Gaffers Discovery Diaries - 1993 Disco back from the brink

[Gaffer]

After plenty of procrastinating I’ve finally decided to start a thread covering my vehicular comings and goings. You may or may not notice a strong Land Rover theme…

Current fleet contains:

2005 Discovery 3

2009 Freelander 2

2010 Ford Fiesta Van

 

2002 VW Golf 

1949 Ferguson TED20

And most recently the ex @Cookiesouwest Disco of doom

Also in the current mix is another Disco 3 breaker and a couple of motorbikes

I’ll try my best to keep this updated as time goes on but between keeping up with all this lot, running a business and family life I have a lot on 😅

 

 

 

 

 

[Cookiesouwest]

Nice fleet.

Hope the Doom works out for you.

[AnnoyingPentium]

Is that a US market bumper on the Golf, out of interest?

[sdkrc]

Is this the most high-risk fleet on here? 

[Gaffer]

15 hours ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

Is that a US market bumper on the Golf, out of interest?

Just side markers retrofitted in the original unfortunately

[Gaffer]

Disco of doom

Bank holiday Monday saw a good session on the Disco of doom, got the majority of its big ailments worked through and drove it home Monday night. It’s a bugger when you’re having to put right work done by a ‘specialist’, but it’s a strong reminder as to why only I touch my vehicles I guess. I completely failed at getting any photos while in the middle of it, must try harder as my school teachers used to say…

Took it for a good clean Tuesday and the missus then promptly took it off me - 110 miles covered so far without an issue. Need to fix the sunroof drain still, and fit a new a/c compressor and condenser (on the way) as the compressor is seized (TADTS).

Proof it still lives:

 

 

 

[Gaffer]

Another weekend wasted fudging about with Land Rovers…

The now redundant Freelander 2 got new rear pads and a good scrub from top to bottom ready to sell, doesn’t half look good still.

Disco of doom got the sunroof leak attended to. Stripped down the passenger front lower dash and removed the fuse box, sure enough lying in the background was the long since perished sunroof drain, helpfully depositing its contents now into the footwell rather than outside.

Added an extra bit of hose after removing the perished elbow to extend it back through its hole to the outside and built it all back up. Still got to dry out the carpets but as a bonus tried a recalibration on the sunroof and it burst back into life, ready to never be used ever again most likely 😆

 

Bloody love Land Rovers me

[Cookiesouwest]

2 minutes ago, Gaffer said:

Another weekend wasted fudging about with Land Rovers…

The now redundant Freelander 2 got new rear pads and a good scrub from top to bottom ready to sell, doesn’t half look good still.

Disco of doom got the sunroof leak attended to. Stripped down the passenger front lower dash and removed the fuse box, sure enough lying in the background was the long since perished sunroof drain, helpfully depositing its contents now into the footwell rather than outside.

Added an extra bit of hose after removing the perished elbow to extend it back through its hole to the outside and built it all back up. Still got to dry out the carpets but as a bonus tried a recalibration on the sunroof and it burst back into life, ready to never be used ever again most likely 😆

 

Bloody love Land Rovers me

Another thing the 'Specialist's lied about !

Glad the car is in safe hands.

If im ever dumb enough to buy another, you will be looking after it lol

[Gaffer]

4 minutes ago, Cookiesouwest said:

Another thing the 'Specialist's lied about !

Glad the car is in safe hands.

If im ever dumb enough to buy another, you will be looking after it lol

I genuinely don’t know what to say about the ‘specialists’, I fear anything I would try to say would turn into a very long and sweary rant.

Consider it done, would be my pleasure to!

[Cookiesouwest]

42 minutes ago, Gaffer said:

I genuinely don’t know what to say about the ‘specialists’, I fear anything I would try to say would turn into a very long and sweary rant.

Consider it done, would be my pleasure to!

Whats done is done.

Glad she is getting a second chance with you.

[Gaffer]

Well it’s been an interesting couple of months, one out, one in and a good bit of spannering thrown in to boot.

Freelander 2

Got this all spiffed up nice and sent it away to a mate to be sold. Sat around for a bit before finally selling, shame some skid mark on society cloned it during that time and performed a spectacular hit and run in Sheffield, leaving me in a spot of very hot water with the Police. Situation ongoing…

Discovery 3.5

Now showing 257k miles and still worked hard every day. Struggled with a shake on the steering since March that I’ve finally gotten to the bottom of last week but only after battling with faulty new front calipers and lower arms along the way. Made for some ultimate hair pulling but the original issue was traced to a restriction in the ABS module for the front n/s caliper, causing enough of a drag/heat to shake at speed but no excessively hot wheels or any usual stuck caliper symptoms.

