I figured I'd start a "Build" thread to document my experience owning a disco. I don't intend to do anything too crazy with it in the near future, but I've enjoyed reading other build threads that document the day to day ups and downs of these vehicles so hopefully this can be the same for some of you.

My first car was a '95 ZJ. It was the old family car and after my dad sold it to me I lifted it and put on some 31" BFGs. I had a blast owning this and learned a ton about vehicles, but sold it during grad school and have been driving Subarus ever since.


I've always regretted getting rid of it and have also always thought Disco II's seemed like a really cool car. My wife and I had a little girl last fall so I've been around the house a lot more on the weekends and after work and decided this would be as good a time as any to pull the trigger. I intend to daily drive it so our house doesn't start looking like a used car lot, so I would be replacing our '08 Outback with whatever I found. When I floated the idea my wife asked "so is this thing going to get better gas mileage than the Subaru?" Uhh, no. "Will it be more reliable?" Ummm, probably (absolutely) not. "Then why do you want to get this car?" Well, it's cool and I've wanted one for a while... She accepted the fact that it doesn't make much logical sense, but it would bring me enjoyment which was pretty great of her and the search began!

After looking for months I finally found a decent one in Provo (I'm in Salt Lake). '02 with ACE and bags, 114k miles (I know low mileage doesn't really mean a lot, but most of the higher mileage ones I was seeing were trashed). Carfax said it lived in Cali for most of it's life so it was almost rust free and the paint was in pretty good shape! No coolant in the oil and everything sounded good. The kid selling it dropped the price as the SES light was on for an O2 sensor and whatever mechanic he went to told him genuine sensors would be $200 a piece or it might be an ECM issue and I guess he didn't have the money to throw at it. I checked the codes and they were P0141 P0161 P0160, seemed a bit unlikely both rear O2 sensors would die at the same time, but the car otherwise seemed to be in good shape so I pulled the trigger. (This was back in October, more to come...)

 

Salt Lake County has emissions so I needed to get the SES light off to register the car. I discovered that NTK sensors (recommended by a couple old threads) are not $200 a sensor, but $50 a piece. Nevertheless, if it was an ECM problem I didn't want to throw $100 at something that wasn't going to solve my problem. All the fuses were good, the ground in the plugs were good, and the ECM seemed to be pulsing the white wire to ground (heater wire) so I pulled the old sensors. It looked like the mechanic had dropped one new generic Bosch sensor in and the other one appeared to be a different make and much older. I cleared the codes and drove around for a while and no lights! Extremely glad the issue was not a bad ECM.

The rest of the truck actually seemed really well sorted, I did the Best PCV valve, Extinct inline mod, drained dexcool for green, Lucky 8 front driveshaft (the one that came off actually felt really good, no play in the u joints or anything. No grease zerks though, not sure if one of the previous owners just replaced it with another stock one? Or if this one held up really well for some reason?) fixed a window regulator, changed all the fluids. Diff, t-case and tranny fluids actually came out looking pretty clean which was good to see. Oh, and of course an Ultragauge to make sure the engine isn't melting itself.

 

I'd had the three amigos sporadically since I bought the car and decided to do option B. I know this won't always fix the amigos, but I don't have a Nanocom to read the ABS codes and it seems like a good thing to do even if it's preventative. I pulled the shuttle valve switches without removing the whole ABS block and sheared one of the hex bolts. I'm planning on removing the unit and extracting the stud and running a tap eventually, but for now it's held in by two bolts. I'd recommend just pulling the whole unit and soaking the bolts in PB blaster to avoid doing what I did. On the bright side, los amigos no han vuelto.



Someone backed into me and cracked the 20 year old front bumper cover a couple weeks ago. Then I tagged a plow bank this week and exploded a large chunk off the bumper cover. After spending waaay too much time debating what bumper to get I ordered a Goliath, should be here early January!


(After someone hit me, before I hit the plow bank. Looks way worse now...)


Luna likes dad's new car

 

Sure someone backed into you...we all know how this works, well those of us that are married anyway. "Hon, someone backed into me, so l guess l'll have to find another bumper." When in all actuality...you purposely bumped it into a tree...lol. Then it's..."Hon, looks like an aftermarket bumper is the only way to go, factory ones are outrageous price-wise." "Well, whatever you think dear." Don't care what women think of us...we're brilliant and we just play stupid...lol.

Anyhow, looks like you're off to a good start, taking care of minor mechanical issues and doing modifications to cooling and ABS systems. Dll's are what you put into them, for the most part. Some can be more difficult than others, maintenance-wise or problematic. My 01 build was a very gratifying endeavor...miss the old girl.

Good luck with your new acquistion and look forward to following along.

 

Haha yeah, I could not believe how much a factory replacement cost... and I'm guessing most bumper covers in you pull it yards will have at least some damage as mine seemed to die extremely easily.

 

If you plan to lift it I would ditch that L8 driveshaft the moment you do. My L8 died in under 5k miles after I lifted it on a cross country drive from Denver to VA, pulled it in a Burger King parking lot in KY I think and locked the CDL. Kept on chugging along and ordered a Tom Woods to my in-laws house for the drive back.

 

Welcome to the insanity! I’m jealous as I miss having ACE as I think it’s a wonderful system- if not a schoshe problematic at times.

First things first, if you are in SLC, THE shop to go to is GBR (Great Basin Rovers). Tell Tom and Bill I said hi. When we lived there, my office was in the Wells Fargo Building, so I was only a few minutes away from them. They are incredibly knowledgeable, honest, and just good guys. I actually miss going there and hanging out and bugging the heck out of Tom.

Next up, get an Ultragauge. It will not only (and most importantly) give you the temps, but will also give you the data to determine the source of your codes. They are really cheap and great insurance.

After that, if you plan on keeping it for a while, pay the man and get a Nanocom. It is money immeasurably well spent. If you need to save the pennies, a good interim is an iCarsoft one that is only a little over $100 and will get you by with enough data to solve issues like the Amigos. Having a D2 specific code reader is a hard requirement for ownership.

On the Amigos, Tom taught me to do Option B with a new shuttle valve, so don’t expect your repair to last indefinitely.

Something else to think about: until you have learned more about the platform, I’d keep a back up car around if possible as it reduces your stress immensely when things come up, so you don’t have to worry about getting to work or the like.

You’re going to have a blast with it, but keep in mind there will be highs and lows. Just be patient, do your research, and use the RAVE extensively as bedtime reading to learn about the systems and their operation. This forum is by far the best resource outside of the RAVE to get to the bottom of stuff. You’re off to a great start.

 

Bumper finally arrived! The weather here looks too cold to paint it for the foreseeable future (highs in the low 30s), so it'll likely be sitting on the garage floor for a bit. But we're getting closer...

 

That's a Goliath bumper right? Looks pretty nice, very clean lines.

 

Yep! Goliath. Initial impressions are positive, looks well built.