Newbie requires advice!

sean50.4 said:

Hi Everyone, great site/forum, with my love affair in the early stages after one simple test drive I guess I will be here a lot from now on! LOL

I want to buy a 300 discovery in the next few weeks. My budget seems to put me in the realms 0f 120,000 miles plus cars so from what I can gather age is irrelevent, but service history and previous type of use seems more important. I apologise in advance if these are questions which regularly appear but I couldnt find answers after a scan around the forums. So if any one can find the time to answer these I would be most grateful.My main questions are these,

1. What intervals should the cambelt have been changed? 60K
2. How long does a clutch last under normal conditions? How long is a piece of string? 40k to 200k depending on driving style and useage. Is this drastically reduced with predominantly off road use? Yes.
3. Where are the main corrosion worries located. Boot floor, rear crossmember, cills (inner and outer), rear seatbelt mounts, inner wings.
4. What is the difference between the 200 and 300 as I have seen a few 200's at a very reasonable price. Very little except age. Many say that the 200 engine is slightly better, but lack of corrosion is much much more important than the variant of engine or mileage.
5. Would anyone using the Brownchurch Safari roof platform know how much this affects fuel consumption in general? Don't know, but I bet it's at least 5mpg worse.

You are most kind, Many thanks in advance.

Sean 50.4

Click to expand...

sean50.4 said:

Hi Everyone, great site/forum, with my love affair in the early stages after one simple test drive I guess I will be here a lot from now on! LOL

I want to buy a 300 discovery in the next few weeks. My budget seems to put me in the realms 0f 120,000 miles plus cars so from what I can gather age is irrelevent, but service history and previous type of use seems more important. I apologise in advance if these are questions which regularly appear but I couldnt find answers after a scan around the forums. So if any one can find the time to answer these I would be most grateful.My main questions are these,

1. What intervals should the cambelt have been changed? 60k Miles
2. How long does a clutch last under normal conditions? Is this drastically reduced with predominantly off road use? Mine has just had its first clutch at 135k miles but previous to me never used off-road and all motorway driving.
3. Where are the main corrosion worries located. Chassis, Boot floor, Rear seat belt mounts, open rear doors and look below the locks on the archs, rear and front bumpers, and look out for leaking alpine roof windows. (Body work is all Aluminium (Except Roof) so you may get steel to ali reaction on some panels.
4. What is the difference between the 200 and 300 as I have seen a few 200's at a very reasonable price. 200 is the original engine and old style spec, headlights are smaller, dash taken out of a metro ,also rear bumper hasnt got indicator and tail-lights in. 300tdi slightly more efficient.
5. Would anyone using the Brownchurch Safari roof platform know how much this affects fuel consumption in general? Approx 5ish mpg less, but don't worry the trucks hardly get 30mpg anyway.

You are most kind, Many thanks in advance.

Sean 50.4

Click to expand...