Thread: D3 Diesel Front Timing Cover Explosion

I'm not the original owner, and only purchased the Vehicle about 2 months ago... so I don't fancy my luck with Land Rover.

Originally Posted by BusinessConnected

I'm not the original owner, and only purchased the Vehicle about 2 months ago... so I don't fancy my luck with Land Rover.

If service record is ok would still give them a shot ,( LR are aware of this issue !!), good luck with it mate , hope someone on hear can point you in the right direction , if you end up with a second hand eng make sure the oil pump is the upgraded one .

Ouch - sorry to hear mate - sounds like you've had the unfortunate 2.7 oil pump disaster - this is a common enough one - probably the most common cause of catastrophic failure on the TDV6 which is not related to servicing - I'm surprised only one person has mentioned it! Basically the casting where the timing belt tensioner, which is part of the oil pump casting, is not thick enough for the force exerted on it - occasionally it breaks like yours has. Such is the issue that a lot of shops now will not do a timing belt replacement on a TDV6 without replacing the oil pump as well - LR has released a new design oil pump, part no. LR013487 which has much more webbing around the pulley mount, and is made from a different alloy.


Check this page -> DISCO3.CO.UK - View topic - Cam belt tensioner mount failure survey
Lots of info there. Most commonly affects 07MY-08MY, but seems to affect all the D3/RRS 2.7 model years.


Being a known issue, LR is contributing money to claims in the UK - I haven't heard of that happening here, but surely it's worth a shot if you like a good fight!


The Territory V6 is the LR spec engine with single turbo setup. The LR version has apart from the single turbo, a much deeper baffled sump made from pressed tin for improved performance at odd angles, and the ability to suffer slight deformation without failing. I believe all other versions of the Lion v6's have alloy sumps. Across all versions of the engine the block, heads and bottom end are the same and all the anciliaries can be swapped over to make it 'LR Spec'.


If I were to have the same failure I'd be looking for a low km second hand engine or purchasing a wrecked D3/RRS/Terri with the engine intact and then offloading the other parts. Out of those I'd choose the Territory engine because I believe it addresses the TDV6's other elephant in the corner which is the main bearings, however there is some debate on whether the failure of those is caused by design error or bad maintenance.

So my D3 is an MY09 5 years old with only 80,000k's. I plan to keep it another 5 years but at the rate I am going I won't get to the timing belt change for some time but I do do a bit of remote touring.

Should I go and get the pump proactively changed and how big a job is that without doing the timing belt etc.

a Territory looks like the cheapest source of a Low KM Engine at this stage. I've just changed the Alternator in recent time so that should be ok...

Originally Posted by BusinessConnected

a Territory looks like the cheapest source of a Low KM Engine at this stage. I've
just changed the Alternator in recent time so that should be ok...

What sort of $ for a territory eng ????

Originally Posted by AnD3rew

So my D3 is an MY09 5 years old with only 80,000k's. I plan to keep it another 5 years but at the rate I am going I won't get to the timing belt change for some time but I do do a bit of remote touring.

Should I go and get the pump proactively changed and how big a job is that without doing the timing belt etc.

Timing belt needs to be removed to get to the oil pump , usualy done at belt change or 7 yrs . Not sure about 2009 , it may already have the upgraded oil pump ??? , you will need to check .

Around $5k for the Territory Engine at this stage with Low kms... (20-30k)