Thread: Potential D3 purchase? Thoughts?

Originally Posted by PeterOZ

how many kms? Has it had timing belt/chains done? Has it had the upgraded oil pump housing replaced then?
Trans service?
HP fuel pump?
small things like intercooler hoses, plastic coolant cross over pipe, shocks/airbags and other suspension parts.


Service history and by who? Signs of heavy off road use? LLAMS makes me think it has done a lot of offroad use.


just things to consider. 2005 is now very old.

All excellent questions! Exactly why I posted this haha!

220km, timing belt done at 190km as the new owner didn't know if it had been done. Oil housing is unknown. Trans has been serviced and given steel pan. Fuel pump I'd say hasn't been done.
Front shocks/bags have been done.

No signs of any offroad use, which is funny given the llams. Was put on for looks. Either that or has had a fantastic under body clean! Other things that suggest are no body scratching, pristine rock sliders.

Service history has been kept but has changed from dealer to dealer, from memory majority were land rovers specialists.

Here is the car. Please no one Al this from under me haha!

https://www.carsales.com.au/private/...SSE-AD-3595859

Originally Posted by Timmy

All excellent questions! Exactly why I posted this haha!

220km, timing belt done at 190km as the new owner didn't know if it had been done. Oil housing is unknown. Trans has been serviced and given steel pan. Fuel pump I'd say hasn't been done.
Front shocks/bags have been done.

No signs of any offroad use, which is funny given the llams. Was put on for looks. Either that or has had a fantastic under body clean! Other things that suggest are no body scratching, pristine rock sliders.

Service history has been kept but has changed from dealer to dealer, from memory majority were land rovers specialists.

Here is the car. Please no one Al this from under me haha!

https://www.carsales.com.au/private/details/Land-Rover-Discovery-3-2005/SSE-AD-3595859

Only things that worry me are high chances of the timing belts/chains/tensioner giving way and the engine beating itself to death.


I had mine done about 20 thou ago, did not get the upgraded housing though as indie LR spec advised they had never seen one fail and not to waste my money. $13k later and a new 2nd hand engine fitted . . .


LLAMs and rocksliders fitted mmmmm makes me wonder about what sort of lie it has had.


Worse case $13 - 22k for new engine
Trans $7k
HP fuel pump $5k - might be less
air comp - $1.2k
diffs and transfer case I'm not sure, front diff is about $1500 I think.


I nurse mine now as I can't really afford to get rid of it or buy something new and have to get some return on the new engine.


If you have the budget look for much lower km vehciles, maybe a good D4. Again comes down to budget to play with. At 220,000km you will need to factor in some hefty repair bills at some stage just as I am looking at now.


I was planning on trading mine in at the 3 year mark and get a new one under novated lease. end of marraige and I still have the D3. Go figure.


I probably should sell it and buy an old bomb station wagon!

I can't get the link to work Tim, so your safe. ...

Plenty of early D3's have done lots more k's then 220 and still going very well. As for Llams and sliders, no big deal even if it has been off road a bit, these vehicles off road are reasonably hard to break.

Haha make sure you click it in my post, not in the quoted reply

Terry was right...something funky going on with the link in your original post...but I fixed it for you.

It looks nice, has he got the original wheels? The condition of them would tell you how hard it has been bashed or not.

Plenty of these vehicles get half or all the way built up for the big off road trip and never see the dirt. If it had been bashed off road then the black paint would show it.

Chances are if it has Llams then someone on here has owned it.

My one has seen plenty of hard off road usage and still goes strong, even with the bumps and creases in the panels and dented chassis rails.

As I said yours looks like a nice one, good luck.

If current owner had the timing belts done does he have the receipts or is he able to tell you who did the work?

That would be one way of finding out if a new oil pump housing was fitted, which I think is the main question not yet answered.

Enjoying ours - just can't get the remotes to work

I believe they did the work themselves. I've also found out they work at a Landrover workshop, so I'm a lot more confident now. Had it looked over by my normal mechanic and he said it's in really good nick.
I've committed to the buy now!