Advice on buying a used TDi Disco?

Hello!

First post on the forums, glad to have found this place really.

I am looking to buy a used Discovery, I would prefer to go for a TDi rathert than TD5 for reasons of price and the ability to look after it myself which I assume is much easier with the rover TDi compared to the BMW engine?

What I would like to know are those little things that people who know what they are doing (you guys) would look for if they were buying it instead of me. I have been to see two today (1. had 870k miles on it not 87k like the advert said and 2. was just generally a dog, very badly repaired wiring and just generally looked like it hadn't been looked after, and there was more oil on the engine than in it).

What are the tell-tail signs of there being problems on the horizon with the engine its self? How can I get an quick and easy idea of whether the TDi lump is in good nick without having to take it apart? Where are the most important places to look for corrosion etc on the chassis and metal work? Are there any things that I should check before I even consider making the guy think I might be interested in buying it?

If you have any other advice to give then that would be great, even if it may sound obvious hehe this will be my first landy so I wan't to make sure I don't buy a dud.

Cheers for helping me

Hi
Kind of related to the above question but it is another question!!
A friend of mine runs an engine parts importing company, when i last saw him and he had a look at the disco TD5 i said to him "should be reliable being the BMW engine" he told me that the 300TDi is the BMW engine and that the TD5 was developed by ROVER!!!
I was sure the TD5 was a BMW unit as the model came out just after BMW bought out land rover???? right or wrong????

hi guys, i am led to believe that the Td5 is based on the L series rover diesel, how much input BMW had on the design of the ancilleries and electronics i have no idea!

discoed up said:

Hi
Kind of related to the above question but it is another question!!
A friend of mine runs an engine parts importing company, when i last saw him and he had a look at the disco TD5 i said to him "should be reliable being the BMW engine" he told me that the 300TDi is the BMW engine and that the TD5 was developed by ROVER!!!
I was sure the TD5 was a BMW unit as the model came out just after BMW bought out land rover???? right or wrong????

Click to expand...

Hi guys, sounds to me like a short history lesson is needed here

Both the 200 and 300Tdi engines are pure Land Rover designs, although it's possible they may have their roots in other Rover power plants. 200Tdi was designed specifically for the launch of the Discovery back in 1989 ~ somewhat before BMW came on the scene ~ with the 300Tdi replacing it in the first facelift in 1994 and remaining unchanged until Series 2 came along. There has been a South American (Brazilian, I think) company making a 2.7litre version of the 300Tdi for some time now and it is supposed to be very good. It was developed to replace the 300Tdi in that market place and drops straight in as a replacement for the standard engine giving extra horse power and torque.

The Td5 is a pure Land Rover motor having been designed before BMW took over. Td5 was the first of what was intended to be be a series of 4, 5 and 6 cylinder engines of 2, 2.5 and 3 litres capacity (respectively). Development of the 4 and 6 cylinder variants was stopped by BMW but Discovery 2 was nearing completion so it was too late to influence the use of the Td5 for it (and later Defender). BMW also stopped development of a new V8 petrol engine when they bought Land Rover ~ but that's a different story.

The engine in the MPi is, IIRC, based on the Rover L series engine.

The Td4 used in the Freelander was a BMW job and remained so even after Ford took over but I'm not sure how long that continued, or what replaced it.

Hope that's been enlightening

hi SteveG, thanks for sharing you knowledge, do you know if the 200tdi shares any common parts with the 12/19J? i cant help but think the blocks look similar! i bet they are a world apart are they ? i will sleep better tonight knowing my Td5 is a landy lump!

Elfed

2001 Td5 ES

1995 Tdi Disco auto

(plus a few auld'uns!!)

i've driven HUE (166) !!!! said:

hi SteveG, thanks for sharing you knowledge, do you know if the 200tdi shares any common parts with the 12/19J? i cant help but think the blocks look similar! i bet they are a world apart are they ? i will sleep better tonight knowing my Td5 is a landy lump!

Click to expand...

Sorry, but my knowledge isn't very technical ... mostly historical (or maybe hysterical ). I don't even know what a 12/19J is except that I assume it's an engine of some sort.