Thread: Would you buy a Disco that has 400,000km+?

I picked mine up when it had 300,000Km on the clock. (i actually drove it to 300,000 on the test drive ). And since then iv done some work on the motor etc and its running better then it was when i picked him up, he has now done 320,000K and if i keep up the care id deff buy him by the time he hits 400,000K if you follow

if you can confirm that the drive train is in good nic than thats your main worries behind you

other than that its just a body and chassis

Originally Posted by nice1guv

Lets say the car is in really good condition, the motor and gearbox rebuilt (300TDI manual) but not sure exactly when, all runs very well and much of the running gear has been replaced over time, and extras are plentiful.

So all is good except for the kms, with it probably having gone around Oz a couple of times.

If it had average kms you'd snap it up in a second, but what would you do if it had 400,000kms+?

Just had a thought is this a trick post and YOU are actually the one selling the car and the people who reply yes you will try sell it too

Me personally - I would not buy a 400kk discovery, I've had experience with the A pillars fatiguing on my 350kk Range Rover and nearly cracking off. I've also read that the discovery body shell is prone to cracking where it mounts to the chassis. (The discovery has nearly the same A and B pillars as the RR) That would be my biggest concern, particularly if it's been round Australia a few times.

Whilst I think you can weld up fatigue cracks - the underlying metal composition has hardened up and sometimes the welding can induce further cracks.

A 400Kk Defender with a new drive train I think would be a better bet because the Defender is a sloppy bolt together that resists fatigue through the sloppiness.

Originally Posted by Grover-98

Just had a thought is this a trick post and YOU are actually the one selling the car and the people who reply yes you will try sell it too

No I'm not selling, well not yet anyway.

I already have a D1 V8 on gas, but the underfloor gas limits the range too much for touring.

I'm now thinking of D1 300TDI, and have seen a good one but with high ks.

I'm confident I can check the like components from the V8, but I've not had a diesel before and not too sure about 400,000km on anything.

Originally Posted by BilboBoggles

Me personally - I would not buy a 400kk discovery, I've had experience with the A pillars fatiguing on my 350kk Range Rover and nearly cracking off. I've also read that the discovery body shell is prone to cracking where it mounts to the chassis. (The discovery has nearly the same A and B pillars as the RR) That would be my biggest concern, particularly if it's been round Australia a few times.

Whilst I think you can weld up fatigue cracks - the underlying metal composition has hardened up and sometimes the welding can induce further cracks.

A 400Kk Defender with a new drive train I think would be a better bet because the Defender is a sloppy bolt together that resists fatigue through the sloppiness.

Fenders are a little too pricey for me at the moment, and I think the Discos are a little more comfy.

Never thought of fatigue cracks in the body or pillars - will have to look for that. Would any old car possibly have fatigue cracks, or does the high mileage compound the issue?

The fatigue cracks can be caused by many things but its repeated vibration that will set them off. So the more K's on rough roads the worse it gets. Particularly if the suspension is set up to be stiffer than normal etc. The Range Rover which broke had a 2" lifted set of stiff springs on it, cornered well, but was as rough as guts on the bumps. You could feel the flex int he body on bumpy roads as the windscreen would move about 5mm side to side at the top. ;-)

Well i've got 350k on my 300tdi Disco and the motor has never been apart everything, drivetrain is ok on a recent trip i got 7.7 lt/100 k's, she still pulls like a train and feels like it's got another couple of hundred thousand in her yet. People who know me can atest to the fact that "Madge" gets driven pretty hard, she is well serviced(proberly a little to anal when it comes to oil changes).
So yes if it's been well looked after i would(and the price is right)