Hi all,

I am not a mechanic - but am mechanically inclined.

I just bought a 95 Disco - got it home, and it leaks pretty bad. The heads have been redone, and are good to go. No leaks there. I put it on ramps, and pressure washed underneath to try to pinpoint the leak. I think I found it in the front cover - (If I am laying on my back, looking up at the engine - to the left (towards the drivers side) there is a few bolts)

I can see the red sealant that "squishes" out from the cover. I am pretty sure (99%) that the leak is coming from the bottom corner of the front cover.

MY QUESTION IS THIS:

Is it possible to "loosen" this bolt a few turns, put more sealant in the space created, and then tighten the bolt down? Or will this break the entire seal and make the problem worse.

I do not have the skills / tools to remove the belts, then pull the cover, and re-do the seal.

If this idea is not possible - is there another solution that does not cost to much money? If it is necessary to take to a mechanic - how many hours should this type of job take an expierence mechanic? parts should be next to nothing, since it just needs re-sealed.

Thanks in advance.

 

Did you have someone with some form of mechanical expertise look at the truck before handing over your hard earned cash?

How do you know the heads were "done"?

A word of caution... Do a ton of research on local repair shops before taking your Disco to a mechanic. AND find a Rover Specialist. Your average oil change, tire guy, brake shop will screw up your Land Rover if they try to fix it. These are VERY needy trucks and must be serviced by someone with specific knowledge of its systems and design.

Where are you in Seattle? Someone here will be able to make a recommendation I'm sure.

That Rave thing in my signature below... download that and study it. 90% of your questions can be answered or at least referenced in it.

 

Hey Cosmic -

thanks for the concern / info.

While searching the forums - I found someone who had mentioned the RAVE, so I downloaded it - that is how I knew that the "the thingy where the oil was leaking from" was called the front cover. LOL

I had previously bought a 90 RR- it ran (not well) but picked it up for only $400. Figured if I couldn't fix the issues, I could scrap it for that much in metal alone. I found a Land Rover Specialists here in Seattle (Gordon @ Larmona Garage) who only works on rovers. He seems real honest, and so before buying 95 Disco, I took it to him and he gave it a quick once over. He pointed out the oil leak - I know these things leak, especially the older one. He didn't have time to do a full inspection - but for what I paid for this one - ($1,500) - I figured I would take a chance. Breaks were in good shape, tranny felt good, and the master cylinder was recently redone. It drives really good - I think it was taken care of - however I got it home, and the leak is bigger than I thought.

Now I want to fix the oil leak - but do not have a ton of money, hence the original question about whether I can "fix" this leak myself. I don't want to make it worse.

Sorry for the long post - Thanks for your advice.

 

my 2 cents.... get a price from your rover mechanic and weigh it against this----your're going to need to remove the cover to seal it properly , a new frt cvr gasket and crankshaft seal, but....you need to remove the oil pan to get the frt cover off...good time to check the oil pick up tube and clean out the sludge in the pan. this all will lead to an oil and filter change, as well as a coolant drain and refill / bleed, also time to look @ the waterpump and a gasket for that. None of these things are especially difficult, and we can help you here, just let us know , and good luck

 

xceller8,

Thank you for the advice. Sounds like I could handle it - however, this is also a daily driver while I work on it, so probably better to send it to the rover specialist. Not to mention how pissed I would be if I did all that work, put it back together, and it still leaked.

Any idea on approximately how many hours something like this would take a rover specialist? Parts cost? What would be a reasonable price to pay to have this work done?

Thanks in advance.

 

I run a small engine repair shop, which doesn't qualify me as a "rover " mechanic, but I usually do all my own work on my truck ,and if I remember correctly, it took about 5-6 hours for me to do mine. The actuall "parts" involved are cheap maybe $30.00 plus your oil change and coolant cost. hope this helps.

 

I will be blunt so please do not get mad at me. For the amount of money a good shop or Rover Specialist will charge you, I think you are better off doing it yourself. After all, you got $1500 in it so far. You could end up spending that much again taking it to a shop.

I have a 97 DI, so there are some minor differences that I may not be fully aware of, but I will give you my opinion. For the amount of money you will most likely be charged to go in and do all those things, you can buy yourself a good set of the correct wrenches (good quality socket sets primarily) and all of the parts to properly do a good repair yourself as those are pretty basic repairs for a DI.

If it has a serpentine belt like the 4.0 has, you merely loosen one bolt to loosen the pulley that provides the tension. Take a good look at the belt as it probably needs replacement.

You would be doing basic removing, cleaning, replacing gaskets and a seal, cleaning the oil pan and pickup tube, and reassembly. That will give you a good familarity with your Disco. You will get to see first hand how sludged up the oil pan and surrounding areas are.

