 | Home > Modifications & Maintenance (L663) > Oil & filter change or not? |
 
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| Crazymind Member Since: 11 Jun 2024 Location: Glasgow Posts: 324  
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Can’t help myself… done again another oil change before heading to Europe… this makes 3 oil changes in less than 20k… and when I am back taking it in for its first service… no filter change this time, the old one has less than 6k miles on it…
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28th Aug 2025 9:28pm |
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| Huwcil Member Since: 08 Oct 2025 Location: Ceredigion, Wales Posts: 15
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I agree with you. Plateau honing and much tighter machine tolerances, better materials and design plus far and away better oils have allowed the discontinuation of an early oil change and far longer service intervals. Things like Ingenium balancer shaft bearing and timing chain failure are not down to inadequate servicing but to poor design and insufficient testing of components, certainly not due to poor maintenance. There are exceptions where early services are warranted and they include a high proportion of cold starts and short journeys, towing, very dusty, hot or cold conditions and, significantly, where the manufacturer has gone bonkers and stretched the ‘normal’ service interval out to ridiculous miles, like JLR’s 21,000 miles. That may be ok for very high annual highway use but for the average mixed conditions driver, shortening the interval to 15,000 or 10,000 miles may be beneficial. In my case my two LR vehicles, a Defender D250 and Range Rover D300 will do an average of 10,000 miles a year and need a dealer service [while under warranty] every 2 years. I change the oil myself every 10,000 miles with the recommended oil specification. I wouldn’t worry if I went 15,000 miles but 10k miles is just convenient for me while under warranty and I intend to carry on with that regime. Any shorter in my case would be ‘recreational’ maintenance and totally unnecessary and without the slightest benefit. The ZF gearbox and the transfer box oils are changed every 60,000 but the ZF filter/sump will not be changed until 120,000 or so because, after all, LR and other brands claim ‘filled for life’. The diff oils every 100,000. If I towed a lot that would be done at 60,000, the same time as the gearbox fluids. |
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15th Oct 2025 12:13pm |
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| Retroanaconda Member Since: 04 Jan 2012 Location: Scotland Posts: 2785 
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The gearbox sump/filter is specified to be changed along with the oil at 105k miles, not filled for life at all.
At least on a D200 anyway. Mine is having it done today. |
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15th Oct 2025 1:54pm |
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| CincyRovers1 Member Since: 30 Nov 2023 Location: Cincinnati, Ohio Posts: 138 
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JLR recommends the diff oil to be changed at 63k if you have the rear locking diff. I have the rear locker, and I'd recommend changing it every 30k miles, as they can clunk a bit. The clunking isn't anything to be concerned about, but I'd rather not have a clunking differential. 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟏 𝐃𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟏𝟎 𝐒 𝐏𝟑𝟎𝟎 (Pangea Green over Acorn/Lunar) 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑 𝐏𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐒 (Dolomite Silver over Black/Bordeaux Red) 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟕 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐇𝐒𝐄 𝐋𝐮𝐱𝐮𝐫𝐲 𝐒𝐢𝟔 (Aintree Green over Vintage Tan/Ebony) - Gone 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟏 𝐋𝐑𝟒 𝐇𝐒𝐄 𝟓.𝟎 (Ipanema Sand over Almond/Arabica) - Gone |
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15th Oct 2025 4:32pm |
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| Crazymind Member Since: 11 Jun 2024 Location: Glasgow Posts: 324
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Mechanical tolerances are part of the story, not all the story.
My friend had his car (Dacia 1.2 16v chain driven) looked after with oil changes every 10k miles up to last year. In the last 12 months he has done 30k miles and completely forgot about the oil change… till one day ( at 260k miles) the car didn’t start anymore… chain was stretched… needs to Be replaced… |
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15th Oct 2025 4:52pm |
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| Defendit.. Member Since: 09 Aug 2020 Location: 's-Hertogenbosch Posts: 473 
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260k with a Dacia ..
 No Mud flaps for my 90.!
----------------------------------------- P300S MY21 Keswick Green on air, adv.+ offroad pack, DRL+fog, Dinamica Suedecloth + Ebony headliner/Cross Beam- Many Mods.. |
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15th Oct 2025 5:48pm |
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| Crazymind Member Since: 11 Jun 2024 Location: Glasgow Posts: 324
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Though little car the Logan…
The one he had before was declared dead at 300k miles… Also run on LPG…still Not seen any defender with that sort of mileage yet… |
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15th Oct 2025 9:40pm |
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| lightning Member Since: 23 Apr 2009 Location: High Peak, Derbyshire Posts: 3495
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That's seriously high mileage in anybody's book. l've not seen many old model Defenders with that kind of mileage, let alone the new one.
l am in and out of mine all day every day between customers and still have only done 25,000 since November 2022 when l got my Defender Commercial. |
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16th Oct 2025 4:02pm |
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