Interested in joining the family...

Hi guys, I'm looking for an entrance into the world of land rover having grown up with a few of them...

Haven't got enough for a defender sadly.... but I have been looking at the discoveries... I've heard plenty horror stories about all vehicles and of course Land rovers are no exception, but I was after the scope on disco 2's and 3's... I've heard that range rovers need the body and interior separated to work on parts of the engine, someone suggested this might be the same for disco 3's - any truth to this?

The other option is a freelander or freelander 2.... hmmm?

Can't speak for D3s... i own a D2 and its great. As always with LRs the things to watch out for are rust and electrics! D3s its more the electrics than the rust but there are still a few hotspots that keep being mentioned. D2s its a mix of the two, but the electrics are generally pretty simple to sort out when they do go wrong (particularly if you make friends with someone with some diagnostic gear) and the rust isnt normally too bad apart from on the chassis - so its a case of checkig it carefully when you buy it, and again at regular intervals.

If you go for a D2:

- some people will say to avoid the self leveling suspension - it depends what you're using the car for, i wouldn't be without it (i tow regularly) and the parts aren't *that* expensive to replace and can be done as a DIY job on the drive. If you're regularly going to tow, carry passengers in the third row of seats, or put heavy stuff in the boot, air will make the experience much more pleasant.

- Get the EKA code and make sure you have two keys. The security system has a few quirks (but on the plus side its a lot more secure than the defender!)

- Dont forget all the usual checks that you'd do on any car. The TD5 engine will last forever if its looked after

Welcome to the madhouse.

There's plenty of stuff on here about the D2 and a growing amount on the D3 too.
There are buyer's guides which have been written by some helpful members (who give the rest of us a bad name) which you'll find in the Discovery section of the forum.
One thing to remember about all of these sites and forums on t'interweb is tha there's very little newsworth in a forum board that just says things like "I did over 100 miles today in my Disco without a single problem". Yes, there are horror stories out there and looking at the web, it seems like there are more problems that good stories, but bad news can be round the world before the good stuff has got its boots on.
As @private penguin has already said,the air suspension is a good system, as is the ACE (active cornering enhancememnt), even though some people say that they are the spawn of the devil and should be buried as deep as possible.
The main enemy of the electrics in the D2 is moisture, that can do all sorts of things to un-nerve you.
I believe that there are some very expensive jobs on the D3 which can only be done by the main stealer, but by all accounts the D2 was the last Land Rover you could fix at the side of the road with an 'ammer and a length of baling twine.
The buyer's guide are at:

• Disco 2: https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/handy-buying-alarm-info.311291/
• Disco 3: https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/buyers-guide.312800/

brian47 said:

One thing to remember about all of these sites and forums on t'interweb is tha there's very little newsworth in a forum board that just says things like "I did over 100 miles today in my Disco without a single problem". Yes, there are horror stories out there and looking at the web, it seems like there are more problems that good stories, but bad news can be round the world before the good stuff has got its boots on

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Indeed

I did over 500 miles at the weekend in my wife's volvo, but we only took the volvo because it uses less than half the fuel the disco uses - i've every confidence we could have done the same journey in the disco, in comfort, and without any problems)

Haha, yeh I totally get what you guys mean re: problems, bad news sells - or makes for a good griping material....... my father in law has a d2 and I know he had a world of issues with it - having bought it off ebay without viewing (sigh), had rust issues, oil leak issues and the dreaded air suspension had a fault, I think in the end he had something chopped and something welded into place to render the air suspension redundant.. I will check out the guides now

Thanks so much for the help so far...

ianb2010 said:

the dreaded air suspension had a fault, I think in the end he had something chopped and something welded into place to render the air suspension redundant.

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Hmm, yeah, that bloke down the pub who "knows everything there is to know about eveything" probably told him that you couldn't repair the air suspension system and the only way to go was to change to steel springs. The self levelling suspension is an easy system to understand and quite easy to repair as long as you don't try to over-analyse the fault.
There are still some good Disco 2's out there, but they're getting harder and harder to find.

brian47 said:

Hmm, yeah, that bloke down the pub who "knows everything there is to know about eveything" probably told him that you couldn't repair the air suspension system and the only way to go was to change to steel springs. The self levelling suspension is an easy system to understand and quite easy to repair as long as you don't try to over-analyse the fault.
There are still some good Disco 2's out there, but they're getting harder and harder to find.

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found that with the D3 , with so many myths being bebunked, in that u can't replace the rear belt or change the turbo without the body coming off , alas though we now know that isn't req

but know some jobs req the body to come off

would have been stuck very quickly without having a decent diagnostic reader

also had the pleasure of learning how the air suspension works and what is needed to repair it , as u rightly say , not that hard, can just be fidly at times, if i can repair one anyone can , lol

wish i had bought a discovery years ago, routed for a D2 first, but alas couldn't get one with a decent chassis , at one stage thought about buying one with a rotted chassis cheap, but couldn't find a company local enough that would do the job

but know at the end of the day , if it wasn't for the help from here i would be right in the preverbal

ianb2010 said:

Haha, yeh I totally get what you guys mean re: problems, bad news sells - or makes for a good griping material....... my father in law has a d2 and I know he had a world of issues with it - having bought it off ebay without viewing (sigh), had rust issues, oil leak issues and the dreaded air suspension had a fault, I think in the end he had something chopped and something welded into place to render the air suspension redundant.. I will check out the guides now

Thanks so much for the help so far...

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hi and welcome

only had my D3 5-6 months and wrote the buyers guide from personal experience, thks @brian47 for putting the link in

if u wish to ask anymore questions please ask away , there are a few of us D3 owners around

gary

If yer up for a real chalenge the p38 is the one to go for

Tony e said:

If yer up for a real chalenge the p38 is the one to go for

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makes my D3 look good