Thread: Cooked V8?

Hi Geedublya,
Was the BMW engine used in all the RRS TDV8's or was it in a specific date range? I have a 07 -2007 RRS and I thought I had the Jag engine..............maybe not!! Can I tell be the VIN number?

Cheers Marty

When I first looked at buying a V8 D3 I decided the best place to get info about them was from North America where they are all just about V8 petrol's so I contacted aCanadian Aulro member with the tag BByer. Below is part of a pm he sent to me, it addresses the major issues the 4.4 V8's in D3's suffer from and what I should look for when considering a V8 D3 for sale.

"Re the spark plugs, I would try to get proof that the plugs have been changed and that they are not original.

I have changed out the plugs twice now, (3 sets including the originals), and I do that as apparently the plugs if not replaced at least at 100,000 km, can freeze into the head. What this means is that when the plugs are changed, the threads within the head spin out instead of the spark plug. This is bad. As such, my thoughts would be that if you purchase the unit and there is no proof of a previous spark plug change, I would offer to pay a real LR dealer to install new plugs conditional on the purchase.

Re the plastic cooling system parts, about a month ago, I had a complete new thermostat housing installed. Nothing was wrong with the original plastic, however there are stories of the housings cracking due to old age ?€“ heat and time. There is also a plastic air bleeder tee that should also be replaced. A new housing gives you a new thermostat. At least here in Canada, the cost of a thermostat and labour to replace is not much less than the whole housing replaced so it is an easy decision. I still have the original water pump but had to install a new electro viscous fan unit ?€“ expensive.

My own thoughts re petrol vs diesel, is that the petrol engines do not seem to require much maintenance, yes the fuel cost is higher, but with no turbocharger to burn up, maintenance is cheap compared to the diesel.

Here in Canada, the fleets tend now to be purchasing pickups with petrol engines rather than diesel and first cost is less and so is maintenance; fuel cost differences do not amount to much."

I found the above information very helpful and in part that made my decision to buy a V8 D4 even easier.