I did some monkeying around and found the Schrader valve for the fuel rail and there was pressure. I pulled up the carpet in the rear and took the cover off to try and see if I could hear the pump prime.

It’s hard to hear yourself think with the stupid bongs, but I can’t hear it do anything. Then I tried to start it without the pump connected and it behaved in the exact same way; wants to start, but is acting like it’s starved for fuel.

Should I order the Bosch or Delphi pump? I just checked my order from the blue one and it was a Bosch. I think I’ll order that one. But I need to make sure it’s the SAI one, which is ironically cheaper than the last one I ordered.

Poor Disco.



That’s where it will sit until the pump gets here.

I’m all set for the replacement, though, as I’ve already loosened the ring and such, so hopefully it will only take a few minutes to replace.



I have to be clear and in keeping with the title and theme of this thread and my journey on the whole: this thing is NOT unreliable. I mean seriously, it’s got over 184k miles on the clock and I bet that’s the original pump. Since before we left for Germany, I’ve done nothing other than the recent oil change. Upgrades and fixes like the dash don’t count. I’m talking about out and out failures.

I was lazy last night and didn’t feel like cooking so I took the Jeep to go get some fast food. I truly love the Jeep too (I’m enjoying it more now that the soft top is back on) but the Disco also implants itself into your being with its charm and such. I’m really fortunate that I have multiple choices of transport and I guess I’m just trying to have a good attitude. And part of that is I must look at things on the whole. As I’ve said many many times, it takes a year to get a D2 correct from the neglect and ignorance, but once you get past that and actually understand the machine and it’s quirks and the like, I’d put it against any Toyota or other seemingly bomb proof machine.

Even if the pump doesn’t get it, I’ll drag it up to the house and go from there. I have a really hard time thinking it’s not the pump as when it turned and would catch, it was absolutely perfect and then just sounded like it was starved for fuel. Fingers crossed as I’m really back to wanting to drive and use it again- now with fewer caveats and reservations as I get it closer…

Um. Yeah. So I’m not 100% certain, but I could very well be the most mentally challenged person on this forum.

Pump comes in. As I said, a few minutes to install. Same thing. Grrrr…

On the wonderful news front, the boss and kids are home!

But back the the Disco. Well, I have the boy make sure the new one is priming and still no dice. Well shoot. Now that I have the boss here, i grab a quick tow strap and yank it up to the house for ease of what the heck ever it could be. Mind you, my family is literally a couple hours off an intercontinental flight, but the boss is game as always. I pop the hood. She looks at it and says, “shouldn’t that be connected”. Oh dear lord are you kidding me?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!



Just upstream from the MAF it was off. So to my defense, I don’t know if I made that happen and it backfired and popped it off when trying to get it going, or the fuel pump was bad and it popped off after. Either way, as is usually the case, Discos can be sorted. But it also shows just how slick my wife is. Literally 5 seconds of her looking under the hood and she saw it, Hilarious. So we took it and got ice cream and enjoyed the arctic AC. It was funny, Princess Fussy Pants was hot when she first got in the car and then was too cold halfway to the ice cream shop. Good stuff.

Ah the hilarity of Disco ownership. I’ve either mellowed after being in uptight and overpopulated Euroville, or just decided to not get riled up about some stuff as I get older.

I’ve recently (since getting the fuel pump done) started getting some SAI codes (P1413, and P1415) and decided to do some research on the system in never ending quest to learn about the platform. I found this great little video that really explained some stuff about it.


That is definitely worth the watch (it’s 4 mins) if you are like me and looked at it as a black art emissions piece of nonsense. I now understand in a more detailed fashion how the systems works and can see the issues that are common and come up. I also now understand the intake filter and such and the hullabaloo about its replacement and the Juke K&N solution and such. I’m going to try and clean it out and see if that does any good, but otherwise will just probably order a new one if needed as they aren’t too pricey.

But here is the funny part. I came home from the office a bit early today to get the kids to a day camp dealio and the boss came along. When we got home I was telling her about the SAI codes and such and popped the hood to show her some stuff. Once again she looked and said, “should something be connected there?” This was on one of the sides of the charcoal canister. Once again I’m a total idiot. I’m going to clear the codes and see if that’s it. I certainly have challenges at times….

Also, I was able to get the filter for the SAI pump out without breaking anything. Is it possible just to get the filter or do you have to get the whole assembly? Again, not expensive per se, but just a thought.





More of the hilarity of D2 life as well. I very rarely hit 194F in temp (only when idling at a light), but coming back from the office today, it hit 203F while on the freeway, and was bouncing from 199 to 201 a good bit and holding there. It was just about 90F outside today, but this never happens- even when it gets to 194 at a light, it drops to 188 literally seconds after I open the throttle. So of course I watch like a hawk. I get off the freeway, and there is still close to a 1k foot climb up to the house. By the time I was about to pull into the driveway it had dropped to 177F. I let it idle for 5 minutes or so in the driveway and settled at the normal 188F. Sticky T stat? All I know, the thing is friggin psycho.

