Thread: discovery 2 dilemmas

Hi guys and girls,

I have had a discovery 2 TD5 for about 2 years now and it has 256k on the clock. Other than the mileage it is in pretty good condition and has never skipped a beat. Took it down to a specialist last week for a once over before a trip down south and got the oil cooler, oil, filters and exhaust manifold changed.

150 kms into the trip i noticed the aircon go warm and looked at the temp gauge to see the heat gauge hovering at 3/4. It usually hovers around 1/2 way. Immediately pulled over and left her idling while i inspected the engine. Coolant was still fine, too hot to open but coolant came out the overflow when the cap was cracked. Couldn't find anything wrong and the heat gauge began to drop back to 1/2 way. Was confused but figured we should carry on rather than sit in the middle of nowhere and decided to back up about 1 km to a servo we had just passed.

As soon as i revved to move noticed a knock start in the engine and pulled over again. Couldn't see anything obvious and decided to crawl back to the servo. Called RAC. RAC were there pretty quickly and put about 1/2 a litre of water in the expansion tank and started her up. The engine was still knocking so we decided to tow the vehicle to the nearest town.

The mechanics asked how hot it got and reckon it was overheated and a piston "clipped" the cylinder. Hence the knock. How hot is hot? The highest i saw the heat gauge was 3/4 and the light definitely never came on. Another mechanic thinks without seeing/hearing it that the block is cracked. Both think a new engine is required.

Never the less, i have been quoted $1000 to pull the engine out and strip it to fault find. I have also been quoted $8,000 to get the engine reconditioned. On the other hand i have seen similar models which have suffered the same fate, on eBay, sell as is (whole car with U/S engine) for $3,500. I have also seen second hand engines with +/-150k kms on eBay for +/-$3,500.

What are your thoughts? Are these prices realistic? What is the price of reconditioned engines or good second hand engines? What is a reasonable price for removal and installation of engines?

Does anyone want to make an offer for it as is?

Thanks for your help.

Can't help much specifically on the TD5 sorry, but having two engine rebuilds done on my V8 Disco in the last 50k kms, the prices sound about right.

Would love to know who the "specialist" was that did the check before the trip, considering you're based in Perth.....but forum rules are unlikely to let you name them publically.

Any chance of a PM? Purely for my own curiosity of course....

Best of luck with getting her sorted too, mate.

Cheers,