Hey everyone,
I just bought an 03 Discovery and am trying to find someone who does a little mechanic work on the side. I have a few things that I'm not comfortable doing and would love to find a LR mechanic who does work on the side. You can email me at jcrosby@newcongroup.com or give me a call at 843-270-9407. Would be nice to meet some others with the vehicle as well.

 

What are you looking at having done? Most jobs on these trucks are a lot easier than they seem to be.

 

Like was said above, this things are amazing to work on. I really want to give my Disco a hug after I've finished a job on it. Very straightforward and lots of room to work. My other cars you walk away with skinned knuckles and have to spend two hours removing other crap to get to the 15 minute fix you needed to do.

As for your question.. and I'm sure this is not going to go over well... but anyway I highly recommend Baker. I'm on my third LR I've bought from them and they truly have been nothing but exceptional and I have pretty high expectations. There are other dealers in town I wouldn't buy a bicycle from let alone let them service it.

Now that the vehicle is out of warranty I do almost everything myself but if there is something I don't have time for I still take it to them. I do, however, trouble-shoot everything first and just take it in and tell them what to do. They really do good work and it comes with a one year warranty. Doing things this way also cuts out a $180 diagnostic fee but if you do need diagnosis done they are very good about working as much labor into that $180 as possible. I'm very knowledgeable and in ten years, not once have they told a car needed work done that I really didn't. Instead of saying part X is leaking it needs to be replaced they'll say it's not that bad now but keep an eye on it.

There is an independent shop called Charleston Rover Service. I haven't had any experience with them other than calling to find out how much it would be to get my ABS codes read. They were $90 to read the codes while Baker would have been $180. I thought $90 was too much from an independent and after I thought about it more I realized that I'd pay them $90 to read the code then I'd replace the part then I'd pay them another $90 to clear it. I took it to Baker Paid $180 plus the part and they worked all the labor into the diagnostic fee so for the same amount of money I would have spent doing it myself I got the code read, cleared and the part replaced plus a one year warranty.

I recommend James for your service adviser. He's a good guy, easy to talk to, listens to what you say and really does care. I'd recommend just going in and talking to James and Eric, the service manager to get a feel for the service department.

I also buy all my parts from them. Their prices are actually comparable to AB and the like and Kenny's the guy you want to talk to in parts. He's awesome and really knows everything. They stock a ton of parts and if they don't have it they will the next day.

Feel free to tell them I sent you. They know me and know that A) I'm not that customer that wants the proverbial blinker fluid replaced and B) I'm a cheap bastard. Also, other than being a long time satisfied customer, I'm in no way associated with Baker.

For other parts we've a local place called Parks Auto. I think they stock every part ever made, seriously. I used to always forget about them and would spend all day trying to track something down at NAPA, autozone, orilley, etc. When I'd finally break out the yellow pages and call Parks they always had the part in-stock. They also have a store on Rivers Avenue that's open till midnight 6 days and open till 11pm on Sunday. Not sure I'd want to go there at midnight but it's good information to have when a project goes long. That locations' also their warehouse so you can pretty much get everything there. When I rebuilt my front drive-shaft they had the Precision joints and centering ball kit in-stock. You'll want to get on that job ASAP since if it goes you'll prob trash your tranny. Anyway, I really recommend the Precision joints, really nice quality.

Welcome to the forum and the perpetual joy and frustration that is Land Rover ownership.

-Tristan-

 

Tristan,
You have been a huge help so far. I think I'm getting the hang of what can and can't be purchased from Parks and from the Rover guys here in Charleston. I'm not going to risk getting an aftermarket hub, but like I mentioned to you in our email I think waiting a little longer until I can actually tell which hub is bad would be a good idea.
Would you like to meet up somewhere in Charleston and check mine out? I'd like to see what you've done to yours and maybe get you to check out that front drive shaft and see if you can tell if it is in need of replacement. Looking forward to hearing from you.
PS, funny story. I changed my oil over the weekend and wasn't paying attention to the plastic skid plate under the engine (or at least the cupped portion of it). I pulled the oil filter and it slipped out of my hand into that lower section, and I simply pulled it back out. Went driving around and pulled into the garage and oil was dripping off everything past the oil filter! I thought I had some serious leaks and something major had "let go". I was pleasantly surprised to see a pool of oil in the indention of the skid plate where the oil from the filter poured into and was spilling out and spraying the engine. So....another job while I had the whole vehicle up on jack stands was to simple green the bottum and spray it off (dirty job).
Anyway, I'm looking forward to learning the details of this vehicle with everyone's help on here, and hope to meet as many of you as possible in the Charleston area.