Thread: Disco 2 Issues - should I buy?

I have a 99 and a 03 model. The 99 has had a fair share of problems the 03 not so.
To be sure it would be good idea to get a recommended LR Indi repairer to give it a pre purchase inspection. Sorry cant help with one down your way.

BIG O
03 D2 TD5 AUTO
99 D2 TD5 AUTO ACE
94 D1 TDI 3 DOOR (GONE)

Vitesse developments are in Malvern and should be able to do a pre-purchase inspection.

cheers
Paul

I'm no expert but I'll have a go. See below.

Originally Posted by PetevW

G'Day.

I'm currently searching for a late Disco 1 or early Disco 2. Had a look at a 99 Disco 2 today and while generally in good condition for the money it did have a couple of niggles & wondering whether any of you knowledgable folks could shed some light on them.

The niggles/questions are as follows:

1) It's an ES model so includes 7 seats and SLS. The airbags have however been removed and replaced with coils. This doesn't worry me much, but wondering whether this would affect legality/roadworthiness for the 7 seats? Read somewhere that only the SLS models were allowed 7 seats - so would the coil conversion create an issue here? Not a problem, many here have done this mod.

2) When trying to engage the HDC it just chimes 3 times. (The green HDC light does not come on). If you press the HDC button again it chimes 2 times. (This happens regardless whether the transmission is in low range, high range / nuetral). Tried to get the HDC to engage (in case it was just a bulb issue), but coulnd't do so. (Although might just be that we couldn't find a steep enough hill). Anyone have an idea of what this might be? I'm not that worried about the HDC not working - but more worried if it means there's a larger related issue with TC. HDC only works in low range. In high it chimes continuously until turned off. When turned on in low, the dash light comes on with no chimes. When turned off, it chimes three times and light goes off.

3) When giving it a bit of stick I noticed that the transmission got fairly hot. (My left leg was resting against the transmission tunnel, and I felt the heat through the carpet, etc. Heat wasn't uncomfortable, but definitely noticable as being hot. (Think of a holding a hot but not burning cup of coffee - about that kind of heat). This is a heater issue, not transmission. Hot coolant flows constantly through the heater matrix and sometimes the blend motors that drive the ducts, stick. See thread #13 here: http://www.aulro.com/afvb/discovery-...hot-cabin.html
4) As I'm going to be buying ex. RWC, I'm thinking of taking the car to a mechanic to do a check and ideally also the RWC (prior to purchase such that I can still back out if RWC finds major issues). Can anyone recommend a mechanic for this? Somewhere around Malvern/Ashburton in Melbourne would be good. There are a few places, but I'll leave this one for others

Thanks for the help!

Hopefully soon to be discovery 2 owner.
Pete

Welcome aboard

Make sure you get one with the centre diff lock internals in the gearbox. Forget a car without the CDL (2002 and some 2001). If you are not a mechanic, at a minimum you must get a knowledgable Discovery owner to examine your intended purchase.

Hi,

Just wanted to say a quick thanks to everyone that responded and provide an update in case it's usefull for anyone else.

Ended up taking the Disco to Vitesse. John & Sammy were great and provided good feedback. (Despite there being some confusion about HDC vs SLS )

In terms of the issues I listed:

1) No RWC issues with 7 seaters with Airbags replaced with Springs.

2) The HDC issue turned out to be an problem with both the ABS shuttle valve assembly and the RHF ABS sensor. The one odd thing is that with this you'd expect to see the 3 amigos - but for some reason non of the warning lights ever came on. Either way - the errors were clearly logged when the car was plugged into diagnostics.

3) Spot on - it was the heater.

Unfortunately to fix the ABS issue I was qouted 2K, and on top of this the car also had some known issues for RWC (replace bumper, replace windscreen, rear brakes, etc) that altogheter would have amount to close to 4K to get a RWC. Not worth it at the price so walked away.

So now I'm 150 bucks poorer and still looking.

Cheers
Pete