Thread: D4 power & servicing queries

Having just spent the entire day working on my Disco, I'll now relax and take a punt at your questions. I am a long term D3 V8 owner, so others will have more diesely D4 answers.
Obviously I need to say at first, the D4 V8 best suits your needs
1. Any Disco 3/4 will tow that van, no probs. Obviously more power is better. Disco towing is not all about power, it is also about the general awesome of the vehicle (heavy weight + high tow capacity + lots of power/torque = awesome tow vehicle).

2. I don't know about smokey engines, but mine costs me about $500 per annum in servicing (twice a year for me - most of the cost is to fill the almost 9 litre sump with synthetic oil). Servicing can be expensive if you don't have the right mechanic. Parts are not generally that expensive but there are some very expensive repairs (anything body off and gearbox mainly).

3. Something like that. Annual I think. Others will correct.

4. Yes there is some truth to that. But good luck getting an LC200 fixed in the middle of nowhere ... reality is these modern high tech vehicles sometimes require certain electronic tools / skillsets / access to vehicle data that won't always be available ... so they all end up on the back of a truck going to a major center to be fixed if there is a serious issue. My solution is ... carry rudimentary spare parts and a vehicle specific diagnostic tool, have an NRMA Premium Care subscription, trust the Disco, no worries !

No disrespect but going from a Patrol to a Disco 4 will be like going from a Datsun 200B to a Jaguar XJ Wagon ... good luck.

Originally Posted by pprass

G'day all!
Just new to this forum and we have a few queries that we hope could be answered by the experienced people on here, as we are looking at replacing our 2004 Nissan Patrol 4.2 TDi with a Discovery 4 3.0 ltr TDV6. We need the extra power to tow our Kokoda Challenger Extreme caravan which we estimate weighs about 3.0 - 3.2 tonnes when fully loaded.
We have made enquiries with a local dealer here in Port Macquarie and test driven a 2011 2.7 ltr model, which I don't think is going to be powerful enough for our needs.
We also placed a query on one of those camping Facebook groups about towing with a D4 and got an avalanche of negative comments about poor reliability, obscenely expensive parts and servicing costs. I put a stop to those comments by pointing out that the D4 had won Australia's Best Cars award for 9 years in a row and came 3rd last year! That doesn't seem to be a vehicle that is unreliable and expensive to maintain to me!

So to my queries:
1. I would ideally like to have the SE version of the the 3.0 ltr engine with 183kW/600Nm, but I think that the standard 3.0 ltr version of 155kw/520Nm would be ample for my towing needs. Is that a fair assessment?

2. How expensive is it to service these vehicles and are parts very expensive? As a comparison, we have our Patrol serviced every 5,000 kms and pay around $400 - $500 per service and more of course if there is a mechanical repair involved.
3. The dealer here in PMQ told us that you only need to service these vehicles every 20k!! Is that right? Doesn't the engine oil and filter need to be changed sooner? As mentioned above - it is recommended by Nissan to change the engine oil every 5k's, which I understand is an old technology engine.
4. We do a lot of travelling around Australia towing our caravan and need to know that we can get the car fixed just about anywhere if something goes wrong. For instance the clutch went on our Patrol while we were at Rainbow Beach Qld, however there was a 4wd repairer in the small town and $1,900 and 3 days later we were on our way again. I have heard that not all remote area mechanics have the ability or special tools to repair a D4 - is that right?
I would be very grateful of your responses to these queries as we are keen to progress with our decision to buy a D4.

Peter

I think your are right there the 2.7L whilst it may handle towing the caravan the 3.0L will do it much easier.

Firstly what a great choice you will certainly love going from a patrol to a D4 they are an awesome vehicle and super comfortable just eat up the KMs no matter what they are doing.

In response to the reliability question just spend some time going back through the D3/D4/RRS section and you will find they are super reliable and not much at all goes wrong with them these days just take care and they will look after you well.

If it was me i would spend the bit extra to get full fat 183kw 600nm engine its just such an awesome engine and goes so well!!

As for servicing i know my car is under the corporate program so i dont pay for them but i did get it done a while ago and they said it was $500 and then i reminded them of the corporate program and they fixed it up so i can only assume its about $500.

They service intervals are 26000kms, how ever if you are mechanically inclined then it certainly doesn't hurt the car to halve that and do it yourself i paid about $20 for a filter i think and the oil was about $60 for 10L so its cheap assurance if you can do it yourself.

There is a lot of people here with huge KMs on their D4s and still having no issues at all so they are pretty reliable from what i can understand. Every car has its minor issues but it sounds like get yourself a Nanocom to fault find and reset and keep a good maintenance schedule and they should bring you much trouble free fun.

There is some issues with compressors for the suspension but if you keep an eye on it and when it starts to slow down repair or replace and they shouldn't have an issue.

A great choice and I'm sure a few test drives of the big 3.0L and it will have you smiling and not being able to wait to get one they are just the perfect all round vehicle!!

Originally Posted by pprass

2. How expensive is it to service these vehicles and are parts very expensive? As a comparison, we have our Patrol serviced every 5,000 kms and pay around $400 - $500 per service and more of course if there is a mechanical repair involved.


Peter

My 1st 12 month service at the dealer cost $820. Nothing extra just standard items. The 6 month health check prior to that was about $560. I do a lot of short 5 to 10 minute trips so I got the oil changed at 6 months which is included in the $560. I intend to change the oil every 6 months as I consider it cheap insurance considering the sort of driving I do.

