Thirsty Discovery and Z4 thread

Thirsty Discovery and Z4 thread

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C70R

Original Poster:

17,596 posts

106 months

Monday 19th December 2022
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The Discovery continues to provide dutiful service, and has been a bit of a godsend during the recent cold snap. Living in an area where the council probably salt the roads once a year, it's been invaluable in getting in and out of the village.

While 2.5T on massive AT tyres isn't great at stopping on icy roads (what you can't see in the photo below is an inch of sheet ice, thanks to the banks and low winter sun), it feels like it's going to take something very serious to halt its progress.



It even permitted me to get out and do a bit of (very gentle) snowy Greenlaning on one of the many local byways.



As we're furnishing a house, we're generating absolutely loads of cardboard waste from online deliveries. Luckily, having a longer load space than most pickups made short work of our cardboard mountain.



I have resisted the urge to pack a hi-vis and flashing orange beacon so far. But for how long? laugh

C70R

Original Poster:

17,596 posts

106 months

Monday 19th December 2022
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One small bit of titivation planned (if I don't swap the stereo out for something with Bluetooth and DAB), and that's to reinstate the model badging on the opposite side of the boot. I'm hunting around for the correct set of "V8 HSE" badging in Brunel grey, but it looks like the only way to do it is to buy two lots ("HSE" and "V8 SE") and chop them about.

Other than that, it's hopefully going to be a case of 'use thoroughly and put away wet' until I can be bothered to give it a good clean. There's a very slight wobble under hard braking at higher speeds, but it's currently not bothering me enough to get it resolved.

Hoping to add a fun/sometime-track car early in the New Year on a fairly meagre budget (thanks, home renovations!).


ETA - looks like I can no longer reply to this topic. How odd.

Edited by C70R on Thursday 16th February 17:40

C70R

Original Poster:

17,596 posts

106 months

Monday 20th February 2023
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So, big progress on the car.



It denotes that (according to howmanyleft.com), this is one of only ~200 of these left on the road. I'm secretly quite pleased with it, even if it's not quite the sort of thing that generates knowing nods at the petrol station. laugh

Think I'm going to put it in for a service with the local specialist in a few weeks, as we're taking it up to Islay to a whisky festival in May. Have a quiet but distinct knock from the rear end over bigger ruts, and the brake wobble hasn't self-healed as I hoped it might. I suspect it's probably due an oil change too, so will get that one added to the list. The heater is a little bit indifferent in really cold weather, although not so much as to annoy me when the heated seats are so good.

Other than that, it soldiers on dutifully, dispelling the myth that these things like to spend their lives on the hard shoulder.

The fun news is that it's about to be joined by another Z4. I've found a lovely example of an M54-engined manual locally, and will be picking it up tomorrow evening all being well.

C70R

Original Poster:

17,596 posts

106 months

Monday 20th February 2023
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Meant to add to that last post that there's something a bit mad going on with Discovery 3 V8 prices. I kept my Autotrader saved search alerts on, and like-for-like cars seem to have increased by 20-30% in the past 6mths or so. I can't see any logical reason why, particularly at a time when cost of living is so acute.

C70R

Original Poster:

17,596 posts

106 months

Tuesday 21st February 2023
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Turns out that the "rear end knock" was actually one of the rear backrests not being locked in position after I collected a chest of drawers last week. laugh

There's a good reason why I'm not a mechanic.

C70R

Original Poster:

17,596 posts

106 months

Wednesday 22nd February 2023
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camel_landy said:
C70R said:
Turns out that the "rear end knock" was actually one of the rear backrests not being locked in position after I collected a chest of drawers last week. laugh
hehe

M
Indeed. Looking after my cars is much better left to the grown-ups.

Z4 was collected last night, and made it home without any major dramas.



If/when the Volvo gets replaced by a nearly-new Tesla M3 later this year, that's probably going to be the way it stays for a little while. Definitely worse ways to spend c.£50k on a 'fleet' I reckon.

C70R

Original Poster:

17,596 posts

106 months

Thursday 23rd February 2023
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Because I'm lazy, this thread is now a Discovery/Z4 combo.

I'm booked on a trackday with the Z4 at my local track (Snetterton) at the end of March, so I'm going to get a few bits done in advance to give the car the best chance of lasting the day.

Planned for the next few weeks:
- Drop down onto a set of square OEM 17s with fresh rubber (PS4 or similar)
- Get the alignment done, because it's not quite right at the moment (tiny bit of camber, but not too much)
- Slightly more aggressive pads (DS2500) and fresh fluid (ATE Typ200)
- Rebuild the gearshift, and replace all the plastic bushes (oil was done 20k ago, but the shift is pants)

Also need to sort myself out with a couple of new helmets, as my last car was a tintop and both my helmets are open-face. Annoying.

