Thread: Reliability

My L322 is on its fourth transmission, two were under warranty with the original owner who had the valve body upgraded to the American one ( Sonat) . Found that out after running into him in our town one day wish I’d met him earlier. I had it rebuilt when I purchased it as it was blown, I believed a guy in Dandenong who said he could repair it properly, 20,000 Kim’s later it failed I took it back under warranty it still cost $2,400 for him to repair it. It has now failed again less than 10,000 Kim’s later and I don’t do burnouts or tow heavy loads. I think the repairer in Dandenong was not as good as he made out. I do know the same transmission fitted into GM products is as bad so my answer is stay clear of the diesel powered L322.
Gippy

John
The earlier ZF (V8) box was generally reliable , but did have problems when it had high K's; the GM box (Td6) particuarly gave a lot of trouble. The torgue spec for this box was below the even de-rated spec of the BMW Td6 used in the L322.
From MY2006 both petrol and diesel models had the ZF6HP series of gearboxes. They have given very good service and have been as reliable as any other brand. These ZF boxes in different guises were used locally for Fords and many other brands, both for consumer and trade models including the big Turbo and Supercharged models. Plenty of parts and upgrade components if needed.

MY11-12 models have the ZF 8 Speed box, beautiful auto, again in wide spread use by other manufacturers.

Laurie

Yes, steer clear of the early TD6’s is all - had one, great car but busted a box and I think the owner after me busted it again. Go MY06 onwards to get the ZF unless you want a V8 in an earlier model which also has the earlier ZF.