300tdi.. is it that bad

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smallzoo

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I am looking for an older discovery ( I have under £2k to spend ) and I know I have to watch out for rust but I was slowly coming round to getting an older 300Tdi. Most of what I had heard is that the engines are strong and landrover parts are cheap..

then I came across this article

Discovery 1989 | Land Rover | Car Reviews | Honest John


Is he right.. are they that bad !!

Honest opinions please.. I havent got mountains of money to spend. This is going to be a vehicle used for the dogs and family trips in the UK ..

Cheers
 
there are good and bad with every manufacturer but the benefit you have with a lr is the parts prices are very reasonable. if you keep it well serviced/maintained it should be a good car and theres lots of help on here if you should run into trouble :)
 
Sounds like your'e looking at one for ptretty much the same reasons as i did recently. I needed a tow car and previously (15yr ago) had series landies but discounted them because of the low mpg, i love range-rovers but the older ones i like are pretty rusty now. Then came along the disco mk1, this forum steered me towards a 300tdi and i must admit its a lovely motor. I paid £1800 for a 1994 ES with 120k on it, leather seats and WORKING aircon :)

It looked sound and had a "new" mot on it, that turned out to be a lemon for various reasons. Since buying it i have fitted a new cambelt, both fanbelts, rear hub oil seal, rear brake pads, clutch slave cylinder, new track rod and joints, steering damper, exhaust downpipe, 2nd hand turbo and a full service.

Luckily i'm handy with the spanners and hammer and i'm mid-way through a new boot floor at the moment.

The list might seem like its a crap car but i dont think so, the chassis is totally sound, and the bodywok apart from the boot floor seems fine too, the engine burns no oil and is returning 30+mpg on mixed route. Now i think that for a 16yr old car is a pretty impressive mpg figure considering the 2300kg weight of it. It will also tow the hell out of my trailer with an 1800kg load on it, you can hardly tell its there.

So, if you are not afraid of doing your own service work and want a fun and comfortable motor, i would get a 300tdi, but do check for chassis rust and have a quick peek at the boot floor, expect rust if its not been fixed, how much will vary, the cost of replacing my one will be about £150.

Do a cambelt change for peace of mind, and check the coolant header tank for oil etc as a sign of head gasket failure.

Dave
 
Oh how I wish I was a mechanic.. I rely totally on my local one man band garage who is great.. so here's hoping I dont buy a duff one !!
 
I bought mine in Oct 2006 with 122 thousand on the clock. It cost me £3800.00 It was a one owner from new and had a Full Main Dealer Service History and a shoe box full of invoices for parts and work done and they were all main dealer!! Since then I have changed the Brake disks and pads and put a new clutch in it. I've also changed the exhaust. Its used daily and apart from a small amount of welding to the sills and inner wings that is the only essential work I have done on her, the rest is just cosmetics and accessories. the engine returns around 30 to the Gallon and never uses any oil. Everything works on her and she is as clean as a whistle. I love my Disco and wouldn't be without her for a minute. :)
 
davek0974 said:
Sounds like your'e looking at one for ptretty much the same reasons as i did recently. I needed a tow car and previously (15yr ago) had series landies but discounted them because of the low mpg, i love range-rovers but the older ones i like are pretty rusty now. Then came along the disco mk1, this forum steered me towards a 300tdi and i must admit its a lovely motor. I paid £1800 for a 1994 ES with 120k on it, leather seats and WORKING aircon :)

It looked sound and had a "new" mot on it, that turned out to be a lemon for various reasons. Since buying it i have fitted a new cambelt, both fanbelts, rear hub oil seal, rear brake pads, clutch slave cylinder, new track rod and joints, steering damper, exhaust downpipe, 2nd hand turbo and a full service.

Luckily i'm handy with the spanners and hammer and i'm mid-way through a new boot floor at the moment.

The list might seem like its a crap car but i dont think so, the chassis is totally sound, and the bodywok apart from the boot floor seems fine too, the engine burns no oil and is returning 30+mpg on mixed route. Now i think that for a 16yr old car is a pretty impressive mpg figure considering the 2300kg weight of it. It will also tow the hell out of my trailer with an 1800kg load on it, you can hardly tell its there.

So, if you are not afraid of doing your own service work and want a fun and comfortable motor, i would get a 300tdi, but do check for chassis rust and have a quick peek at the boot floor, expect rust if its not been fixed, how much will vary, the cost of replacing my one will be about £150.

Do a cambelt change for peace of mind, and check the coolant header tank for oil etc as a sign of head gasket failure.

Dave
Click to expand...

