Thread: Advice on purchasing Disco 2

slight topic change, but related. Theres a lot of other topics about chipping the TD5, but not much on the V8.
I know a D2a can be reflashed, so u dont need to buy a new ECU.
I have heard that u can get your V8 D2a reprogrammed. Bruce davis at annangrove does them, suggests a 12kw increase.

Has anybody had one of these done on their V8, and are u happy with it?

Originally Posted by rusty05

slight topic change, but related. Theres a lot of other topics about chipping the TD5, but not much on the V8.
I know a D2a can be reflashed, so u dont need to buy a new ECU.
I have heard that u can get your V8 D2a reprogrammed. Bruce davis at annangrove does them, suggests a 12kw increase.

Has anybody had one of these done on their V8, and are u happy with it?

You would think after elimination of any intake restrictions and fitting a freer flowing full exhaust from extractors back, plus a decent major service and clean of your injection system, topped off with a re-flash of the ecu harnessing the potential of gas injection to bring the engine out of its hiding hole would see a nice gain in torque.

Alot of money spent for minor kw's and reasonable torque but i would do it

Originally Posted by ozscott

Ace is nice but by no means esential

I heard that

just do your homework mate. Look for a city cruiser, there are heaps out there. Best to buy a standard one that has been well maintained and mod it yourself. Unless a fanatic on here is selling a modded on in the markets that they have used off road but cared for.

Budget for a Centre Difflock, the earlier D2's didnt have the lever inside the car to engage it, its still in the transfer case but some genius at land rover thought that traction control negated the need for it, but every traction aid helps.

Matt

ACE is fantastic, awesome handling for a truck + great articulation off road - get it if you can. Look for two filler caps on the PS tank.

My brother recently bought a 2000 V8 D2 for $10k with 138k km. Seemed like a good, honest truck - went well and had a *great* exhaust note too. He is an avid mechanic and took the heads off to have a look after purchasing it - the engine was completely filled with black sludge. We can only surmise that the previous owners (we think two of 'em) were using cheap, nasty oil and/or not changing it very often at all. He's used some 'special' engine flushing stuff that has hopefully gotten most out but he won't know without pulling the engine apart - so he's not entirely sure a chunk of gunk won't block an oil passage and kill the engine.

The moral of the above story is to only, only, only buy a truck with a water tight service history. There are plenty around - just walk away if anything doesn't add up. I should say that he loves the truck in spite of it all - LR's are like that.

A trap with the service history is vehicles that have been only driven around town (lots of short trips) but serviced at the 'normal duty' intervals. City driving is considered (from what I've read in LR publications) to be 'extreme' and requires shorter oil change intervals &/or fully synthetic oils. Also, vehicles with really low km's but haven't been serviced by the calendar - the service schedules usually say something like 10k km OR 12 months. It's not uncommon to see a car religiously serviced every 10k km, but that only rolls around every two years - not good.

Try to buy from the original owner if at all possible - I have a theory that LR's, being quite expensive to buy new are an aspirational car that cheapskates buy used but then can't/won't afford to service them properly. Much like old Jags.

Having said all that - I own an auto D2a TD5 (72k km) and a 90 RRC (251k km), both with full service history and they're great trucks.

You've mentioned gas injection:
My brother had a gas injection system fitted by a (licensed gas fitter) idiot in Narromine on a recommendation by a friend; the result required my brother to refit a bunch of stuff just to get it working. Long story short - if you're thinking of gas, yes it runs really well but ONLY get it done by a workshop that has done installs on D2's before. It may cost a little $ but it's worth it.

Two more considerations when bargaining:
Ignition leads. If they need changing, it (as far as we can figure out) requires removal of the inlet manifold. Not earth shattering but it takes time or $ (sending it to the shop). Knock quite a few hundred off the price if they need doing.

Front propshaft. It's not serviceable in the usual sense. A new one is about $600 at my local LR specialist (non dealer) or you can pay over $1200 for one that has been built with serviceable parts (might be worth it over the long run).

cheers,

bidds

Originally Posted by bidds

ACE is fantastic, awesome handling for a truck + great articulation off road - get it if you can. Look for two filler caps on the PS tank.

