£19 Maplins bargain opened can of worms

I have had my first land rover TD5 for about 5 months x reg with 49000 on the clock.
went to maplins and spotted a set of reversing sensors for £19, bargain! Fitting was easy until i came to connect to the reversing light and found the lights didn't work. While underneath repairing the terminals on the switch i found 2 rotten outriggers (sorting tomorrow thanks to help from member 50 pence sending me a part) While looking at the out riggers i then found evidence of a oil leak, black oil and dirt but not ever so wet so an old leak coming from what i now know is the ACE valve. Checked the fluid and one side of the reservoir was empty so as I had to be at work within the hour called at the petrol station got the fluid and topped up, checked when i got to work and the level was the same. 2 days later noticed oil on the drive, Yes from the ACE valve. Further research into ace lead me to look for the self test lights, which I hadn't noticed because i didn't know they should be there, and no lights. Looking deeper i have found:
Fuse ok
Controller is present but must be disabled.
Pump missing and pulley fitted
Pipe with Banjo fitting on the end cable tied to a hose
Anti roll bars still have actuators
Only one pipe,think its the return, connected to the res
small amount of oil leaking around the res.
Today I have a new problem, the power steering is heavy at low speed, I think it could be a bit of oil on the belt but none visible, I will try some belt dressing on it tomorrow.
The car has been serviced by a land rover specialist every year by the one previous owner so i think this is the work of the specialist. Is this a common and acceptable way to remove ACE, eg safe,
The car feels ok but it is the only one i have ever driven so i can't compare it to anything.
I will soon be swapping the anti roll bars drop links, bushes etc when i can find the roll bars at the right price.

See? First rule...if it ain't broke...don't start fiddling with it

hernestreet said:

I have had my first land rover TD5 for about 5 months x reg with 49000 on the clock.


The car has been serviced by a land rover specialist every year by the one previous owner so i think this is the work of the specialist. Is this a common and acceptable way to remove ACE, eg safe,
The car feels ok but it is the only one i have ever driven so i can't compare it to anything.
I will soon be swapping the anti roll bars drop links, bushes etc when i can find the roll bars at the right price.

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Re the De-ACEing of your car. I'm making comment on this as I have a similar set-up.

When done properly, all pipes, actuators, valve block and pump should be removed and replaced with non-ACE anti-roll bar and linkages, engine pulley, non ACE shock absorbers.

The guy who did my conversion (before I got the car) has left pipes dangling and the valve block still in place. My plan is to cut the pipes and remove the valve block so I can sell it, then remove all the rest of the now redundant plumbing. I'm also going to replace the rear shocks (as there little damping left in them) and replace with Gaz non-ACE versions.

Good luck with your car,

Dave

Pump bypassed, reservoir replaced with power steering-only one. All pipes, rams and valve block left in place. Still drives fine. MOT not concerned at all. Knowing what I know now, I honestly don't think I'll be bothering replacing the anti roll bars. I'm not going to go reefing the Disco into corners anyway. I've been in my mate's D1 with NO anti roll bars and it wallows about surprisingly well whilst keeping all 4 wheels on the floor. Any car can be flipped into a hedge with enough disrespect

Sounds like there's no rush to change my roll bars then, I was slightly concerned as I will be towing a caravan 300 miles to Cornwall in a few weeks time, didn't want to end up belly up on the hard shoulder.I'm sure the wife would moan at me for weeks if we did.

Ace and non Ace shocks, I didn't think about that one, I will look into it, thanks,

Better off doing the ARB's as the ACE cylinders only do anything while there is a hydraulic lock. Once you lose that it will roll like a battleship.

Philip has done his, took out the old stuff completely, mine's waiting to be done.

Peter

Yes I think its for the best to remove it completely, Like Difflock66 says its should OK for an mot but different testers have diferent ideas. I have sent some e-mails around to some breakers yards to try to fine some roll bars, Drop links and bush sets seem to be cheap and plenteyful. Going to risk it with the shocks I have on for now they look pretty new.

hernestreet said:

Like Difflock66 says its should OK for an mot but different testers have diferent ideas.

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They don't test how strong an anti roll bar forces should be, only check to see if there's any play in the bushes/links.

You could have one Disco set up for track days - highly improbable, but stay with me - and it's anti roll bars would be like girders. You could have another stock Disco and it has bars which are a lot thinner. Just because one wallows more than the other, how can it fail if there's no play in the bushes/links.

DIFFLOCK66 said:

They don't test how strong an anti roll bar forces should be, only check to see if there's any play in the bushes/links.
................................... how can it fail if there's no play in the bushes/links.

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An MOT guy might fail the vehicle because it has had an Original Equipment key security system disabled, with all it's pipework left in place but disconnected.


Dave

That's my point, Difflock is right it shouldn't fail an MOT in its current condition, and Dave is right as well a tester could decide his interpretaion of the guidelines means a fail, I have had advisories on MOTs before and not done anything about them then the next year nothing has been mentioned with the car in the same condition or even worse than the year before, eg CV boot split and brake pipe slightly corroded.
Anyway I have got some used roll bars arriving tomorrow so will have it sorted in the next few weeks.