Discovery desires - rot replacement

[dollywobbler]

 

Didn't put me off as I was planning on returning to the lanes myself. I don't want something immaculate. Would be a sod of a job to fix though. Check out the delicious graphics.

[Guest]

Two possibles identified. One is a three door with graphics AND steel wheels, but it's in Northants, which I no longer live in or anywhere near. Public transport isn't an option - it's absolutely ridiculous. Six hours on train or ten hours by coach! Three hours by car.

 

The other option is a straight swap for a five door in Oxon. The logistics are easier for that one, but it'll apparently need welding before the next MOT (end of July).

 

I am in Oxon and could have a look at the one there if it is not too far from me. I might also be able to help with transport to Northants, but where are you based?

[dollywobbler]

The Oxon chap has gone quiet, but I might still be interested in that one. Could really do with the Merc selling before I buy though. I'm pretty busy next week and weekend, so I might actually knock the Disco fever on the head for a bit. If something really good and local turns up, I might have a gander but otherwise, I'm temporarily resisting.

 

I'm near Aberystwyth. There is a 300Tdi Commercial on Ebay near here at the moment, but after initially thinking it might be fun, I've decided that it really has to be a 200Tdi. One with actual windows.

[Guest]

OK, and meanwhile, as the type is popular in my area, I will keep an eye out for any that are on sale near me.

[hairnet]

http://retrorides.proboards.com/thread/ ... mot-redcar

 

bit of fun??

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Somehow I just can't see Wobbler getting much 'fun' value out of that!

[dollywobbler]

Indeed not.

 

Some haggling has occurred with the above mentioned Discovery though, so I may be taking it on after all...

[dollywobbler]

Deal done. £450 and now I somehow need to get it home before 4th June. To add excitement, I'm working at a local music festival Thurs-Mon and working tomorrow. That leaves Wednesday! Shiply quotes are forthcoming. It seems that if you put a job up, then cancel it (because I wasn't going to buy it) then relist it, all the quotes go up by a tenner! Looking at £210 to get it delivered here but I'm wondering if more quotes will be forthcoming tomorrow, when most sensible people start work again.

 

I've no idea if this purchase is a sensible one, but I thought I'm not exactly risking much. I was looking at spending near £2k for a really tidy late 300Tdi, but that seemed a far bigger risk - even a tidy Disco can generate big bills. This one definitely needs a timing belt, which is another reason to get it delivered. No idea when it was last replaced. Presume it's not too tricky a job? Hopefully easier access than an XUD...

[cort16]

Dollywobbler timeline

 

Sun May 26, 2013 10:03 pm

I'm pretty busy next week and weekend, so I might actually knock the Disco fever on the head for a bit.

 

Mon May 27, 2013 3:34 pm

Deal done.

[dollywobbler]

Yup. Fickle ain't i? Sleeping on it usually means you wake up and make a SENSIBLE decision. Oh well.

[cort16]

Seems like it's a good buy at £450 so why not?

[dollywobbler]

My main challenge is getting it here for less than £210 at the moment. Possibility of a road trip on Wednesday - it's the only free day I've got for over a week - but it's a six hour round trip. I know my wife, patient as she is, does not find herself a huge fan of crap car collection capers, and my usual partner in crime (Skoda_Norman from Retro Rides) is all at sea.

[Cavcraft]

Where is it?

[dollywobbler]

It's alright. I've sorted it. I'm doing a one way car hire from Aber to Leicester, then a short train hop to Kettering. Then a nervy drive home in a £450 Discovery that's held together with gaffer tape. Should be fun!

[DVee8]

It's alright. I've sorted it. I'm doing a one way car hire from Aber to Leicester, then a short train hop to Kettering. Then a nervy drive home in a £450 Discovery that's held together with gaffer tape. Should be fun!

Should be a hell of a day out need lots of photos..

[Bobthebeard]

It's alright. I've sorted it. I'm doing a one way car hire from Aber to Leicester, then a short train hop to Kettering. Then a nervy drive home in a £450 Discovery that's held together with gaffer tape. Should be fun!

