WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRENDAN SEYMOURWith the advent of new technology comes new problems. Brenno’s wondering
whether the days of million-kay 1HZ Cruisers will ever be repeatedMILLION-KAY
ARE THE DAYS OF THE
4WD GONE?
I
caught up with an old bushie mate the
other day. He’s the kind of bloke who
changes the oil in his old 75 Series
Cruiser once every decade and
considers crossing one of the creeks
in the back paddock a car wash. There’s
more cow shit covering the underside of the
old ute than oil, which is saying something
considering the last time he asked me to
have a look at a noise under the car (which
turned out to be a ridiculously fl ogged out
uni, by the way), it was pissing oil out of the
rear main, transfer output and front main
seals. The funny thing is, it still starts every
morning, especially after a new battery a
year or two ago. The even funnier thing is
that it’s just clocked over 850,000km (and
yep, the speedo still ticks over). Geez that’s
gotta say something, when oil changes for a
ute like that are simply made up of topping up
the oil every couple of weeks.
It constantly amazes me just how long
mechanical components will hold on before
they let go completely. Like the uni in my old
80 that developed a bit of play in Katherine,
then held on for about 15,000km as I drove
home via Broome, the entire WA west coast
and right back across to the east coast.
When I fi nally pulled it out to replace it, I
swear there was 45° of play in it, and it’d
chewed out the yoke on the tailshaft, but hey- it got me home!
You’ve really got to stop and ask yourself
whether modern vehicles will see that many
kays and still be running in 30 years time.
Every year manufacturers add more and
more complicated components and systems
to vehicles that are just more fail-points for
the future. Half the time it isn’t their fault –
they have their hands tied, trying to meet
increasingly tight emissions regulations.
Then there’s the fairly valid theory that in
many cases, most manufacturers are only
concerned with getting a vehicle through that
typical three-to-fi ve-year new vehicle period.
After that, as long as it doesn’t become such
a heap of junk that it refl ects badly on the
brand, then they don’t care. My D22 is a
perfect example of that. At 100,000km it had
cracked body mounts – surely a sign of the
fact some corners were cut when it was built.
Between you, me and the fencepost it’s been
moved on now, and I’ve got a new project just
around the corner.
This issue we’ve rounded up the industry’s
leading experts from all walks of mechanical
life and asked the question – will we see
million-kay common-rail 4WDs in the future?
Their answers surprised us and will no doubt
surprise you too.
Have you got a high-kay common-rail,
or even an ultra-high kay old-school
mechanical 4WD? Flick me an email to
[email protected].
Bonus points if you include
a pic of your speedo too.HOW HIGH IS TOO HIGH?ON TRACK
WWW.4WDACTION.COM.AUEDITORIAL
EDITOR BRENDAN SEYMOUR
EDITORS AT LARGE GRAHAM CAHILL,
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DEAN JOHNSON, JESS SEYMOUR, OLIVER RISI
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