C70R

Original Poster:

17,596 posts

106 months

Monday 27th March 2023
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The stream of consciousness continues. The Disco is booked in for a few bits and an MOT in a few weeks' time before we take it to Islay for a whisky festival in May.

The Z4 is back from the local specialist. The brakes are excellent (I really rate DS2500s as a road/track compromise), and the gearshift is... less terrible. I honestly think I'm going to give up and learn to drive around its limitations. It's not terrible, but it's far from great.

In more important news, I swapped down to 17s with new Goodyear Assy 6s earlier today and took it for a drive. I'm actually stunned at the difference. I'd expected it to be noticeable, but I didn't expect it to be this much better. The b-road bumps that I could feel through the seat of my pants are now absorbed so much better, and the little scuttle shake there was is now gone.

Keen to see whether it improves the chassis balance on track on Friday, but it's a big thumbs up for the b-roads.



Edited by C70R on Tuesday 28th March 07:31

C70R

Original Poster:

17,596 posts

106 months

Tuesday 28th March 2023
quotequote all
camel_landy said:
C70R said:
The stream of consciousness continues. The Disco is booked in for a few bits and an MOT in a few weeks' time before we take it to Islay for a whiskey festival in May.
Ahem *cough*... Only the oirish put 'E's in Whisky. wink

C70R said:
In more important news, I swapped down to 17s with new Goodyear Assy 6s earlier today and took it for a drive. I'm actually stunned at the difference. I'd expected it to be noticeable, but I didn't expect it to be this much better. The b-road bumps that I could feel through the seat of my pants are now absorbed so much better, and the little scuttle shake there was is now gone.

Keen to see whether it improves the chassis balance on track on Friday, but it's a big thumbs up for the b-roads.
Same is true for the LR stuff... IMO too many people want to go for the 'bling'. 20"... 21"... Even 22" but the ride is sooo much better on 19".

M
Bloody predictive text will be my downfall!

Agree on the Land Rover wheels stuff. I'll never understand why people want these to look 'bling'. If OEM 18s would have cleared the V8 calipers, I'd have dropped down a size.

C70R

Original Poster:

17,596 posts

106 months

Saturday 8th April 2023
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Well, I learned two things at Snetterton.
1. I don't like wet trackdays (rivers running down the pitlane at times)
2. I'm no driving hero (a friend who came to spectate jumped in the car and was immediately going quicker than me)



In all seriousness, with trying to learn a new track, in a new car, in the pouring rain, this was always going to end up being more of a shakedown than a proper trackday. To that end, the car went really well, and managed somewhere in the region of 50 laps over the course of the day.

Things I learned about the car:
- The pads worked well, but the pedal feel after a few hard stops is poor. Time for braided hoses I think.
- The tyres were phenomenal. I didn't push at anything like their limits, but they didn't struggle for grip all day.
- The car threw a couple of weird codes, after feeling hesitant late in the afternoon, that point to a dead temperature sensor and/or thermostat. After clearing them and cooling down, it drove just fine.
- I should have checked for a towing eye before I left, but am grateful to the chap in the M3 in the next garage who lent me his.
- One of the rear calipers is binding ever so slightly.

Overall net positive, and I drove home with the heated seat, aircon and cruise control on, listening to a podcast. The list of bits to continue the light titivation isn't too bad, and I'm hoping to get some of the more critical bits done before I head to Switzerland and the Ring with some friends next month.

The Discovery goes in for a few bits (new front brakes, a slight knock on the rear suspension that resurfaced), a service and an MOT next week, and the Volvo goes in for its first (and probably only) service the week after. An expensive month of car ownership ahead!



Edited by C70R on Saturday 8th April 08:27

C70R

Original Poster:

17,596 posts

106 months

Monday 17th April 2023
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The Discovery is going in to the local specialist this morning, so I've lobbed my road bike in the back to enjoy a lovely, sunny cycle home.

In a fit of madness I 'invested' in a bunch of detailing clobber, including a foam gun thing that attaches to my ancient pressure washer. It's a revelation, although I need to do a bit of fiddling with settings to get the right amount of foam. I can't believe I've never considered one before now!

Rinse, foam, scrub, rinse. That's it's, and the old bus is looking presentable again. Annoyingly it being clean has reminded me that some of the plastic trim is losing its top layer. But now that the farmers are dragging less mud onto the roads, I might consider washing it a bit more often. Famous last words...





