Thread: 6 months of D3 owership

Anyone approaching my vehicles with a rattle gun will
get a tyre lever over the head. I stand and watch ........ have done
for 35 years of purchases ........

I'd like to see the photos of all the crashed D3's with a wheel missing .....
You shouldn't believe 'em TBH

good to see everyone else thinks the setup of wheel changeover is a horses arse too. Fortunately both my flats have happened at home so I've had other tools to use. One thing though, I'm pretty sure the OM says to put the suspension at its highest setting and then jack it up - doesn't this mean the crap jack then has to raise a good distance until it hits the chassis rail? When I did this, my (LR) jack ran out of vertical travel and I had to drag out my trolley jack. I've since fully lowered the car and then jacked it with much better results.

If you have level ground on which to jack the car up I found a method almost by accident that seems to work. With the car in normal height you put the jack underneath the lower control arm (there is a nice little dent that it fits into) and start jacking. It gets to a spot where the computer realises that something is not right and it self levels itself and the wheel just lifts itself off the ground waiting for you to take it off . Use an axle stand under the normal jacking point if you want to ensure that it can't come down. I'm not sure I would want to try it on uneven ground but it worked very well in the garage. I used my trolley jack and it made life very easy.

Apart from that I have bought myself a jack that should do the job if used in conjunction with the standard one when offroad. Can't remember if it was Repco or Autobarn but I got it from one of those. Use the standard one to support and jack withthe other one.

Tim.

Originally Posted by gasser

good to see everyone else thinks the setup of wheel changeover is a horses arse too. Fortunately both my flats have happened at home so I've had other tools to use. One thing though, I'm pretty sure the OM says to put the suspension at its highest setting and then jack it up - doesn't this mean the crap jack then has to raise a good distance until it hits the chassis rail? When I did this, my (LR) jack ran out of vertical travel and I had to drag out my trolley jack. I've since fully lowered the car and then jacked it with much better results.

Yes, the manual says raise the car to off road, leave the door open (to lock the suspension) and jack it up. On level, solid ground (ie garage floor, not off road) the LR jack will do the job. I assume that the requirement for raising the suspension is safety related so I would not circumvent it.

For $100 you can get a bottle jack with a 450mm reach which does job well and with a lot more confidence than with the LR scissor jack. Money well spent.

Leaving the door opens stops the vehicle from going into extended mode when you lift a wheel.
Difficult for short folks to get back in.

Air Jack is really the only way to go with the D3.

Oddly enough, mine's started ignoring the door-open-don't-go-into-extended-mode thing. I have to pull a fuse or disconnect the battery.

She still won't change height normally with a door open, though. Can't work it out.

Yours has been doing a lot of odd things ltely, Jamo.