Thread: Buying advise for Discovery 4

What motor?

SDV6

Unless there is record of additional service I would not touch it, the 3 l v6 should be serviced every 10-12,000km, some of the service intervals might be 12 months but the km are way to long between oil changes
Also keep in mind you will be playing crank lotto with the 3l

It’s interesting as I’ve looked at few D 4s going cheap and you can visit the service record online and see some dealer serviced but with 25 k km and more intervals. Shocking.

There are super bargains in the D 3 world with cars hitting multi glitch mode in the 200 kms zone and buyers abandoning. The first limp mode of a failing fuel pump and a 5 to 10k estimate for repairs is too much. If you’re not into DIY there’s a lot of issues that will break your heart.

Look, I don't like the 32,000km gap between one of the oil changes, but there could have been an undocumented change in between. The very first thing you MUST do is arrange for an engine oil pressure test. Dead easy to do and the procedure and expected results are in the workshop manual (albeit not very clearly explained). This will tell you whether the engine has some life left in it or not.

Thanks for all the advice. It’s hard to know what you are going to end up with. I might try to look for a lower km car with more service history. Just out of curiosity how many KMs can these SDV6 engines go if maintenance is done correctly?

It really is a lottery, some have crank failure at low kilometres, some are still going well, in excess of 300k.
An excellent service history does not guarantee not breaking a crank at low kilometres.
Some fellows are replacing failed motors with Territory units.

I looked at another car that had a 185,000 km SDV6. I had an engine rebuild July 2024 with new crank, pistons, injectors, machined cylinder at a mechanic that looks to get very good reviews. Would that be a better option to for something like that?