TD5 Discovery, what to look for when buying

[falcemob]

I have a TDi200 Disco which is getting past it's sell by date so I am thinking of going for a TD5 Disco. I was looking at one the other day in our workshop and it was fairly comfy and had no rust compared with mine, but that's about all I could tell about it. So when looking for one what problems do I look out for, do they all have air suspension and is it reliable, I.E. give any trouble and do they rust like the early ones? I want to get about an X reg due to the tax banding changes after that year.
Thanks.

[psimpson7]

Few things too look for on the series 2 discos.

Firstly the air suspension if fitted is on the rear only. If its a 7 seater it should have air rear suspension. They weren't type approved as far as I know with 7 seats on coil springs.

I had one of the very last for about 8 weeks and did 7k miles in it. That was a td5 auto ES. It did have a couple of problems. The air suspenion went down on one rear corner a coupel of times but seemed to sort its self out. It also failed to start on one occasion after a game of squash but after a lot of cursing it again sorted itself out. The air suspension is not that complicated, and airbags are quiet cheap if you did have a problem with one or both. If one does leak dont leave it as it will overwork the compressor which is more money!

Handline if fitted with ACE is brilliant. Ride is very nice and its quite a nice place to be.

There is not a huge amount of room between the seat base and steering wheel so check you fit ok!

No real rust problems as of yet. Drivetrain is stronger than defender and disco1. check for water leaks from the rear sunroof through to the boot floor.

TD5 engine has proved itself to be extremely reliable., If you get a td5 auto you will probably want to tune it. Noise inside the auto of the engine is very monotonous. (although not that intrusive) The manaual TD5's sound quite good fun with a bit of an offbeat rumble.

Soem really dull things which are much better on disco 2's are things like the bushes on the dampers which are far better, watts linkage on the rear suspension, double cardan front prop etc etc. Obviously put a bit of time and effort into them. The rear radius arms are also far better.

Cant really think of anything else. They look better on the face lifted lights.

Cheers
Pete

[falcemob]

psimpson7 said:

It also failed to start on one occasion after a game of squash but after a lot of cursing it again sorted itself out.
Cheers
Pete

That shouldn't be a problem for me as I don't play squash.
Thanks for all the other info though, very helpful

[zumbruk]

I've got an '02 Td5 ES which (crosses fingers) has been one of the best cars we've ever had. Other than both front window regulators failing (crap spot welds) nothing's ever gone wrong with it. It's comfy, a nice drive, 23mpg round town. It has depreciated rather quickly, though.

(I expect it's on fire in the drive as I type this.)

[Maycott]

There are a couple of known issues with the TD5 engine

The wiring for the injectors sits in an oil well in the top of the engine. The seal fails and allows oil to seep along the loom into the ECU. This causes a misfire at best and failure to start at worst. Take the red ECU plug off and see if its oily. Clean it with carb cleaner if it is and get yourself to a good independent for a modified replacement. Cost me £250 whereas a main dealer wants to replace the lot and really take your pants down!

The ignition barrels are still crap. Mine failed leaving me stranded. If it happens, you can take it apart and bodge it to get home but the main delaer is the only place to get a replacement that is correct for the locks on the vehicle.

Some reports of head gasket failure at 100K miles. Hope this is isolated as I'm at 77K and doing 500 a week!

Join the owners club www.discoveryownersclub.org we're a friendly bunch, the forums are informative (you can log on as a guest and get more information on issues) and we do venture off road too.

S

[john p]

I've had my TD5 now for nearly six years,I wanted to change it for a later model a couple of years ago,but it had lost so much money that it wasn't viable.It would have cost about £13000 to have a car that was 3years newer so I have decided to keep the one I've got.My advise is to make sure you get one with everything on it you want,I wish I had bought an automatic with aircon,but have since been told that the autos are not very economical.The air suspention packed up a couple of years ago needing a new valve block at a cost of £700 including labour,I dred to think how much a Land Rover dealer would have charged.Make sure you know exactly what is fitted to the car and that it works properly,when you turn on the ignition make sure all the warning lights iluminate and then go out and stay out.I seem to get about 30mpg out of mine which was about the same as the 300tdi I had before.There's an interesting article in this months LRO magasine about the td5 which is worth a look.Build quality is much better than the tdi I had too,mine is now 8 years old and has no corrosion of the body panels.Have also had a few oil,fuel and water leaks,but they are usually quite cheap and easy to sort out. John.