Discovery 2 / 3 / 4 Advice please

Good Morning!

I am after a bit of advice please.

I currently have a 2002 Td5 110 Defender Double Cab, I am now looking for something with 7 (forward facing seats) so I am thinking of a change to a Discovery. However I am unsure which to go for at the moment. I know that I want all of the seats to be forward facing, and all seats in the vehicle to have full 3 point belts, so I know this rules out the earlier 200/300 Tdi models. I want a vehicle that has a decent load carrying capacity, can comfortably seat upto 7 people and also has some good off-road ability. This has lead me to think that I should be looking for a discovery. I am just a bit stuck as to whether to look for a 2, 3 or 4!

In the past I have driven a Td5 Discovery 2 before, but that was a long time ago now! So I'm just wondering if anyone could provide me with some help / advice / pointers on how the Discovery 2/3/4 all compare and what to look out when going to look at some?

Any advice or tips will be much appreciated.

Also I will be adding my Defender 110 to the for sale forum soon too, if anyone is interested!

Well we are all going to tell you what we have is the best!
D2, are getting old now, rust being a major issue.
D3, decent car, but buy a dog and it will rape your wallet, some are suffering from rusty sills under the plastic cover, if they are crusty on the lower lip where inner meets outer beware. some real nice cars out there.
D4, lovely cars, search google for sdv6 crankshaft issues and then think long and hard, also search for cracked inlet manifold, 12 hrs labour for each side! early ones now coming down in price.

Highly recommend you take someone wth you who owns the model of what you are looking at.

In the D4 which is the better engine to go for the TdV6 or the SdV6?

My current searches have been around either early (up to March 06) D3 with TdV6 or D4 with the SdV6 due to the lower road tax on these as I believe that after March 06 the TdV6 is quite a bit more in road tax, is that right?

Well iv had a 7 seat D2 sold it and bought a 7 seat D3.
Wife wont part with the D3 a bit of a read up on the crank issue mite put you off, they dont all break. The D4 has also suffered a crank issue.
Not sure where lynall get 12 hours for the inlet manifold from my mechanic just did one in 7 hours.
Find a good one 2005 is lower tax bracket like ours. Recently went to the new forest x5 up x1 dog and a wheel chair, Zimmer frame and luggage.

Thanks Dave, 7 hours sounds better for the inlet manifold! Does the inlet manifold fail often? And what are the signs to look for in a failing inlet manifold?

Your best place for research and a few for sale
https://disco3.co.uk/forum/sale-discovery-3-2007-t-189289.html

biketeacherdave said:

Well iv had a 7 seat D2 sold it and bought a 7 seat D3.
Wife wont part with the D3 a bit of a read up on the crank issue mite put you off, they dont all break. The D4 has also suffered a crank issue.
Not sure where lynall get 12 hours for the inlet manifold from my mechanic just did one in 7 hours.
Find a good one 2005 is lower tax bracket like ours. Recently went to the new forest x5 up x1 dog and a wheel chair, Zimmer frame and luggage.
View attachment 214142

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Dont forget there are two of them.
Hourly rate x 7, plus parts = one dear old job.

SR4x4 said:

In the D4 which is the better engine to go for the TdV6 or the SdV6?

My current searches have been around either early (up to March 06) D3 with TdV6 or D4 with the SdV6 due to the lower road tax on these as I believe that after March 06 the TdV6 is quite a bit more in road tax, is that right?

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As I understand it, D4 tdv6 is 6 speed gbox with 245bhp, and sdv6 is 8 speed gbox with 255bhp.
Think change from 6 speed to 8 speed was 2012?

SR4x4 said:

Good Morning!

I am after a bit of advice please.

I currently have a 2002 Td5 110 Defender Double Cab, I am now looking for something with 7 (forward facing seats) so I am thinking of a change to a Discovery. However I am unsure which to go for at the moment. I know that I want all of the seats to be forward facing, and all seats in the vehicle to have full 3 point belts, so I know this rules out the earlier 200/300 Tdi models. I want a vehicle that has a decent load carrying capacity, can comfortably seat upto 7 people and also has some good off-road ability. This has lead me to think that I should be looking for a discovery. I am just a bit stuck as to whether to look for a 2, 3 or 4!

In the past I have driven a Td5 Discovery 2 before, but that was a long time ago now! So I'm just wondering if anyone could provide me with some help / advice / pointers on how the Discovery 2/3/4 all compare and what to look out when going to look at some?

Any advice or tips will be much appreciated.

Also I will be adding my Defender 110 to the for sale forum soon too, if anyone is interested!

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3 & 4 are very similar. In many ways the 4 should probably have been a 3a

Slight change in engines, no manuals and no V8's , somewhat more bling and chav front & rear end treatments. Slight interior improvements and enhancements to the tech. But overall mostly the same vehicle really.

The 2 is completely different and much more old school. Off road it will be more rugged, but all three of them are pretty equal really in overall ability.

