Hey guys, I'm new here, I've had an 03 disco since the begining of 05. It's been a great car so far, no problems at all, and aside from oil changes, I haven't done ANY maintenance to it..
Since Ive been lurking around here Ive learned that I have a ticking time bomb under the hood, the oil pump. I am in the vin range, my question is, should i change it now or is there more to the story, is there anything i can do now to aviod the problem and what exactly is the problem? Thanks in advance.

Eddie

 

A Technical Service Bulletin issued by Land Rover North America on 3-14-2003 states that the failure of an oil pump is a design defect in certain 2003 Land Rover Discovery 2 trucks. There is no way to save the engine. If you have a 2003 that falls within the vin range ending between 3A771801 and 3A808362 it is doomed. If you are looking at purchasing one that falls in this range don't.

There were rumours of the 2004 Disco 2 having the same oil pump failures but this is untrue. The 2004's never had 2003 engines installed in them.

If you are paranoid and own a 2003 or a 2004 you can install an oil pressure gauge and keep an eye on it or you can use the ScanGauge II. Its a very handy $150 ODB2 computer that shows live data and will help you keep an eye on everything your truck won't tell you until its too late.

 

X2 on the oil pressure gauge.

Also, I have heard that you can replace the oil pump at regular intervals to keep it from failing, but to have to do that every 50,000+/- miles would get to be expensive. It might be worth it though if you don't feel like having the engine swapped.

 

that is the exact quote that i keep reading everywhere. my question is, oil pumps fail all the time, the engine doesn't have to fail with it, is there an upgraded oil pump i can buy and put in it?

 

No, simply put, the alignment dowels in the engine block for the timing cover/oil pump
***'y are misaligned.

When the cover gets torqued down, it stresses and fatigues over time.

If you don't have the dowels in (a logical remedy), think about the oil pump rotor clearances (.004in) as the inner rotor is on the crankshaft.

I haven't read about anyone resolving this other than cover change or motor change.
A lot of ideas are floating around tho'

luck,greg

 

thanks guys! guess i need to buy a pump and one of those guages, ill just wait for it to fail and swap it out. thanks again guys!

 

If/when it goes, you know to shut off the engine immediately, I hope.

What's at stake is probable $3,000 min. loss

luck,greg

 

the only place i wrote that was my clubs site???? needless to say the removing of the dowels is only a rumour and has not been proven yet.

 

[QUOTE=hilltoppersx;166148]A Technical Service Bulletin issued by Land Rover North America on 3-14-2003 states that the failure of an oil pump is a design defect in certain 2003 Land Rover Discovery 2 trucks. There is no way to save the engine. If you have a 2003 that falls within the vin range ending between 3A771801 and 3A808362 it is doomed. ]

Sorry to disagree -- but this is patent BS. There were over 30 thousand trucks in that vin range and based on your quote above that would mean every one has failed or will fail. Do a search on the internet for failed oil pump and you will find many years of discos that had the problem. Do a google search on blown headgaskets and slipped liners and you will find more 04s with this issue than 03s. Were there blocks with misaligned dowels that caused the oil pumps to fail in o3s? Absolutely. Were all the blocks in the vin range misaligned? Probably not. If you have proof that they were, show me. Show me the list of 30 thousand failed 03s. There are a lot of members on this forum with high mileage 03s, me being one of them. And I have no problems whatsoever at 83k. So scaring people with this doom and gloom drivel is counterproductive. Is it prudent to avoid the 03 vin range? - Probably. Does it mean you're out of the woods with 4.6 V8 problems? Not at all.

Now, the guy already has a an '03 in the vin range so let's try and help him out rather than say his truck is complete toast. Here's what he can do:

1) Make sure the cooling system works flawlessly. Redo components as necessary. If your engine overheats and your pump is bad, it makes things worse.
2) Clean the oil separator and breather hoses! If the 4.6 doesn't breath it can blow seals.
3) Do an oil pressure test as proposed previously. Attach an aftermarket oil pressure gauge to watch it.
4) If you're totally paranoid about the oil pump failure, pull the timing cover and have a look at your pump. See if the dowels are misaligned by looking at the female dowel holes in the timing cover. Are they worn? Stressed? If so, then the dowels were probably misaligned and you could have future problems. How is the gerotor of the pump? Is it cracked? If so replace the pump and you can probably get a lot more miles out of it. Make sure they carefully align the timing cover when it goes back on. Some guys have even suggested to remove the dowels, align the timing cover with the special land rover tool and torque it down. I'm not advocating this, but there are some guys that have said they have had no problems doing this. If it works - and again, I am not advocating this, I'm not an egineer - in theory your engine is saved by the mod as there would be no unusual stress on the new pump. But you might get lucky and find your dowels are perfectly aligned after pulling the timing cover.
5) If that red OIl Pressure light ever comes, pull over and STOP and get a tow. Your engine probably hasn't sustained any damage - yet. But if you keep driving it -- even for a little bit, it will.

Again, I stress, there are thousands and thousands of Disco 03 drivers that have not run into this oil pump failure problem. And if you ask real Land Rover Dealer mechanics for the truth they will tell you that they have seen MANY oil pump issues on 03s outside the vin range and 04s. So fear not, your truck isn't necessarily doomed. But be careful and do all you can in preventative maintenance on an 03 Disco or otherwise to guard against problems down the road.

 

first off...

83k is not high mileage. not even for an 03 Disco 2. It might have been for a plymouth duster or dodge dart but now in days cars go longer, further and are more effiecent. Although you are getting right around the sweet spot at 80-100k... so if i were you i would bite my toungue.

secondly the headgaskets and liners have nothing to do with the oil pump problems nor do they have to do only with 03's and 04 Disco II's... when Rover Group (British Rover Cars back then) took the engine design over from GM the outer wall of the liner design was changed from a very coarse finish to a fine polished finish, for an easy mass production press fit. The thermal bonding in the cylinder cast in place assembly process, was eliminated completely. This allowed the smooth external walls of the new liners to provide easy installation but allowed the smooth walls to thermally expand at different ratios under the laws of dissimilar materials. Head gasket life would suffer indefinitely and plague this engine throughout its new design...

as for your suggestions.

1 and 2 are obvious to any car owner, thats like tellin someone not to **** in the gas tank.
3 i told him to do, and 4 i mentioned but is yet to be proven by anybody.

so im not all doom and gloom.