What to do about a rusting 300tdi??

My wife and I bought an N-reg disco about 18 months ago from a used car dealer. It came with a clean MOT. A year later, it failed miserably (12 failure items, 9 advisories). Did some work, then had it fail again. The main issue remaining is corrosion. The first MOT listed "excessive corrosion, seriously affecting strength within 30cm of the body mountings" on the nearside front. The second MOT lists this same write up on all four corners. I have done plenty of vehicle maintenance, but never bodywork. When I have the vehicle up on a lift changing diff fluid and oil, I never noticed gaping holes or obvious rust, just the standard gunge of 135,000 miles.

It took it to the local Land Rover dealer to have their body shop look at it. They gave me a quote of £2000 to get it up to speed, but no gaurantees on passing next year. The work includes removing the body from the chassis, welding in new floor pans, outriggers, work on a wheel arch and liner, bootfloor, etc. The vast majority of the estimate is labour (£1506).

So, some assistance and advice please?

1. Is this normal or common in a Discovery of this age?

2. Any suggestions for an alternative shop in the Cambridge region that might save me some ££?

3. Is there a Discovery boneyard that will give me a decent amount for the vehicle so they can part it out, and I can go start over? For example, the wheels are in fine shape, it has new tires, new brakes, the interior is good, etc.

4. How can Land Rover build a vehicle that is a rusting hulk 10yrs later?? You'd think it had been parked up to the hubs in a salt marsh. I had a 25yr old Mercedes that spent it's whole life on a tropical island in the Pacific with far less corrosion.

I am not particualrly attached to this vehicle, although it is handy. My wife's and my primary vehicles are sports cars, so the Discovery works well when family comes into town, or large loads need lifting.

Thanks

Disco 1 and 1A models are prone to rusting badly, as a fellow Disco owner I quickly learnt to accept it as part of the ownership experience.
Mine is the same age as yours and I will have to get round to putting a new boot floor in soon. I have rust starting in the sills, rear body crossmember and around the alpine windows, but I dont give a **** as its my toy to use and abuse.
The chassis/drivetrain will outlast the body on mine by which time it will probably be rebodied with something abit different.
I would assume that perhaps yours is now uneconomical to repair and you should keep the good bits for spares and look for another one with less corrosion?
You could save a huge amount of that labour bill if you took the time to strip out the interior ready for welding, maybe you have someone local who is good with a welder and is cheaper?
It's swings and roundabouts really; I looked at a Disco II the other day and found no rot in the body, but I was surprised at how rusty the chassis was getting.
Another tip, buy from an area where (if its been used offroad) the soil is alkaline i.e Chalky. Acidic soils attack the metal bits more.
Hope this helps.

Some cars despite being the same model/year ect just seem to fall foul to the tin worm earlier than others for example the boot floor on my 92 200 tdi is as good as new and yet I have seen another 93 car where you open the back door to check the tread on the tyres!

Assuming it is mechanicaly sound (and I mean sound) then consider buying a shell (or a mechanically shagged one) and gets some mates over and swap the bodywork. I have done this myself many years ago and it is hard work but if the replacement shell is from a similiar model it is a bolt swap. As you pointed out the body lifts off.

Other than that advertise it for spares and cut your losses, sorry but with my limited experience of Land Rovers I have found you either give up and throw some money away or dig your heels in and still throw some money away!

I'm stubborn and stuck it out, I love the end result!

regards

Dave

after looking at a few discos over £2000 and reading on here and talking to people decided to by a tidy disco 200tdi with good service history that needed welding had a good look at the one i bought thought it needed inner wings and sills and new boot floor had quote for £1200 for welding got them to do it in chunks of 3 to make it more economical as this had mot as well and am well chuffed have a good vehicle dont forget waxoil now owes me £1500

sounds like you got unlucky and got one of the that just falls to bits quicker than usual, sorry fella

my 98 R has rust but nothing like the scale you describe, whilst we're on the subject mine is starting to rust on the rear arch where you can see when the rear doors are open,
is that a weld or body filler and paint job

daza said:

sounds like you got unlucky and got one of the that just falls to bits quicker than usual, sorry fella

my 98 R has rust but nothing like the scale you describe, whilst we're on the subject mine is starting to rust on the rear arch where you can see when the rear doors are open,
is that a weld or body filler and paint job

Click to expand...

mine's a r'reg too with the same rusty back wheel arches same place
it was patched over before i got it, but looked ok but now its coming through
int it ally to steel
give us some suggestions lads an lasses
pleeeeeeease

i havea 92 j 200 and i have replaced the sills and repaired boot floor to get through an mot last year, 186k on the clock and i have just noticed the ns inner wing to front panel under the aux battery tray is shagged, best thing to suggest is buy a mig and do bits evrey now and again, its all good fun!

