Thread: Any Advice for a New Disco II Owner Working on His Car

Originally Posted by AK83

Don't bother trying to find a 'good second hand one' ... for all intents and purposes this idea doesn't exist. Original item is classic idiot BMW plastic tech .. ie it'll break if you say the word plenum cowl within earshot of the D2. Useless material design.

My first attempt at fixing one if had a clean break right down the middle, so carefully prised it off and snapped in a few places. The general consensus is that UV makes it brittle. so if you try to get it off it will almost certainly shatter at some point.
I got my peices and added two metal flats on the rear side and poured epoxy of them to get the two halves to stay together. 80% successful, but at least in one piece. Then once dry, I then added fibreglass matting as well to keep the pieces together too.
The fibreglass/epoxy at least gives it some strenght when trying to handle the piece. Without it, just too flimsy.

Check out the plenum thread ... HERE ... where it took a while but finally we got the Chinese suppliers to deliver to Aus.

bottom line in that thread is that the products are very good. I got two, both got here in one piece. Price was 'reasonable'. Having now handled three original 20+ year old items, that have all broken upon handling, the Chinese one is orders of magnitude better.
Only thing they don't come with are the plastic rivets to hold it down. Fit is 99% accurate, and for less than $300 the best option if you want the best look.

On my D2, I had about 60% of the old one left, and water would always get down into the plenum area, so I was a bit rushed to fit it. ie. I didn't waste any time trying to give it another coat of paint to help protect against UV for the long term.

As the rubber strip, top side for the windscreen seal is bonded, it would really need removal or careful taping up to keep spray paint off it, so would need some prep and time to do properly.

On the D2a I may do that .. one day. For the D2, with the wetter season coming up, I just wanted to remove all the duct tape and get a good seal in that areas ASAP.

Note that with this item, it is hooked up under the bottom edge of the screen, and could be a bit 'stuck' being so brittle, when you go to handle it(eg. remove it) there is a 99% chance that it will crack. So if you do want to save $300ish, and do yours just keep in mind this possibility. I'd say get a fibreglass kit and prepare to reinforce the underside, if you do remove it. Doesn't have to be showroom finish, mine were rough as guts .. cant' see any of it once fitted.

I read through the thread and it seems to be inline with everything else I have read elsewhere as far as the plastic just failing due to UV exposure, I imagine we probably have it considerably worse here just because of the significantly higher UV levels. I have decided to order one now in this case because it should be here before I would need it for a trip down to the snow at the end of august.

Unrelated to the plenum cover, does anyone know where would be a good place to place jack stands under the car to let the suspenion and axle hang down. I need this to help with removing the oil pan to replace the gasket and check the oil pump bolt and pressure release valve (as I have now learnt thanks to you lot).

I will follow up with some photos once I have started the work as a thankyou (and in case I have any follow up questions).

But I have attached some photos of the car in its current state.

Originally Posted by reid25

100,000km before rebuilding an engine again is a ridiculously quick interval. Even old BMW's I'm into don't get rebuilt that frequently. Even if it was just a headgasket replacement, why did you only get 100,000km out of the first setup?

Ah, rebuild interval, that makes more sense than a "quick rebuild"!

It wasn't rebuilt the second time, it was a failed head gasket. Caused by ...... you guessed it ....plastic dowels.

Sorry if that wasn't clear, long time owners would recognise the comment about the plastic dowels.

So no, don't use plastic dowels on any version TD5.

My plastic dowels were nearly cut in half by the movement!

All the best..


Edit:

As you haven't been around TD5s for very long, I should also mention that 100k km was a pretty common failure interval for the plastic dowelled ones