Thread: What happened to your D3/D4 today?

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Last Friday the wife was driving the car and I got that call that something terrible had happened to the car. Some large thud, loss of power and smoke! She had managed to get out of the traffic and limp into a carpark and I drove over which was fortunately close. On seeingthe car no smoke, smell, leaks or fault codes. I drove around the carparkand declared nothing was wrong. She would not drive it so I headed home which was only a few kms away fortunately. Half way home I got the thud and sudden deacceleration and loss of control limping onto the footpath. On inspection the 70m long skid from the right rear tyre gave a strong clue.

Reason - the 16 year old park brake shoe had seperated some of the pad material which was getting sucked up on top of the non-broken material forming a perfect and instantaneous braking force. A constant 4WD car does not enjoy one tyre being suddenly locked up on bitumen.

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Ordered replacement shoes which are not much thicker than the old shoes

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Definitely an unpleasant experience you want to avoid so maybe add to your next service as a new set of shoes is not expensive at all. I'd hate to imagine it at happening highway speeds.

Originally Posted by PerthDisco

Definitely an unpleasant experience you want to avoid so maybe add to your next service as a new set of shoes is not expensive at all. I'd hate to imagine it at happening highway speeds.

That's interesting. Your old shoes look quite serviceable (except for the broken bit!). This is a worry, as I went to replace mine last year (after ten years) but as everything looked clean and the shoes had no less meat than the new ones, I put off the replacement indefinitely. I will definitely change them over next service, they're not doing me any good sitting in the cupboard. Thanks for posting.

I have an amber fault light on the dash, “engine/transmission emission fault”. A local Indy pit Gap tool on it and shows the ambient temp sensor as faulty, he says this can cause amber alarm as wrong fuel/air mix
Still waiting for new sensor to arrive, but wondering if it would be safe to drive the car - any advice appreciated as we are two weeks into a caravan trip of a few months. Thanks

I would think safe to drive, might increase the fuel burn a bit as the ecu would rely on default temperature to determine fuel:air ratio.

Originally Posted by crackers23

A local Indy pit Gap tool on it and shows the ambient temp sensor as faulty

If he means the one behind the front bumper, suggest you simply clean it first. I didn't have any registered fault, but the temp was staying the same over many days. So I disconnected it, cleaned it and the connections and put it back and it's been fine ever since.

Needed to run an extra wire from the Projecta solar controller/dcdc in the engine bay, through the firewall, that’s going to run the new remote screen. Unfortunately I don’t have any room left in the clutch pedal hole. So, I drilled a new one and put in a 25mm rubber bung.

Perth finally got rain. Quite a bit. My new Toyo AT3 are like driving on ice. Roundabouts are a new experience in understeer.

Wifey was in the UK for a few weeks and brought back some parts for my next upgrade project, got almost everything I need to install adaptive cruise control.
Saved me about $100 in postage .
Got an nos ECU on the way from the US.