Thread: TD5 Oil Pump Bolt Checked - took a long time to complete

I decided to check the oil pump bolt on the Disco over Easter and today was the day.

The Disco has done 280,000ks but you never know. It’s a 2003 TD5 Auto.

Various web sites say 2-3 hours, well double that and add a bit. I started at 10:30

I had jacked up the front and put the chassis on axle stands so the front tyres just touched the ground but this turned out not to be enough.

The first problem was removing the cross member behind the front diff. The bolts were very tight and I almost rounded off some of the heads. A little heat and WD-40 and they eventually came loose. That was after I had gone into town to buy Ezy outs just in case, so that was nearly 2 hrs just for the cross member.

Then off with the sump. Remove all the bolts, manoeuvre the sump back and ...what, it won’t go under the edge of the bell housing. So off with the LH front wheel, remove the lower shock bolts and drop the axle almost to the deck, then the sump came out after wrestling with the Auto Transmission cooler pipes. Another 1hr gone.

I then went to check the oil pump bolt, and you guessed it, nice and tight and fairly stiff to come out meaning plenty of thread lock. I put in a new bolt with plenty of thread lock and torqued it up until the sprocket turned the motor a little.

I then cleaned the sump face and block in readiness for reinstallation, first off I thought it might be easy to put the gasket on the block as it has plugs that hold it in, that was a mistake, so then put it on the sump. After 3 goes at getting it in and up on the block it finally looked ok and fitted well.. However the section of the gasket that goes across the rear main bearing cap seemed a little long and bunched up. I was worried about this but it did seem to fit ok into the locating holes. I then found that I couldn’t get one of the bolts in properly at the rear main bearing area. The gasket was half across the hole and even with the sump loose I could not push the gasket across using a long fine screwdriver up the hole. I finally used a trick my Diesel mechanic father taught me. I ground the end of the bolt down to a bit of a point and pushed it pretty hard while I screwed it in. Bingo it worked fine, a quick removal of the bolt and a look up the hole and it looks fine, so fit all the bolts and torque up. 2 hrs gone there.

I also changed the power steering pump suction hose as it is slowly been worn away by rubbing on the block, that took all of 15 minutes so was a welcome break after doing the sump.

Put all the removed bits back and refill the sump and kick it in the guts, a quick drive to get it hot and no leaks, woo hoo, oh crap its 5:00 pm. 6.5 hrs.

I don’t mind working on the Disco as I used to help my dad a lot when he was alive, but for me this was not as quick as various websites seemed to say.

Never mind it’s done now so I am happy......

Regards,
Gordo

I did mine recently while I had the gearbox out (I changed the rear main seal at the same time). The sump came off and went back on easy as there was no gearbox to prevent it from sliding out the back. I was very pleased that I did it with the box out as I reckon putting the sump back on with the gearbox in the way while lying on your back must be one of the most frustrating jobs you could do! It took me around 4hrs but I was taking my time and gave the sump a very thorough clean.
Congratulations on getting the seeing the job through and having no leaks at the end.