Disco of Doom

Properly off of the naughty step now, been providing sterling service for my missus carting our little girl and Labrador about as well as other general family duties. Replaced the siezed a/c compressor and replaced the rumbling front diff, now nice and chilly and silent at speed too.

 

Threw on some spare wheels and ditched the mudflaps, even put it on the big trailer which it tackled with ease.

Having reduced the fleet and got caught up with some jobs I decided it was only right to pile on the stress again, quick jaunt out with the big trailer to pick up this absolute stunner

No idea what to do with it yet, she’s a good runner but needs some suspension bushes and an air tank thrown at it. See how I feel tomorrow when I wash some of the grime off it.

 

[N Dentressangle]

Nice trailer.

I'm guessing once you get good at fixing Disco 3 faults then they're not that intimidating. You're obviously pretty good at it!

[stuboy]

id love a disco... but there too scary run as a daily..

 

great work fella

[Matty]

1 hour ago, stuboy said:

id love a disco... but there too scary run as a daily..

 

great work fella

Me too. I'd love a disco 3 but alas my balls are still too small 😄

[leakingstrut]

After doing 60k in a ropey Freelander 2 I’ve come to the conclusion that the key to happy used Landrover ownership is the looking at the cost of a lease on a new one, and that long term ownership is far more viable than running one for a bit and punting it on. 

A FWD Evoque S is 4k down and 5k a year on 5000 mile a year lease. You can get and maintain a lot of used Landrover for less than that. 

Over 65,000 hard miles a 4 years I’ve probably spent about £5-6k in maintenance on a Freelander 2 that cost a little over 3 grand, and that includes 2 rear diffs and a 10 year service, but the purchase price was cheaper because it needed work when I bought it. Admittedly, I didn’t realise how much work it needed until after I bought it that’s just used cars and me being an idiot. 

It’s now on 175k and will need about 2 grand of non-routine work to get it past 200k. Of course that’s a Freelander not a Disco, so you can probably at least multiply those costs by 1.5. Ok, I get it. This sounds pretty bad, and I’m talking about a bloody Freelander not a proper Landrover. 

So let’s say 10 grand in depreciation and maintenance over 100k. That’s only 10p per mile. If I’m underestimating it, it’s still going to be under 15ppm.  Versus an over a pound a mile in a front wheel drive Evoque. Honestly not too bad for a 4x4. Given I was being paid 45ppm by work for most of those miles, it’s verging on being a free car, even when I fuel was coming to 35ppm at times. 

The main issue is that over the short term they can royalty fuck you, so if the plan is to run one for a year and get rid of it it’s incredibly easy to get underwater, but in the long term they aren’t too bad. Oh and having a RAC cover and another vehicle you can use helps too 😭

If I was still in a position where I needed a 4x4 for work I would definitely look at Discoveries next, but very much with the idea that I might need to spend 2 grand on it at any point when it inevitably goes pear shaped.

With my Freelander it is now at the point where it’s theoretically uneconomical to repair - it’s worth bugger all so either run it into the ground or I commit to another few years and invest in dealing with some rusty bits, knowing a new turbo is definitely on the horizon plus whatever other expensive stuff inevitably breaks. 

Sorry for the derail! 

[Gaffer]

Well that was easy, replaced the air tank with a good used one and rebuilt the air dryer that was completely shot. That got the air suspension working again

Recharged the aircon while I was at the suspension, now ice cold as it should be

 

With all that sorted out it was time for a test drive and a quick scrub up. Really drives well with no knocking or banging, I’ve driven bad ones and this is far from it.

A mate dropped by to have a nosy and with that it’s sold. Kinda breaking the golden rule of don’t sell Land Rovers to people you like but he’s been fully forewarned! He’s going to sort out MOT etc so my journey with it ends here. 24 hours ago it was off for scrap but now it’s off to start a new life, I’ll take that.

[Gaffer]

So once again I’ve been busy on eBay and copart, and bitten off far more than I can chew…

1x HSE with all the trimmings:

 

1x commercial:

1x Overfinch Range Rover TDV8:

 

That makes it 4x Discovery’s and 1x Range Rover on the fleet. I really need to get them all together for a photo, it’s really quite funny (or frightening?!) 😆

[Supernaut]

Ah.

