Thread: 9th Year of Discovery Ownership

Year 9 Report

Time again for another annual report of Discovery 2 Ownership. Last years report can be found here.

8th Year of D2 Ownership

Overall, its been a pretty sedate year, Covid lockdowns haven’t helped, work is busy and I'm using the Alfa a bit more now I’ve finally got the Air-con working again. Overall just over 6,000km added to the odo for a total of 226,000km. Nevertheless we've still managed to have a couple of weekend play trips to exercise the transfer case and ATB diffs.

Outside of routine servicing not a lot had happened:

• Replaced the Key fob cases in January as both were cracking up. A couple of cheap e-bay ones from a supplier in Brisbane did the trick, but on one fob, the inside plastic around the button wasn’t properly moulded so it didn’t engage the unlock button. A small piece of insulating tape on the inside of the case fixed the problem nicely.
• I finally replaced the battery in March. It was the one fitted when I bought the car so I couldn’t complain with getting 9+ years out of it. The battery was a Delkor so I didn’t hesitate to get another Delkor fitted.
• The rear tailgate door lock/handle started jamming up, so I pulled the actuator out, removed the door handle assembly, gave both a good clean and for the door handle hinges a light lube with silicon spray. The door handle gasket was also pretty shot so I replaced that, along with both number plate lights, which were blown. The metal speed nuts for one of the number plate lights were totally rusted and finding new ones has been problematic so I bodged up a couple of retaining plates to screw into. All working a treat again.

Looking forward the top radiator hose I got fitted a couple of years ago is leaking at one of the ends and no amount of clamping down has solved the issue so when I get time, I’ll replace it with a genuine part. Thankfully the leak is more cosmetic than serious. Ditto the rear window wiper which is now only cleaning 1/3 of the window. Rain gutter plastics are still not quite at the point where I have to replace them with the spares I have.


I’ve also come to the conclusion that I’ll upgrade in the next five years or so. Ideally I’ll get something that will last me another 20 years, by which time I’ll be in my 80’s and slowing down…. I’ve cooled a bit on the new Defender but the Ineos Grenadier takes my fancy and looks like will be a spiritual successor to both the D2 and Defender.

Cheers

Steve

I reckon I will get another 5 years maybe longer have had it since 1999, plenty of mods and repairs over the years.