Hey guys, the wife and I have been looking to pick up a series 1 Discovery for awhile now and I think we've found one that is in our price range, owner says it needs some work typical stuff but runs and drives. This is going to mainly be a project for us as she doesn't care for many of my other projects and it will be nice for us to work together on something, maybe (fingers crossed). Anyways what are some typical issues with the series 1, anything I should look over before jumping into a buy, what engines are better/easier to work on ect. How are parts to come by, im up in canada so most things will have to be shipped either way but from U.S is nicer and cheaper then from the UK. Any help is appreciated, thanks!

 

Where to begin?!?! These trucks are testy for sure. They need TLC. If you're thinking about buying a used one, you should def have some mechanical know-how as it's just a matter of time before you're elbow deep in your "new" truck fixing something. Things that i've experienced and a lot of other people have too: Leaky Sunroofs (bad drains), Failing rear windows (bad solder point), Fail to start (bad starter), my brain is seizing trying to think of a few as there are so many. Personally my exhaust is shot, which i dont mind, like the noise, as long as you have someone that'll pass you when it looks like swiss cheese
The rest is just stuff you can expect to deal with in a car with higher mileage. O2 sensors go, gaskets start to go oil's and fluids need to be changed. Take a look a spikes tech section and read the 60k service post. Thats at least where you would need to START to feel good about the truck... I'm not trying to scare you. I LOVE my Disco, but they do like to toy with your emotions. So if you're ready, dive in, this forum is a wealth of information and helpful people.

Best of luck.

Turf

p.s. Parts are pretty easy to come by if you dont mind paying for them. companies like (my favortie) Atlantic british, roversnorth, etc have pretty much anything you could need OEM if you cant pick it off a dead rover.

 

Yea, I spent most of the night reading through the sticky at the top, seems pretty familiar, I have mechanical know for the most part i'm fairly hands on, the thing i'm more worried about is head gaskets, timing chain ect. Did the 3.9 have head gasket problems, and if so any special tools required to do the job or any special timing tools? What about familiar/typical rust spots on Disco's?

 

The 3.9L actually had more head gasket problems to start with. Something about the way it was torqued down. They actually recommend leaving some specific head bolts out when doing a head gasket on these. And the gaskets were upgraded too. I worked at a shop about 10 years ago (not as a tech, most of the time) and a 94 or 95 disco came in that head a head gasket that was so bad it sounded like an exhaust leak. It was actually leaking combustion gases out the side of the engine between the head and the block.

 

Overheating issues are the most important before you buy check, leaking fluids are common, as for rust these trucks have aluminum body panels so check the inside wheel arches and rear floor to find the true story. These trucks can look good on the outside but be swiss cheese on the inside.

 

Thats the kind of stuff I need to know, I never knew that, always wondered why they were never rusty on the outside, as for headgaskets, easiest way to check? Just watch for any over heating problems? Only info i've got specifically on this one from the owner is "needs tlc and roughs a little rough" I imagine it misfires at the very least, specific problems or just do a check over, is a compression test fairly easy to do on the 3.9s? Any specific cylinders that give problems? Thanks guys.

 

overheating is a give away, so is antifreeze in the exhaust, whether you can smell it, see it, whatever. You can also pull your plugs and look at them i believe anti freeze will leave a tell tale deposit on them too if im not wrong. Compression test is always a good idea if you have one.