disco 2 advice required please.

[wezzer-45's]

Hi ladies and gents.
I'm looking to buy a Disco 2 in early spring time, I owned a TD5 XS about 5 years ago and it was an excellent car.
I am a car technician and so will do all work myself.
I'd be looking for an XS or ES and preferably an auto as I spend most of my commute to work in traffic.
Are the manual gearboxes heavy in traffic and are they a robust box or do they require rebuilds at high miles?
I also prefere the pre-face lift look so would be looking for a pre-face lift model.
I'd be looking to spend approx £6000 -£7000 and most I've seen advertised have huge mileage on them.
My old one had 70,000 miles when I sold it so was fairly low.
Do I really need to be worried about anything around the 100,000 to 120,000 miles mark?
Are the mechanical's, ie, axles, boxes and engines reliable or are there any issues that I should look out for?
I've read that they suffer from water ingress issues but is there any other issues that I should be aware of?
Thanks in advance for your replies.
Cheers,

[Sarge 4x4]

Would you not be better off trying to find a low mileage 300tdi in nice condition if you can find a rust free one ?

Andy.

[andymach23]

I've a year 2000 TD5 with 140K that I've had for 3 years. I got it for £3995 which was a decent price back then. It had little service history and since buying I've fixed a lot of niggly faults which are pretty standard fare for a TD5. The only time it's let me down is when the ignition jammed (common fault) and when the throttle potentiometer failed, which is not so common. Both easy and cheap fixes. Overall I've founf the car easy to work on.

The show stopper issues with early cars are head gaskets, the oil pump bolt coming loose and rust on the rear of the chassis. If the car has plenty of miles under the belt a lot of the niggly issues should have been sorted out by now. My head gasket is fine and I re-loctited the oil pump bolt myself. Dropping the sump required here. The rear of my chassis is quite rusty so have plastered it in waste engine oil.

I find the manual ok. It's a bit heavy in traffic but the anti-stall helps for trickling along. Handy for a bit of extra economy as well.

Edited by andymach23 on Tuesday 28th December 18:14

[andym1603]

Hi,
I had a 1999 ES auto. Really nice car doubt it had been off road.
Problems
Cruise control vacuum pipes rot easily rendering cruise inoperable. Easy fix
Chassis next to the catalytic converters rots easily due to the heat from the cats. Seemingly going hot to cold constantly does for the metal.
Had a new auxilliary belt tensioner fail. The resulting damage was fan, fan shroud, belt, tensioner and crank pulley.
Heard of the alpine windows leaking but never suffered this.
Water leaks from the heater intake easily fixed with new foam gasket.
The air suspension is good as long as it works. Very expensive to put right when it goes wrong.
Mpg from the V8 is not best to say the least ranging between 9 & 20ish.
The series 2 models were BMW spec and were better than the early Ford ones. They say there was 700 differences between the two models.
Hope this helps
Andy..

[miniman]

I ran one for a couple of weeks earlier in the year - manual, base spec. The gearbox isn't heavy at all. Long throw, but not heavy. However they do get graunchy between 1st and 2nd with age.

[wezzer-45's]

Thanks for the info.

I expect a car like this to require a larger budget to run than say a family car and there's no issue with carrying out maintenance myself.
On my last one, I replaced the water pump and the fuel pressure reg and I was really impressed with the car in general.

What I need to be aware of is any serious money issues that may occour, I presume that if there is an oil pump bolt issue, this would have come to light sooner in a cars life.
How common are the rear air springs to wear and leak and are head gaskets a common issue?

I've done some resarch and from what I've read, the TD5 is the worse engine made and a Disco 2 is a huge money pit,
This isn't what I experienced on my last Disco.

The reason for getting another Disco is that I need room for 2 large dogs and be able to tow my boat.

Do i need to steer clear of cars with 100,000 plus miles even if they got good service history?

I haven't been looking at a Disco 1 as I know they look very similar but I much prefere the look of a Disco 2.

[Cyberprog]

Going from a D1 to a D2 is like chalk & cheese. The D2 is a far far superior vehicle, much more refined with more power and extremely capable electronic aids. And a lot of it is user serviceable very cheaply, including the ECU stuff with the NanoCom and HawkEye products.

[andymach23]

The air bags for the rear suspension should be treated like a service item, so if changed every 5 years you should be sorted. They are simple to change and cost about 150 quid for a pair.

Head gaskets get mentioned quite a bit on the LR forums but mine is fine and I think that there are menay early cars that are fine also. If buying a higher mile car you could find that alot of the normal issues could well be sorted.

Worse case scenario, the head gasket isn't too bad DIY and there are guides on the web.

The oil pump bolt is also an easy job. I got a quote of one hours labour, plus oil and gaskets from an independant. I did it myself in the end.

I think the TD5 engine is very tough and durable engine and capable of big miles.

Cheers, Andy

[Rum Runner]

V8 on LPG ...

[wezzer-45's]

Thanks for the replies.

From what I understand, there isn't too much to be worried about then.
As long as everything works correctly and the car drives well and there is nothing apprarent with the head gasket, the mileage shouldn't be a real issue as long as its been maintained as it should.

I'd be looking for a 2000 or 2001 car with about 100,000 miles,
There seem to be quite a few cars wiith in excess of 150,000 miles for sale and they seem to look absolutely mint from the adds.
I don't think I could bring myself to buy a car with that sort of miles on it.

I think a V8 would be out of the question as the MPG would just kill me.

[Rum Runner]

V8 on LPG will work out very similar in £ per mile or equivalent mpg. Also very simple engine...sounds good to. No timing belts etc and parts for the V8 are cheap.
Most BP, Shell and Texaco stations have LPG so it is widely available, also most have the tanks fitted on the underside so no interior space is lost.

Edited by Rum Runner on Friday 31st December 20:13

[topsparks]

Sounds even better if you take out the middle box!,(the TD5 bypass pipe fits OK),shame the engine has just dropped a liner,still I do have a spare 5 litre kicking around......

[andymach23]

My TD5 is coming up to 140k miles and tbh it's going so well I think it will easily go on well past 200k. These things are built to last. As said before, many of the niggles could well have been sorted out when the car is past 100k.

Why not post a wanted ad on a LR forum or keep an eye out for 'for sales' that come up on the forums or in the mags? Might be better to get a car owned by an enthusiast?

[wezzer-45's]

andymach23 said:

Why not post a wanted ad on a LR forum or keep an eye out for 'for sales' that come up on the forums or in the mags? Might be better to get a car owned by an enthusiast?

Thanks for that advice,
I'm doing my research at the moment and looking to buy in spring time.
I currently own a mint BMW 5 series sport which I need to sell.
I've been looking on here, Auto trader and ebay.
Is there any other suggestions for Discovery sales that I should be looking at@
Cheers guys.

[5paul5]

Personally i would go for the manual as its more economical plus the fact that the auto one i owned had no end of gearbox problems, that aside it was a great car.