Well I'm nearly finished with the 100K service on the '00 Disco II I bought in February. I've been driving it since I bought it, but getting old fluids and maintenance items switched out was priority one, as truck came with no service history.

The only important item I have left to do is the differential pinion seals, but I'm having a hard time finding them. Anyone know of anywhere that doesn't charge as much as the seal costs in shipping? I was hoping for local, but no dice.

I needed to do the service on the cheap, so I used Rockauto parts where I was able. They have a brand "Uro Parts" which had dirt cheap valve cover gasket, tranny pan gasket, oil pan gasket and lots of other parts. Seemed like quality parts, though I can't attest to their longevity just yet. No leaks after replacing them all.

Plugs I used were Bosch Super Plus coppers, I used one notch colder plugs since most my driving is sustained highway or city driving. No short trips, so not much of a chance for deposits to build up. I figure the colder plug may help prevent pre-ignition / detonation, or it might not do anything at all. Who knows, but it can't hurt. Copper plugs perform well, but I'll have to go in and replace them every 30k, which I don't mind. Anyone know if our ignition is a waste-spark setup?

Damn Rockauto had the wrong plug wires listed for my model year. I found a set on closeout for $12 or something stupidly cheap, but they were for an older distributor equipped model. I harassed them and got them to credit me the cost of the plugs, so I ended up with a free set. I made them work by bending the brass contacts roughly into the same sized "snap" fitting as the stock plugs, and they work fine. I did order another (proper) set, however, this time a set of nice magnetic core wires on closeout that were a little more $$. Will switch them out when they come in, even though the current (wrong) set is working great.

The valve cover gasket was easily the biggest headache as you have to remove all the accessories, intake and such that are in the way. Upon taking off the SAI crap, I made the decision it was not going back on--- there's too much crap in there that makes it difficult to service the engine. I spent more time fighting the SAI parts than anything. All the vacuum hoses (other than brake vacuum booster) seemed related to SAI (they go from a vacuum reservoir, to vacuum switch, to SAI valves), so that freed up more space. I took a cut-off wheel to most the SAI pipes as they were practically welded on. I still have some pieces and parts I can sell to some poor sucker in California who has to have them. No emissions here, I will either live with the SES light, or rig up a resistor and set of relays to give the ECU what it wants for the first few seconds after start-up. The SES light is more an annoyance than anything, and the engine is quite happy without the SAI. And people riding with me no longer ask what the vacuum cleaner sound is under my hood when the truck starts.

Found a tensioner pulley on Rockauto for like $12. It's a nice solid steel unit that should last the life of the truck, unlike the plastic POS that was there from the factory. My truck already had a steel (perhaps a recall item, think there was one related to an idler pulley) idler pulley that looked rather new under the A/C compressor. My other idler pulley (near the tensioner) was howling like a stuck pig and needed to go. I was a bit at odds on what to do with that one, as Rockauto and no place local seemed to carry it, despite its seemingly common size. Again, I couldn't justify spending $10 to ship a $15 idler pulley, I suppose that is the cheapskate in me.

A few weekends back I was under the hood of my buddy's 2003 Grand Cherokee (4.0L I-6) and happened to notice that his idler pulley looked an awful lot like mine. I did some researching and discovered that a Grand Cherokee idler pulley is 76 mm x 17mm (hub) x 30-something mm. Same dimensions but 6mm taller than the 70mm one on the Rover. Cherokee uses a 6-rib belt, so the pulley is a bit skinner, but not so much that the belt doesn't rest comfortably on it with room to spare. Long story short, I bought a $10 pulley at O'Reilly's that worked just peachy. The Jeep pulley comes with a bushing to make the pulley into a smaller hub that fits the Jeep bolt-- you simply don't use the bushing, and the 17mm hub is the exact same as the Rover pulley. I surmise you could use two of the Jeep 76mm pulleys in place of the 70mm and 80mm Rover idler pulleys and end up with roughly the same pulley circumference. Either way the 6 extra mm of height on that one pulley made absolutely no observable difference in installation or operation. My Rover is finally quiet now and the neighbors can no longer tell when I leave home and come back by the sound of my idler pulley howling.

