My first Land Rover - tow car!

Hey guys,

Well, I'm a newbie at Land Rover ownership and thought I'd start a "project" thread for it. Picked her up today, she's a 1995 300tdi auto, very very clean with fresh MOT & recent cambelt change.

Never owned a 4x4 before, never owned a Landy before, but always wanted a Discovery as a kid! Doing my trailer licence early June and my intentions with the Discovery is to mainly tow my race (drift) car with it!

Anyway, photos? -







There's a couple things I've already done with it

- Replaced 5,000 year old H4 yellow bulbs with new blue-tint bulbs, much nicer!
- Installed Pioneer radio with handsfree & BT iPhone streaming

My plans with the car is simple - keep it well maintained, keep it clean & keep it (mostly) standard.

In the next couple weeks I'm getting a good friend of mine to give it a full service & a general go-over, as in early July I'll be towing my drift car with this to Scotland (I live down south near Portsmouth!) That'll be its first proper tow mission

That is, so long as I pass my trailer licence in June!!

Talking of drift car, this is what I also drive! Very fun, very expensive, and very difficult driving this to & from events (hence Discovery tow car!)



There's a couple things that I've found with the car already which I need to address

- No front interior light cover (clear plastic square thing)
- A couple of seatbelt buckle covers missing
- Damp carpet in passenger footwell? Must be a leak, but where?

But apart from that, overall loving ownership already!

Freelaner said:

Introduce Yourself - Land Rover Zone

Click to expand...

I already did

http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f20/newbie-help-me-choose-discovery-256197.html

Looks a great clean standard disco .

Daze said:

I already did

http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f20/newbie-help-me-choose-discovery-256197.html

Click to expand...

Missed that

Welcome and yer tratter looks ok

Freelaner said:

Missed that

Click to expand...

Haha! I've been waiting for this to happen.

BLARRGGGHHH GO AND INTRODUCE YOURSELF YOU CRAZY TWUNT NOOB BLARRGHH!!

"But I've already done so"

OH... well carry on then!

Click to expand...

I'm in stitches. Help! :lol:




Daze, nice Discovery! Nice pictures as well! Whats the underneath like? Don't tell me you have a rust free Discovery!

Haha

Thanks for the kind comments and welcome so far.

I wouldn't call it rust free, but no advisories on its most recently MOT which was done last week for rust or corrosion, nor on the last 5 years of MOT certificates!

However as I said, a good friend of mine (also an MOT tester) is doing a full service and checking the car over thoroughly for me, then we'll see I guess!

hi, even though you want to keep it standard I think it is good advice to remove the rubber sound proofing from the front footwells, in the long term it will stop rust in those areas, if you do manage to stop the leaks, which is by no means certain you will you can maybe put some back!

Welcome Daze. Does it have sun roofs?

Looks pretty darn good from the pics. I had a '96 D1 and loved it but have moved on to Silverlandy in my avatar.

Silverlandy said:

Welcome Daze. Does it have sun roofs?

Looks pretty darn good from the pics. I had a '96 D1 and loved it but have moved on to Silverlandy in my avatar.

Click to expand...

If you look at the the first photo u will have your answer

KiwiTDI said:

hi, even though you want to keep it standard I think it is good advice to remove the rubber sound proofing from the front footwells, in the long term it will stop rust in those areas, if you do manage to stop the leaks, which is by no means certain you will you can maybe put some back!

Click to expand...

Funny you should say that, I have removed the passenger side foam stuff already as it was absolutely soaked! Left it inside my garage overnight and still soaking, so maybe won't ever put that back in!

Silverlandy said:

Welcome Daze. Does it have sun roofs?

Looks pretty darn good from the pics. I had a '96 D1 and loved it but have moved on to Silverlandy in my avatar.

Click to expand...

Thanks! Yep, twin sunroof.

Got my hands a little dirty with it so far today and have fixed a few niggles.

Firstly, went to the local scrapyard this morning on the hunt for an interior light cover. No Discovery's were there, but it appears an MG Rover uses the same interior light, so that's now fixed!



The clip for the glovebox on this car was disconnected for some reason. I removed the glovebox completely to take a look at what's going on, and it looks like the clip & light bracket is just held in with some plastic fins? Those fins are mostly all broken, so I've positioned it correctly and used TigerSeal to fix it in place - TigerSeal still setting, so hopefully I have the alignment correct!



Then started to have a look around for reasons why the cruise control doesn't work. 99% of what I've read about faulty cruise control in Disco's is the vacuum lines - sure enough mine were perished.

I had some spare boost pipe/vac lines from my Nissan, so started replacing



Up to T-piece



This is the existing hose going into the bulkhead (near brake servo), not sure where the other end is? Haven't investigated much further, anyone know?



And I followed the other line off the T-peice around the washer bottle, under the airbox, for it to just be sat near the jack? It didn't seem to be connected to anything. So again - anyone know where this line is suppose to connect?



