatta - Cooper Pedy - Flinders - Up the Darling - home.

All suspension replaced under warranty .
Front suspension replaced again.
Complete steering system replaced including the steering wheel
Right hand muffler tailpipe broke apart
All 19" rims damaged
On board compressor for suspension replaced
Rear tailgate lock replaced
Numerous computer faults
Numerous flats
Air suspension good but because of the low profile tyres height was still not enough in some cases.
Stability Control must be turned off in sand and mud.
I'd still be on the old Finke Railway if it wasn't for my mate in his Patrol winching me out a few times.
I paid $3,300 for the extended warranty. Lucky I did.

Did a similar trip in my 80 Series a few years ago. 1 flat tyre only.

Disco 4, fantastic vehicle on the bitumen. In my opinion only, I'm sure others will disagree but it's too complicated for the bush."

I reckon the car was telling him he wasn't doing it right.

All I can say is my god what a bloody clown that's ridiculous I hope he never buys another discovery again!! Fools like him give LR a bad name!!!

I did nearly the same trip with 19" rims and have had no problems.
I drove the car accordingly, not bashed it unmercifully over the Chambers Pillar and Bungles track.
In 2 years I have done 65000 and it is still tight with no rattles and a delight to drive. It is light years ahead of my GUII 3.0 Patrol grenade.
Yes the Patrol would cope with bashing it through aforementioned tracks but was nowhere as comfortable to drive on the road. Driven with intelligence the D4 will go just as far and even further than the Patrol and that is the key.

Originally Posted by mikehzz

Air suspension good but because of the low profile tyres height was still not enough in some cases.

Huh?

Originally Posted by mikehzz

I paid $3,300 for the extended warranty. Lucky I did.

Lucky they honoured it. A lot of that doesn't sound like warranty work to me.

Originally Posted by Plane Fixer

Driven with intelligence the D4 will go just as far and even further than the Patrol and that is the key.

You know, you just might be on to something there.

Mike, I don't suppose you would care to share which forum this was? I could do with a laugh this morning.

Cheers,
Jon

It was Exploroz.


Cheers
Bob

I did a trip a bit longer than that to almost all of those locations and didn't have any issues. Well, I did get a ride height sensor issue when crossing the last river out of Bungle Bungles - which I had to turn my D4 off and then back on again to clear. Oh, I also had a "washer fluid level low" message too!

A lot of those things he has mentioned were changed on my 2010 D4 3l under warranty before I bought it and it had only been driving around Sydney. Probably why the previous owner sold it at 50,000km. Early in its life mine had new front bushes, new steering rack, new stearing wheel and controls and I think something else as well. I think all that stuff on mine was to do with vibrating brakes on the 2010 D4 according to some posts I have seen.

I bought it in Jan 2012, drove it back to Perth and am now up to 152,000. I have driven across Australia a few times, twice on the Great Central Road. Did a 4 week trip to Cape York via all the gravel available and back to Perth via the Kimberleys. Last year did Darwin / Lichfield / Kakadu and back via Great Central Road. My LCA's needed replacing after that and the rear shocks were stuffed. As others have said, no rattles, nothing loose, still drives like new, provided you keep up any necessary maintenance.

I can't fault its abilities on or off road. However, maintenance items such as EPB, shocks, control arms, compressor etc are expensive and more fragile than Patrols or Cruisers. I think his opinion is coloured a bit by the problems that the early D4s had which were fixed under warranty.

The fact that his stock D4 has done most of the roughest tracks in Australia is pretty remarkable though. Not many stock cars of any brand have done all that and apart from his wheels and tyres most of the issues are known D4/D3 wear items or the initial D4 teathing problems.

Bob

Originally Posted by discovery4

It was Exploroz.


Cheers
Bob

Enough said... Average IQ and development on that forum barely gets most Walking Upright and even then they're knuckles are often still dragging.

And the other end of the spectrum on there take longer times to pack their Zimmer frames away than they actually drive for...

All 19" rims damaged

Driven by an idiot.

On board compressor for suspension replaced

Known issue for that model LR were using bad remaining stock Hitachi compressors as result of Japanese tsunami.
Replaced with AMK compressor.


[/QUOTE]Numerous flats[/QUOTE]

Probably kept the OEM discoverers on.

Air suspension good but because of the low profile tyres height was still not enough in some cases.

I agree with him on this one standard height is too low for high crowned tracks. That is why you get Llams if you want to faster.

Stability Control must be turned off in sand and mud.
I'd still be on the old Finke Railway if it wasn't for my mate in his Patrol winching me out a few times.

Derrrr!

Did a similar trip in my 80 Series a few years ago. 1 flat tyre only.

I bet it had LTs on.
I would to see him do it in a 200 series.