Been watching Dave's post's for a while, and I have to agree he's spot on with what he say's as he's encountered more issue's with his Disco in a very short space of time than a lot on here. This is probably due to previous owners lack of maintenance, similarly when I bought mine she had a spotless chassis/body & what little faults were pointed out to me. Two months down the line the tranny box failed on a large hill:eek:. Since then I've replaced parts due to age, but they are very good motor's .... even better if you can get a decent early 300 (94-96) as they had no added electrickery.
 
If you read this report, I wouldn't buy one either, but what a load of crap

Not in any kind of order from the report

May be wrong here, and someone will correct me if I am, await the torrent of abuse

"Recall 2: High pressure hose of Active Cornering Enhancement system not fitted with anti vibration attenuator may fracture. Where attenuator not fitted, high pressure hoses to be replaced. "

ACE was a D2 enhancement, I don't think it was on the 2 or 300

"300 TDi engines also prone to timing belt failure after 40,000 miles"

Its a timing belt and all of them can fail, just change it at recommended intervals, if your getting a 300 you MUST be handy with the spanners and thats one of the good points, you can fix them yourself and parts are cheap

"Dangerous to carry anything on the roof"

Yes totally agree if you over load it and drive it like a tit! obviously he's never seen an expedition prepared diso, roof tent, etc
Keep within the carrier limits and drive accordingly simples

"Avoid the underpowered 2.0 litre 16v 'MPi' model. Lack of crumple zones mean it can be expensively damaged by hard impacts at speeds as low as 5 mph."

Yeah OK horses for course, no experience of MPI so saying nowt about that
Lack of crumple zone!!! ....your point is?
Ladder chassis underneath ain't going to crumple at 5 mph

"Extremely Low 1 out of 9 point death rate from accidents in this model."

Not to the occupants!!

"Leaks from axles, transmission, transfer case. "

Land Rovers leaking never, they're marking their territory
 
Buy one, I did and you wont regret it. You can learn to do the basic stuff yourself with help from here. Parts are so cheap, I bought a complete exhaust system this week for mine for under £70 what other car can you do that on?

They are getting old so some bits will be wearing out, but your vehicle won’t depreciate like a modern car so you wont loose out that way. Buy a nice one with low miles and full history, Just check on here as to where to look for rust etc and you cant go far wrong.

Plus you can run on cheap fuel as bio diesel is much cheaper and very cheap if you produce your own.
 
elmer_d said:
"Leaks from axles, transmission, transfer case. "

Land Rovers leaking never, they're marking their territory
Click to expand...

:D:DYes they do seem to have difficulty keeping their bodily fluids inside, i still need to do the transfer box output oil seal, but at least it keeps the chassis rust free:doh:

Oh and i didnt mention in my reply but this forum and the good types that frequent it, is a goldmine of information and assistance for any new landy owner:)
 
am I the only one on here who bought a disco1 for a few hundred quid??
Starting to think now mines on the road I should look at selling, as happy as I am with it!! :D :D
 
who gives a toss about crumple zones, i went through a hedge and ditch in mine to avoid a transit van... needed a new headlight and a sledgehammer on the bumper. a eurobox with crumplezones woud have needed cutting open
 
ricc said:
who gives a toss about crumple zones, i went through a hedge and ditch in mine to avoid a transit van... needed a new headlight and a sledgehammer on the bumper. a eurobox with crumplezones woud have needed cutting open
Click to expand...

Some idiot left the handbrake off on mine the other week :doh:it ended up on its side in a drainage ditch 200 yards down the mountain.......:D nothing more than a scratched bumper end really. and I drove her out on 2 wheels. If it had been any other car it would have been a right off.!! :D:D
 
Dont think a landrover discovery is for you ,as with any machine which basicaly it is ,is in regular constant mainaintence ,a lot of l,ds have not the correct maintainece over the years so what do you expect ? i have a lot of lawnmowers but they dont look after themselves ,they must be sharpened weekly etc ,so in other words look after your landie and it will look after you .
 
No they are not that bad! Don't hesitate I bought an import from Japan. (S reg) Always passes the MOT, sound as a pound. Keep it serviced correctly. It tows my caravan to France or Scotland and other places every year without problem. To me reliability is a state of mind. Motoring pundits are paid to be over critical they also listen to rumours and wind-up merchants. They wouldn't know a good car if it hit them in the face.

OldDiscoMan
 
Something I'll be doing early next year is to buy an MOT failure if I can get one in the same colour as mine all the better. Its far cheaper to have a good mechanically sound donor vehicle than have to keep sourcing parts as and when you need them. There's plenty of them around, with relatively low mileages on them but shot bodies that aren't worth welding.
 
well i would buy one again if given the chance i paid £800 for mine with high milage. i've had 3 years of trouble free motoring on/off road and its still going strong even with 214,000 on the clock but it is serviced regular
 
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