Voyage of Discovery: 2003 - A Solihull Odyssy

[RichardMoss]

It'll probably end in tears.

[the judge]

Looks all good to me!

[Cavcraft]

Is that a centre seat in the front I spot there?

 

I'd love a Discovery, but I'm shit scared of their unreliability.

[catsinthewelder]

Yer sprog's a spanner monkey Billy WCPGW?

 

 

A V8 Disco must make far more sense in a dry climate with super cheap pez than here.  They do break a lot but they do seem to be capable of dragging themselves home when really quite broken.

[drum]

Good luck!

I'm currently waiting on the motivation to kick in to sort out a catastrophic leak of power steering fluid on mine. It can spunk its entire reservoir in about 5 minutes.

[RichardMoss]

Yer sprog's a spanner monkey Billy WCPGW?

 

 

A V8 Disco must make far more sense in a dry climate with super cheap pez than here.  They do break a lot but they do seem to be capable of dragging themselves home when really quite broken.

That's my hope.  I've spoken to a few owners and they say that as long as the cooling system is good and the rear springs upgraded then they make decent desert cars.  This one has 200k km  on it but full agency service history (for what THAT'S worth out here!).  The plan is to use it as a family car and second-string offroader and to sell my unloved S-type and Jeep Cherokee.  I may just fit a new water pump, stat and rad "just in case".

 

It all sounds very sensible........................

[Skizzer]

Nice. That steering wheel cover is most exceptionally shite.

 

As a bonus, at least you can be confident* the boot floor won't be rusty on this one.

[RichardMoss]

The sun and temperatures are killers for plastics but rust thankfully, is rarely a significant issue, although this one seems to have some in the door window frames.  My S-type was similar.

[Ghosty]

Centre seat? Looks like a BFO centre console to me.

[RichardMoss]

Centre seat? Looks like a BFO centre console to me.

Correct.

[RichardMoss]

I've owned it for an hour now and it has developed its first fault - a PAS fluid leak.

 

Hey ho, here we go

[meggersdog]

Hope it is a PAS leak and not those b**stad ACE pipes.

Have a look at the reservoir. If it's got two caps then it has active cornering.

I sacked mine off in the end due to these pipes.

[Asimo]

I don't know anything at all about Discovery's but I have always been puzzled by the spare wheel being screwed to the back door.

Why is this done? Surely in something as huge as a Discovery there is plenty of room elsewhere?

[drum]

I've owned it for an hour now and it has developed its first fault - a PAS fluid leak.

 

Hey ho, here we go

Apparently the most common fault is the pipe from the reservoir to the pump which can rub and/or corrode. There's also a wee rubber seal on the join to the pump that's worth replacing. Unfortunately my leak is on the high pressure side.

 

Mine is on coils now too instead of ACE courtesy of the previous owner.

[jakebullet]

Mine is a 5 seat base model, so coils from the factory. It's currently only leaking a bit from the steering box, so methinks more lucas magic stop leak and a jet wash token as the mot is due soon.

[RichardMoss]

It is leaking from the ACE system somewhere but I have yet to find out where (no time yet). It's not much, though.

 

As for the outside spare, well to be honest it's not huge inside and the boot is largely full of occasional seating. Anyway, it looks cool - but I need to get a cover to protect the tyre from the sunlight.

[scooters]

Dry climate. ..v8 two of discos main issues are outrageous rust and diesel engine woes...I think it's a good buy

 

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[scooters]

Pas leak very common usually fixed by tipping in some holts potion of some sort

 

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[scooters]

Btw I fucking hate discoveries. I have a 300 Tdi for work and it is always playing up. The latest ones don't look like long lived card given their electronics track record and engine types. Having had many land rover products it would be nice if the headhunted a quality control manager from mitsubishi or Toyota rather than spending the cash on selling Evoques to hairdressers

 

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[scooters]

Oh and a half decent engineering design team....you know folk who understand that it's not a good idea to have am expansion tank below the level of the highest point on the cooling system or that if you over cool an engine the car is less efficient or that.....x100

 

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[RichardMoss]

Glad to be of service when it comes to providing ranting space, Rich! I know what you mean, for years people have said "it's a Land Rover, you expect it to be crap". There is no good reason to accept that. Modern Jags are just as shit.

[Asimo]

" rather than spending the cash on selling Evoques to hairdressers "

 

I imagine that their cash comes from selling Evoques to hairdressers

[RichardMoss]

Initial inventory of "Heritage Issues":

ACE (Active Cornering Enhancement) actuator leaking (£55 plus postage from UK)
Interior light and cruise control not working (switch problems, I think)
New tyres needed soon - at least 2, probably 4
One rear door central locking actuator broken
Slightly damaged front bumper
Rear lower quarter panel trims damaged
front scuttle damaged
One external A pillar trim missing

Typical Land Rover, then - broken electrics, broken plastic trim, oil leak.  Other than that it seems OK. Being a later model it doesn't have the "Marina Flap" door handles, which is a bit of a shame.

I'll try to get some better pictures in daylight but one thing that made me smile is that when I registered it the Traffic Office gave me a new plate which was in fact, the same number as my old Alfa 166 (which must have been de-registered sometime since I sold it - probably scrapped).  Who says that they don't do re-cycling out here? 

[HH-R]

SCRAP IT.

[RichardMoss]

SCRAP IT.

Nah -  I've started fixing it.  I replaced the ACE actuator tonight.  Not a bad job really, thanks to the decent access you get with nice big cars.

[dollywobbler]

Hope the ACE remains ok. Quite remarkable that they employed a similar system to the Xantia Activa, but my local specialist reckons that once they go wrong, it's best to do away with it. Runs at incredibly high pressure apparently and any swarf in the system causes no end of havoc.

 

Frankly, Disco IIs terrify me, which is a shame as the TD5 and V8 both sound marvellous.

[RichardMoss]

Hope the ACE remains ok. Quite remarkable that they employed a similar system to the Xantia Activa, but my local specialist reckons that once they go wrong, it's best to do away with it. Runs at incredibly high pressure apparently and any swarf in the system causes no end of havoc.

 

Frankly, Disco IIs terrify me, which is a shame as the TD5 and V8 both sound marvellous.

Even with the old leaky actuator you could feel the system's effects in the way that it corners - surprisingly flat and nimble for two tons of steel and aluminium.  To be honest they did/do scare me too and that's why I've avoided them thus far.  The plan is to make sure that it's OK and get rid of my S-type and Cherokee and use this to replace both. 

 

That's the plan.......................

[Lacy]

I had a Disco II Td5 for a few months whilst between defenders (when my old one got nicked) Have to say, I thought it was brilliant. Love the Td5 engine....poky, relatively smooth and frugal. I'd have another like a shot.....

[dollywobbler]

Just his experience Tayne. Once one component fails, he has found that you just end up chasing fails. My neighbour's 250k mile TD5 is still on ACE though. His super-religious servicing seems to have worked.

[dollywobbler]

He only does Land Rovers. Funnily enough, he recommends binning air suspension on the Disco II as well...

 

Don't forget. He's now getting customers who just want the sodding thing to work for as little cost as possible. My mate had a TD5 recently where the ACE had been replaced by anti-roll bars, and it still seemed to handle pretty tidily. The question isn't just whether the old stuff is not as good, but whether it's less likely to go wrong. Removing ACE isn't the end of the world.