Thread: Some Common D2 Faults According to GB

I am stuck at work on a Sunday night doing a night shift so I thought I would start a thread on common problems with the D2, there does appear to be some issues that are not so much of “if they will occur” but more a matter of “when they will occur” so I hope this helps people out.

My vehicle is a 2000 Discovery ES Series 2, 4ltr V8, 7 seater, with ACE and SLS.

I’ve owned my Disco since October 2006 it came with 106,000 km’s on the clock and at the time of writing it has approx 165,000 km’s on it.

Below are my experiences and lessons learnt along the way, these are my experiences and opinions so take them all with a grain of salt.

ACE Distribution Box
A very loud noise, almost a growl when decelerating and around the 1500rpm mark, I’m concerned that it might be the auto trans.
Crawled underneath and located the sound coming from near the ACE Distribution Box thing mounted on the chassis rail under the driver. I found a stone wedged between it and the chassis rail causing the vibration to be transferred from it to the chassis rail where it was amplified like a giant speaker box.
Removed stone and took a giant sigh of relief.
This has happened to me a couple of times now and seems to occur if you high pressure-wash underneath.

Indicators
Indicators not working on cold morning or taking 10 seconds or so before working, until inside the car warms up inside.
You can either replace the turn signal switch or take your old one out, take it apart, clean it up, add new dielectric grease, and you'll be good to go.
Or as I do, don’t use them, or turn them on 10 seconds early or don’t drive until the car has warmed up J

Heated Seats
If you have an ES you have probably already found out you have heated seats and just need the switches to turn them on.
I did this and they worked great for a while, then one day I turned it on and within a few seconds I felt a spot on my right leg start burning, so I turned it off and haven’t used it since.
I think the heating element is damaged from getting in and out the car? I haven’t investigated this further yet.

Leads and plugs
Started misfiring in the higher revs 3000rpm plus turned out the plugs and leads hadn’t been replaced at the 100,00km service (before I purchased her)
Genuine leads cost a small fortune I just used NGK 8mm and they were I think around the $100 mark for a set.
Trying to change the leads is a pig of a job as the coil packs are located at the rear of the air intake plenum wedged up against the firewall. If you have a 7 seater you will also have the secondary air-con pipes running along the firewall to contend with as well.
Save yourself the grief and just remove the intake plenum to change the leads and replace the rocker cover gaskets at the same time (even if they aren’t leaking yet) because they will sooner or later and you have to remove the plenum to replace these gaskets anyway.

Airbags.
Came out one morning to one side of the Disco bum down, started the car, the bag inflated and it didn’t happen again. Went off-road a few weeks later one airbag went flat and the compressor wouldn’t run to pump it back up again, checked everything ended up driving home with one side on the bump stop.
I learnt that the D2 has a built in self preservation system for the compressor to ensure that it does not exceed the maximum duty cycle. Just turn the car off for 20 mins and wait, have a liquid refreshment of your choice if you like whilst you wait J
I couldn’t find a leak anywhere and it was totally random if the airbag would deflate or not. I just ordered new bags from Arnotts in the US (exchange rate was almost 1:1 at the time) and when I was fitting them I found that the air hose going into the top of the existing bag wasn’t tight! I replaced them anyway and now have a spare set.

Compressor 1
Notice that the rear was looking a little low and found the compressor wouldn’t run to reinflate them.
Removed the compressor and tested by applying power directly to it via the car battery…nothing.
Disassembled the compressor and found that water had entered into it, no idea where from as all the seals looked good.
Looking inside there was rust corrosion everywhere, the fault was caused by the spring which is very odd design that pushes the brush onto the motor armature was rusted through and in 2 pieces. I soldered the 2 halves of the spring back together cleaned it up inside the best I could and refitted it again.

Compressor 2
Compressor is starting to make a racket people are starting to make comment about it when you start the car.
Crawling underneath I notice the compressor air intake that goes into the sound muffler has come off and I recall all the dusty roads I have travelled over the last few weeks.
A few weeks later the compressor stops working.
Opening the compressor up its not only rusted as per previous issue but now has ingested copious amounts of dust. The bearing has disintegrated the brushes are almost gone. There appears no easy way of replacing this bearing…. what a stupid, stupid design, damn you Wabco!!
Ordered a new compressor and pumped bags up using my normal tyre compressor and one of the old air hoses off the compressor.
I notice the new compressor is slightly different, primarily how the wires are sealed that go into the body of it. Is this how water managed to enter it originally?

Throttle Body Heater
Coolant leak, red crystal like stuff around a rectangular thing on the bottom of the air intake. With signs of a red stain that runs down the passenger side rocker cover.
This is the throttle body heater; it stops the butterfly from freezing up in cold climates, (there was a recall on this item I believe). Just bypass it and be done with it.

