Thread: ADVICE NEEDED RE Purchase

Matt, I have had two Diesel Disco's in the past few years, the first was a '97 I bought it cheap because it was full of rust, body cracks and had a bad oil leak it had been a one owner and had spent all it's life here in Cooktown but it had done a lot of hard work on the tracks up to our Northern beach areas (Starke, Lakefield, Chillie, Portland roads etc) in the hands of a keen fisherman, it turned out to be really good and reliable mechanically despite all its abuse, mechanically the only things wrong when I bought it was the bad transfer case oil leak at the intermediate shaft "O" rings made worse by the fact that the gearbox and transfer case breather tubes were burned sealed closed on the exhaust manifold, they run from the transmission up into the engine bay and had drifted somehow onto the exhaust manifold, opened the breathers and the leakage reduced considerably, it was hard to start on the first start of each day due to an injection pump throttle shaft seal leaking, ($5.00 fix), it also needed a rear "A" frame ball joint and a couple of tie rod ends and a rear diff seal. That Disco would never pass a "Safety certificate" check for rego transfer, but we don't need that here in this part of the state, it has moved on now to another owner, (local of course).
The Disco I have now is a '98 (also bought cheap) and has no rust at all it has no body cracking, virtually no oil leaks and I bought that in Brisbane with 170,000 Klm on the clock, books and all, it had a non-functioning clutch that was due to the clutch release arm in the bell housing having one "leg" broken off, the previous owner was quoted $1,500-$2,000 to fix and could not do the job himself and was over the Disco.
I replaced the whole clutch ($320) because I had the gearbox out but it really only needed the new release arm and it would have been ok, a bit of a tidy up inside and we have a nice low Klm vehicle.
I would recommend if you are going to get one buy the lowest Klm basic "S" model manual trans Disco, (no electronics or ABS) vehicle you can get for your money (even though they will run for extraordinary long Klm's), they all seem to leak oil, potentially in many places and these days that will stop you getting a "Safety Cert" to enable transfer of rego in Cairns, so oil leaks should be avoided (at least big obvious ones), many of these older Disco's are a bit shabby inside not helped by cheap and nasty plastic trim that hardens with age and snaps to bits, a bit of work and imagination you can fix.
Tdi engines are pretty good, I like them because there are no electronics, as are the transmissions and driveline and provided there is a bit of history regarding Timing Belt replacement and regular oil changes etc with no floors, door pillars, roof (around the high roof skylights) rusted through you should be ok. I have heard that you will not get a certificate if say a rear power window is not working or you cannot open a door from the inside, everthing that is fitted to the vehicle must work.
Most everything in these vehicles can be repaired/ rebuilt, but for a price, if you can do your own spanner work with a reasonable degree of skill you can have IMO one of the worlds best 4X4's, and of course in Cairns there is a great Landrover parts and service shop, Cairns Landrover, that is where I get my bits and pieces when needed something.
If possible try to buy one that has been checked in preparation for sale already and has got a current "Safety Cert".
They are a very capable off road machine and a joy to drive both on and off road, they will not send you broke when filling the fuel tank, you should quite easily get 10 litres /100 Klm.
Good hunting!!

Thanks heaps for the info.

The 98 diesel I test drove was very clean/tidy and a pleasure to drive for the age. Dealer wants close on $9000.

Matt

Thats a little steep, but then dealers will do that to you
I would recommend putting in the specs of the vehicle you liked in to carpoint.com.au or carsales.com.au and seeing what other values you can get, even if its just to talk the dealer down some more

TDi300 engine is brilliant. Not as much power as a TD5 but simple to work on and very reliable, and excellent fuel economy too.

I've got a '97 and it has been bullet-proof apart from once when I let the coolant out and it overheated. Had to get the head skimmed after that Put on a water level alarm so it doesn't happen ever again!

For $9K, it would want to be in really good nick.