Thread: D3/4 driveline strength

Originally Posted by rmp

Interestingly, the D3, the car that can tell you if so much as a brake light sensor malfunctions for a nanonsecond, has no way to let the driver know a CV joint is snapped. You may think the driver would notice, and of course you know something's wrong, but not what.

A tip, if you need to drive out with a broken CV use Rock Crawl as that prelocks the centre diff which is what you'll need to do to avoid all the drive going to the broken CV. Other modes work but RC is best. It's perhaps the only time I've wished I could lock a D3's centre diff manually.

Rob I was under the impression that the centre diff wouldn't lock if a CV was broken - just to clarify, you're saying the CDL can be locked still and you can still have drive?

Yes, you can use Rock Crawl if you break a CV. BUT ..... if you break a front CV joint (who, me?), you'll have great difficulty negotiating corners - the drive will disengage the centre diff and you coast to a halt. So the the technique required is to build up the momentum you need prior to negotiating the corner.

I had the locking rear eDiff, and it was still a pretty hairy trip home! Hills are also a drama, due to the 'hill' mode the transmission uses.

In my experience (and opinion), the D3/D4 has one of the strongest drive trains ever put into a production Landie. I've bashed the hell out of it, things that continually broke my heavily modified D1, the D3 just shrugs off!

Cheers,

Gordon