Edited by C70R on Monday 17th April 07:56

C70R

Original Poster:

17,596 posts

106 months

Thursday 20th April 2023
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The scores are on the doors, and the old bus rides again for another year, with fairly minimal outlay.

I'd asked the specialist to be really thorough with any little niggles before the MOT, and in the end only a few minor bits needed doing to bring it back up to scratch.

Final list was
- Front pads and discs (shame to bin relatively new pads, but the 30k mile discs were shot)
- Rear droplink (the source of my creak/rattle)
- Little 'persuasion' to the rear brake shield (thankfully not the 4hr job to replace!)
- Brake flexi pipes on 3 corners
- Inner track rod and alignment (an advisory last year)
- Aircon regas (was done last summer, but now empty and a 2hr vacuum test showed no leaks, including the pipes to the third row - as much as it pains me to lose that gas, this might have to be an annual thing)

Not an unusual list for a car approaching its 20th birthday, and I'm happy it got a clean bill of health. I added an oil change too for peace of mind, since the last one was ~10k miles ago.

The only fly in the ointment was a failure to diagnose the slight rattle from the suspension compressor. They disassembled the whole assembly to determine that the noise was coming from the compressor body itself. Given it was a brand new JLR part last year, fitted at great expense to the dealer I bought the car from, I'm going to take it back to the fitting garage in London before 12mths is up to make sure I get the benefit of the parts warranty.

Overall a big thumbs up for my local, Norfolk indie. Happy to share the details if anyone is in the area.

Edited by C70R on Thursday 20th April 11:48

C70R

Original Poster:

17,596 posts

106 months

Friday 21st April 2023
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Always fun to get a missed call from the garage when you think they've finished working on your car...

After 48hrs since they injected the gas and dye, they finally spotted a tiny leak in the aircon radiator. At 200-something quid for a genuine part and a few hours labour, I'm glad it was only that and happy to have the system buttoned up again.

With aircon in the second and third rows of seats (including climate controls for the second row - in a 2005 4x4!), I was concerned that one of the many miles of pipes might have been the issue. Thankfully not!

The garage who fitted the (genuine JLR) suspension compressor last year have agreed to take it back in a few weeks and replace the noisy part under warranty. Result.

C70R

Original Poster:

17,596 posts

106 months

Monday 24th April 2023
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BenjiA said:
Great news on the clean bill of health, all cars looking good.
After coming so close to buying one, it was your Cayenne thread that actually convinced me to start tracking the work/expense to the Discovery in the end. Hopefully it's still providing good service?

C70R

Original Poster:

17,596 posts

106 months

Thursday 4th May 2023
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Finding a good, reliable specialist garage is probably one of life's least rewarding experiences.

While the LR garage I've found in Norfolk seem to really know the cars well, and the standard of their work seems good, everything else is just painful. They spotted the things I knew were wrong, and spotted a few things that only a specialist would have known about. The standard of their work also seems good, as it should for an annual maintenance bill that started with a 2.

However, getting any information out of them was like getting blood out of a stone. On initially dropping it off, with a list of things that needed fixing (along with the MOT), the receptionist optimistically told me I'd probably have it back the following day. I knew that wasn't happening, and waited patiently for the call that never came. Cue much chasing from me and lots of over-promising from them. The car was eventually with them for a week. Not a major issue, but one that could have been easily mitigated by better comms.

Secondly, they changed the inner track rod, but neglected to tell me that they didn't have the facilities to do an alignment. My first motorway drive at the weekend revealed that the steering is now off-centre and there's a noticeable wobble at 70mph+.

So bloody frustrating, because they are getting the hard bits right and making a mess of the easy bits!

Anyway, I tried to give them the feedback as calmly and honestly as I could, and have booked in for an alignment (Hunter, natch) at the place that did my Z4 tomorrow afternoon.

C70R

Original Poster:

17,596 posts

106 months

Monday 15th May 2023
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Tracking was done at the same place that tweaked the Z4 setup before Snetterton. I'm glad that I had my Bluetooth obd thing to hand, because they didn't have a clue about how to put the air setup into 'tight tolerances' mode. It's driving much better now, and the wheel is straight.

A rare trip back to London for it this week, to take along to the lovely folks at RR London in Battersea for a warranty replacement of the suspension compressor. Conrad and the team really know their onions when it comes to these cars, so it's always nice to get their careful eye over it. As ever, he wouldn't let me leave without a little additional fettling - this time a tweak to rectify the poor design of the driver's seat base that allows it to move a little.



