Attention Diesel Discovery Owners

**Disco44** · 5th January 2013, 10:59 AM

Originally Posted by isuzurover

$10k would mean either a 300Tdi D1 (a very good one with lots of money left over) or a TD5 D2.

I have a 1997 D1 300 Tdi manual. It has generally been reliable, and is certainly convenient, however if I were you I would go for a TD5 D2, however not the first couple of years of production.

D1 300tdi - things to watch for:
Rust around alpine windows
Head gaskets all fail at ~250k km
Check the ABS and SRS lights light up, many owners remove the globes rather than fix problems
The temp guage is binary - it instantly goes between OK and Buggered engine, with no warning. Install a VDO or similar.
The rear power windows have a fault in the circuit board which often stops them working (or makes them work intermittently).

Once the bugs are ironed out in the 300TDI they are a good economical all rounder.I have a 96 but if you can get a good 98 it has a few much needed improvements.The thing to worry about is the vehicle service record, good maintenance is a must plus a change to the better head gasket which is much more reliable.
John.

**bigcarle** · 5th January 2013, 02:46 PM

i forgot to mention in my previous post that the ABS can be a pain and expensive sometimes to fix as well as the security system (spyder) can cause problems.
but whatever problems come up they come up in most of them and hints and ideas to fix them are here on the forum

**Lionelgee** · 5th January 2013, 04:12 PM

Originally Posted by bigcarle

i only have had a '95 300TDi manual (my first land rover)
if you get ANY of the diesels fit an engine monitor IMMEDIATELY and WITHOUT DELAY.
why do emphasize this, look up all the threads on here that have over heating issues and with an engine monitor how many of them could have saved the owners $1000's of dollars and heartache.
next for the 300TDi at least, timing belt, when was it last changed if unknown change it NOW.
in a Disco 1 update (late 1994- 1998) look for the clear overflow bottle for the radiator, brass plugs in the top of the radiator and the thermostat housing. If these are not installed, install ASAP as these tend to fail and drop the water instantly and before you know it you are out of water and have cooked the head in less time than it takes to tell it (unless you have installed the engine monitor which beeps at a certain temperature to warn you)
also the 300TDi at 250k NEEDS a head gasket change at least.
300k there is some suggestion that the big end bearings MAY go

apart from that they return good fuel consumption 9.8l/100 (30mpg) around town and 8.6l/100 (32mpg) on the highway.
plenty of comfort and gadgets in side as well
i have had plenty of help and advice from this forum which is really great and a moral booster when you are working on the car
that's all i can think of for now, they are otherwise a great reliable vehicle

G'day Bigcarle,

Thank you for all the insider tips about the 300 TDi I will bear this in mind once I start looking more seriously closer to September.

Kind Regards
Lionel

**Lionelgee** · 5th January 2013, 04:23 PM

Originally Posted by isuzurover

Yes - I am glad I moved to WA where they have a more sensible system based on GVM.

A consideration for you is that you will pay 4cyl rego for a Tdi but 6cyl rego for a TD5. Plus Tdis are slightly more economical. I get just over 8L/100 km in mine.
Conversely, a Td5 will probably last longer before a rebuild, as it is a stronger engine with better oil filtration.

G'day Isuzurover,

I would not mind paying that much rego for a V8 if I lived in Brisbane or Metro South East Queensland because the roads are in relatively good condition. However, because I live in Bundaberg I travel mostly in regional/rural Queensland and once anyone passes to the north of Cooroy the road turns into a mostly single two-way road which is jokingly named a National Highway.

Kind Regards
Lionel

Thread: Attention Diesel Discovery Owners

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