New owner - Discovery 2 V8
Discussion
Morning all!
Well i've just bought my first big 4x4.
It's a 1999 Discovery V8 GS model and seems to have all the trimmings i like.
It turned 90k miles last week and runs beautifully, if not a little on the thirsty side.
I bought it primarily to cope with the snow in Aberdeenshire but also as a tow vehicle for my Impreza racer. I'll need to sit my trailer test as my licence doesn't allow towing a trailer of more than 700kg GVW.
Anyway, I have a couple of minor questions to ask that someone may be able to help with.
1) Are the motors in the seats prone to wearing out? The drivers seat seems to be stuck in postion in a forward/backward motion. It moves in every other direction than that. I'll take it to an auto electrician to see if they can sort but would be interested to know if anyone else has had any similar experiences?
2) This morning it was snowing and very cold indeed. When i started driving i noticed that the D indicating Drive on the dash was flashing, as well as the S and M green indicator lights to the left of the D. The vehicle still drove but was noticeably sluggish to pull away. Anyway, i decided just to turn it off and one again to see if it made a difference and it sorted itself, back to normal.
Has anyone had this happen before? Is it meant to? Could it be an automatic snow mode?
Anyway, hopefully the Disco becomes a long-term addition to the fleet.
Here's a wee pic:
Cheers
James
Well i've just bought my first big 4x4.
It's a 1999 Discovery V8 GS model and seems to have all the trimmings i like.
It turned 90k miles last week and runs beautifully, if not a little on the thirsty side.
I bought it primarily to cope with the snow in Aberdeenshire but also as a tow vehicle for my Impreza racer. I'll need to sit my trailer test as my licence doesn't allow towing a trailer of more than 700kg GVW.
Anyway, I have a couple of minor questions to ask that someone may be able to help with.
1) Are the motors in the seats prone to wearing out? The drivers seat seems to be stuck in postion in a forward/backward motion. It moves in every other direction than that. I'll take it to an auto electrician to see if they can sort but would be interested to know if anyone else has had any similar experiences?
2) This morning it was snowing and very cold indeed. When i started driving i noticed that the D indicating Drive on the dash was flashing, as well as the S and M green indicator lights to the left of the D. The vehicle still drove but was noticeably sluggish to pull away. Anyway, i decided just to turn it off and one again to see if it made a difference and it sorted itself, back to normal.
Has anyone had this happen before? Is it meant to? Could it be an automatic snow mode?
Anyway, hopefully the Disco becomes a long-term addition to the fleet.
Here's a wee pic:
Cheers
James
James B said:
1) Are the motors in the seats prone to wearing out? The drivers seat seems to be stuck in postion in a forward/backward motion. It moves in every other direction than that. I'll take it to an auto electrician to see if they can sort but would be interested to know if anyone else has had any similar experiences?
The motors aren't but the switches are. They're (i) crap & (ii) terrifyingly expensive. I think I ended up paying over £100 for one, for 20p worth of plastic, and you only get the back part of it. Get one from a scrapper, if poss.James B said:
2) This morning it was snowing and very cold indeed. When i started driving i noticed that the D indicating Drive on the dash was flashing, as well as the S and M green indicator lights to the left of the D. The vehicle still drove but was noticeably sluggish to pull away. Anyway, i decided just to turn it off and one again to see if it made a difference and it sorted itself, back to normal.
Has anyone had this happen before? Is it meant to? Could it be an automatic snow mode?
Sadly not. That's the gearbox failure warning, and the reason for the sluggishness was that the 'box is running in "get you home" mode. As well as being sluggish, it won't lock up in top, either.Has anyone had this happen before? Is it meant to? Could it be an automatic snow mode?
Now for the good news; 99.99% of the time, the warning is spurious, and as you rightly discovered can be made to go away by switching the ignition off and on. The 'box is controlled electronically by the ECU, and the warning comes up when the (electronic) link between the box and the ECU fails. The usual cause is the connector on the side of the box, which takes 1.5 hours to change, according to my menders (I haven't dared ask what it costs). Mine's booked in for this very job next Monday!
Zumbruk said:
James B said:
1) Are the motors in the seats prone to wearing out? The drivers seat seems to be stuck in postion in a forward/backward motion. It moves in every other direction than that. I'll take it to an auto electrician to see if they can sort but would be interested to know if anyone else has had any similar experiences?
The motors aren't but the switches are. They're (i) crap & (ii) terrifyingly expensive. I think I ended up paying over £100 for one, for 20p worth of plastic, and you only get the back part of it. Get one from a scrapper, if poss.James B said:
2) This morning it was snowing and very cold indeed. When i started driving i noticed that the D indicating Drive on the dash was flashing, as well as the S and M green indicator lights to the left of the D. The vehicle still drove but was noticeably sluggish to pull away. Anyway, i decided just to turn it off and one again to see if it made a difference and it sorted itself, back to normal.
Has anyone had this happen before? Is it meant to? Could it be an automatic snow mode?
Sadly not. That's the gearbox failure warning, and the reason for the sluggishness was that the 'box is running in "get you home" mode. As well as being sluggish, it won't lock up in top, either.Has anyone had this happen before? Is it meant to? Could it be an automatic snow mode?
Now for the good news; 99.99% of the time, the warning is spurious, and as you rightly discovered can be made to go away by switching the ignition off and on. The 'box is controlled electronically by the ECU, and the warning comes up when the (electronic) link between the box and the ECU fails. The usual cause is the connector on the side of the box, which takes 1.5 hours to change, according to my menders (I haven't dared ask what it costs). Mine's booked in for this very job next Monday!
Many thanks for the prompt response.
When i bought the Disco i was actually supplied a new original switch unit so i think i can rely on that working properly. I can hear the motor attempting to work but then it doesn't actually move. A job for the auto electrician methinks!
The gearbox one is more worrying. I've seen an ABS fault appear in exactly the same manner too which also disappeared by simply restarting the vehicle. I've just driven to the petrol station and brimmed the tank with no warning lights scaring me so i'll see how it goes. My Audi S4 once flashed up an engine warning light while i was making some very "good progress" which scared the hell out of me but upon questioning of the Audi techs i was told "oh they do that sometimes, just ignore it unless it stays on when you start the car again". Why thankyou...
Cheers
James
My Disco has done the warning light thing intermittently since I bought it three years ago (it's a '02 Td5 ES). It's probably done it 3 or 4 times in that time (the ACE light comes on very occasionally, too). Usually, switching it off and on sorts it, but on Thursday it wouldn't go away, despite about 10 restarts. So I drove (slowly) to the menders, booked it in and needless to say, when I came out it was fine, and hasn't done it again since. I'm still going to get it sorted, though.
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