Thread: Buying 1st Disco

Welcome to the Forums lisian

Buy as late a model as possible,,

IF you end up with a diesel--
buy a low coolant alarm as advertised top of screen. Dont argue.

Howdy Lisian.

All have pros and cons. But:

The Disco's up until late 1993 had weaker axles and the older style LT77 manual gearbox. The V8s of that time were 3.5 EFI units, and the diesels were 200TDIs generally better liked by the mud bashers. The late '93 onwards V8s went to the 3.9 EFI and are a much better motor. Not much more power, but better to drive for the same fuel consumption. Better 24 spline axles came in about this time.

1994 saw a significant upgrade with a better interior, the R380 gearbox that was meant to be stronger, a changed transfer case input gear design (better). Not sure when the 300TDI came in, but ABS and airbags came in about 1994 from memory.

When we were looking 2 years ago, the tidy, rust free TDI models were about $5K more than V8s. Since the increase in petrol prices the **** end has fallen out of the V8 market and TDIs seem hard to find anywhere. We settled on a dual fuel V8 because I was doing lots of short runs in town and that would have killed a diesel.

Are you planning for this to be a daily driver? Are you planning to do more than one or two big outback trips a year? How you are going to use the Disco will be a big determining factor on which suits you best.

What's your budget ?
You'll be surprised at some bargains out there in Discos $8-15K- even up into D2s now.
as said if D1 go for a 96 on model preferably one without ABS or airbags as they can be costly to fix. ( I'd prefer TDi but I hear V8s on gas go alright too mind you limits the load space)
if TDi check service books for regularly (10k) services throughout its life
-check timing belts have been changed and timing belt mods done (94-97 models depends on VIN )
-check for rust around alpine windows
-lift carpet and check rear cargo area floor for rust. check all carpets for damp/water
-any receipts or signs of damage due to overheating avoid like the plague
-and yes first thing you install is a low coolant alarm.

Originally Posted by MacMan

Howdy Lisian.

1994 saw a significant upgrade with a better interior, the R380 gearbox that was meant to be stronger, a changed transfer case input gear design (better). Not sure when the 300TDI came in, - March 1994 - but ABS and airbags came in about 1994 from memory.

I just sold a DI, 1995 300Tdi with 158500kms - owned since new - delivering next Saturday.

Also have friend with 1996 or 1997 300 Tdi for sale - high mileage & loads of extras. Has been well maintained and has had gearbox and quite a few other items replaced fairly recently. He has it on the market at a very reasonable price.
I don't know what area you're in but if you are interested, PM me and I'll give you his contact details.

Thanks for the quick responses.
Macman- yes it will be a daily driver, I don't really mind the v8's but wasn't sure if there was going to be alot of ( NO DON'T DO IT ) answers.
Waynep- My budget is $5000-6500
Xtreme- I live in Wollongong
Thanks
Ian

[quote=waynep;549397]
as said if D1 go for a 96 on model preferably one without ABS or airbags as they can be costly to fix. ( I'd prefer TDi but I hear V8s on gas go alright too mind you limits the load space)
quote]

Not nessesarily - my D1 V8 had the tanks underneath - didn't impinge on the loadspace at all.

Originally Posted by MacMan

We settled on a dual fuel V8 because I was doing lots of short runs in town and that would have killed a diesel.

Hi MacMan,
Could you expand on this a little?
I'm seriously thinking of swapping V8/LPG for diesel due to severe range limits on (admittedly few) trips but most of my driving is city..

Ta!

LPG is a lot gentler on a V8 than ULP when starting cold. The reason being it is a vapour rather than an atomised liquid. Even without being warmed LPG boils off at normal atmospheric temperatures.

The difference is only important for the first minute or so of running. Petrol can "wash" the oil off the cylinder walls when cold because there is not yet enough heat in the engine to vaporise it. Albeit VERY minor, this causes a little bit more wear than when running for the same period of time warm. Some of the fuel also ends up in the oil for this reason. The volatile hydrocarbons cook off when the engine warms up but there are some residues that remain suspended in the oil.

Diesels on the other hand run a MUCH (more than twice) higher compression ratio and hammer everything at startup much harder. The cold running tolerances are different to warm running tolerances in the turbo, valvetrain, bores and pistons, and in all bearings. Once they are up and running they are fine, but it's the first few minutes before everything expands to warm running tolerances that do the damage. This is part of the reason you'll see heavy industrial diesels stopped as little as possible during a working day - it's cheaper to fuel them than fix worn parts and deal with the downtime.

Why did this influence my decision? I had only a few km to drive to work when I bought our Disco, and the only parking was metered parking. This meant that the car had something like 6 cold starts a day, and I knew this would be VERY punishing for a diesel. It still hurts a V8 on gas, but far less in the long run.

If your purchase is going to do a lot of cold starts (mum's taxi/shopping trolley) then it's worth considering. I'll freely admit that having to think so carefully about fuel stops when going bush is a pain in the **** but in reality it's only a problem 5 or 6 times a year. The rest of the time I'm close enough to civilisation to NEVER need to run on petrol. On LPG $35 to $40 gets me 300km of driving so it's as cheap as diesel running these days, but for me as a home mechanic the prospect of having to rebuild a V8 is far less frightening than dealing with potential disasters with a TDI diesel. Yes, head gaskets can and do go in both but diesels have two fuel pumps and injectors that can go wrong and when they do replacement is the easiest option.

The **** end has fallen out of the V8 market. Although I'm losing because our V8 is dropping value it means that if/when I start to think the V8 in mine is going to need substantial work I'm going to buy a complete damaged vehicle and tax it for parts.

Everyone looks at the pros and cons differently, but this is how the cookie crumbles for me.