Thread: Average D2 TD5 yearly expenditure.

You will undoubtedly get many opinions on this what you haven't included is the year of the vehicle you intend to buy, it is also dependent upon the vehicle you are buying and how its been maintained.
When I bought a TD5 (Defender but still relevant) I was told that if the vehicle had done 170-200000 Km and it hadn't had a the head off I should budget up to $7000 for a head job I ignored them at the time and found out 12 Months later that they were right.
A head job doesn't cost $7000 unless you do everything (new head, radiator, oil cooler etc.) however mine did.
Once sorted they are pretty trouble free.

That said my dad bought a 1999 D2 years ago and has never had any issues with it at all and certainly nothing major.

What ever you buy get it checked out by a competent Land Rover Mechanic.
Something as simple as the wrong coolant is what cost me thousands.

going to need to know how many KM/year you do first.

Ignoring rego and fuel I'll open up at about $5K/100K Km for routine maintenance if nothing breaks and its a well looked after unit. If its run of the mill you could expect to go $10K in routine maintenance and if its a basket case you could easily blow more than $20K BUT at that stage your not really doing maintenance your replacing major items.

IF you were going to be building it up as an offroad weapon then getting the basket case may not be such a bad idea as you'd be picking it up cheaply and all the bits you would have to replace to keep it going would be the stuff you'd be pulling to make it into the weapon.

How long is a piece of string?

and which year would you like to know ... this year ... I've spent almost $5K on mine. (servicing, new radiator, new turbo, new starter motor, new clutch ... oh, and a TRS chipped ECU) Last year ... just service costs.

Basic Services including parts $300-$400

Expect the unexpected!

and when you buy one ... you'll want to spend money you don't have on it. Don't ask me why ... I can't explain it!

Hope that helps ... a little.

Craig

Hi all

I know this is not a D2 TD5 but the following table is what I spent on my soft dash classic over 6.5 years. Generally I have always found that the first few years are always more expensive maintenance wise as you are getting on top of things. Interestingly if you keep your car long enough this cycle begins again. I'm just gone through a second cycle with my 26 year old Alfa with head gaskets, Vent fan and aircond compressor.

Generally I only do routine stuff like oil changes etc and leave the rest to the mechanic so my costs may be a bit higher than others on the forum.

Steve

I upgraded (?) from a D1 V8, it was a bit tired, to a TD5 D2 that had done 143000Km in 2007, the D2 had 300000km on it. I then upgraded from that to a TDV6 SE in 2012.

As has been mentioned how many kilometres per year is important.
I had all servicing done by an independent at 10,000Km intervals. Plus some minor issues. I don't think i even opened the bonnet on this one (sad to say). Still a great car.
There was an air bag issue that turned out to be a hose thus the refund in the data below.
I kept records (see below) but only have the date and amount readily available. Some of these will be rego checks.
Declining annual cost is attributable to declining annual kilometres.

Date ServiceCost
5/07/2007 $665.72
2/11/2007 $733.68
6/11/2007 $390.15
6/11/2007 -$709.50
18/11/2007 $44.00
19/11/2007 $857.40
20/12/2007 $214.50
4/02/2008 $1,009.03
3/05/2008 $150.00
17/06/2008 $985.23
25/06/2008 $268.95
$3,943.44

Date of Bill ServiceCost
13-Aug-08 $31.70
05-Dec-08 $794.37
25-May-09 $2,991.37
26-May-09 $82.50
$3,899.94
Date Service
Cost5/08/2009 1,308.40
23/10/2009 897.93
18/12/2009 72.00
29/01/2010 848.10
$3,126.43

Thanks for your honest responses thats what I'm after. Just trying to guage what is the norm is for a td5 discovery 2 so I can make a better informed descision if I can handle maintaining one.

I want a 2003-04 D2 with anything up to 150K kms. I don't think I'll do much off road but deffinatley nothing rough. At the moment I'm averaging 10K to 15K km's per year just driving around town.

Originally Posted by djam1

What ever you buy get it checked out by a competent Land Rover Mechanic.
Something as simple as the wrong coolant is what cost me thousands.

Yeah I'm deffinatley going to take it to Graeme Cooper or similar before buying one. I've been told that even different year model need their specific oils?

Originally Posted by Disco EMU

and which year would you like to know ... this year ... I've spent almost $5K on mine. (servicing, new radiator, new turbo, new starter motor, new clutch ... oh, and a TRS chipped ECU) Last year ... just service costs.
Basic Services including parts $300-$400
Expect the unexpected!

Would you say that its more common for these vehicles to be unpredictable and have problems than other 4x4 brands?

Originally Posted by Blknight.aus

going to need to know how many KM/year you do first.
Ignoring rego and fuel I'll open up at about $5K/100K Km for routine maintenance if nothing breaks and its a well looked after unit.

so for my distance maybe I can expect to pay around $1200 per year maintenance ($400 basic service $700 bigger one) before problems (touch wood) plus I'll do my own oil changes.

Cheers, Tom

Originally Posted by Tom88

Would you say that its more common for these vehicles to be unpredictable and have problems than other 4x4 brands?

I'm no expert but ... I know of mechanics who think modern Toyotas are more unreliable.

Disco's are machines with moving parts that are going to break down. If you're buying a car with 150000kms on the clock ... things are eventually going to need replacing.

So here's your choice ... buy a new 4WD for $60000-$100000 and spend money servicing it ... or buy a second hand 4WD for $15000-$20000 and spend money maintaining it.

I truly don't believe it matters whether it's a Landrover, a Toyota or a Mitsubishi ... but that's the best thing about AULRO ... there's a wealth of info on known issues and guys willing to share that knowledge and help out. Landrover owners are a passionate bunch!

If you like the D2's ... buy one, find a good mechanic and accept that something will eventually go wrong with a 10-12 year old car. D2's are not new Toyota Yaris' with fixed servicing costs.

I love my Disco and trust it's reliability enough to have taken my young family to the centre of Australia in it!

Good luck to you!

C