So, how is the Disco for reliability?

It's been 20 odd years since I've owned a Land Rover, and as much as I loved them they were the most unreliable vehicle on the market at the time. The plan at the moment is to buy a post 2000 Discovery and see how I get on with it, however the more I read the posts on here, the more I think Land Rover have not improved in the last 20 years. Am I right in saying that reliability has not much improved? Please tell me otherwise because I really want to believe I'm doing the right thing

edited because i read the question wrong :doh:

Nigel-S said:

It's been 20 odd years since I've owned a Land Rover, and as much as I loved them they were the most unreliable vehicle on the market at the time. The plan at the moment is to buy a post 2000 Discovery and see how I get on with it, however the more I read the posts on here, the more I think Land Rover have not improved in the last 20 years. Am I right in saying that reliability has not much improved? Please tell me otherwise because I really want to believe I'm doing the right thing

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Hi Nigel, braodly speaking, post yr 2000 TD5's are fine. Yes there are know issues with them but it's the same for every enthusiast car I know. Because we look at our cars in detail more often we want them to be perfect so lots of owners do preventative maintenance that an ordianry driver just wouldn't considor.

Here's a list of common TD5 frustrations and their implications:

1. Oil in the injector loom red ECU plug. This is very common and is usually cured by replacing either the 2 'o'-rings £2) or replacing the harness (£30). Straightforward job, takes about 1hr.
Why would you do it? - because it can cause rough running;

2. Sunroofs - LR cannot make a sunroof that will keep out rain for more than about 5 mins !!!! So a yr 2000 car is likely to have a leak problem. Very frustrating but cheap and easy to fix with Sikaflex 221 - loads of "how to's" on here.

3. Early cars had a bit of an issue with the engine oil pump retaining bolt - easy and cheap to fix, catastrophic if left. First oilchange change the bolt for a ready-loctite'd one about £1 !! After that, serenity.

4. Head gasket failure on TD5's is not unusual. Problem is that most owners won't change the coolant when they should plus they put in plastic locating dowels in between the head and the block - which just feels dodgy? Maybe it works but it feels wrong.

5. On manual 'box cars there is a dual mass flywheel which can get noisy - expensive to replace with LR original, about £500.

6. On cars with rear air suspension this can give problems. However preventative maintenance sorts this out. There are, imo, two componants which should be seen as service items: the air springs themselves, made from rubber deteriorate over time. Replace every 5 yrs. The ride height sensors are stuck underneath the cars i the path of loads of muck and rubbish - repalce every 5 yrs - Serenty.
Air springs £63+vat each from Paddocks
Ride height sensor - LR ones off Ebay £30 each.

Can't think of any more general problems, but popular modifications are:

1. De-EGR - about £30 for the kit and 1hr to do (easy job)

2. De-Cat - for post 2001 cars only - Decat pipe about £60 and 1.5hrs to do.

TD5's are really lovely LR's to own, however do take into account the above, they do demand maintenance, so if you can't/don't want to do it yourself, it's get costly and frustrating.

Incidently, if you envisage working on the car yourself, you should budget about £250 for a HawEye or Nanocom electronic diagnosis machine - it'll pay for itself in peace of mind.

Best of luck in your search, (HawkEye is great when looking at potential cars to buy as you can check the good functioning of all the major engine sensors etc).

Cheers
Dave

Thanks biglad, it's reassuring to know all the known problems are relatively straightforward to correct. As with any vehicle I've had, its mostly about 'preventitive maintenance' and this is the route I always prefer to take. I've printed off your extremely useful list of 'fixes' and put it into a safe place . You've not put me off the Disco, in fact its somewhat a relief that there's nothing that I cannot do myself (also this was the response I hoped I would get). Better keep looking then, seems to be plenty out there looking for new owners. Thanks again!

Nigel-S said:

Thanks biglad, it's reassuring to know all the known problems are relatively straightforward to correct. As with any vehicle I've had, its mostly about 'preventitive maintenance' and this is the route I always prefer to take. I've printed off your extremely useful list of 'fixes' and put it into a safe place . You've not put me off the Disco, in fact its somewhat a relief that there's nothing that I cannot do myself (also this was the response I hoped I would get). Better keep looking then, seems to be plenty out there looking for new owners. Thanks again!

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My only advice is to take a manual one.............the rest was accurately covered by biglad......if u search this forum(or others) u'll see that the autobox beside it's benefits sometimes coud be a pain in the arse...and an expensive one.......IMHO

I am like you,I owned an early disco in 1991,bought new,nothing but trouble sold at about 8,000 but still liked the look of the disco so bought a 2002 model two years ago with 51,000 on the clock done 17,000 since then.Sunroof leaks so taped it up,notchy gearbox cured by putting in correct oil MDf 94 a must !! other than that just servicing so yeh still happy !!

I've just been under my yr 2000 TD5 scraping off chassis rust. The back of the car is pretty rusty but is cleaning up well with no holes present. I'll be coating the rust with something or other soon, maybe waste engine oil. The rest of the chsssis is great, probably due all the leaking oil over the years.

So not much change in 20 years in that regard

If you get a car that has all the common issues fixed then it shoud be reliable for you. I've fixed all the ones Big Lad mentioned plus a few others.

Overall a very practical car and nice to drive.

Cheers, Andy

sierrafery said:

My only advice is to take a manual one.............the rest was accurately covered by biglad......if u search this forum(or others) u'll see that the autobox beside it's benefits sometimes coud be a pain in the arse...and an expensive one.......IMHO

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I'd put it the other way round,the R380 box is a horrible little thing to use,few have functioning syncromesh and the clutches get heavy when worn.They almost always need a flywheel when the clutch dies.
The ZF autobox by comparison works a treat,with seamless shifts,always allowing the engine to get some boost on board rather than bogging down.And if you tow a donkey box the animal will bless you forever for the smooth ride.The boxes themselves are pretty tough,problems generally are with the WXYZ switch,(£100 odd.) or chafed wiring.Other faults that get blamed on the box are more likely based in the engine bay.
What would have been interesting is to see how many Defenders LR would have sold if they offered an auto option.One of my customers has one which was converted using the disco ecu etc - now that is a nice truck to drive.Three of his friends have done the same thing after trying it....

Nigel-S said:

It's been 20 odd years since I've owned a Land Rover, and as much as I loved them they were the most unreliable vehicle on the market at the time. The plan at the moment is to buy a post 2000 Discovery and see how I get on with it, however the more I read the posts on here, the more I think Land Rover have not improved in the last 20 years. Am I right in saying that reliability has not much improved? Please tell me otherwise because I really want to believe I'm doing the right thing

Click to expand...

I recently got a 1994 D1 300tdi and its pretty good so far, most of its woes were caused by idiot spanner jockeys overtightening stuff, not servicing etc. I also have a super reliable Mondeo but i drive the Disco more 'cos its way more fun to drive

Dont forget that most of the posts on help forums are for problems, there are many many LR's going around that never reach a forum 'cos they're ok and working.

If you're friendly with spanners then a Landrover is the ultimate toy, not only do you get to fix it, you also get to drive about in it after fixing it to see the fruits of your labours

Dave