Thread: D4 Reliability

Originally Posted by CraigA

Was told by dealer to proceed slowly (30-40km/h) to dealership .. 150km away. Turned out to be a bad battery.

Second electrical fault was "Engine Systems Failure" and car put itself into limp mode. Roadside insisted it shouldn't be driven. Tilt trayed for 100km to Canberra. Took 20mins to fix (software upgrade).

I just love the advice these people dish out when they're sitting in their city offices unaffected by the inconveniences, although they're probably just LRA's messengers so we shouldn't shoot them. If the engine idles fine and otherwise seems OK and the brakes and steering are unaffected then my approach is to attempt to clear the faults and keep going.

Originally Posted by PAT303

But would a 200 series gearbox and A/C compressor cost $45,000 to repair ,I can't believe sane people write that crap. Pat

I know where you have been .

Originally Posted by CraigA

Second electrical fault was "Engine Systems Failure" and car put itself into limp mode. Roadside insisted it shouldn't be driven. Tilt trayed for 100km to Canberra. Took 20mins to fix (software upgrade). (I understand that that software fix has been available since D3 so bit hard to understand why it hadn't been done previously)

Craig

Craig - thanks for providing the extra information. So really you had two failures which realistically any vehicle could have had - that being the wheel bearing and battery - now the wheel bearing should definitely not have happened at the kms you had done but these things happen - batteries - well they are hit and miss - mine is 7 1/2 years old and still on the factory battery.

Now the last problem you had - I suspect that simply turning off and waiting until the handbrake light went out and then restarting would have fixed the issue. Certainly doing a hard reset almost definitely would have fixed it if only a software upgrade was needed. The above actions would have simply rebooted the computers and if there was no underlying which there wasn't you would have most likely been right - never a 100% guarantee though.

I assume you didn't know about these options at the time and that is where the collective wisdom of the forum comes into its own.

If you stay with your car you will appreciate the little tricks - the others are things like how to manually release the handbrake or how to get out of park when there is no power or use the earthing point in the engine bay rather than -tive on the battery for accessories.

I would consider investing in a code reader/clearer - something like Faultmate is ideal but is expensive - I use a Faultmate FCR the little brother and it has served me OK but doesn't have many features - just reads codes and clears them.

I think you vehicle is actually quite reliable and I hope you stay with it.

Cheers

Garry

Originally Posted by garrycol

now the wheel bearing should definitely not have happened at the kms you had done but these things happen

I did a front one at about 40k. Still think it's unusual, but given the use mine was getting at the time maybe not surprising. Wasn't a showstopper though - it was correctly diagnosed and replaced before it failed. It didn't affect my confidence in my D4 either.

Sounds like this one became a problem due to a poor diagnosis - really neither the vehicle's nor the driver's fault.

Cheers,
Jon

Originally Posted by garrycol

Now the last problem you had - I suspect that simply turning off and waiting until the handbrake light went out and then restarting would have fixed the issue. Certainly doing a hard reset almost definitely would have fixed it if only a software upgrade was needed. The above actions would have simply rebooted the computers and if there was no underlying which there wasn't you would have most likely been right - never a 100% guarantee though.

I think that particular fault will not clear on a restart as the ecm detected a logic fault within its own code rather than a sensor and requires the code to be manually cleared. A fault code reader/clearer would have done the trick.

Originally Posted by Graeme

I just love the advice these people dish out when they're sitting in their city offices unaffected by the inconveniences, although they're probably just LRA's messengers so we shouldn't shoot them.

Seems that covering the corporate arse is more important than helping these days. I can understand why they need to do it - imagine the costs involved if you blew a motor by following their advice. Still, not always helpful.

I guess anyone who could diagnose that sort of stuff over the phone is too valuable to have sitting in a call centre.

Cheers,
Jon

I think most people on this forum understand that our cars are a complex bit of machinery and require special methods to help bush proof them, rather than simple mechanical maintenance like old school 4WD's. This is probably why we are mostly OK to travel to remote places and like to defend the car against claims of unreliability.


As per the thread on the sticky, we all need a FaultmateFC as a minimum to diagnose and clear faults and a few things like a spare brake switch and spare ABS sensors. If we travel to places where there is no Roadside Assistance, some of these things are essential to ensure that we have the best preparation possible to get us into the remote areas and back home again.


I don't carry spare wheel bearings, though, and have never looked like having a wheel bearing issue in my 170,000km, tens of thousands of which have been on very rough, dusty roads with water crossings. I think I had better get some for my next trip, though, because unless you drive a 60 or 80 series Toyota, there aren't any in the bush. I bought some to carry with me for my GQ Patrol when I found out that there are no Patrol wheel bearings in remote places but it is highly likely that you can get Toyota bearings from many bush mechanics. This was after my Son in Law's 80 series front wheel bearings collapsed north of Mount Magnet on day one of a trip to Karijini. He was OK because there was a mechanic that had heaps of 80 series parts at Paynes Find.


Bob

Originally Posted by jon3950

I did a front one at about 40k. Still think it's unusual

The front left is normally the 1st to fail but 40K is very early suggesting that perhaps something got past the seal. Both my D2s had well over 200K when sold and neither had any replaced and I expect the D4 to be no different, having done 145K already.