We all know what that trailer is really for.

Your absolutely massive bollocks.

[Gaffer]

The HSE came from copart for not a lot, bought as a runner but not a driver. Naturally this was fixed within 5 mins of being in the yard as a hunch about a wet transfer case ecu came to be correct. A quick clean of the connectors allowed me to re select a range in the transfer box and it then drove off the trailer under its own steam.
 

Done a few jobs (service, a rear upper arm, fixed sunroof drains) just got rear discs and a bloody good valet then it’s off to its new owner. Despite first appearances it’s actually turned out to be a pretty decent motor.

 

The commercial was a bit of an unwanted purchase, I’d been watching it for a while and it had already been reduced a grand down to £1500 (gearbox issues they couldn’t fix). I’d pre agreed £1200 over the phone and set off with the trailer but after having a look over it I quickly discovered the crossover pipe was blowing too. I’ve got one in stock but it’s not a job I fancied - although is accessible with the gearbox out which needs to happen anyway.

I tried to politely decline buying it but the sales lad asked me what I’d pay so I hit him with £800 which to my surprise he accepted after a bit of back and forth, saying he saw me arrive with the trailer and knew it had to leave today no matter what 😅

[Gaffer]

I’ve always wanted a last of the line l322 Range Rover and ideally in Overfinch flavour, so when this exact combination came up while idly flicking through copart one evening I knew I had to have a bid. I knew nothing about it other than it wasn’t a write off and it had a run and drive marker (which doesn’t stand for much!). I ended up winning it for less than my top bid but a bit more than I was comfortable with. After a nervous 4 day countdown and it was time to see what I’d won.

To my surprise it started up straight away and ran lovely, went through all the gears and even the suspension worked. In fact the only immediate issues were absolutely no brakes due to a burst hard line and 2 flat tyres.

A new brake line was made up, a spare set of wheels was chucked on and the interior was given a scrub. Been rocking this thing for a few days and it’s awesome, needs tlc for some small issues and some bodywork but nothing drastic at all.   Current plan is to run it for a bit while working through its niggles then get it into the bodyshop next year to make it mint providing it hasn’t blown up

 

 

[Gaffer]

Fleet update!

Disco Commercial

Last seen looking a bit sad with a faulty gearbox and bust crossover pipe:

Work has been absolutely mental so the first chance I got to do anything with this was over Christmas. Autobox out, crossover pipe replaced and a good used gearbox refitted. Bit of drama with the crossover pipe nuts seized but we got there in the end. Now MOTd and running great, sold a couple of goodies off it I didn’t want and now owes me a whopping £600. Got some huge 18” mud tyres and some lift rods coming for it so I can really wanker it up.

Overfinch Range Rover

New top hose cured a coolant leak, new front air bag cured an air leak and front drop links cured some horrendous knocking. Properly good motor this but can’t see it staying long - neither me or the missus have really gelled with it I’m sad to say. 

D3.5

Still in daily service, now upto 268k miles. Treat it to a wash and a fancy roof rack that I’ve always wanted, plus a black pack grille and side vents.

 

Finally managed to get all the Solihull outcasts together for a photo, shiters may have noticed a disturbance in the force earlier as a black hole of unreliability opened up somewhere in South Yorkshire! Keen eyed viewers may notice the blue one that featured earlier, my mate still has it and hasn’t put a foot wrong in 4K miles. He absolutely adores it, so much so he sold his other motors and is currently in search of a facelift auto version.

 

#allLandRoversareshit

[Gaffer]

Been a while, had little time for extra curricular shiteing solely due to being absolutely flat out with work.

In all the madness though I’ve managed to buy a honey of a Disco 4 with slipped timing which is tucked away awaiting its turn in the workshop:

Moved workshops after too long struggling with too little space:

 

And today after getting itchy bidding fingers on copart again, hitched up the trailer and headed for York. Ominous photo of thoroughly deflated Disco3:

Bought as a non runner with the intention to break, assuming complete engine failure as 07-08 is right in the danger zone for oil pump casting failure. Back at base looking sorry for itself:

20 mins after unloading it’s only bloody running, just a loose injector nut making it lose fuel pressure. Runs a treat, suspension works great and only a single warning light on the dash for low pads. Looking a lot happier:

Now to shovel out the interior tomorrow as I’ve got a potential buyer coming to look at it 😅

[loserone]

Proper workshop envy here

[bezzabsa]

you make Disco 3's look almost appealing......

then again you have a Workshop and patience !!!