Hi I have a rangey classic that had the same problem. Bodywork on the outside brilliant but underneath a rust pot. Took it to a local landover guy that did the welding for me - two front footwells back floor and cross member both rear wheel arches and both complete sills. Total cost 852.00 pounds The rear wheel arches are only 75.00 each new from Landrover and the welding is costed to the ego of the welder so ask around. Hope this helps - my car passed mot no problem

My 200 tdi was rusty when I got it , I thought it was bad until I started on here and heard about others, it does appear you are particularily unlucky.
I put a new boot floor in mine and patched up the inner wings as they were not too bad.
I recently ended up with a 300 auto which I was thinking of renovating, body's not bad engines knackered, it needs a new boot floor but strangely enough the rest seems ok! It is a 3 door though and I don't think it would suit our needs,give me a shout if your interested only want £150 for it!

mko9 said:

It took it to the local Land Rover dealer to have their body shop look at it. They gave me a quote of £2000 to get it up to speed, but no gaurantees on passing next year. The work includes removing the body from the chassis, welding in new floor pans, outriggers, work on a wheel arch and liner, bootfloor, etc. The vast majority of the estimate is labour (£1506).

Click to expand...

Hi,
My SIII needs some frame welding, I'm Cambridge, so I'm wondering where you took yours, and if you found anywhere more affordable?
Cheers

Still working on it. A friend of mine knows a place out near Mildenhall. I am having a hard time getting them to return my phone calls though.

If you think you've got rust problems, take a look at these. This is the before and after of my bootfloor.

If you want to know more go to: Land Rover UK Forums

Johnny366 said:

Hi,
My SIII needs some frame welding, I'm Cambridge, so I'm wondering where you took yours, and if you found anywhere more affordable?
Cheers

Click to expand...

Johnny366 - There is a guy in Thetford that works on Series Landys. Tempted to get him to repair my IIa bulkhead. His details are below:
Glencoyne Engineering - contact us for your Land Rover needs

James.

I bought my 'm' reg disco 300 tdi last year for £2100 and it was almost pristine the odd slight bit of corrosion but the basically you had to realy look for it it was in showroom condition and now a year on it still looks the dogs bits. My secret is, to wash it with auto glym shampoo and shammy it off and wax it when ever possible all year round and pay particular attention to the lip inside the wheel arches as this clogs with mud and open the doors and clean the inside edges etc I know it will rust but i try to check everything regular and treat it as soon as it starts, exept the boot floor panel needs replacing as it was leaking in through a windscreen seal and running along an inner roof panel to the rear pillar and down to the floor behind the trim going undetected until i took the carpet out to clean and discovered the acoustic flooring damp!

pathfinder said:

I bought my 'm' reg disco 300 tdi last year for £2100 and it was almost pristine the odd slight bit of corrosion but the basically you had to realy look for it it was in showroom condition and now a year on it still looks the dogs bits. My secret is, to wash it with auto glym shampoo and shammy it off and wax it when ever possible all year round and pay particular attention to the lip inside the wheel arches as this clogs with mud and open the doors and clean the inside edges etc I know it will rust but i try to check everything regular and treat it as soon as it starts, exept the boot floor panel needs replacing as it was leaking in through a windscreen seal and running along an inner roof panel to the rear pillar and down to the floor behind the trim going undetected until i took the carpet out to clean and discovered the acoustic flooring damp!

Click to expand...

I'm very happy for you having such a clean and attractive looking Disco but really the rust issues are not cosmetic they are more fundemental and often structural.

For example, you have a boot floor which is rusting, this is often accompanied by a rusting rear main crossmember (quite difficult to see with the rear bumper in place) structural; boot floor crossmembers - structural; rusting inner wheel arches where the seat belt anchorages are - structural; inner front wings as seen from the engine bay; worst of all imho are the rusting out of sills inner and outer - structural. Expensive to have repaired.

It's nice to have a good looking car but Disco's are really prone to fooling you into thinking they are in better nick than they actually are. The only thing to do is have a really good prod around underneath.

There are many early Discos failing mots and being written because of these problems when externally they look perfectly reasonable - I know to my cost

I have pictures of my boot floor before and after work, if it interests you to see them and no, no Autoglim in sight !!

I fully understand what you mean has i have had a disco before and it looked reasonable on the outside but it was a real rot bucket, I never had it long enough to MOT it I aqua locked the engine by mis judging a ford and got rid, anyway my original point was to check every where at regular intervals and treat the rust early, i am underneath mine regular for various reasons and I check as many places as possible for the early signs of rust and treat it when i find it, i suspect the sills might be starting to rust behind the plastic trim but i am fitting rock sliders soon so i will deal with that then.
mark...

pathfinder said:

I fully understand what you mean has i have had a disco before and it looked reasonable on the outside but it was a real rot bucket, I never had it long enough to MOT it I aqua locked the engine by mis judging a ford and got rid, anyway my original point was to check every where at regular intervals and treat the rust early, i am underneath mine regular for various reasons and I check as many places as possible for the early signs of rust and treat it when i find it, i suspect the sills might be starting to rust behind the plastic trim but i am fitting rock sliders soon so i will deal with that then.
mark...

Click to expand...

I hope you don't take offence at my remarks, it's just that after finding the boot floor looking like this: