Thread: 3 litre inlet manifold crack problems

Neither Pedro The Swift; I just got real lucky
As my house drive is clean, it must have happened during the Ten minute drive I took from my home to the office during which I did give it some beans because I was late and had promised my wife I would go with her to take the L322 to my mechanics about 5 mins away to fix a water leak, going in the two cars so I could bring her back.

I pulled into the yard behind the L322 as she came out the door and spoke with her through the Passenger side window for a minute. I reversed out of the yards Gate using the mirrors, pulling up to the side so she could reverse out and I could follow her.
Then I thought this would be a good opportunity to do a live data capture my chaps had been working on, so phoned the Guys to bring a Nanocom down while i pulled back into the yard motioning to my wife to wait a couple of mins. I sat in the car waiting for about 5 mins when they popped out and gave me the Nanocom throught the Passenger window. After plugging it in while going through the Menu to set up the capture, my wife came over to the drivers window to see what was causing the delay and mentioned that there was a trail of something on the floor that looked like it could be oil coming from one of our cars.

I did not think much of it but said I would look and she waited there. So just to pacify her, a minute later I get out and look and there are 3 solid lines of Black oil passing from where my Sport was, through the gate and Two dinner plate sized puddles underneath the Sport with one growing larger due to the steady stream of oil coming from my engine.

I Immediately turned off the engine walked through the gate and there was also a large puddle where I had pulled up and I could see a continuous trail leading right down the road and round the corner.

I lifted the Bonnet and there was nothing I could see.

I was really lucky and very gratefull to my wife as it certainly would not be good if i had followed her to the Mechanics.

He later told me he had to put 5 litres of oil in it

jonesy63:
My Sport is a 2010 MY with about 105,000 Miles on it and I am quite sure this is the origional seal. I understand they are tricky to fit properly.

~Rich~:
I origionally thought there was a difference but I was mistaken and the replacements were visually identical inside and out.

Hiya Andrew
I have not had any EGR problems and of course it was all cleaned out and checked when the Inlet manifolds were replaced. However it is a mystery as to why the seal came out and as you can see, it is by quite a distance.

Unfortunately that was not the Last Vehiclular mishap for that week, but that's another story

The original 3.0 oil pump housing has been superseded. The oil seal popping out of the original housing is a known problem which IIRC was due to the surface being too smooth.

Edit: The new part# was introduced no earlier than 2013 as the 3.0 in the 2012 L405 still used the earlier part#.

When I looked at buying a secondhand D4 about 18 months ago I decided that the 3.0 litre was to new at that time to be sure if they had any long term issues or not so I went down what I hope turns out to be the safe but unpopular at the time petrol option, especially after knowing the ongoing costs of keeping the 2.7 D3 on the road.

Reading all of these expensive issues with the early 3.0 litres now makes me glad I was cautious. Shame that such great vehicles have such bad design faults and LR won't do anything to assist their customers.

Originally Posted by TerryO

When I looked at buying a secondhand D4 about 18 months ago I decided that the 3.0 litre was to new at that time to be sure if they had any long term issues or not so I went down what I hope turns out to be the safe petrol option, especially after the ongoing costs of keeping the 2.7 D3 on the road.

Reading all of these expensive issues with the early 3.0 litres now makes me glad I was so cautious. Shame that such great vehicles have such bad design faults and LR won't do anything to assist their customers.

The D4 2.7 is probably the best sorted engine in the D3/4 range.

Although the lower power 3.0l hasn't been around long enough to see if it has any issues.

Originally Posted by scarry

The D4 2.7 is probably the best sorted engine in the D3/4 range.

I agree Paul - this is the third generation of the motor.

1. MY04-MY06: Euro 3
2. MY07-MY09: Euro 4
3. MY10-MY12: Euro 4 with 3L crankshaft bearings and updated oil pump casing, which has also been superceded.

The only downside - economy was not as good as in my D3 MY07 and oil seal can slip out of pump (although I've only heard of this happening on the 3L motor).

Edit: updated details to be correct.

Originally Posted by jonesy63

[*]MY10-MY12: Euro 4 with 3L crankshaft and updated oil pump.

According to the LR parts catalogue, its the same oil pump housing that's fitted to the 3.0 that allows the seal to walk and since superseded.

Originally Posted by Graeme

The original 3.0 oil pump housing has been superseded. The oil seal popping out of the original housing is a known problem which IIRC was due to the surface being too smooth.

Edit: The new part# was introduced no earlier than 2013 as the 3.0 in the 2012 L405 still used the earlier part#.

Yup, that's what happened to my MY10 3.0L .... made a hell of a mess to components but very little in the way of obvious external signs .... a slight drop of oil. Parts and labour for the oil pump, timing belts and some suspension parts exceeded $3K. Thank god I'd taken out an extended warranty.


This occurred early 2013 (around 70,000klms on the car), LR were at that stage aware of the problem and had supposedly fixed it.

Originally Posted by jonesy63

[*]MY10-MY12: Euro 4 with 3L crankshaft

Can't be the same crankshaft as the 2.7 stroke is 88mm and the 3.0 is 90mm.