Yes, there's a wealth of knowledge on this forum. Search and the rave are your best friends. Then when all else fails, ask for help. Look at Eric Tyrells threads, they're a great guideline to an engine rebuild and everything therein. IH, Spike, Savanna, ChrisBob, PT et al are an awesome wealth of knowledge.

I didn't turn too many wrenches growing up and, I was a Mac tools dealer, go figure. Got my D last year and it was my dd till a few weka ago. Some things I couldn't do myself but others I thought I couldn't do, I did. Now I get to have my baby to have fun with and work on and not be afraid to break things as its not my dd anymore.

Be patient, pay attention, buy a wrench and socket a week if that's all you can afford. Check YouTube for vids on how to changs out your brakes, hub bearings etc. see if you can find anyone anywhere near you with a D and work together. Good luck, welcome to the club.

 

If you have the cash to drop in her (I assume your rover is a female), then we can help you with the do-how. Tell us what you want to tackle, I'll help you find parts if nobody else will, and we can RAVE together hahaha (Sorry, Asian joke..)

 

$200 in tools is all you need to do most maintenance and repairs on a LR. If you generally have nice weather and/or a garage, the work will go smoother. If you can, even for a small fee, have access to a shop with a hoist, you can get more done in less time. Especially if they let you use their air tools. Watch a few youtube videos of anyone working on any car engine to familiarise yourself with it. It won't answer most questions, but should put your mind at ease when you see how simple it really can be if you have the desire and guts to tear into it yourself. And ask here often, refer to the RAVE, and eat donuts.

 

Oh, one more thing. Just because you have a shop give you a list of stuff that needs to be fixed, doesn't mean you have to have it done. Best advice I can give is, if you are scared of a job, pay the shop to do one or two hard jobs you aren't ready to tackle yet, but save the shocks, brakes and tune-up for yourself and save a Disco-load of money.

 

Which allows you to buy more chocolate covered donuts, the best business bribe, because they eat all the evidence....

 

I've found it very expensive to get the Disco in the condition I want and I'm no where near complete yet. I started with little knowledge and have learned tons since, from here, and many other places. DIY has saved me a lot of money in labor, and cost me a lot in tools and personal time. There is no other vehicle that fits my preferences like the Disco though, so it's worth it to me.

Building an expedition vehicle is going to be expensive no matter the vehicle you start with. Bringing any old truck up to perfect operating condition is also going to cost you.

 

Go to Harbor Freight, get their 301 piece tool for like $180. It has a lifetime guarantee life Craftsman and S&K and all that. If it breaks just bring it back and get a new one. I use it for all my rover needs and I have a craftsman and snap on tool kit. It's cheaper, and does the job.

 

If you do go Harbor Freight, trust me, keep the receipt, you will be going back there often. Everything i bought there practically has broken usually first time i tried to use it. Even their "Heavy Duty Creeper" and without a receipt, they are jerks.

I would say go to a estate sale or watch the papers for auctions and try to buy an older well made set of tools or get one main item at a time. I just want to make you aware that you are in for one costly journey with any old Discovery.

If you want to keep it now, that is understandable. I would even agree that the first time, if you are totally unsure, have a professional do the brakes. it will be costly. And that might not even assure they are done right unless you go to some trouble finding the right shop. There are lots of horror stories each way.

A lot of success stories to, if you do the research, prepare yourself correctly and approach it well prepared. I would also take the guy up on doing whatever you can there on weekends. You may even find a tech school to do it. Lot of varialbes to consider.

Lots of people encounter something similar. Those that apply themselves can manage to work thru most of the issues, but we also see a lot of what I call one hit wonders. They buy a disco, jump in then regret ever getting it and dump it sooner or later. Lots of them are sooner than later.

If you do not need it each and every day, you are lucky. I am in the same situation. I keep mine going out of necessity and sometimes down right determination. So Welcome Aboard, just avoid the deeper water to start with.

BUY LOTS OF PB BLASTER AND SOME GOOD STRONG TOOLS.

LEARN FINESSE AND PHYSICS, GET A LONGER LEVER ARM (BREAKER BAR).

SATURATE WITH PB BLASTER FOR A FEW DAYS IN ADVANCE.

WEAR GLOVES AND EYE PROTECTION.

The above apply in almost every task you will face ahead. Expect everything to be more complex and aggravating than you anticipated and do not expect anything to be simple or quick and easy.

 

I also had several tell me to run away from my $300 'find'. I think it was Spike or IH that said I would have $2K in it to make it road worthy. I'm in it less than that (barely) but I've done a lot myself and haven't had to buy any tools. It's been a 'fun' journey but I've done most of this kind of work before and wasn't too intimidated by the task(s). I also never had much to lose considering my initial investment.

Lowes has some decent tools and they are lifetime warranty as well I think. I can find a lot more Lowes/Home Depot than Harbor Freight in my neck of the woods. Kmart carries Craftsman now too. Not sure what options you have up north.

Good luck with whatever you decide. Either way, you are in for an education.

 

Haha don't worry about the Habour Freight, I'm from Canada so that doesn't really apply to me anyways. I have read what everyone here posted, and it echos another forum as well. I guess the most prevalent phrase I have heard is 'if you can't wrench yourself, get out of Land Rovers', but that seems to be the sentiment from almost every enthusiast forum were offroad SUV's are concerned. The Jeep, Toyota, Nissan crowd have kind of all said the same thing. So it would appear that there are no real off road options for a guy who is just learning to work on the car, as they are kind of abruptly told that if they cannot do pretty highly technical work NOW, they have to sell. Tough luck sort of thing.

Danny Lee, I imagine there are alot of people who do that, hell I was one of them a couple weeks ago. Shortly after finding out that it needed two grand in repairs from the first mechanic I took it too, I turned around and try to sell it. Turns out that didn't go so well, as its still sitting in the driveway. I had to concentrate on selling my other car, which needed to go anyways vis a vis the original plan so the Rover took the backseat for a couple weeks. Now hearing that it will probably need at least 2500$ in parts alone, even if I was able to fix all of it myself, its doubly as steep as that. My dad had figured if I wanted to get work done by the Rover shop I should take it in within a week so that the guy doesn't totally forget everything we discussed that was wrong with it. There is still the option of selling it, hell the Rover guy said if I sold it to him he could fix it with those parts and sell it for 20 grand because its SO clean, so maybe I should just unload it and walk away.

Still kind of unsure what to do, as I do have the money to fix all of it now by the shop doing it but with gas prices where they are, (1.37/L for 89 octane) it could all just be a moot point. And I guess its just tough to hear that if I can't do ALL the work myself, I'm a dumbass for buying a rover. I'm still young (21) so I'm still bad at making big decisions involving lots of money. I can see myself leaving it in the driveway as is and taking the bus until late april when school ends and then trying to figure out what to do, i don't know. Thanks for all your help guys, its much appreciated.