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, Gaffer said:

Been a while, had little time for extra curricular shiteing solely due to being absolutely flat out with work.

In all the madness though I’ve managed to buy a honey of a Disco 4 with slipped timing which is tucked away awaiting its turn in the workshop:

Moved workshops after too long struggling with too little space:

 

And today after getting itchy bidding fingers on copart again, hitched up the trailer and headed for York. Ominous photo of thoroughly deflated Disco3:

Bought as a non runner with the intention to break, assuming complete engine failure as 07-08 is right in the danger zone for oil pump casting failure. Back at base looking sorry for itself:

20 mins after unloading it’s only bloody running, just a loose injector nut making it lose fuel pressure. Runs a treat, suspension works great and only a single warning light on the dash for low pads. Looking a lot happier:

Now to shovel out the interior tomorrow as I’ve got a potential buyer coming to look at it 😅

Yea, but... Profit?

[Gaffer]

It’s been hell of a year at Gaffer HQ, testing but overall positive. Now I’ve had a bit of a rest and can kinda see the funny side let’s pick things up where we left off:

Slowly putting miles on the big grey whale and unknowingly falling in love with the thing. Properly understated car, one that at the start of the year neither me or the wife thought we had gelled with. You’ll hear about this later…

Sold the grey fergie after doing literally nothing with it for a year. Went to a cracking young lad who had bought it to restore with his younger brother who had learning difficulties so definitely off to a good home.

 

Put a plate on the L322 to really make it ours and took it to Shedfest - we seemed to be some of the very few who got straight in no problem

Bought a beautiful Bronze top spec Disco 4 from Copart, went to retrieve this from Wolverhampton. Bought as a non runner but with loads of accessories (apparently recently) thrown at it. Can only assume someone spent loads on bits, it then immediately ate itself and they just gave up and got rid out of disgust!

The wife immediately fell in love and asked to have this over the Range Rover, so naturally I then had to find an engine. I found one, still attached to a smashed up Range Rover Sport

While this was going off I’d got the grey Copart Disco3 clean up (better than first imagined!) and advertised, and had agreed a sale with a chap. Sadly the next day I had to pull out of the deal as I found myself in need of an engine…

The day had finally come. At 276,053 miles it finally happened. Driving along the M62 I suddenly heard a proper din, thinking there was a loud car or bike behind me initially. Checked my mirrors and nothing behind me, put the clutch in and the pedal was half way down and shaking.

Sure enough yes the bottom end had gone, in the fast lane of the M62 ‘smart motorway’. The faithful old girl held together 6 miles to limp me to the next exit, and only locked up completely at the bottom of the slip road. There was no chance I was stopping on that motorway.

Rang the wife to come get me, grabbed the commercial with the trailer and went back to recover it. Faithful old thing still started back up to drive itself onto the trailer 🥲

 

We had the space and the resources, only thing left to do was get stuck in. Grey Disco with the body off to donate its heart

Rinse and repeat on the recipient:

18 days later we were back up and running. Only took so long as I had a nightmare with stuck injectors in the donor engine meaning having to build a good compatible lump from 3 engines. If it wasn’t for that we’d have been going again in a weekend.

Following that escapade I was obviously feeling feeble so the wife managed to talk me into a cheap caravan (that I secretly think is ace but don’t tell anyone)

Now that takes us to around June/July, told you I’d been busy!

[Gaffer]

Now we were on a ‘fresh’ engine I was keen to do a couple of improvements I’d never got around to before, one of them being a big intercooler (rs500 sierra cosworth pattern!)

I then sold the Fiesta van and dug out the old golf for running to work and back

Had a spare set of wheels done in black 

 

At this point we were fully in summer season and being a transport refrigeration engineer meant I was a very busy boy with no time for playing Land Rovers. After what felt like an eternity with a workshop backed up with busted green ovals, I finally got chance to get stuck back in.