My brother recently bought a 2000 V8 D2 for $10k with 138k km. Seemed like a good, honest truck - went well and had a *great* exhaust note too. He is an avid mechanic and took the heads off to have a look after purchasing it - the engine was completely filled with black sludge. We can only surmise that the previous owners (we think two of 'em) were using cheap, nasty oil and/or not changing it very often at all. He's used some 'special' engine flushing stuff that has hopefully gotten most out but he won't know without pulling the engine apart - so he's not entirely sure a chunk of gunk won't block an oil passage and kill the engine.

The moral of the above story is to only, only, only buy a truck with a water tight service history. There are plenty around - just walk away if anything doesn't add up. I should say that he loves the truck in spite of it all - LR's are like that.

A trap with the service history is vehicles that have been only driven around town (lots of short trips) but serviced at the 'normal duty' intervals. City driving is considered (from what I've read in LR publications) to be 'extreme' and requires shorter oil change intervals &/or fully synthetic oils. Also, vehicles with really low km's but haven't been serviced by the calendar - the service schedules usually say something like 10k km OR 12 months. It's not uncommon to see a car religiously serviced every 10k km, but that only rolls around every two years - not good.

Try to buy from the original owner if at all possible - I have a theory that LR's, being quite expensive to buy new are an aspirational car that cheapskates buy used but then can't/won't afford to service them properly. Much like old Jags.

Having said all that - I own an auto D2a TD5 (72k km) and a 90 RRC (251k km), both with full service history and they're great trucks.

You've mentioned gas injection:
My brother had a gas injection system fitted by a (licensed gas fitter) idiot in Narromine on a recommendation by a friend; the result required my brother to refit a bunch of stuff just to get it working. Long story short - if you're thinking of gas, yes it runs really well but ONLY get it done by a workshop that has done installs on D2's before. It may cost a little $ but it's worth it.

Two more considerations when bargaining:
Ignition leads. If they need changing, it (as far as we can figure out) requires removal of the inlet manifold. Not earth shattering but it takes time or $ (sending it to the shop). Knock quite a few hundred off the price if they need doing.

Front propshaft. It's not serviceable in the usual sense. A new one is about $600 at my local LR specialist (non dealer) or you can pay over $1200 for one that has been built with serviceable parts (might be worth it over the long run).

cheers,

bidds

Great advice thank you very much !

I'm a mechanic at Volkswagen my self and should have a pretty good idea as to what looks normal or not, ill inform everyone of how i go with my purchase if and when i find one to my liking!

Any and all advice is welcome!

Holdzz - on a side issue how are the Volks GTi's these days...even these german built ones had some issues in the past electrically I heard (or with electronics). How would you rate a GTi in terms of reliability now?

Cheers mate

Originally Posted by ozscott

Holdzz - on a side issue how are the Volks GTi's these days...even these german built ones had some issues in the past electrically I heard (or with electronics). How would you rate a GTi in terms of reliability now?

Cheers mate

The Golf 6 GTi, which is the current award winner for car of the year according to wheels magazine, is actually a brilliant car, electrically we have had no warranty concerns, we get the odd super fussy customer about an odd rattle or a trim not sitting straight, which is fine because when your spending big bucks on a hatchback you should get quality.

Over all the latest GTi is pretty much spot on, quick as all hell I've driven a few of them, I've also driven one that a customer has had chipped by APR tuning to raise it from 157kw up to 188kw, bloody brilliant...

Golf 5 GTI, out of warranty Dependant on how its been treated has a few minor vacuum related components that require replacing at various km's, the charcoal canisters sometimes block up, the EGR valve seal splits causing loss of boost pressure, but no repairs I've seen have exceeded $400 and the parts being replaced are a higher quality replacement to the superseded part. Hope this helps!

Send me a private message if you have future questions

Sorry to get off topic mods.