Bekkie said:

serviced every year without fail new filters oil you name it.. still broken :/

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It's a real shame when this type of failure takes an otherwise good vehicle out of order. You have nobody at close hand with enough mechanical skill to be able to even open up the engine and give an assessment of damage. Even though there may be some on here that would disagree, I would be tempted to do a "minimal cost/impact" repair on the engine, and there may be some older style spanner handlers out there that would tackle such a project.
Last year I picked up a V6 Toyota RV 4X4 wagon from a guy who had tried a deeper water crossing than he should have during our "wet" season, result, the Tojo took a big gulp of H2O and stopped dead, resulting in a broken connecting rod to number 6 piston, the quotes to repair the vehicle were so big, with no other option other than spend the big bucks he decided to scrap a complete otherwise perfect vehicle. I saw it sitting in a front yard and made him an offer, long story short I had the engine running happily again in a reasonably short time for less than $300 in second hand engine parts, only stripping the engine down enough to access the bits needing to be replaced, it is not perfect, because I know what has gone on with it but that vehicle is now my backup for my trusty old 300Tdi Landy Disco and will serve us well this year on our annual Cape York 4x4 camping trip, it runs beautifully, it idles so smoothly you can balance a 20 cent coin on edge on top of the engine.
So what I am saying I guess is if there were some one you could locate that would be prepared to do the minimal impact/intrusion/cost job, and I don't mean a complete "bodge", you would have the D3 back and what have you got to lose, it is at it's worst now?
I fully understand why dealerships and "professional mechanics" want to go to the "Nth" degree using all new bits etc, because they must warrant their work, though many try hard to wriggle out when something they have charged a motza for goes bad, and after working on all sorts of powered machinery from steam locos to sports cars for 50 years, some of it in the vehicle service industry, I also realise that some customers will blame the last mechanic that worked on their car for anything..........I mean anything that goes wrong with that vehicle forever after, it's a fine line.
If you do not have too high expectations, maybe there is some specially skilled old bloke out there who would just love the challenge, with plenty of time to fill in, to strip the bottom end out of that V6 Td and get it running again, I hope to hear soon the good news that your Disco is back in action.

My local independent landrover garage advised me to steer clear of the 3 series as when they got to 100k on the clock he said the running costs due to wear and tear was far in excess of the td5 2 ..
That was 5 years a go .. I ended up with a low mileage 2002 and full service history at premium money and I've had a great time with it.
The stories I've heard don't make me rush out to buy a 3 !

Still worth a call to your Ins Co. If only to add no claims bonus protection!
Ive seen a few D3s on Copart as Cat D with "Mechanical Damage"
Mark

I've had so many guys at work asking about the D3s, I've said stay away, I have a td5 myself, not really bought into the newer disco, to much trickery in there for my liking , and there's enough to go wrong on my td5 thanks, don't need more black magic thanks