KL dirt road tip

[physicalgraffiti]

How did the suspension hold up? Not too bad over corrugations? The interior held together alright?

What economy did you record?

[Idlewild]

Dave
Any other auto trans I've had if you're going downhill at highway speed and there is no load on the trans it will automatically go into top gear , mine won't do that .
What have you actually got to do to get it to go into 9th ?

Lujabe
Sounds like a great trip , I think I'll throw a roll of race tape in for next trip .

[lujabe]

Originally Posted by physicalgraffiti

How did the suspension hold up? Not too bad over corrugations? The interior held together alright?

What economy did you record?

Suspension was fine... Had 2 adults in the front, back seats folded down and packed to the roof with, at a guess, about 350kg of gear. Went fine over corrugations - but corrugations aren't pleasant in any vehicle - but I highlybrecommend reducing tyre pressures for corrugations particulalrly - softens the impact/vibrations considerably. Zeroes issues with "holding together" - felt no worse for wear back on bitumen. Ou thing to be mindful of is some of the interior plastics are a bit soft so need to be careful about things rubbing against them. I cut up a couple of moving boxes and used these to line the cargo area, and jammed a rolled up sleeping bag as a buffer between rear door trims and the luggage.

Honestly, I wasn't paying a lot of attention to fuel economy, given variable impacts of tyres with reduced pressure, some windy days, weight in car, and some 130kph roads... Definitely under 10l/100km, but not sure how much under.

Re the 9th gear question - the theory is it won't use it under about 130ish Km/hr. The goal of the transmission isn't to use the highest gear possible, remember. Internal combustion engines generally have a very small rev range where they can attain maximum fuel efficiency - that's why this thing will frequently shuffle between 5, 6, 7, 8th gears on the highway - to keep the engine as close to that rev range as possible. My impression is you'd only see 9th gear when cruising over 130kph under light load - not conditions many will see in Australia (mine was using 7th and 8th at 130kph in the NT - I guess between wind and weight on board it decided it wasn't the place for 9th...

[lenoir]

I've read that 9th doesn't engage at lower than 140km/h or so - a real autobahn overdrive gear. Of course I read it on the internet, so YMMV.

[NTRubicon]

Originally Posted by lenoir

I've read that 9th doesn't engage at lower than 140km/h or so - a real autobahn overdrive gear. Of course I read it on the internet, so YMMV.

9th sounds like NT gear. Open speed limit is in planning to be extended again soon. The pencil pushers are figuring out the cost of returning all the signs they took away in 2007

[Trailfirst]

Originally Posted by DebAth

But it makes this whistle in park, others have said its the fuel pump?

There was some conjecture about the source - but it really looks like that motor on the "Rear Drive Module" (or Diff in oldspeak) - is the culprit - so consider hitting your dealer service people hard about it when you're due for service.

It might not necessarily be the motor itself - but rather a Diode or something like that inside it - that's what it sounds like to me (I've had PC mainboards and power supplies make identical sound)

Apparently it isn't a reliability issue but it's sure annoying and by all accounts is a warranty repair issue.

I'm tossing up whether to chase getting it fixed on our TH when we come up for first service.

[Trailfirst]

On the OP - hehe to locking the dongle inside - my wife looked at me like I was a nut when I suggested they really need to have a little place EXTERNALLY to put that thing when you're using the vehicle - I'm in constant terror of locking it in.

At the very least there should be a hole in the panel next to the button for it to live - so you more or less handle it like a key. There we go: an aftermarket item could be a stick-on dongle holder to go on the panel near the button!!