The very rear seats are a bit rubbish in the D2 however. They are not meant for adults or long journeys. The rear seats in the 3 & 4 are much improved. Or maybe consider looking at something like an American import. An Excursion or Suburban may suit better if you really need lots of passengers in comfort.

300bhp/ton said:

3 & 4 are very similar. In many ways the 4 should probably have been a 3a

Slight change in engines, no manuals and no V8's , somewhat more bling and chav front & rear end treatments. Slight interior improvements and enhancements to the tech. But overall mostly the same vehicle really.

The 2 is completely different and much more old school. Off road it will be more rugged, but all three of them are pretty equal really in overall ability.

The very rear seats are a bit rubbish in the D2 however. They are not meant for adults or long journeys. The rear seats in the 3 & 4 are much improved. Or maybe consider looking at something like an American import. An Excursion or Suburban may suit better if you really need lots of passengers in comfort.

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I think there was a D4 5.0 v8 usa only model, see the very odd one for sale over here, last one I saw (early 2020) was 30k for a 2010 model!
Super rare, 370bhp though.

Yeah the standard engine for the ROW (Rest of the World) was the V8 in the D4. I think it was offered initially in the UK, but withdrawn very early on. You might find an import or two as well and I'm not sure if it was possible to special order one or through SVO. But certainly rare in the UK.

300bhp/ton said:

Yeah the standard engine for the ROW (Rest of the World) was the V8 in the D4. I think it was offered initially in the UK, but withdrawn very early on. You might find an import or two as well and I'm not sure if it was possible to special order one or through SVO. But certainly rare in the UK.

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Been reading and it seems armoured D4 were 5.0 v8

SR4x4 said:

Good Morning!

I am after a bit of advice please.

I currently have a 2002 Td5 110 Defender Double Cab, I am now looking for something with 7 (forward facing seats) so I am thinking of a change to a Discovery. However I am unsure which to go for at the moment. I know that I want all of the seats to be forward facing, and all seats in the vehicle to have full 3 point belts, so I know this rules out the earlier 200/300 Tdi models. I want a vehicle that has a decent load carrying capacity, can comfortably seat upto 7 people and also has some good off-road ability. This has lead me to think that I should be looking for a discovery. I am just a bit stuck as to whether to look for a 2, 3 or 4!

In the past I have driven a Td5 Discovery 2 before, but that was a long time ago now! So I'm just wondering if anyone could provide me with some help / advice / pointers on how the Discovery 2/3/4 all compare and what to look out when going to look at some?

Any advice or tips will be much appreciated.

Also I will be adding my Defender 110 to the for sale forum soon too, if anyone is interested!

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I like to keep it simple but as you say the 200 or 300 tdi is not going to give you what you want.
There are still some very nice D2s but you have to search for them. I wouldn't want anything more complex than the D2 Td5 I have because I like the fact that I can fix anything relatively quickly and easily (you do need a nanocom though).
Later models don't appeal but they do carry passengers more easily and have some performance advantages.

With the D4 which is the better engine to go for, the TdV6 or SdV6? Do both engines suffer from the same issues, and does the SdV6 suffer from issues more frequently than the TdV6?

I know roughly where I am with D2 powered by the Td5, and would obviously be looking for a 15p engine facelift model. This is going to be pretty much the same engine as I currently have, it’s a 2002 15p engine I have my current Defender.

SR4x4 said:

With the D4 which is the better engine to go for, the TdV6 or SdV6? Do both engines suffer from the same issues, and does the SdV6 suffer from issues more frequently than the TdV6?

I know roughly where I am with D2 powered by the Td5, and would obviously be looking for a 15p engine facelift model. This is going to be pretty much the same engine as I currently have, it’s a 2002 15p engine I have my current Defender.

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Tdv6 245 bhp Sdv6 255 bhp, and 300 bhp in the range rover.
Think they also got the 8 speed gearbox from 2012 onwards.

Spend some time researching crankshaft issues before buying.

Do both engines suffer the same crankshaft issue? Or is the SdV6 affected more by this issue?

SR4x4 said:

Do both engines suffer the same crankshaft issue? Or is the SdV6 affected more by this issue?

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I believe the answer is yes. I don't think the crank and block are any different between the engines.

That’s what I was thinking 300bhp/ton. However I wasn’t sure if the with SdV6 making more power if there would be more issues/likely to expose weaknesses that wouldn’t show in the TdV6?

I know that the SdV6 is auto only, and looks like all D4’s are only auto. But there are some (very few) D3’s with a manual gearbox. Are there any benefits of having a manual gearbox in terms of reliability? I’m not opposed to having an auto, but am I right to think there’s less to go wrong with a manual gearbox than an auto? And can there be issues/failures with the engine that only occur on auto versions?

Thank you to everyone who’s helped so far! My search is still on going, an still no clearer if it’s going to be a D3 or D4 yet!