Old discos-your maintenance schedule for a longer life

Hi again gents,

Further to a post that I put up asking about people's experiences of reliability,
Overwhelmingly people's experiences are very positive. The key points that are mentioned over and over again are keep on top of maintenance!

What do you regularly do? There must be variations between what people do. Please create a list with miles/intervals.

Cheers,

Mark

Clean oil is a must

cambelt change around every 60,000 or so

i just did a gearbox oil change and what a difference!! i would suggest this is a must (2.5l of MTF94).

as people have mentioned, clean oil, but remember to keep checking for oil level as they are a bit like Chinese water torture, they constantly just drip.

I change all my oils more frequently than time or miles would specify.

Clean oil is a must for any older engine, I change mine every 5000miles regardless of time elapsed.

Oh and I fit genuine or oem quality parts, I don't skimp on cheap ****e and I don't bodge, if I notice something remotely worn/iffy I just change it

I do fewer than 5000 miles a year but still do an engine oil change (including filters) every year, at the same time as the MoT.
Every second year I will bite the bullet and change all the oils, engine, g/box, t/box and both diffs. I try to grease the prop shafts and u/j's about every six months.
I agree with Flat about replacing parts at the first signs of wear or failure.
I also run on winter tyres between December and March (ish).

To do 5000 miles in my disco would take me four years, so engine oil is changed along with both axel diffs every two years plus the oil and air filter change. All the rest when it goes in for a major service at around every five/six years.

My RRC when I had was serviced twice a year (minor & major) by the dealer for the 10 years I drove it.

I don't skimp on servicing on my other car and a company car that I rely on, both are much newer than my disco, so they are serviced once a year by the dealers as there's more to servicing than changing engine oil now days as u can see from the vehicle service schedules.

As for reliability, the only engine issue I've had was in May 2012 when the water pump bearing failed, I simply replace the pump with an OEM item and I was back on the road again.

I've done 20000.miles in mine in the last 12 months lol

I'd go with the above, but I also check the bearings once in a while, I have ensured all the pipework was replaced, mine was 16 years old and I did not want to have any problems, it was cheap to do.

I keep on top of little issues so all the parts work, although the little sod keeps throwing new things up.

Cam belt is a must even if someone told you it was changed, change it, and use origional parts. I also do the air and fuel filter every 6000 miles, mine is an auto so the auto oil gets a half change every 12,000 miles.

They really are simple cars to service it takes an hour or two to do an annual service.

Every two years I replace the break fluid and also the anti freeze. I also check the break pads etc and

ALLWAYS CHECK FOR rust, after my recent trip to Morocco 5,000 miles in two weeks with somewhere between 1,500 - 2,000 off road or on unsurfaced tracks I now need to patch one part on the back.

Oh yes... I forgot about antifreeze and brake fluid which very important, with antifreeze I use the OAT stuff with a 5 year life, so another 3 years to go with that and brake fluid is replaced every two years if I can but if not then no later than three years.

always perform the weekly checks, oil, water, wheel nuts,

I think it is also important to treat the vehicle kindly, when driving. The old saying "look after the car and it will look after you"

Sheffield said:

I think it is also important to treat the vehicle kindly, when driving. The old saying "look after the car and it will look after you"

Click to expand...

Yep driving with mechanical sympathy

Fluids and belts using the maintenance schedule and clean the ash trays when you try and sell it