You should go ahead and get a full set of cooling hoses and replace them if the originals are still on it. This will prevent a breakdown in the near future from a worn out hose whose replacement was long overdue. Unless you enjoy those breakdowns. This will save you the expense of towing and emergency repairs to your daily driver and allow it to be a daily driver.

All all you don't want to lose that new coolant that you will have to put in anyway. Most garages really soak you on the price of things like coolant.

Before you start any of these repairs, do a good visual inspection of the entire vehicle. Treat her like she is a girl you just picked up somewhere, take a good look at her, front to back, top to bottom, inside and out.

This will allow you to put together a list of needed parts that you can shop around to the good Rover suppliers that are out there. These include Atlantic British, Rovers North, RovahFarm, and a variety of others that are mentioned throughout this forum.

Some of them have good deals on "kits" that include a group of needed items, or at least they will have most if not all of the parts you need.

Review the RAVE in detail. I like to print the sections for whatever I am preparing to do and use that as a work procedure to keep track of the proper steps and order and such. I also use a digital camera to take pics prior to disturbing the equipment and as I proceed o help my poor memory on reassy. I also have collected write-ups from other forums and websites on a few things. Rave does not do a good job of tool callouts, so I try to mark it up and get the needed tools together to kit them for my next major thing I do.

Some of the parts houses have specialized tools you can get on loan or rent cheaply also.

A lot can be done in a weekend, if you are properly prepared. It is cheaper to get as much from one place as possible at one time to keep shipping cost lower.

Be careful what source the parts actually come from. Cheap parts made in Asia or other areas should be avoided. I would rather deal with someone like Rovers North or Atlantic British than I would the typical local parts superstores.

Some parts may be found from recyclers like Will Tillery the RoverGuy.com and a few others but not waht you need at this time for your leak problems.


Might as well check the plugs and air filter as well as all the other fluids. Look at the 60K service sticky and do it all. You can do alot for what a shop will charge you to do a little.

Otherwise just drive it to destruction like your previous RR and find another army mule to beat to death. That may be the cheapest way.

Of course, go get an estimate if it's free. There are lots of stories on here where local mechanic have beaten things apart and broke stuff and still charged people a lot of money. I had a small shop ruin all 20 of my original stainless steel capped lug nuts using the wrong socket on their air impact gun. Those are 20 bucks each retail. Solid replacements from a RR cost me 100 bucks from a west coast scrapyard and the guy refused to pay me after he promised me he would. Now no one touches my lugnuts without me watching them.


Let us know what your estimate works out to be.

One guy on here paid to rush ship a front wheel bearing and only replaced the drivers side on an emergency repair. A few days later, he did the same thing for the passengers side front wheel bearing. What he spent would have covered all new brake rotors, disc and calip[ers as well as bearings for his front axle.

So do yourself a favor and find out what should be done in pairs and such prior to them failing. That way you will eventually have a good daily driver that you understand and the tools and knowledge to maintain it. Or you can throw away several hundred every few weeks to try to keep it going.

You may need a ride or a rntal from time to time until you get it back to a baseline solid condition. Then you will have a daily driver. And it's fun as well. Good Luck.

 

Thank you all,

Danny, Thank you for taking the time to explain everything....very useful information.

The Land Rover specialists said "around $400" He seems like a straight shooter. Says it will take him 3-4 hours, and that most of the cost is in labor.

Just curious as to whether you guys think I did right @ $1,500. Rig has 160K on it, 5 speeed manual - tranny seems solid, master cylander was just redone, and breaks are good. No leaks from the heads, and the Rover Specialists said it looks like they were redone....he didn't think they were just "cleaned" to look redone. I didn't want to spend more than $1000 - but the guy would not budge under $1500, and it seemed like a decent ride for the price.

I am looking forward to doing work on it - using it as a daily driver that I can get dirty on the weekends.

Thanks again for all the advice....

Muskrat

 

Now spend some time looking at parts prices and see what you can get for that same amount of money, and realize " around $400 " is a ballpark figure and I would bet by the time he lists all the parts and the fluids and such, plus taxes, I would bet the amount grows quite a bit unless he gives you "a not to exceed" estimate and then you may still end up with it half done and then finding out that he found something else while he was in there and the $400 won't quite cover it.

$1500 sounds pretty good if it is all there and not beat to death already. I would like to have another one myself.

 

Yep. Price the parts that you need, then take that total cost, and subtract it from $400. Take whatever the difference is, and spend that amount of money on some tools. Then spend a few days tackling the project yourself. So, for the same cost as paying someone to do the job, you get acquainted with the nuts and bolts(literally) of your rig, you empower yourself to tackle future problems, and you have tools on hand to deal with those problems as they come up. If you want to use this thing as a daily driver, you really need to be prepared to do a good deal of your own maintenance. This forum, combined with the RAVE manual, will be indispensable resources to help you do that, and you will learn a lot very quickly from both.