“Offroad Aftercare” – Vehicle care after offroad use
Clean air filter
In a combustion engine, the air filter ensures that the air that is sucked in and burned in the engine block is free of impurities. This is done by, as the name suggests, filtering the air before it enters the engine. Of course, such a filter can also become clogged.
Once the filter has become clogged with dust and other impurities, it will allow less air to pass through than a clean filter. This leads to a decrease in engine performance. In addition, if the filter is dirty, dust particles and other dirt can also come loose and get into the engine. Therefore you should always take care to check and clean the air filter regularly or replace it if necessary.
This should be done regularly, especially during intensive driving in dusty terrain – preferably every day after off-road driving. Particularly heavy soiling is often caused by driving in a convoy and leaving too little distance to the off-road vehicles in front. They whirl up immense amounts of dust “off-road” and all this dust is then sucked in and gets caught in the air filter.
An illustrated instruction how to change the air filter can be found here.
Air compressor
The compressor of the air suspension is located in front of the rear wheel on the driver’s side. The compressor is protected by a plastic tub, which is often filled with mud when driving off-road and in which one regularly finds large amounts of sand, mud and small stones. If the mud rises too high here, this is definitely not good for the compressor, which is also mounted there swinging and which of course has to dissipate heat.
The cover is fixed with two cross screws (screwed in from the side) and with a M6 (SW10) screw from below. In addition, the plastic protection is clipped in all around by holders. So it can be removed very easily. Just remove the three screws, then loosen the clips (they are quite robust and don’t break off), then pull the cover out.
Here are some photos of my Disco 4:
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Desludging of the compressor protection housing after an off-road drive on a Discovery 3/4.
Engine cooler
The radiator for the engine is located directly behind the radiator grille. This often gets clogged up with dust and mud on longer off-road trips. If air can no longer flow through the radiator, the engine is not cooled properly. This is most noticeable when the engine is exposed to low airflow under heavy load, for example when driving uphill with a trailer. Then error messages appear: Engine overheated
Therefore it is important to blow out the cooler very well with a thick water jet or with compressed air. Be careful if the high-pressure cleaner is used too much!
To remove the grill you have to open the hood and then first of all you have to unhook it by four clamps on the upper side. Then reach into the grill relatively far down and pull the grill out of its two further anchors with a brave jerk. These are relatively robust and do not actually break. The only important thing is that you pull straight and hit the right position during installation so that they do not break.
Cable winch
The cable winch is the savior in case of emergency. Logically, therefore, the winch must also be well looked after and maintained. It happens quite often that we are told about tours or trips on which someone was dependent on his winch and it simply failed to work. This is of course very annoying, because the winch is mounted for such purposes and it is one of the more expensive parts.
Therefore very important: Care of the winch!
The cable winch lies quite exposed at the front of the vehicle and is quite often pushed through muddy water or even mud. The rope also often gets muddy. After every intensive off-road ride and at least once a year the winch should be cleaned and checked.
The first thing to do is to unroll the rope and clean it. Afterwards the rope has to be rewound cleanly on the reel. Attention, be very careful here, when you act with your fingers on the winch window!
Besides the rope itself, you should also take care of the electronics. Therefore the cover should be unscrewed and the mechanics should be greased cleanly. Otherwise check all electrical connections again, clean them and the winch is ready for the next trip.
Completely dismantled cable winch (Goodwinch)
A note: I would replace defective ropes immediately. The cable winch is (especially for single travelers) often a savior in case of emergency. Something like this must be reliable. What good is the expensive heavy part if it does not work.
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