Thread: Third year of D2 ownership

Another year down and time to reflect on a third year of disco 2 ownership.

For the sleep deprived in the audience, previous years posts can be found here:

http://www.aulro.com/afvb/discovery-...ownership.html

http://www.aulro.com/afvb/discovery-...ownership.html

Charlie has had a relaxed life only covering a further 5,500km since last years report. This sad state of affairs can be blamed firstly on the arrival of Lady Penelope to the garage, that damm V12 is just soooo addictive and secondly the Pulsar is working hard, with my Daughter on her L plates... certainly NOT an addictive passtime

On the mechanical front I've seen a couple of well-known age/Km issues appear during the year which have needed attention.

• The transmission XYZ switch started degrading further with the D light disappearing and erratic shifts, so at 160K I got it replaced. This significantly improved things, however there was another electrical problem hiding behind that, which required a couple of days back at the specialist to trouble shoot. to Auto Transmissions R Us in Balcatta for great service and professionally handling the follow-up visit. Out of curiosity I kept the old switch and refurbished it following the posts on the forum, so it is now in the spares box for future use.

• After 12 years, saggy bum syndrome finally visited and the rear suspension airbags were replaced. I debated going coils but find the air suspension very useful for towing, so it stayed.

• As I write this, I'm also chasing a strange electrical problem, where I don't have any dash lights when the headlights are on. Following the advice in the Good Oil, I found the 30 amp trailer fuse under the bonnet blown (go figure......). Replacing this results in intermittent behaviour and wriggling the indicator light stalk causes them to come and go. A bit of Googling found a youtube video where an American guy had the same behaviour and also traced it to the stalk. So I've ordered up a new stalk which I hope will fix the problem. Stay tuned for a further post on this.

Future plans remain much the same as last year. I've still yet to fit the Land Rover bump strips and am still tempted by an ARB bull bar, tie rod/diff protectors, a snorkel and a Bluetooth stereo. However thanks to the Alfa and Jag, I'm a bit budget constrained .

On the plus side, indulging in a bit of serious off roading, cured the itch for a set of Ashcroft ATB diffs. CDL and traction control are more than adequate for my excursions! But I did manage to bend the corner of the rear Kaymar bumper , so straightening that is another job and next time I must remember to raise the rear suspension .

Roll on year 4

Cheers

Steve

Well it is kind of....broken....and expensive to fix....and I am unemployed

ATBs are on my list, fairly close to the top but I need to learn how to drive it properly without first

Designing my diff lock lever at the moment...