Thread: New D4 SDV6 3L - Prevention Tips

Agree it's extremely difficult to work out and only JLR know the real figures. The rest is just guess work. People can speculate, but no more. I read South Africa admitted to 1.3% crank/bearing engine failure, but who knows if that's accurate (in response to a law suit) and government of Korea seems to be taking their own action. For all we know it's 5%.

Aren't the 3L and 2.7L crank failures are the same/related? 3L being a modification of the 2.7?

I tried to do a reliability poll on a FB group - numbers minuscule so meaningless but this was result:
Petrol - 4.4 V8 (seemed to be overall reliability winner too but petrol and diesel too different to lump together)
Diesel 2.7 - D4 2012
Diesel TDV6 3.0 - no result
Diesel SDV6 3.0 - no result

Even at low percentage I still can't get my head around the lottery that each time I turn the key it might be a 30k event. Would I swim in the ocean if there was 2% chance of being attacked by a shark? I would have to think very carefully.

Dying in a car in au- 5.4/100,000 = 0.0054
Being attacked by a shark in au - 1/16000 = 0.00625


Would really like a diesel but struggling with this aspect.

I don’t own one but been looking into them for a while. Prevention tips I know of:
- change transmission oil and filter every 80-100k
- change timing belts (both) 7 years or 180 on the 3.0 I think (160 on 2.7)
- engine cover can cut through (coolant?) pipes. Cut the cover so it doesn’t rub
- change the upper coolant housing T as they tend to split - someones makes an aluminum one.. but pretty exy
- plastic intake manifolds can split but not sure what best preventative is for this
- service every 10k (half what LR say)

Originally Posted by Flashgear

My question is - looking at that mileage has me a bit worried about the crankshaft (I still need to find out if the engine has been replaced in this car to begin with), what should I do the first time I pick it up right away to hopefully prevent myself needing a new engine?

Easy. Drive it home via the bottle shop and pick up a carton. Park car in driveway, pull up deckchair and consume carton while admiring car. They look great and can't break if they're not running.

Honestly? There is nothing you can do. Service it regularly and enjoy the game of "will it get me home" roulette every time you start it up. Most do, some don't.

Do take the time to sink a few coldies while admiring it though. They are lovely to look at.

The more you drive and admire, the more you will appreciate it whilst it depreciates in value anyway. So enjoy and if it fails - you can still look and admire how good it looks.

In all seriousness, if really worried (but you want to keep), then don’t sit on high revs for extended periods of time, try to avoid going over 3000 rpm if you don’t have to, and any vibration investigate why. One theory is vibration from the transmission adds to the harmonic stress on the crank but because the cars NHV levels are so good it is hard to notice a problem.

It is a design fault that seems to affect maybe 1% of engines and if these odds are too unfavourable then get a Petrol instead or good extended warranty insurance.

The number of failures in South Africa does sound higher than what has been experienced here in Australia - but one observation made is in South Africa you are more likely to spend a lot of time sitting on 130-160kph once you get out of the cities. High revs, high temps/thin oil, combined with insufficient undercut radius on the crank can’t be a good combination if it is a fatigue related failure or a bearing issue.

This is not to say it is the only reason it fails.

Originally Posted by DiscoDB

The more you drive and admire, the more you will appreciate it whilst it depreciates in value anyway. So enjoy and if it fails - you can still look and admire how good it looks.

In all seriousness, if really worried (but you want to keep), then don’t sit on high revs for extended periods of time, try to avoid going over 3000 rpm if you don’t have to, and any vibration investigate why. One theory is vibration from the transmission adds to the harmonic stress on the crank but because the cars NHV levels are so good it is hard to notice a problem.

It is a design fault that seems to affect maybe 1% of engines and if these odds are too unfavourable then get a Petrol instead or good extended warranty insurance.

The number of failures in South Africa does sound higher than what has been experienced here in Australia - but one observation made is in South Africa you are more likely to spend a lot of time sitting on 130-160kph once you get out of the cities. High revs, high temps/thin oil, combined with insufficient undercut radius on the crank can’t be a good combination if it is a fatigue related failure or a bearing issue.

This is not to say it is the only reason it fails.

Being an ex South African myself, the Diesel there is most def not like the Prem here in Aus - it's 50PPM there vs the 10PPM here (if I'm not mistaken) and to find 10PPM in SA was very difficult. Not sure if that makes any difference though.

Originally Posted by nixo

I don’t own one but been looking into them for a while. Prevention tips I know of:
- change transmission oil and filter every 80-100k
- change timing belts (both) 7 years or 180 on the 3.0 I think (160 on 2.7)
- engine cover can cut through (coolant?) pipes. Cut the cover so it doesn’t rub
- change the upper coolant housing T as they tend to split - someones makes an aluminum one.. but pretty exy
- plastic intake manifolds can split but not sure what best preventative is for this
- service every 10k (half what LR say)

Would only help if you'd had the vehicle from new.

Mine went two weeks ago on a MY15 with 86k on the clock, longest service interval before I had it was 20k, I purchased in Feb 2020 at 80k and have since serviced again, plus oil changes in TC & gearbox. Crank snapped whilst idling at lights.

Originally Posted by M005

Would only help if you'd had the vehicle from new.

Mine went two weeks ago on a MY15 with 86k on the clock, longest service interval before I had it was 20k, I purchased in Feb 2020 at 80k and have since serviced again, plus oil changes in TC & gearbox. Crank snapped whilst idling at lights.

Sorry to hear about that - what a nightmare.

My list is not related to the crank/bearing issue - those items are what you should do regardless of the crank issue. There's nothing you can do about the crank failure... it's a design flaw and and it's random. If you own one of these you have to accept this... in the end comes down to your attitude... if you're able to be relaxed and casual about it then could work for you... if you can't, like me, it's going to be difficult.

Or buy this unicorn

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