Apologises if this has already been covered.

Does the TD4 engine require( or is it still desirable ), flushing at oil changes, or are the synthetic oils used these days so good that no debris, or grunge is left in the engine.

Looking for general concesses of opinion, or prehaps one of the petro / chemical experts could advise

Thanks JRS

Well, I don't have a petro-chem background but I am a mechanical engineer (albeit working in the mining industry!)

To flush or not to flush...

Well, the TD4 runs on a pretty thin synthetic oil, so getting it nice and warm before a change should help carry all the gunk to the sump. If you change at the required intervals and don't do too much crazy offroading I would think flushing would not be required. Beneficial? Maybe marginally at best. If you were to do a cost/benefit analysis on it you would come out a loser for sure. Putting in a decent quality oil to flush it (you wouldn't want to mix them) would cost more than any quantifiable benefit.

Now if its a hard working high mileage unit, then maybe the odds would shift, but I can't see a benefit.

The only time I even flushed an engine was when I had a broken water pump and water got into the oil and made it look like coffee. Then I figured it was worth it...

Thanks for the insight Liberty555. I have been wondering how to take care of the motor vis-a-vis the special oil required. Some time down the track when I can get some serious time away from the business, I intend to go hard with my new MY11 Freelander 2. I'd love to go over and do the West Coast at some stage and the FL2 is probably the most comfortable way to go. I may not take it to the serious, hard core offroad locations found in the wild-wild west of Western Australia, I'd borrow a 70's series Landcruiser for that, but it would definitely encounter plenty of dust, heat and deep sand (beach camping!). It sounds like it might be worth doing an oil change after such a trip as the FL2 WILL get worked hard on such a trip! Thanks.