5 Years with the D4

You've worried me now Graeme. My D4 is a 2009 build 3.0 SE sold in 2010 to the first owner. Mine has never been babied, we use the power, I tow a camper trailer or caravan depending on whether we are off road or on bitumen. Heaps of off road and rough road touring all over Australia and so far the trans is perfect. It has had two fluid changes and a steel pan was fitted at 90,000. I am now up to 175000 and still perfect, touch wood.


I did 700km yesterday driving to Pemberton and back with lots of overtaking at full power up to 140 and cruising at about 112 most of the time. It surprised me for my car with the computer indicating 10.1 l/100 for the trip, about the best I have ever seen. This is with 285x60R18 D697 tyres and all of my heavy gear, and because of the larger tyres the computer is more accurate than it used to be since it is doing less km than the computer thinks it is.


I hope it stays that way for a long time yet!

Currently I'm favouring a solenoid failing to seal properly, which is more likely to have been triggered by the oil change than a bush suddenly leaking enough to consistently cause the malfunction. The TSB referenced problem causes a raft of faults and affects all clutches whereas my gbox only gets 1 fault on 1 clutch.

I will fit a new set of solenoids unless some contradictory information is encountered within the next few days.

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Originally Posted by BobD

because of the larger tyres the computer is more accurate than it used to be since it is doing less km than the computer thinks it is.

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I just read this when I am more awake and realised I should have said the car is doing more km than the computer thinks due to the larger tyres.


I hope you get your car sorted without too much grief, Graeme. Seems that you are not scared to tackle any mechanical job on the Disco.

My D4's 6HP28X gearbox will be re-manufactured to the latest spec including a new TC by ZF themselves for $3,950+GST plus the local mechanic's R&R costs (transported by me to ZF) because ZF confirmed that fault code P2704 can only be caused by that bush (whitemetal version) having failed. This failure is quite common and has very little if anything to do with the gearbox having recently had an oil change.

That's quite a hit. At least the cost will buy you a high level of confidence about reliability. I take it from your earlier posts that this problem also potentially affects 6HP26 trannys?

May as well get it fixed now as the problem can only get worse. It will get an improved torque converter over the existing one and various other improvements. It hopefully will then be good for the next 300-400K with appropriate oil changes to prevent clutch problems, not that I expect to still have it that long. The Mrs is already talking about getting a late model RRV.

Any 6-speed box fitted to 2008-2011 Discos, RRS & RR may develop the problem.

The bush is one of the pump's bearings. I wonder if the wear is accelerated by having the pump working under pressure at the low revs that can be.used with the 28X version of the box as the 26X wont allow gears to hold at such low revs. Even the 5.0 V8's 28X box doesn't get to operate at the low revs that the 3.0's does, to the point that the 3.0's is beefed-up from the 5.0's version to handle to the torque at low revs.

Thanks for the interesting thread.

I have a D2 that was new in 2003, and has 215,000 on it. It is used almost exclusively for bush trips. I love it and will keep it forever. A friend recently bequeathed his similarly aged D2 to me, so I have plenty of spares to keep me going.

We use other cars for highway commuting and city driving. In 2010 I was looking for a new highway cruiser (we live in the bush and rack up lots of k's). I looked at the RRS, the D4, the diesel Cayenne and the twin turbo BMW X5. Largely as a result of peer pressure I got the X5. Its done 160,000 in just over four years. It has those ridiculously wide tyres (the rears are 315/35/20s) which last less than a year. After the first year I replaced them with the same runflats and spent $3200! I don't like the handling. They hang on like buggery, but then let go suddenly. I prefer tyres that slide progressively. Apart from that, the BM has fulfilled its role flawlessly. It goes well. Is economical, and my wife loves it. It has had some minor stuff done under warranty, but never let us down. It has been hard restricting it to legal speeds on the back roads of NSW when it is able to do nearly 250 on the autobahn. When I have attracted unwanted attention, the officers have always been quite conciliatory and I have thus far avoided unpleasant consequences. I just put Conti sports on for $1800. They track well but how they last remains to be seen. If you think the aluminium panels on Discos feel light, you should feel the plastic guards on the X5. Luckily, through vigilance, excellent braking performance and good luck, I have managed to avoid the fauna hurling itself in my path. Sadly, while it is a very good car, I don't love it like I do the D2. I am seriously looking at changing over to a D4, so have found the comments on this thread very useful.

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Originally Posted by Roberto

Thanks for the interesting thread.

I have a D2 that was new in 2003, and has 215,000 on it. It is used almost exclusively for bush trips. I love it and will keep it forever. A friend recently bequeathed his similarly aged D2 to me, so I have plenty of spares to keep me going.

We use other cars for highway commuting and city driving. In 2010 I was looking for a new highway cruiser (we live in the bush and rack up lots of k's). I looked at the RRS, the D4, the diesel Cayenne and the twin turbo BMW X5. Largely as a result of peer pressure I got the X5. Its done 160,000 in just over four years. It has those ridiculously wide tyres (the rears are 315/35/20s) which last less than a year. After the first year I replaced them with the same runflats and spent $3200! I don't like the handling. They hang on like buggery, but then let go suddenly. I prefer tyres that slide progressively. Apart from that, the BM has fulfilled its role flawlessly. It goes well. Is economical, and my wife loves it. It has had some minor stuff done under warranty, but never let us down. It has been hard restricting it to legal speeds on the back roads of NSW when it is able to do nearly 250 on the autobahn. When I have attracted unwanted attention, the officers have always been quite conciliatory and I have thus far avoided unpleasant consequences. I just put Conti sports on for $1800. They track well but how they last remains to be seen. If you think the aluminium panels on Discos feel light, you should feel the plastic guards on the X5. Luckily, through vigilance, excellent braking performance and good luck, I have managed to avoid the fauna hurling itself in my path. Sadly, while it is a very good car, I don't love it like I do the D2. I am seriously looking at changing over to a D4, so have found the comments on this thread very useful.

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I know how you feel i had an x5 for a while and its hard to explain i now have a D4 HSE and i just love it every time i drive it it puts a smile on my face the way it goes how comfy it is the stereo the whole package i just love it and cant explain why i love it so much theres just something about it that makes you love it!! No other car I've had i love as much as the D4 its just hard to explain!! Especially when your trying to tell people about the cars the best thing i do with friends is say jump in and have a drive and they all go away smiling and really love it to!! I dunno what it is haha but they are just so good!

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Originally Posted by nat_89

I know how you feel i had an x5 for a while and its hard to explain i now have a D4 HSE and i just love it every time i drive it it puts a smile on my face the way it goes how comfy it is the stereo the whole package i just love it and cant explain why i love it so much theres just something about it that makes you love it!! No other car I've had i love as much as the D4 its just hard to explain!! Especially when your trying to tell people about the cars the best thing i do with friends is say jump in and have a drive and they all go away smiling and really love it to!! I dunno what it is haha but they are just so good!

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Jeezus. Your D4 ranks numero uno obviously.
What's next in line? Missus or dog?

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Originally Posted by RHS58

Jeezus. Your D4 ranks numero uno obviously.
What's next in line? Missus or dog?

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HAHAHA i will admit i do love the D4 lots but sadly its 3rd inline haha!! She does love it as much as me but now she's got an Audi Q5 she loves that more than the D4 i think!