Finding parts, a taste of things to come……….

Well, if you have been with me since the first post, you will know that the Land Rover Perentie was a special project for the Australian Military built by Jaguar Land Rover Australia – a super tough Land Rover for the rough conditions in the outback.

S0 in a nutshell, power comes from an Isuzu 3.9 Diesel, but pretty much everything from the clutch back is Land Rover – all mounted in the special galvanised chassis.

Now most 4×4 Perenties have a normal aspirated Isuzu 4BD1 Diesel, however, ours has a 4BD1 Turbo, usually found in the 6×6 version – The reason for this will be covered in a later post.

So, the first job on a relatively new vehicle is change the oil and filters, as we all know. A quick call around to usual sources drew blanks as I did not know the part numbers. The existing filters were all so old and dirty that the numbers could not be read. A call to the “not so local” Isuzu truck dealer also drew a blank when I gave them the engine number…….

Isuzu suggested that I book it in for them to take a look and try and trace the engine on their computer. Given that they would also check the engine over and inform me of any impending doom, I bit the bullet and booked it in. At least they gave me a courtesy van; a very battered VW Caddy, full of empty crisp packets old fuel receipts and with nearly 200k on the clock!

However, to give them credit, they didn’t charge me for it and I got good use out of it over the next two weeks…………Yes, two weeks!

As an aside, it is amazing the assumptions that people make about you when you drive a sign written van…………..

So why so long………….well I very quickly got a reasonably long list of what was wrong with the Land Rover (Most of which I knew) and confirmation that the fuel and air filters had been obtained and changed. No really bad news, so I took that as a positive.

The problem was with the oil filters, yes there is a plural. There are two, the main filter and a bypass. A series of filters ordered in apparently did not fit, including some part numbers provided by the wonderful people in the Australian Perentie Facebook Group to whom I turned for help. No idea why this was as the Australians know their stuff.

Anyway, Isuzu got there eventually after seeking e-mail assistance from Japan! – and the Perentie returned home.

However, a lesson learned; I have already started to think about sourcing other parts that I need to replace prior to our trip, but more of that later