At risk of putting the mockers on myself, I think the 3.0 problem is well out of proportion to the numbers "out there" who have not/will not fail.
There are many owners here who have well in excess 200k and several over 300k with no problems, and what %age of Aus Disco owners contribute to this Forum? (bugger all I'd say).
I make a point of saying hello to as many owners as possible and discussing Disco's when it allows and without exception they are very happy with their car and have had no serious probs whatsoever.
My 2013 is approaching 155,000 and I service it every 8-10 klms with the correct oil.
The long oil change frequencies appears to be one of the major, if not THE major contributor to failure.
I am a huge fan of Wynns products having had good experiences with the product over the years and maybe that is helping look after my bearing problem, who knows.
Contrary to what some people claim, the crankshaft doesn't break as the initial failure per se.
The problem according to the LR Service Bulletins is that the conrod bearing/s rotate (spin) due to incorrect assembly at the LR engine plant, and "pick up" due to the oil feed gallery hole becoming blocked, which can then cause other catastrophic failures, one of which is seizure thus potentially breaking the crankshaft.
The other LR engines are not without their problems as do other brands of vehicles.
The SCV6 petrol engine requires timing chains at not insignificant cost and doesn't have the torque nor fuel economy of the diesel if that is important to you.
The pick of the D4 would be the Jaguar V8 engine but appear to be as rare as the proverbial, but you wouldn't use the words "fuel economy" and "V8" in the same sentence. [tonguewink]
Without wishing to appear blase about it, in the course in the event of an engine failure, a $15-20k rebuild should not necessarily mean ditching the car.
An exchange 3.0 reco engine is available for around $6k in NSW and with labour & misc costs etc hopefully would take it to around $14k ish.
Worth considering spending the dough and keeping the car for several further years knowing that you are still driving one of the best, most capable, and nicest to drive, 4WD's on this planet.
Amortise the engine repair cost over several years of ownership and it doesn't appear so bad after all.
What else do you buy which provides so many features and driving pleasure without spending mega mega bucks?
I drove a mate's new Prado t'other day and that trans is still no improvement on 4 years ago as it still doesn't know which gear it wants to be in.
Find a late SD/TD 3.0 with full service history incl oil change periods around 10,000 klms and you can't go wrong!