A new compressor that pumps silently, and I was on my way. However, Conrad's eagle eye did spot that my front airbags were looking a bit tired, which is unsurprising given 19 years and 110k miles of abuse. They are on the list for replacement later this year.

Getting under it on a ramp also gave me the opportunity to poke around behind the plastic sill trims. This is really the only place where these cars rot badly, and I was pleased to see only a small amount of crusty metal in there (the loose bits are dried/compacted road grime which got blown out with compressed air). Going to get this rectified before winter, I think.



As ever with complicated cars, the path of true love never runs smooth. The beautiful weather this weekend should have called for a topless trip in the Z4, but we'd spotted a beautiful George III chest of drawers at a local antique dealer so the Discovery was pressed into service. Unfortunately the sunny weather flagged that it appears that all is not well with the aircon after the radiator was replaced, so I'm going to book it back into the local specialist who did the work ASAP. Annoying, but not the end of the world.



Assuming that nothing else major comes up this year, that's not a terrible return for pressing a complicated car that's almost 20yo into heavy service (I'll probably do 11-12k). That being said, the proactive work will likely nudge me over the planned annual maintenance budget. It was never a hard limit, and was very much 'finger in the air', but one to keep an eye on.

The antique dealer visit did give me an opportunity to pore over the potential future replacement. I'm a big fan.



Edited by C70R on Monday 15th May 08:00

C70R

Original Poster:

17,596 posts

106 months

Friday 19th May 2023
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There are a few days a year in the UK, a few fleeting moments, when a convertible makes more sense than any other way of getting around. Today was one of those days.



I popped out this evening to grab some dinner, and managed to spend an hour getting lost in the sunny, North Norfolk lanes. The perfect way to unwind on a Friday.

The Z4 isn't the last word in fun handing, but it's still a really enjoyable thing to hustle along B-roads. It's sensationally capable, to the point where you'd need to be driving much faster than you can stop safely to get it badly out of shape.

Sure, the chassis and steering don't adjust and communicate with you like an MX-5. But it's got the kind of grip and composure that a standard MX-5 on 185-section tyres could only dream of. For us average drivers, predictable is good.

Sure, it's a few percent less entertaining than a contemporary Boxster. But I know I can give this thing a mechanical kicking and it will keep coming back for more with only relatively basic maintenance. And there's a lot to be said for that.

It's a fabulous all-rounder, never giving less than 6/10 or more than 8/10. I'm looking forward to getting to know it in much more intimate detail on a Euro trip to France/Switzerland/Germany (including a few laps of the Ring) in July

I'm going to (perhaps inevitably) replace it with something more fun next year. But right now it's giving sterling service.

C70R

Original Poster:

17,596 posts

106 months

Saturday 20th May 2023
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Spot the difference.


C70R

Original Poster:

17,596 posts

106 months

Sunday 21st May 2023
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A brave owner, but I love seeing cars like this getting used.

Interesting to see that there's very little common design language between the two cars. The Z8 felt much bigger and beefier in person.

C70R

Original Poster:

17,596 posts

106 months

Monday 22nd May 2023
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Well, the drive to Islay is this coming Thursday, and what perfect timing for the Discovery's aircon to stop blowing cold, again. The system was gassed last summer, and still working into the winter. Since fitting the new condenser a few weeks ago, all of the gas appears to have buggered off sharpish. That's quite annoyed me, given that the specialist said there was only "a tiny leak" from the condenser.

Hopefully it's something as simple as a seal that's failed while being disturbed to fit the condenser. Either way, it's back to the Norfolk specialist tomorrow AM, with the goal of getting it back Thursday lunchtime at the latest. Not having aircon for the trip is not the end of the world, but I'm quite keen just to get the bloody thing sorted, and don't mind chucking a few quid at it with summer around the corner.

The Z4 is booked in for a few bits (two topmounts, two engine mounts, front RTABs) next month ahead of its Eurotrip. Looks like we're probably going to spend July in France (although unfortunately not Provence, as originally planned), which will mean taking the Z4 and starting/ending the Eurotrip there. Should be interesting to see MrsC pack a month's worth of clobber into the Z4 boot... hehe

ETA - also need to sort out the condensation in the driver's headlight, which has annoyed me since I bought it and is responsible for an intermittent indicator bulb warning (probably corroded terminals). Going to whip off the cover and chuck a sock full of dehumidifier crystals in there, and then see if I can't do a better job of sealing it back up.

Edited by C70R on Monday 22 May 11:32