We've been here before so you know the drill: donor in, body off, drivetrain out. Got the body off job to a fine art now, around 90 mins if I’m a man on a mission. This is the Range Rover Sport donor under the knife:

Aaaand now for the recipient:

Finally back together (there’s 2 days between the above and below photos)

I smoked about in this for a couple of weeks then handed it over to the wife with her handing back the L322

A week later she sheepishly asked over dinner how far I’d got with prepping the Range Rover for sale and admitted she had missed it like mad, as had I. I could get better margin out of the Disco4 so it made sense to sell that instead.

Of all people my Dad asked after it and bought it (at a fair price for all) with some prep done. After some paint and some other bits it was finally ready to hand over

 

At some point in all this my mate who bought the blue Disco3 early in this thread had been noseying around the Disco of doom as he fancied a lower mileage and automatic example. Said Disco of doom having provided over a year of sterling trouble free service for my mother. He made me an offer I couldn’t refuse so off it went, leaving mother with no wheels. I was checking out Quashqai’s but as a Land Rover man I just couldn’t.

Enter stage left a very cheap decent spec freelander 

 

And after a headlight, tyres and a track rod end here we are

Stumbled across some very cheap big wheels and tyres so I got to put into reality a dream I’ve had for a bit and wankered up the Disco commercial

This then brought us up to the end of December, Christmas break bringing catch up time on LOTS of deferred maintenance on the black disco and the commercial (6 months with no working handbrake on a manual anyone?) 

With that out the way and being mostly caught up with everything, I’ve gone and bought another Discovery. Collection day is Thursday!

 

 

 

 

[dome]

Loving these updates, I'm very jealous of your workshop and abilities. Is it always diesels you work with or do you dabble with petrols too?

[Gaffer]

6 hours ago, dome said:

Loving these updates, I'm very jealous of your workshop and abilities. Is it always diesels you work with or do you dabble with petrols too?

I’m grateful that the day to day work allows me to have such facilities to play with. That being said the Land Rover job didn’t half grow some legs last year and now I look after quite a few for people on top of the playing about buying and selling.

It’s just been diesels as petrols aren’t really my cup of tea. Not scared of em but I’m more workhorse than racehorse 😁

[Gaffer]

‘The mathematical equation used to determine how many Land Rovers deemed acceptable to own at any one time is n+1, with n being the current amount of Land Rovers owned’

I was fucking useless in school and especially at maths but I can understand that for sure. With that in my mind, a clear workshop and fresh funds from selling some vehicles it was fate that a Land Rover I’d been pining for since I sold my last popped up on Copart.
 

Of course it was miles away, a non runner and the photos made it look really sad but my mind was made up I had to have it - these just aren't that common anymore. Despite the negatives, it only had 2 previous keepers and the MOT history was quite tidy, a sign of either a life of care or a dodgy tester.

So what was it that had me so smitten? Well it was only a bloody proper Discovery wasn’t it. A 1993 200 tdi manual to be exact.

Trailer hitched, I hot footed it down to Newbury and collected it. The second it touched down on the trailer I nervously looked around and it was only bloody solid with a chassis still in factory black and even a boot floor and inner wings still present. Bumping the key revealed firstly a battery with charge, but secondly a 200 tdi engine that turned over evenly. 
 

Back at the workshop I quickly worked out we had no fuel due to a very limp lift pump. Nipped to the local LR parts place and grabbed a new one for a whopping £20, primed her up and hit the key… and she fired right up! 
 

Wasn’t as easy as that though, it ran but badly. Would miss when revving up and at idle had an awful knock. If you could get it to clear up it would sound sweet so I knew there couldn’t be too much wrong, a closer look at the wobbly crank pulley and centre bolt gave some hints

Oh dear! Some screwdriver stethoscoping confirmed the knock to be coming from the front near the pulley, so looks like this was another victim of the age old 200 tdi loose crank bolt. Some Die grinder action and welding a nut on the remains of the crank bolt, plus around 12ft of bar got the crank bolt out. Sure enough the woodruff keys were destroyed as were the pulleys, that was the cause of the misfire - variable timing! Great for valves, not so for mechanical fuel injection pumps…

This is mid reassembly with new timing belt etc, new crank bolt yet to come in

Got it all back together and hit the key, and she fired in less than a full revolution. Even better it ran perfectly and no more knocking!

Over the past couple of days between jobs it’s got a bit of a wipe down and the manky horrible side steps have got ripped off and thrown on the scrap pile. It looks ace as is so can’t wait to see it with a proper detailed clean. Currently waiting for the logbook coming back, going to do a couple of small repairs on the sills and then fire her in for an MOT.