Discovery 3 TDV6 Reliability?

I got mine in Dec 06 and wouldn't part with it for the world. We recently took it up the "jump up" at Karratha in WA. We then parked up and watched a plethora of Jap forbies wreck tyres, clutches, transmissions and tempers.

The Disco quite literally "walked" up without fuss.

I do about 65,000 km per year and have owned many brands of fourby and the Disco 3 is head and shoulders above them all.

We are permanently touring with an all-up weight of 5050 Kg including the camper trailer, and we are averaging just over 17l/110km fuel usage...which is better than I wanted or expected.

The only issues we've had were the park brake indicator on the dash failed to extinguish one night but was OK the next time we started it and we had the wheels aligned again at 4000 Km because it wasn't right when delivered.

Cheers,

Russ.

Hi All,
just wondering how your Disco 3 's are going now that they are about 7 yrs old and will have probably covered a few miles now. A new Discovery is out of my price range however the D3 could be an option however I wanted to research what I should watch out for on these models and what the service costs are starting to look like. Any frank and honest advice is greatly appreciated.
thanks
B

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bajabus

Hi All,
just wondering how your Disco 3 's are going now that they are about 7 yrs old and will have probably covered a few miles now. A new Discovery is out of my price range however the D3 could be an option however I wanted to research what I should watch out for on these models and what the service costs are starting to look like. Any frank and honest advice is greatly appreciated.
thanks
B

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Took the words out of my mouth, I'd love to learn from others experience too as I'm looking to upgrade my D1 within the next 12 months.

Brenden

Plenty of info in the D3/D4 area;);););).
Andrew

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Brenden73

Took the words out of my mouth, I'd love to learn from others experience too as I'm looking to upgrade my D1 within the next 12 months.

Brenden

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I just bought a D3 and did a bunch of research on them. My thread is here:
http://www.aulro.com/afvb/showthread...ge - D3 or D4?

Based on the advice of some others and the cheaper purchase price i bought a petrol V6 though, as i don't plan to tow much.

Main things to look out for are the transmission (should be serviced at max 100k km intervals - check the sticky thread in the D3/D4/RRS section), the front lower control arm bushes, and the air suspension. With the diesel the high pressure fuel pump has had seal issues, causing some to catch fire due to leaking fuel. Its a recall IIRC so check it has been done. Timing belt is due at 168000km (no timing belt in petrol). The diesels have also had some serious big end bearing failures, though apparently no more common than other makes.

If you can find a well serviced V8 HSE you'll be laughing. :D

Best of luck!

Cheers

Dan

I think we can shift this old thread to the D3/D4 area into the future.
Us Latte set dont like our dirty washing aired in public;););););)
Andrew

Hi everyone,
The disco was a dream of mine and I bought one about 1-1/2 years ago and also along with extended warranty. I've experienced the best of it for a year, then I had my first experience of the alternator going and of course replaced it. Everything was great for a more months . I've planned a great trip with my family and off we went to Esperance. All was good for the duration of the trip, however on the way back home the coolant low came on and I thought to myself I've just serviced it before the trip. Thought nothing of it till about 50 ks in then the temp gauge shot up to high. Outside temp that day was 46 Celsius n I had aircon running also . I shut down the aircon and pulled off the road and was at this stage a little bit nervous. I managed to get to the next road house without the aircon on and temperature remained normal. I opened up the bonnet and looked at the coolant bottle , it was frothing and I got alarmed . Went to see if they had any coolant at the roadhouse ... yep they had plenty except it was all the green coolant and none of the pink stuff... OMG!!! Nothing I could do and also no distilled water, so I went and put bottled water into it.... 12 litres of it??? Managed to get the car home after midnight , and with carload of tired angry family. Next day too scared to drive it I got it towed to my machanic and had it checked out. Water had gone into the engine... explained where all that water went 😢 Warranty wouldn't even touch it and I had bought second from the top cover ... 3 k in the bin I say 😡😡😡 . Out of pocket I had my car repaired and had all new cooling systems replaced !!! Not cheap😢 Drove it home and I just said to myself , have a look under the hood ... that's where I noticed a splutter of engine oil on the pipe hmmmm... wiped it off and took it for a drive then checked again ... nothing all good, or so I thought. A week into the drive I checked again and this time there was an amount of engine oil all over the engine bay. Rang the mechanic and got it towed again ... oil sensor gone and blew... replaced 365 dollars . Almost wanting to burn the car down 😡 Got it back and then car heated up again ... towed ... now I'm getting ****ed off 😤 . Car over pressurising... what now!!! Got it seen to all good said the mechanic. Wow driving again and very happy 😢😢😢three weeks in driving to work it made a sound and it was just audible clunky sound ??? ... kept cool and drove on a bit farther clunking got louder and I knew something was going to blow ... bugger it punched it and took off ... as I turned off the next road I gave it some and bang 💥 blew something... Ive had had enough stooped the vehicle and got out cursing. Took a look underneath and oil was poring out like dark coffee . Well that's it I said no more money spending on a cursed engine . Now it's gone I am looking to get an engine replacement for my disco , any thoughts ? But one thing thought sure as hell I don't want to replace it with the original!!! Any one know of an engine that would match as I still am into my disco and would like to get it back on the road. European or Japanese

Sorry to be a bit of a Nazi but your post is very hard to read - paragraphs etc might help because I gave up.

However what I did read - why would you ignore a low coolant indication - the indications are there for a reason and you ignore at your peril as you have found. Now low coolant indications are usually issues in the sensor in the overflow bottle but may not be as happened to you - always check indications.

Garry

Probably caused by a cheap plastic thermostat part that should be replaced periodically. Sounds like engine got hot and caused a head gasket to fail allowing water in once engine cooled.

First warning is usually your last one also as all modern diesels pack a big punch from a small package and need cooling.

One thing leads to another once an overheat is involved.

This seems to be a trap a buyer of an older 'cheap' diesel Disco will easily fall into.

Long term holders of cars from (near) new have probably done the research to avoid.

Anyone with an older diesel car with uncertain service history should immediately replace this part for peace of mind. The car itself is probably fine from an oil change perspective.