Apart from all those gremlins, the only other thing which I haven't looked into yet is the washer jets don't work. There is no pump sound at all, so I hope just a loose connection on the washer bottle pump?

As far as leaks go, as I said I've removed the foam underlay from the passenger footwell & the carpet has dried up. We had some rain last night and I was half expecting to see a puddle in the morning, but nothing! Drove for about an hour this morning also in the rain, and so far no leaks that I can see anywhere.

So far! :bounce:

Very tidy looking Disco there

Lift the jack and the wheel chock out and you'll find the cruise control unit under there. Nice big hole to get your hand in and you should be able to feel where the pipe fits on top as it'll be difficult to see.

My sound deadening took 2 full weeks to dry but I replaced it with a piece of thick stable mat. Mine was leaking around to windscreen and was fixed with tiger seal.

Twin sunroofs. Has it rained there yet?

Daze said:

!

This is the existing hose going into the bulkhead (near brake servo), not sure where the other end is? Haven't investigated much further, anyone know?

Click to expand...

Brake pedal switch and if u have one clutch pedal switch, both will disengage the CC and dump the vacuum in the pipe when operated.

if it had damp carpet but not caaused by rain aircon drains would be the suspect,:if it has aircon!

personally I hate the leaks, I just dont like the idea of the car rusting away if I could stop it, just wish I could stop it.......

RichardH said:

Very tidy looking Disco there

Lift the jack and the wheel chock out and you'll find the cruise control unit under there. Nice big hole to get your hand in and you should be able to feel where the pipe fits on top as it'll be difficult to see.

My sound deadening took 2 full weeks to dry but I replaced it with a piece of thick stable mat. Mine was leaking around to windscreen and was fixed with tiger seal.

Click to expand...

Spot on, thanks for the tip about cruise control. Will take a look later! That sound deadening stuff is a nightmare then eh? Lol!

Silverlandy said:

Twin sunroofs. Has it rained there yet?

Click to expand...

As I said in my post, it rained all last night, got in the car this morning and bone dry everywhere. Did about an hour's driving this morning too in the rain, and not a drop anywhere. For now?

discool said:

Brake pedal switch and if u have one clutch pedal switch, both will disengage the CC and dump the vacuum in the pipe when operated.

Click to expand...

Mine's an Auto, and nice one - I'll check there too.

KiwiTDI said:

if it had damp carpet but not caaused by rain aircon drains would be the suspect,:if it has aircon!

personally I hate the leaks, I just dont like the idea of the car rusting away if I could stop it, just wish I could stop it.......

Click to expand...

Mine doesn't have Aircon. And I'm the same as you, I really hate leaks in cars! Not only does it sit there & rust, but I hate misted up windows!! If (when...) I find any leaks in my Discovery, I will be doing my upmost to source the leak & fix ASAP!

I spent months tracing the leak before I found out it was the windscreen because I couldn't believe both sunroofs were leak-fee (and still are ). Take off the trim panel in the passenger footwell and look for signs of water running down the inside where the bonnet pull is.

I stuffed some paper towels behind the bonnet pull and poured a jug of water over the passenger side of the screen. It was easy to see where the towels were getting wet.

I've left some towels in there and I keep checking every couple of months. Been OK for about 12 months now.

that looks a very smart motor.good luck with the trailer test. and welcome.



ron.:bounce:

RichardH said:

I spent months tracing the leak before I found out it was the windscreen because I couldn't believe both sunroofs were leak-fee (and still are ). Take off the trim panel in the passenger footwell and look for signs of water running down the inside where the bonnet pull is.

I stuffed some paper towels behind the bonnet pull and poured a jug of water over the passenger side of the screen. It was easy to see where the towels were getting wet.

I've left some towels in there and I keep checking every couple of months. Been OK for about 12 months now.

Click to expand...

This sort of info is great to hear, I hope I have similar luck! As I say, all last night it was raining here & no damp or leaks in the car this morning, but I suspect it'll leak if it was heavier rain.

I'll also do the jug of water everywhere test!

lyron said:

that looks a very smart motor.good luck with the trailer test. and welcome.

ron.:bounce:

Click to expand...

Thanks Ron! I'm super nervous already!!

RichardH said:

I spent months tracing the leak before I found out it was the windscreen because I couldn't believe both sunroofs were leak-fee (and still are ). Take off the trim panel in the passenger footwell and look for signs of water running down the inside where the bonnet pull is.

I stuffed some paper towels behind the bonnet pull and poured a jug of water over the passenger side of the screen. It was easy to see where the towels were getting wet.

I've left some towels in there and I keep checking every couple of months. Been OK for about 12 months now.

Click to expand...

Hi Richard, at the risk of hi jacking this thread could you provide some details on the source of leak and how you fixed it pleasee?

Mine leaks when water is poured half way up rhe windscreen, passnger side. Water poured in main gutter at base of windsceen does not cause a leak, its drving me nuts as cannot see how what could leak between the gutter and a point a foot higher!