300 Tdi or TD5?

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Burnsie

New Member
Posts
37
Location
Hants, soon to be in Wales
Hi All,

I have been swayed to go the diesel route by my local mechanic and now have to choose between a late model 300Tdi or an early (ish) TD5...

I'll be using the Disco as a daily driver, on the smallholding (a fair few acres), and for towing a car trailor.

What do you all suggest and why? Any help greatly appreciated :)

Cheers,

Burnsie.
 
My dad had a 300 about 8 years back now, Was a great car at the time.
I just picked up my TD5 Disco about 5 weeks back now (T reg GS spec 65K FSH for £3300!!) It's a great car, the TD5 is alot more refined than the older 300 and more powerfull/smoother and all round the car is better built (Bearing in mind my disco is 10 years old and the 300 at the time was 3 years old!) The TD5's more modern at the end of the day, more modern technology but as they say more to go wrong dare I say it...

All cars suffer from their share of problems, and if you're getting a car thats around 10 years old you've gotta remember you may get the odd problems with it.

Both great cars let us know what you go for!

Good Luck

Rob
 
i had a td5 disco year 2000 model..in 6 months i had to replace the gearbox,the ecu went twice,heater packed up,pas had to be replaced,warning lights kept coming on the dash all the time,theres just too much electrickery on them,in my opinion the 300 is a far more reliable option..problem is people who have a 300 will say you need a 300 and people who have a td5 will tell ya you need a td5..you pays your money you takes your chance..if you are planning on maintaining the car yourself the 300 is a lot easier to work on...good luck which ever one you go for...
 
Have had 2 300s, one was a pig and one was fine. Covered about 25k miles between them and both were over 100k when bought. Only ever had a few problems with them.

Have had a 01 td5 for 15 months now, with 25k miles done (now at 56k) and it has not let me down. It is smoother, more powerful, better built and I find I am even more eager to drive it. We often head off for the weekend and cover 400 - 800 miles over a weekend without ever a problem (touch wood). Would but another one in a heartbeat. There is good value to be had out there. As said before, take a few for a drive and get the feel of them.

PS go for an auto if you can, they are grrrrrreat.
 
I have had a TD5 for a year now, getting rid of a 300 to trade up. On the one hand its is much more refined, faster, quieter, warmer (or cooler- climate!) safer- ABS, air bags, traction control etc and the extra seats in the boot are loads better for using and boot is much bigger so its a great improvement but reliability wise I'm not impressed so far. Had the 300 for 3 years and only failure was a new radiator at 95K the TD5 has been niggles- fuel pipe leak, gear box crunch, folding seat issues in the boot, rear suspension creaking, some dash board lights absent, leaking sun roofs (my 300 had none :). Its not a total dog and the 300 I has was superb, so there's some luck in there but in balance I wouldn't swap it for a 300 even if I got change back. I would swap for a 110 defender though, never got over losing my 90 when the kids came along...
 
Having had 3 disco's before the new-to-me TD5, so I feel I can speak from some experience.

The first was a tdi 200 which was rusty but ran great and what almost faultless.

The next two are currently with us, a TDi300 auto and a TDi300 manual. Both run really well with only the most minor of issues, easily and cheaply resolved by me.

Now comes the latest, '99 Disco TD5 auto. Only had it for 2 weeks but already opinions are beginning to form.

It's better built generally with much less of the obvious body rust areas as they have been to a degree, designed out (rear wheel arches for example) but and this is a big BUT, it's a completely different vehicle to the previous models.

I'm finding that there is very little carry-over knowledge that I can apply, which is frustrating as I felt I had TDi 300 pretty much bottomed-out.

There really are too many electronic elements to the vehicle. I'm no just talking about the engine, everything seems to be ECU-related in one way or another.

Now we all know what computers are like, then you put them in an offroad vehicle - not a great combo.

My goal will be to disable as much as I can so that I have the benefits of a great engine, better autobox, better build quality (in comparative terms you understand :() more space, but without tooooooo much of the electronic systems.


I reckon I should be able to achieve my goal by switching off a lot of the electronics and then I'll be a happy man.
 
Many thanks to you all for the comments:)

I'll be going down the manual route, not auto. Much prefer to keep my left hand and leg busy, you see. Off to see a couple of TD5's today and tomorrow...yipeeeeeee!
 
Burnsie said:
Many thanks to you all for the comments:)

I'll be going down the manual route, not auto. Much prefer to keep my left hand and leg busy, you see. Off to see a couple of TD5's today and tomorrow...yipeeeeeee!
Click to expand...


Totally agree with you there, i tested an Auto before I got mine and didnt get on too well with it...it seemed to revv too high and not change up when I would have liked to... seemed pretty smooth though - their worse on fuel too.

In comparison though the manual has a very slow changing (even worse when cold!) and heavy clutch - It's a small lorry! So I can understand why people do go for the auto's.

Rob
 
robhew86 said:
Totally agree with you there, i tested an Auto before I got mine and didnt get on too well with it...it seemed to revv too high and not change up when I would have liked to... seemed pretty smooth though - their worse on fuel too.

In comparison though the manual has a very slow changing (even worse when cold!) and heavy clutch - It's a small lorry! So I can understand why people do go for the auto's.

Rob
Click to expand...


Hi there Rob, apparently the electronically controlled gearbox gets signals from the engine ECU re engine temp and holds it's changes until higher revs while the engine is cold.

So it may be that the one you drove hadn't warmed-up so gave you a poorer than normal impression.


However, having modified a TDi300 manual with De-EGR and De-Catt plus straight-thru exhaust I can tell you that my 300 is not slow and IS really quite good on juice.

They seem to respond very well to modding.

Dying to get going on the new-to-me TD5, just need to sell the 300 first to raise the modding cash !!!
 
Ah right...took it for a run for about 20 mins - surely that would be enough to warm it through thoroughly and didn't seem to make any difference...maybe it was just a old donkey?!

I'm going to have a play about with the EGR on my TD5 too, infact tomorrow! :D
 
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