 

Enjoy! Relax. Take a (dented and leaking) flask of sweet coffee, some smelly egg sandwiches badly wrapped in tin foil, a fully charged* ten year old mobile phone on the 3 network, a 'One Life, Live it' sticker, some mud and some rigger boots. If it all goes horribly wrong on the drive home another Discovery owner will be passing within minutes and will happily* tow you home.... It's a brotherhood bro'

[drum]

If it all goes tits up, there is a market for 200 tdi engines and disco diffs etc amongst proper land rover owners. Between that and scrap you should at least get your money back.

[Lord Sterling]

Nice one wobblah. Can't wait for this installment of 'Wobblah's crap car capers'.

[Guest]

Goodonyer, Wobbler. I have been very happy indeed with my five hundred quid classic Rangey, bought via this very website. OK, Discos are reputedly more rustificated than Rangeys, but at under five hundred quid for what might be a usable example of Solihull mudplugger tat, you can hardly go wrong. As others have said, if the car goes FOOM, you can probably sell off the bits for at least what you are paying for the shed.

[dollywobbler]

Let the collection capers begin.

 

Hire car collected - a Skoda Fabia 1.2TSi. Bit thirstier than I'd hoped for. Will allegedly do 42mpg. Might affect the costing of this journey. My wife was in town today so it made sense to head down with her - 12 miles to the hire place from here. Next leg is to drive to Leicester. Then catch a train. Then probably a bus. Then the adventure REALLY begins...

[trigger]

Yay! I love a good collection thread! Good luck!

[cort16]

Did you make it back?

[garethj]

Doesn't look like it. Perhaps he's been mugged by some owners who forced chequerplate, a lift kit and 30 inch wheels on him. His defence of the Jasper Conran interior fell on deaf ears and there'll be a "One life, he lived it" sticker on his headstone.

 

Drive free in heaven, DW

[Six-cylinder]

I does seem dollywobbler has gone missing, maybe we should have a national search for him!

[messerschmitt owner]

I does seem dollywobbler has gone missing, maybe we should have a national search for him!

don't worry - you lot check the mental hospitals and I'll check the recovery companies.

[cort16]

I hope this hasn't happened (again)

 

[Tayne]

I think he picked the hire car up last night to do the trip today, I reckon we'll hear from him later this evening.

[DVee8]

Maybe he liked the new hire car so much he has driven off in to the distance.

[Danblez]

Doesn't look like it. Perhaps he's been mugged by some owners who forced chequerplate, a lift kit and 30 inch wheels on him. His defence of the Jasper Conran interior fell on deaf ears and there'll be a "One life, he lived it" sticker on his headstone.

 

Drive free in heaven, DW

 

[dollywobbler]

Daft buggers... But how has today gone?

 

I did indeed pick the car up yesterday for the drive today. Made sense as a 'day' is any 24hr period. Scooped up the Fabia yesterday then got ready to go this morning.

 

Note extensive toolkit - gaffer tape, a cloth and a random freebie small toolkit with lots of tools too small for a Land Rover. It begins. I drove to Leicester. Reports of OMG TRAFFIC KAOS on the M6 came in initially from Neil of Practical Classics fame. He took a photo of the queue after sitting in it, not moving for an hour. I decided to brave Claudia Winkleman on Radio 2 and ended up liking her daft style a lot more after a couple of hours. Lynn Bowles duly reported the M6 chaos, due to an oil spill, but by the time I was heading up the M54, she said it had gone. Super!

 

Incidentally, I will do a full review of the Fabia at some point. I got to like it quite a bit, apart from the typical modern-car jiggly ride. The engine is astonishing. 1.2-litres but feels like a 1.8. Has a turbocharger but you wouldn't know it. I wouldn't pay £12,000 for one though. I'll share this though. Who decided that this was a good place for the 12v power outlet?! Had to dodge the cable for my sat nav (yes, stolen from a computer) every time I went for the handbrake. Stupid.

 

I arrived in Leicester having not seen a single traffic jam. This was a result. So was this Landy pulling into the petrol station behind me. I didn't fancy putting the super stuff in my hire car, which is why it's in front. Good Landy vibes!

 

Dropping off the Skoda. Not a bad run.

