Thread: Best L322 variant?

No issues with mine's digitlal display and I'm not aware of them being prone to failing.

Originally Posted by Graeme

No issues with mine's digitlal display and I'm not aware of them being prone to failing.

Thanks Graeme, I'll be honest, I kind of want the 8spd.

Anything to look out for service wise? I had a D4 and I know getting the timing chain done was a big deal (costly).

I like the green also but see very few if any. So many are black or very dark. Almost wondering if they didn’t bring them to Australia.

The 4.4's oil cooler gaskets are prone to leaking although the gasket part numbers changed a couple of years ago so those might be an improvement. Fitting new gaskets or a complete oil cooler requires great care to avoid contaminating the post-filter oilways which would destroy the bearings. Also the turbo oil feed pipe from the back of the oil cooler has 2 o-rings that don't last long but Viton versions are better. The o-rings aren't listed as spare parts, only the whole pipe, so source the o-rings from elsewhere.

I recently replaced all the cooling system hoses and plastic pipework in the V while replacing the radiator at around 180K to ensure no overheating failures which would then require an engine rebuild. Even though I removed the engine cover when I bought the vehicle at under 20K kms, some of the plastic pipes broke while being removed which validated my decision to replace them all.

The secondary turbo's air inlet shut-off valve was updated, possibly for MY12, as the early valve can become sticky just like the early 3.0 TDV6 shut-off valves which were also updated at around the same time.

I recently changed to using 5W40 A3/B4 oil after discovering that the engines have quite low oil pressure, just like the 2.7 and 3.0 TDV6 and most likely the 3.6 TDV8 which uses the same oil pump and bearings as the 4.4. The change in oil specs is to provide better bearing lubrication at the possible expense of slightly higher fuel consumption, which is very low with the 8-speed so of no consequence for me.

Am REALLY interested in how that oil change works out...

The 5W40 spec instead of 5W30 is for high ambient conditions when towing and to stay at least 30 grade towards the end of the change interval, having nil effect most of the time. Idle and maximum pressures when up to temperature are spot-on with specs as was new A5/B5 5W30 so any improvement for bearing life is likely to be minimal. However I prefer to lean towards looking after the bearings better rather than extracting that last little reduction in fuel usage. My electronic pressure display, mounted in the bottom right of the instrument cluster, is refreshed every second but smoothed over 5 seconds if the change doesn't exceed 1 psi. I'm getting accustomed to the 15-16 psi at 100 kph in 8th but I'll drop a gear if concerned.

I suppose it depends a bit on volume too..
though 15 is scarey....

Originally Posted by PerthDisco

I like the green also but see very few if any. So many are black or very dark. Almost wondering if they didn’t bring them to Australia.

They do exist, I’ve seen one lateish TDV8 for sale in green. I think it was a 3.6, 2009 or so. I thought very, very hard about it, and gave it a miss - still regret it.

That said, I’d be ok with white as a backup plan.