Thanks so much for your honest, straight forward answers - gives us great confidence in the car and our decision.

It's funny though how this whole buying a car thing works. First of all you convince yourself that you can spend some money to replace your existing car to the base model. Then when you look at the base model you say - "oh - I think I can spend just a little more to get the bigger engine" and then someone (ie epic pooh & nat_89 ) says, "why not spend a little more and get the really big engine" . So in no time you go from spending just a little to upgrade, to a humungous amount to upgrade! Someone help me

One very positive outcome from your responses is that we will save a lot on annual running costs. We travel about 30k - 35k per annum and due to the thirsty Patrol of averaging around 20ltr/100kms (a lot of towing) - we should save about $4,500 in fuel alone (assuming 10/100 for the D4 and $1.50 per ltr). Then the servicing costs - We currently spend around $3,600 pa as compared to what letherm says of around $1,000 pa if I do the oil changes myself. So in total, I can save around $7,100 pa . However I bet the insurance will be a lot higher than the $950 that I pay now with AAMI. Better look into that.

And Epic pooh - yes the Patrol is a tad pedestrian in comparison to the new D4's (it is 10 years old after all), but my gosh does it have a great sound with the Vortex exhaust system and its low down grunt in getting up muddy, rutted tracks is exceptional for a 2.6 ton vehicle. However you are right - the truth hurts a little.

And that brings me to another question - we will still be wanting to do off road excursions (should have seen what we went through last weekend in the mountains behind Coffs Harbour - wall to wall lantana across the tracks for hundreds of metres. Many scratches were suffered ), however possibly not as extreme as we used to with the Patrol - so what do Discovery owners do to protect the duco? Just suffer the scratches and say that is what it was made for, or do you have a protection system?

Thanks again for your responses

Peter

Apologies there in that case what you can afford is your personal affairs and not something i can comment on sorry about that!! Either of the 3L engines will be just awesome they are apparently much better than the 2.7L i hear! Just get what you are comfortable spending any model of the D4 will be just perfect they a bloody amazing machine.

I have 3M ventudreshield its a clear plastic film they can get laser cut and put on the car i have it on the front of my car covers the bumper bonnet and so forth so I'm sure they can cut it for the doors to stop all the bush stripes!!

As for insurance well I'm with NRMA i think and i pay about $1180 for a 2014 D4 HSE with a windscreen i think. So hopefully shouldn't be to bad in that department, just shop around.

As for fuel i dont pay to much attention just fill up when needed and i dont tread lightly with the accelerator as i love the performance of the car but i would say i average 11L or 12L all up town and city. And we are paying $1.27 at the moment so not to bad there!!

Hi Peter, you won't regret the decision if you get the D4. Had mine for 14 months, the 183/600 version, done 35,000km, a lot of it towing the 9m long full height off-road van, mass 3200kg or so, with ease and in comfort. There is no substitute for the peace of mind when overtaking while towing the van that the 183/600 provides. Generally roll along at 95 km/h, fuel economy seems to be around the 17 ~ 19 l/100km range when towing, car seems to be in 7th a lot of the time, I am still exploring the speed V economy equation. Around town, 10 l/100 but I am light footed, I have recorded every drop of fuel into the car on my phone ap, average including the towing/4WD work and general touring and commuting is 12.6 L/100. First service at 26,000km but did an oil change only at 13000km, buy your self a mityvac oil extractor, (~ $120) and get Fuchs Titan GT-1 Pro C1 oil, it is what is recommended, put back exactly what you suck out, no drama. First dealer service was $750 or there abouts from memory. Interestingly, current 4x4 Australia mag has an article on the D4, Prado and Jeep, have a look at the quoted service costs, interesting.

There is lots of good info on this site, I intend doing gearbox trans fluid change at 50K, given all my towing. Seems like it will be a $1200 exercise but such is the way things are going with all modern vehicles. You will love the air suspension when hooking up / unhooking the van, as well as no more load levelling bars to fit. Insurance, $860 from Alianz, incl windscreen, so OK I think.

These things are very capable offroad, the usual stuff about tyres and the 19 or 20 inch rims being the main problem. The way I see it, you can get 18" rims and hence a range of tyres to suit, that is what I have done, but also, the tyre manufacturers are developing better tyres and the selection is increasing for the 19's and 20's so I do not see it as the insurmountable problem that a lot of 4WD mags present it to be.

Hope this helps.......................Peter

Originally Posted by pprass

(assuming 10/100 for the D4 and $1.50 per ltr).

Peter

That would be a false assumption.

Our van is only 2300kg and we averaged 14L/100 from Lismore to Newcastle.

Around town we get mid 10L, but not with a van. Especially not with your van.

Hi Peter
Welcome.
We had a 2010 Nissan Patrol 3Ltr got rid of it for health reasons.
(wife has back trouble and could not longer climb into truck)
got a good deal on D4 MY13 SDV6 HSE Christmas 2013 Demo model
with 45 k on clock. We went through broker and looked at every dealer in Qld until he found one. was not the colour we wanted but was a lot cheaper
and had all bells and whistles we could get.
Tows our semi off road caravan with no problems
Disco 4 lovely vehicle
Found cost of servicing around about the same as the Nissan but not so often.
Best of luck in the future and happy caravanning. See you out there.


Kev