Hi Everyone,

I am new here and thought this would be a good place to start and learn about my new buy. I just got a 1998 Disco with 197k on it but it runs great. Very solid, nice body with minimal rust. Doesn't leak fluids and it seems like someone took good care of it.

There is a rubbing sound coming from the back sounds like a wheel possibly. What could this possibly be? I was told by a friend maybe a wheel bearing. Any ideas or advice on what is causing that?

The drivers window doesn't work, so I got a new regulator and motor. Is this a tough task?

Thanks for your help!

 

It very well could be a wheel bearing, with that kind of miles on it, I would plan to go ahead and replace all eight of the wheelbearings now and not wait for them to burn up on you and do more damage!

 

Jack up the tire you expect and give it a real good wiggle, side to side, up and down. Also you can do a quick check to tell if something is siezing up on you. Simply take the wheel and mark a small line on the tire sidewall near the tread with white chalk. Use your hand and rotate that tire as hard as you can and let go ( let it spin on it's own). A normal bearing will allow up to one revolution of travel. A bad bearing or too tight will not quite make it. If the tire continues to spin past the one revolution. Something is too loose.

 

Everything you need to do ONE wheel, you need to do them in pairs, so do both rear wheels, then the same kit does the front wheels as well.
Wheel Bearing Rebuild Kit for Discovery I | Land Rover wheels, tires, hubs, axles
Stop driving the truck until you can get this work done, if you continue to drive it you will be looking at alot more money.

 

The door panel removal is simple, but invest in some trim removal tools (cheap) and gently pry away, so that the fittings don't tear out of the material. The inner side is some sort of structural foam. Also, as they always say, download the RAVE manual.

 

You also should buy the special adapter socket to remove the locknuts that secure the wheel bearings.

You have to pull the wheels off to get to the bearings, how are your brake pads, rotors, and calipers?

You will be in there, you may as well be prepared to replace whatever is needed while you are tearing into it. It would be a shame to have to repeat all that later if you shortcut it the first time around!

And you will need wheel bearing grease, some never-seize, you may need new mounting hardware for some of the items as well, depending on the condition of yours. Such as caliper mounting bolts, brake fixing kits, PB Blaster in bulk.

What shape are your lug nuts in? Lots of people have problems with the "caps" being loose. Be ready for the unexpected, especially first time thru!

 

All great info. Thanks!

On the lug nut "caps"...my buddy and I were wondering...how do you get those off or do you just use a regular socket that is bigger to place over them and turn?

Is there a special trick for those?

 

Have you done anything to diagnose the problem? Or just posted here asking what it could be? It could be a lot of things, hub bearing, diff bearing, brake mud shield, brake pad, something dragging on the ground, something rubbing on the propshaft, something rubbing on a wheel...etc.
The first step in diagnosing is to actually look to see if you can see the culprit. Be methodical.

For the lug nuts it's a 27mm or 1 1/16" socket. You don't remove the chrome caps.

 

Take a good light, get on a creeper, wear eye protection and get underneath your ROVER and get to know her intimately. It will payoff in the long run.

Most likely, it will need a lot of things done to it.

Download the RAVE and get familar with it.

Read as many similar items on here and other Rover forums as you can find. Get yourself together a binder or two and print relevant items for future use.

Never expect it to be a simple task to accomplish because often times you will encounter additional items that you will need to take care of. Often times, bolts won't come out, nuts won't come off, things get corroded really bad and just won't come apart easily. So be prepared for the unexpected.

I was attempting to remove my starter. I lifted the fuel lines out of their clamps to gain better access. The next morning when I came out, all my gas tank had drained onto my driveway. The original fuel lines were so corroded that simply moving them out of a couple of clamps produced multiple leaks resulting in the total replacement of the fuel lines from the tank all the way to the engine bay. Surprise surprise.

I hope this is not your only vehicle because that forces you to rush thru things and puts more pressure on you to just get it done right away.

So look it over really good and get started on getting caught up on what the previous owner ignored.

As far as the lug nuts, buy a 4 way lug wrench, Advance Auto has them for around 20 bucks. 1 1/16 inch is the correct size. The 4 way gives you extra leverage to get them off with. If they are damaged, buy the solid ones used on the early Range Rover Classics.

 

Thanks again for all the great info. I will be looking at the Rover in more detail this weekend and report back with any findings.