Ok.. so after all the hassle I had with the diffs and axle saga, the head gasket and cylinder head episode and the on set of the never ending hidden rot... The 300tdi is going on to other places.
I managed to pick up a very tidy 200tdi with 90,000 on the clock (as opposed to the 190,000 of the 300tdi) for a bargain £700! Its had a lot of ££ spent on welding since 2006, theres nearly £1400 in repair bills with the service book and all relates to welding. Its just the drivers floor that needs doing at some point.. I found out after a dip in some water at Sailsbury plain that its the carpet holding it together! lol Anyways.. All my bits ie suspension, guards, wheels etc were swapped over in a weekend and now shes a spitting image of the 300 just with a better engine, and with the diesel pump tweeked it goes a lot better than the 300 too!

Im pleased as punch with the 200tdi, after owning a 3.5 V8 and a 300tdi it seems it took me 3 attempts to get it right.

I've had one of each - the 300TDi I bought new was a nightmare and I eventually took it back and swapped for a Freelander. The 200TDi came 3 years later from a friend who was emigrating. Had 100,000 on the clock and although it needed a fair bit of maintenance was nice and reliable and pleasant to drive, if a bit agriucultural. When it started overheating I got a TD5, which was by far the nicest to drive and did well for 5 years but was expensive to maintain and started to get unreliable at 11 years old. Of the three I rate the 200 highest, but, dare I say it here, i've now got a FR2 and it's the best of the lot!

matty_daak said:

Ok.. so after all the hassle I had with the diffs and axle saga, the head gasket and cylinder head episode and the on set of the never ending hidden rot... The 300tdi is going on to other places.
I managed to pick up a very tidy 200tdi with 90,000 on the clock (as opposed to the 190,000 of the 300tdi) for a bargain £700! Its had a lot of ££ spent on welding since 2006, theres nearly £1400 in repair bills with the service book and all relates to welding. Its just the drivers floor that needs doing at some point.. I found out after a dip in some water at Sailsbury plain that its the carpet holding it together! lol Anyways.. All my bits ie suspension, guards, wheels etc were swapped over in a weekend and now shes a spitting image of the 300 just with a better engine, and with the diesel pump tweeked it goes a lot better than the 300 too!

Im pleased as punch with the 200tdi, after owning a 3.5 V8 and a 300tdi it seems it took me 3 attempts to get it right.

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GREAT !!............I'm not the only one !

I too have gone backwards, I used to be a Range Rover man, then brought a Discovery (1993 - 3.5 V8) as it had 7 seats.
Never liked them, never wanted one.....brought it, drove it, liked it, went to Billing and off roaded it (road tyres), loved it, I was so impressed with it's off road manners and ability that I was sold.
Eventually i broke the gearbox and couldn't afford to mend it so I broke it up (got much more in parts than what it was worth as a whole).

When the time was right we brought another V8 (3.9) the later ES model, very nice had everything including Cruise and Air Con.........but petrol kept going up, so that had to go.
Replaced it with a 300 tdi XS, from day one a pile of sh**e, brought it from a guy who seemed ok, wasn't until I went to service it that I found out that my nice low mileage 300 tdi had suffered a thansplant, now it had a 200 tdi lump (remember this was my first ever diesel) so god only knows how many miles on that, everything was going wrong with it, eventully the head gasket went, so I sold it on.

This 200tdi I have now is a gem, I have known it for about five years as it was a friends one, 91000 genuine miles, Turner gasflow head, ashcroft box, over £6000 worth of receipts dating back to when it was new and every piece of service history you could want, it is mechanically near perfect, and no rust and has never been welded, lots of surface scatching to the paint, no dents though, and It's never getting sold.
Long live the 200tdi.

Awesome! Glad to hear it Muddy I took the 200tdi to Sailsbury Plain yesterday for her first proper play in the mud... She did everything I pointed her at, did great (well.. about 30mpg) fuel economy, me and my four passengers had a comfy ride. Even dipped her toes and went for a little swim... might need to wash the carpets now though! lol

i hate to say it (being a die hard v8 man) but the 200tdi disco is by far the best ever made.

engine and electrics are nice and simple, tbhy you'll struggle to kill it unless youre a proper top leadfoot wally.

i certainly prefer the idea of my 3.5 than a 3.9 - one touch windows, immobilisers, catalytic converters and lights in the bumper are not for me!

Cool, this is beginning to sound like a 200tdi appreshation society, Anyhow......

....My reason for replying is just to say, I use this senerio sometimes "do you want a jaguar that is full of clever bits of electronic wizardry and very comfortable, but will go wrong lots and cost a fortune to fix or do you want a morris minor which has no fancy bits and is less comfortable, but will still get you where you need to go and will never break down".
The only thing that I would find a struggle to live without in a vehicle is power steering, As for the central locking and electric windows, I could live without (if I really had to).

I also agree that the 3.5 V8 was a better engine than the later 3.9 V8, (but that's probably my age, but V8's are supposed to be 3.5's).

Gary.

Mr Noisy.. I had a 3.5 V8, that was my first disco, the 200 as you know is basically the same model, and now I've worked out the John Deer heater controls Im wishing I never tried the 300 series!