Thread: What did you do on your Landy today?

Thanks to the great info available on this and other forums, this is what I've done to my 2003 D2a TD5 since I got it a few weeks ago...

1. Fixed coolant leak - liitle-black-box alerted me to low coolant level - only happened after long high speed runs, there was never any sign of drips under the car. Finally saw a drip on the axle and a stain on the downpipe - followed it up to behind the turbo - blanking plug on oil cooler under turbo had a tiny split. Very lucky it didn't let go properly. Replaced it with a decent quality blanking plug and proper hose clamp from auto shop for about 5% the price of the LR part (what?? R400??). Wrapped it with builders aluminium to protect against radiant heat. Dodged a bullet there.
Also re-shielded the wire to the oil pressure sender - cable sheath was baked and rubbing on the back of the engine.

2. Stripped and cleaned out tail door lock assy; intermittently not opening off C/Locking. Found it chock full of congealed dust and grease and very stiff. One can of wd40 and one of the wife's art brushes later, freed off, clean and good as new.

3. Previous owner had fitted a strap to hold the steering damper - he said the metal cover tinkled like a cow-bell on rough roads. Damper works fine, but strap had to come off I stuffed a couple of pieces of sponge up the space between the rod & cover - no ding-ding. While I was at it I pulled at the steering arm and felt play in the track rod end - probably why the damper cover was vibrating on bad roads, duh.
So off to trusty local tyre centre for a proper inspection on the ramp. got the wheels off and checked all bushes and linkages; found it needs front radius arm rear bushes (a bit of play) plus the steering ball joint was indeed very worn. These are next week's jobs, along with front discs & pads - worn and squeaky.

4. Wasn't happy with the autobox - hanging on to gears too long - MAF sensor was mentioned as a possible cause, so removed it and swilled it in a tub with 3 changes of meths - loads of dust and crap came out. Took a chance on a very gentle cotton-bud wipe of the wire, black stuff also removed.
I also read somewhere that autobox can learn driving style, which can be corrected by re-setting the auto-ECU, or else by re-learning it (by razzing hard between traffic lights a few times in 2 or 3). Tried the latter, which was quite enjoyable. Don't know which 'fix' did the job, but gear changes defintely seem sharper now. Can't detect any improvement in engine performance, but it seemed fine anyway.

5. Cleaned out LH bumper fog/reverse light - dim because full of dust: someone previously lost the dust seal. Flushed the light unit, cut a new seal out of neoprene: sorted. Next day the RHS light fell out of the bumper: spring clip had broken, probably I did that when putting it back after copying the dust seal. Temp fix with black silicone (probably will stay that way)

6. While poking around under the back bumper under 5. saw a strange box wrapped in what looks like self-annealing tape hanging from a cable leading up behind the light cluster. Took the lens cover off to investigate and found "it" [whatever it is?] and re-secured it. Also found a cylindrical filter box with a dusty sponge pad inside - presumed it was a breather for the fuel tank: cleaned and re-fitted.

7. Removed sill protectors - 8 years of crud behind them and in the sills. Unblocked drain holes, poked and flushed till clear - loads of dust flushed out as mud. Luckily car has lived in a dry climate, so no rust at all, happy days.

8. Cleaned out battery box (plenty of old encrusted suplhate in the bottom) checked ECU plug for oil, all OK (previous owner said harness had been replaced, confirmed).

9. Called LR dealer where it had last major service (at 162k, 13k ago). The guy said he knew the car very well as the previous owner spent fortunes maintaining it, hence its in great condition. Told me they'd done ALL the fluids & filters, coolant, brake fluid, ACE, PAS, diffs, gear & transfer boxes the lot at that service, plus the s-belt, top hose, engine harness and ABS sensor wire - so apart from an oil & filter (if I use it hard) I shouldn't need to touch it for another 7K. Great news, but disappointing too - was itching to get into some of that stuff - suppose it can wait. Don;t know how they missed the track rod end though, that can't have been just 6 months wear...

10. Visited LR indy centre for a few bits - they were breaking a rolled 2004: got a handbrake assy for R100, only wanted the gaiter, but neither me or the parts guy could see how to get it off... Leather on mine degraded to dust, but this one was mint. A new boot from LR costs R900 !! Thanks to forum, realised its stupidly easy to swap over - pop out the wire spring and roll the gaiter off over the handle like a sock - a simple o-ring holds it in place.
Also got a new set of hub centre caps and one locknut cover.

11. My half-leather seats - the suede parts - were a bit bobbly through wear. Careful scraping with a brand-new stanley-knife blade made a big difference.

12. Under the hood - looking for things to fix...
Took all the covers off the engine, checked run of wires and pipes for usual chafing etc. All OK except for heater pipes rubbing near bulkhead - sheathed them and cable-tied tight. Found that the wiring to the engine-saver / LBB was clumsy to say the least: whoever did that thought electrical tape was an adequate heat shield & sufficient protection against chafing. Re-sheathed and secured it all properly, plus a few more random cables and pipes.
Also, the rough sponge filter for cabin air-intake was sagging, letting dust into cabin, a simple dab of super-glue in various places sorted that.

13. unlucky 13 - the dreaded 3 amigos; have seen them twice: both times after abs is briefly triggered by braking while turning in the wet, once at a roundaout, one on loose sand. Cleared themselves after switching off. Suspect maybe to do with brake pads & discs being low and squeaky. Hopefully new pads & discs will sort that out. Only happened twice, so not going to extremes just yet....

I've had Toyotas and Mercedes the last 15 years, so my tools have barely seen the light of day for aeons. Now that I've finally got a proper traditional man's vehicle that needs and deserves plenty of preventative maintenance, I've done more garage work than the last 20 years put together, but I'm loving it !!

Readjusted my speedo to 2mph optimistic. After I drove back from Adelaide River.

Dan.
69 2A 88" pet4 (in disguise), 68 2B FC pet6 (running again), plus others.

Used n Easy Out to remove a sheared diff lock switch from the TC; it was a new switch that just kept tightening until it broke in two, with not much force on the ratchet. Or maybe I should cut down on the Weetbix...

Took the Subaru seats (I recently had fitted) out of the Isuzu County so they can go to the trimmers in the morning and have the seat cushions lowered by about 40mm. Standard they are too high but we thought we would try them anyway

Engine oil/filter and air filter change, greased the propshaft unis/splines, and adjusted the tappets on the D1, and refitted the Engine Watchdog that I'd removed in preparation for selling it.
Its been bought by a friend of my daughter to replace the Falcon wagon that he's currently using for his big lap - so I wanted to make sure its good to go...

Steve

It was ****ing down here in the Cape all day, hence spent the day in the garage

Twiddled around under the hood for a bit, then remembered the TD5 checklist on this forum. Also having read Urban Panzer's website [www.discovery2.co.uk, brilliant resource by the way], I decided to get underneath, whip the undertray off and check if the PS return pipe was rubbing on the sump... See attached images.

Sure enough it was partially rubbed through, despite the utterly pointless sponge, and covered in a grey-blue greasy film of oil and powdered aluminium from the sump.

I blessed my lucky stars as I reached for the cable-ties and set about tying it out of the way.

Then I noticed something potentially FAR worse... take a look at the position of the clamp on the bottom hose... about 30mm away from where it should be, and doing absolutely eff-all. I swear thats exactly where it was...

The astonishing thing to me was that this vehicle was in the main LR dealers only 6 months /12k ago - for a full service that included replacing serpentine belt, flushing cooling system and changing top hose... It beggars belief that
a) they left the flippin hose clamp off, and
b) they neglected to notice/report/fix the PS pipe (being such a well-known issue), and most of all
c) that the bottom hose actually stayed on for another 12,000km without any clamp pressure whatsoever! Nothing but the red sealant and a bit of congealed OAT residue holding it on...

The next image shows the fix - this was the best I could come up with on the spot, but should be OK? Feel free to chip in if you know a better, more permanent one.
Factory clamp was re-fitted, mainly because I didn't want to take the pipe off to remove it (seeing as it was so well-sealed!) - but I added a proper hose clamp anyway to be sure (belt & braces)

That simple fix took me about an hour, and would have taken the dealer's mechanic 5 minutes if he'd been bothered to do the job right.
Needless to say, this Landy is never going back there while I own it.

In conclusion - gratitude is due to all the learned enthusiasts who take the time to pass on their wisdom, saving newbies like me much pain and "school fees", which is why I'm passing the favour forward.

The moral is: NEVER assume or take for granted that someone else has checked the obvious or done the job right - even (especially?) the stealers.
DO IT YOURSELF.

Oh yeah, Pete - DIY - you have certainly got that one right.

Took my TD5 Disco for a drive up the Gap Hill on the Calder to check the airflow figures. As suspected despite several cleans the MAF won't show anything above 511 kg/hr regardless of how hard the Disco is pushed. New MAF has been ordered. Td5 MAF KG/Hr numbers



Also checked the heat shield above the centre muffler. A couple of the clips were a little loose so pushed them back hard against the shield. After taking a quick drive I realised what I thought was a shot flexi joint on the down pipe rattling under acceleration was actually the loose shield. Hmmm I guess I'll fit the TD5Alive stainless decat pipe anyway...

The other find was that a cheap-assed "repair" on the ACE reservoir to pump hose by the previous owner using off the roll Codan PAS tubing has almost come unstuck in a big way. The bodged hose replacement is rubbing against one of the PAS hoses and has worn down to the inner reinforcing layer.