Thread: Might be upgrading from my Disco 2 to a 3 ?

motoafro makes some good points. A D3 now, no matter how good, will still be a 13 to 14 year old vehicle. But, remember, it still represents what was a cutting edge state-of-the-Landrover-art vehicle with the engineering and complexity of their then best ever off road car. This means that you will not be buying a $20k car, but a $100k car with $100k car servicing requirements, but one that is now 13 years old. And probably has had two or three owners etc.
I'm a Landrover nut who does most of his own servicing and all modifications and I love the D3/4, but I wouldn't touch anything older than a late build 2013 D4 (3.0L 8 speed), preferably the base model, and then only if it came with proven service records with mileage no greater than 15k between the first three years of dealer servicing and 12k afterwards. By now, I would expect the timing belts and transmission servicing to have been done, but I'd only accept known Indies or the equivalent of A&B Transmissions to have done the work.
I'm sure there are great D3s out there that have been well maintained and have a long life left in them. Not sure how you'd find them other than sheer luck.

Originally Posted by motoafro

Hi Discodance,

Having owned various Land Rovers over the past 35 years I would say that I’m fairly well acquainted with their many idiosyncrasies and I did indeed tread the same path you are now contemplating.
After many years of reliable motoring in our old Tdi300 Disco 1 we decided we needed a bit more oomph to tow the (bigger) boat, to this end we started researching the Disco 3 TDV6 and on paper it seemed to tick all the right boxes, 445 Nm of torque, plenty of cargo space, relatively decent fuel consumption, luxurious air suspension, leather interior, fantastic sound system, ridiculously bright headlights (a far cry from the old Lucas stuff!) and what a handsome looking beast!
So after shelling out a huge wad of cash on a lovely 2007 HSE we took delivery of what was about to become the biggest mechanical saga of our lives so far…..
Having owned one V8 Disco2 (the horror) and two Td5 Disco 2’s, a series 2A, three Range Rovers and the aforementioned Disco 1 I was familiar with the mechanicals and the various foibles of these vehicles and I acknowledge that they do require a high degree of nurturing for lack of a better word, but nothing could have prepared me for what came next.
The first thing that needed doing was the timing belts as there was no record of them ever being done but to make matters more complicated (read: expensive) was that the general consensus at the time was that the earlier version of the oil pump housing (which the timing belt tensioner attaches to) was either of poor quality metal from factory or of an inadequate design and that slight over tensioning of the retaining bolts could crack the housing causing the idler/tensioner to become loose resulting in catastrophic engine failure (interference motor)
So after lightening my pocket of a touch shy of 3k we were back in business, next on the agenda was the transmission…
The 6 speed ZF Box comes with a throw away plastic pan that needs to be replaced each time the transmission is serviced however you can retro-fit the steel Range Rover pan which is of course re-useable and this is the option we went with, say goodbye to another almost 1.2k…ouch!
Next on the agenda: the lower control arms, not economical to replace just the bushes they said… have to replace the entire arm they said, at this stage we are just talking about the front lowers but in time, they will all need replacing, 2.1k just for the two front lowers…
Then came the broken EGR’s (there’s two of them) and the subsequent coolant reservoir bottle replacement, then the brakes and tyres, these things are heavy and chew up both brake pads/rotors and tyres like there’s no tomorrow!
Then the straw (more like a huge tree trunk) that broke the camel’s back… oil migration into the brake booster….

We had this fixed and traded it ASAP for a Hyundai and have never looked back…..
Needless to say there were many more less impactful expenses along the way but suffice to say that in less than 3 years of ownership we calculated that the servicing and maintenance bill was somewhere around the 20k mark and on our income this was just not sustainable.
Having said all of this I still to this day maintain that the Disco 3 is the most comfortable, best riding car I have ever driven, and I have spoken to one guy that has had no problems with his 2005 Disco 3 at all! (just the one guy)
The power was rather uninspiring, although I feel like this is largely due to the weight and power to weight ratio, the brakes were never strong, it wallows around corners like a prawn trawler and the interior felt overly plasticy with various bits having broken off, also the material lining the A pillars was beginning to come away and the whole interior just felt cheap and nasty.
I have since bought another Disco 2 TD5 and am much happier; in my opinion moving to a D3 is not an upgrade, if you can afford the monstrous maintenance I would skip it and go straight to a Disco 4, or better still, buy a Land Cruiser!!

I also went from a D1 TDI to my D3 but thats as far as the similarity of stories go, sounds like all your repairs were at a dealer which can usually be halved by using an indie. Horses for courses but i've never felt the 2.7 to be under powered in anyway shape or form, a lot of what you mention are just service items like bushes and tyres.
Not denying they can be lemons but i'd still rather push mine than drive anything asian.

You can get a transmission steel pan (with drain bolt) plus a filter for around $400 (ebay ford 6hp steel pan) thanks to the ford falcon. Add a 4 litres of ZF lifeguard 6 ($50 litre from Repco) and you can do this as a diy. The three tricky things are getting the car level, cutting the old filter so its easier to get the pan out, and getting the transmission at the correct temperature for the fill. If you change 4 litres every 40,000 to 50,000 kms, that is reasonable maintenance for these transmissions and its easy to.

There are plenty of good youtubes/forum write-ups on how to do this.

Or you can siphon out as much fluid as you can and not change the pan and filter. If its black it would be worth changing the pan and filter, but if its clear you'll get away with a partial fluid change. Just depends on how much you want to spend.

Originally Posted by Discodance

Hi guys ... after a ton of trouble trying to get parts for my Disco 2 , I am looking at a 2005 Disco 3 S 6 SPEED AUTO ... SHE HAS 330klms on her ... looks great and seems good ..
I was wondering if anyone could give me a heads up on issues with a Disco of this vintage with these klms ... ??

I would love a heads up about anything I should go looking for or issues that these 2005 D3's have that you know about ?

cheers Steve
with a dead D2 :- (

Petrol or Diesel? Got a link to the ad?

A 2005 S with the 4L petrol would be a pretty reliable vehicle and could be set up very nicely. There is a good looking one for sale in Victoria with only 153K that looks well set up that looks interesting.

With the TDV6 - I would pay more and stick with MY08 or later.

My advice with the D3 is always look for something with less KM but be prepared to spend another $6K to get on top of any servicing or repair issues.

If it is a real bargain put aside as much as what you paid for it for repairs.

As long as you can afford to over-maintain it, you won’t regret it - it is a real step up from the D2 (and I think the D2 was excellent).

If you can put up with something that is probably going to be unreliable,off the road every now and then,and can do the work on it yourself,then go for it.

If not maybe move on to something that better suits your needs.

As many have said,the D3 is a huge upgrade from the D2,but it is much more complicated and maintenance Hungary,particularly at that age and mileage.