 

I had lunch (not pictured, not even on Facebook) and cursed the fact that having given up a car, it was now pissing it down. I then got a Pendilno to Kettering. Interestingly, it was cheaper to buy the ticket at the station than to do so in advance online. Glad I couldn't be arsed.

 

Kettering was surprisingly nice. I got a further Landy vibe as I walked unnecessarily to the bus station thing.

 

After listening to people tutting about the crap service, I began to feel gloomy. Especially as the electronic display showed the bus should be arriving any minute. Then it disappeared. A few minutes late, the bus did finally arrive.

 

The bus then promptly drove back to the station. DOH! A lovely little old lady on the bus said she'd help me identify where I needed to get off. This was good as buses are hideously horrible things on a wet day (or any day really) and I couldn't see a thing out of the side windows. The suspension on this bus was horrific. The ride was as smooth as Welsh seismographs at 4:15am this morning (topical reference).

 

Anyway. I survived the bus with most of my internal organs undamaged and used my sat nav (pedestrian mode, handy) to home on on the Disco. The owner's wife provided tea, so she rates pretty highly in my book. I gave the car a quick inspection - the owner had checked the fluids the night before and even sloshed in enough fuel to get the fuel light off. He also rates pretty highly in my book. How nice. Once tea was quaffed, it was time to go.

 

 

Initial impressions were pretty good. Second gear synchromesh seemed to have gone missing, taking the gate for 3rd gear with it, but nifty footwork and a bit of practice meant I was soon swapping cogs with no crunch. Double-declutching is a useful skill. I was dead chuffed that the wiper blades actually wiped rather than smeared, and that the heater worked fully. I stopped to fill up with fuel.

 

Looks bloody good from a distance eh?

 

Some poor sod was doing attended service AND checking people's tyre pressures. I made use of this so the poor bugger got wet while I sat smugly in the car. One of the rears was down to 20psi, which I spotted as I refuelled. The £97 cost of filling the tank was a bit scary.

 

So off I hurtled. The A14 was pretty good for once. I started off at 60mph, just to let everything warm up and for me to get a feel for the ol' girl. I was soon topping an indicated 75mph but some part of the transmission is having a good old whine. Pretty tedious after a while but quieter below 70mph. I slowed down.

 

There was another reason to slow down. When I went fast, the temperature gauge rose... [definitely not taken by me, honest]

 

It never passed that mark, but it did nudge it a couple of times. Worrying times. There was also a distinct feel of something loose at the front end - I suspect a balljoint or something of that nature. It didn't do it all the time, just occasionally.

 

After about 110 miles, it was time for a breather. I pulled up at an 'open all hours' eatery in Ford, just beyond Shrewsbury.

 

Who needs cup holders when you've got an entire shelf for tea?!

 

I parked next to a bin. The bin looks to be in quite good condition actually.

 

I think i may have lost some gaffer tape.

 

Incredibly, the weather improved as I neared home, so I was actually able to take some nice photos. It's very blue inside.

 

But not entirely watertight... (Alpine light - very typical!)

 

In all her glory. Side decals, standard steel wheels. Marvellous.

 

Graphic

 

Lots of surface rust to tackle, and the boot floor has had it. Who cares? MOT and tax until September.

 

This is probably her best angle.

 

I'm more than impressed with the engine. Turbo lag is barely detectable - even after driving a brand new Skoda - and it's a far cry from the VM engine. No wonder the press got excited about it. I'd go as far as to say it's the best diesel engine I've ever experienced. It isn't trying to be a petrol, it has oodles of low down grunt - from as low as 1500rpm - and doesn't need thrashing. Sure, it's not quick, but it builds speed nicely. I'm very impressed.

 

Battery is a few months old, alternator looks pretty fresh too.

 

Home.

 

As you've probably guessed, I like this vehicle a lot. The ride is a bit clumsy, it has a massive To Do list and rot might well claim it at the next MOT but for the money, I'm absolutely thrilled. I don't think at that money it had any right to drive as nicely as it does. It used only quarter of a tank on the way back too, though I'm sure that like most cars, the first quarter always seems smaller than the remainder...