Front Tail Shaft
Noticed a slight vibration when driving, seems okay rolling in neutral though.
Crawled underneath a found very slight play on the tail shaft.
Being in a hurry I ended up getting another original shaft with non greaseable unis, the original had lasted 7 years and 140k kms so if the replacement one lasts that long that’s ok with me.

3 Amigo's TC/ABS/HD On All The Time
A common fault it seems but something I have never really had an issue with except when I let the discs go way, way undersize on the front. I was leaving them as the pads had plenty of meat on them still and the discs hadn’t warped due to being undersize.
What ever you do NOT buy anything but genuine pads and discs, the aftermarket items are not cheaper anyway! Stay away from anything wanky like slotted and cross-drilled discs otherwise you are only asking for trouble.

Air Bleed on Top Radiator Hose
Xmas day I am seeing people off it’s late and I notice a puddle under the Disco, I stick my finger in it and its red and slippery, my first thought is trans fluid. The day after Boxing Day we are scheduled to go away on holidays. Its Xmas and nothing is open I prepare myself for the worst.
Upon investigation I find its actually coolant and its leaking from the screw on the top radiator hose, the hole plastic fitting has gone brittle and disintegrates in my hands.
I remove the hose and the plastic screw and nut from the hose and replace it with a nut and bolt through the hose with copious amounts of silicon to seal the whole thing up.
I bled the system just by loosening the hose clamp at the T intersection, which is actually higher than the bleeder anyway!
It stays like this for 6 months until I order a new hose from the UK which actually has the air bleeder in the T piece where it should be.

Rocker Cover Gasket.
If you didn’t replace your rocker cover gasket when you changed the leads they are probably leaking pretty badly by now, the oil will run down the drivers side O2 sensor wiring loom and leak into the plug causing O2 faults (maybe it’s a coincidence but my O2 sensor died when this happened). You will need to remove the air intake plenum to replace these gaskets.

MAF
Rough idle slowly getting worse over the weeks, I plugged OBD2 reader in and it reported a MAF problem. I pulled the MAF out and found it coated inside with very fine dust I cleaned it with electrical contact cleaner, which improved it but didn’t fix it.
Ordered a supposed OEM unit from the UK, which was even worse, so I ended up buying an original Bosch unit.
If you need to replace the MAF buy an original unit the prices have come down now in Aus it’s a bit more expensive but a lot less hassle.

O2 Sensor
Surging when under load and the RPM’s are relatively low, plugging in an OBD2 reader error “O2 sensor bank 2 sensor 1”
I had this fail shortly after the MAF failed and shortly after the plug filled with oil leaking from the rocker gasket.
I only replaced the driver’s side O2 sensor, but if I had the money I would just do MAF and 2x O2’s all at the same time and be done with it.

Battery
Winter comes and the battery is flat in the morning, I jumped started it and it is fine all day until the following morning when its flat again.
I looked on the Internet and found an Exide battery, which is recommended for the D2 and well priced so I picked it up expecting a quick easy job to install it when I got home from work that night.
I find that physically it is much larger than the original battery but fits fine, but when I came to putting the terminals on I find that the are about an 1.5 inches to short, the terminals are located in the middle of the battery not the edge like the original. I spend an hour re-routing cables to gain the extra length required.

Small Hoses Becoming Brittle.
I went to check the state of air filter after a dusty trip and removing the cover on the air box I hear a crack and coolant starting to leak.
There is a small diameter hard plastic pipe that runs from the radiator to the coolant tank which I had just snapped off near the top radiator hose.
It took me 4 attempts to try and cut it off cleanly to repair it, as it just kept shattering because it was so brittle now. I repaired it just by using a bit of fuel line hose I had laying about and a couple of hose clamps.
I have noticed that all this type of piping is very brittle now from the under bonnet temps I guess.

Conclusion
That’s about it I think at this stage?
I will fix typos and grammar at a later stage and add anything I have forgotten also.

Few other suggested inclusions (I have 2004 TD5, with 90k on odometer):
1. Front window governor. Replaced the passenger side twice.
2. Silly plastic fuel feed and return lines which vibrate, rub against each other and wear through. Replaced twice now. This time will fit rubber spacers to keep lines apart and off chassis and hold down with cable ties. I recommend keeping a small length of 6mm rubber fuel hose and 4 clamps for temporary repair (which I had to do last week!)
3. Silly rubber coupling from rear drive shaft to differential. I know there's been some debate here about this but I've had to change twice. Now have cardan joint.

Also had oil in injector harness but its been covered.

Mundy