You should have your wife check in at the Dll section...probably could fix half the issues there.

Odd about the MAF. Usually, they will idle with it disconnected. But, a fix is a fix...and sometimes you just don't question "what made it start"...you're just happy it did!

More productive activity. I FINALLY got around to doing O2 sensors (I’ve kinda known I’ve needed them since before we left for Europe). Really not that bad and I just used a 22mm open end wrench and got it done.

Of note, I think the driver’s side (I don’t know which bank that is) was probably original, but the passenger side was obviously an NTK- further solidifying I think someone loved this machine a lot, but perhaps was a bit lazy, since the driver’s side was a good bit more difficult).





I routed the wiring such that it was up and out of the way a bit better for both sides, just to be extra safe.

I cleared the codes and reset the adaptive values and took it for a quick spin around the block. Again, at just about 185k miles, it runs like brand new. No more stuttering or anything.

Ironically the boss wants to go look at an L405, so we’ll probably take the Disco just to confirm I got it, but I’m very happy now.

It’s motivating me to get that VSS done so I can start to actually use the UG to monitor economy and such.

Good Disco day.

If I have time later today or tomorrow I might pull the running boards from the Giverny and put them on, but I’m not sure of the weather or the level of effort to do them, so we’ll see.

Well, the stutter is still there once it’s at temp and idle. It seems like it does it only during the summer if memory serves, and it’s only when it’s very much at temp. Meh, I’ll figure it out. I probably need to look for vacuum leaks, but I think it does it under load at times too, but I’m not sure. Any ideas?

The boss found an old thread with a decent replacement filter for the SAI and I put it in.





I don’t know if I’ll have time to tackle the running boards tomorrow, but we’ll see.

This is why we can’t have nice things. I just noticed this yesterday. I love the beauty and space we have here in CO, but keeping a vehicle nice here is nigh on impossible (I’ve basically decided to stop looking at 911s unless we plan on leaving).



Additionally, the heated windshield I was so excited to get in also got a rock chip (that thankfully hasn’t spread) while talking on the phone and driving to the office a few weeks ago. Then I see the scratches on it that I know weren’t there when I bought it- and I’ve not done any appreciable off roading in the thing to make them “beauty marks” as they are referred to in the Jeep world, and I wonder, do we really want to stay here?

Colorado has become the flavor of the week for the hipster, wannabe outdoorsy, overlander nitwit who likes the image, but knows nothing of how it all works (their vehicle, nature, driving, etc). Early in this thread back with the blue ‘00 SE7, I commented on some of the silly stuff I was putting on it making it look adventurerererererery and such, making fun of the afore mentioned idiots. There is a reason I don’t have a dashboard full of ducks, metal mulisha stickers, and an angry eyes grill on my Jeep: I don’t have any interest in nonsense like that. And it is why I don’t drive my Jeep very often here as I don’t want to be balled into those types of people (because you DO get judged and people drive differently around you because of it). As I drive to one of the installations on what used to be a simple 2 lane highway, it is now nothing but a literal SEA of houses that honestly looks like a trailer park. And this goes on genuinely for miles, and has only been built since we left for Europe. I used to think where we are was specifically immune to this encroachment and my wife and I were just talking yesterday about whether or not we could live in suburbia again. But the reality is, the few acres we have is going to become nothing but a big yard in the midst of more suburban living with a good part of the local population living some farce and saying they live in the “mountains”.

Ah well, I’m not deterred on the Disco. On the contrary, it further justifies having a Disco as I’d be really angry if any of this happened to a $90k+ New Defender for which we’ve been shopping for the boss to have. With windshields basically being consumables here (even the S4 has a couple chips- which is why I don’t drive it much either here and only in the summer), keeping what is really a cheap, yet capable, and comfy (dare I say mildly luxurious) machine like a Disco a good value proposition.

So I’m just going to start the hunt for steel bumpers on the Alveston. I’ve more or less given up on keeping it essentially stock because it’s going to get thrashed either way it seems, and when it is handed off to the boy, I’m sure it won’t get any better, so it’s not worth getting stressed about.

There is a part of this thread that is Land Rover based since my wife actually started it to a degree when we got her L320 a few years before I got my first Disco. Well, we left that one in Euroville, and I promised her another one when we got back to the States. So she now has a nice hotrod. It’s a ‘22 Sport Supercharged Autobiography. She was between this and a new Defender. The engine felt the (and is) the same to her and she decided she wanted a bit more luxury over the practicality of the Defender. It will of course tow the horses with aplomb and has all the accoutrements one would expect. It even has a good bit of factory warranty (the thing only averaged 3700 miles a year from new, so it’s basically still new in my mind) and will be a nice machine for the boss and something she very much deserves.



This takes a bit of pressure off me for keeping the Alveston fully functional as a tow pig, and of course makes me happy for the boss to have a cool new hotrod.