Auto trans needs a couple more fluid refreshes, as I was only able to get 4 quarts out and back in, despite also changing the filter. Like an idiot, I forgot to put the magnet back in the pan after getting it nice and sealed up tight (with new gasket). So I stuck some huge cow-magnet (the kind they swallow and **** out to remove nails and such) on the outside of the pan.. It's stuck there good and hasn't fallen off yet.. But when I do the next fluid change, back in will go the magnet. FWIW, I found a killer deal on Synthetic ATF, even sweeter deal if you have Amazon Prime, which I don't. .

Before the fluid and filter change, my transmission used to behave erratically when engaging / disengaging the lockup converter clutch. The trans has always been really aggressive on upshifts (likes to up-shift early) in the "Normal" mode (gets a bit better in sport mode) and it would commonly lock up the torque converter while I was still trying to coax some decent acceleration out of the thing. Whenever it would lock up the converter clutch (in 3rd or 4th gear) while I had the throttle planted a good deal, it would all the sudden change it's mind, and give up on the idea. So the RPM's would come down for a half second, then the TCC lets go, back up goes RPM in a quick cycle. It was really disturbing because it wasn't the smoothest operation in the world, certainly didn't seem normal. I found myself having to shift down into 3rd gear when accelerating to highway speeds to prevent this (which it didn't entirely as the 3rd gear lockup sequence would still do it).

For some reason that's gone away after the fluid/filter change. When the ECU decides it's time for the torque converter lockup, it does it's thing with no hesitation, acceleration be damned. It takes a brief stab of the throttle to get it out, just like it should. I think the aggressive upshifts is in part due to our high elevation here, which saps the engine of a great deal of power. So our shift points would be a lot different than someone driving at sea level. I'm not sure how much adaptation is built into the shift logic, as it seems pretty persistent on upshifting quick and early.

Before the 100k service, my drivetrain had a noticeably whine or "howling" to it. Sounded a lot like straight cut bevel gears in a differential (non-hypoid). Not terribly loud, but noticeably present. I just chalked it up to normal drivetrain noise, as I've never driven a full-time 4wd vehicle; I just assumed it was the differential, presumably underneath me in the transfer case making its normal sound.

When I changed the transfer case fluid, that noise all but went away. My Rover is now the smoothest, quietest ride I've ever driven or been in. Simply put it's whisper quiet (aside from the subdued V8 rumble under the hood when you're on the go-pedal), and smooth as silk. I love this vehicle even more, there's an air of quality and over-engineering present that I've just not found in other vehicles.

Despite the many recommendations, I couldn't get myself to use 90w-140 gear oil. If you've ever seen how that stuff flows on a cold winter morning, even the most thick-oil diehards would be reluctant to use it in a cold-weather climate. It literally comes out like molasses.. I switched the manual transmission fluid in my '85 F-250 to straight 90W GL-4 gear oil and it's a major pain to shift gears for the first 10 mins or so on a real cold morning.

Amsoil sells a product I've used before with great success, a 75W-110 gear oil. I couldn't stomach the costs for Amsoil (or any top-tier synthetic for that matter), so I sort of concocted my own. I bought 4 quarts of Supertech 75W-90 Synthetic (about $5 a quart at Wally world) and a gallon jug of non-synthetic 90W-140 and mixed them. I ended up with something in between and it worked out great. Seems to flow decent at ambient temps, and will provide a little extra cushion at high temps. The 75w-90 came out like regular motor oil out of the bottle, it was worlds different than the consistency of the 90w-140. I think I got the best of both worlds (debatable, sure, but can't hurt), and the now-quiet driveline tells me I must have done something right.

I still have to do the differentials but said pinion seal is holding me up. They're the only thing leaking on my Rover now. Pretty soon the underneath will actually be DRY and I can park in my driveway again. Hallelujah!

Also planned is a switch to a GM-style thermostat. I have a few thermostats (I have 160, 180 & 195* stats) left over from a supercharged 3800-series II GM V6 that I was building a while back. I'm going to fabricate my own thermostat housing and use the write-up(s) posted on several sites on how to configure the coolant hoses for this. I bought the BMW coolant hose on Rockauto for a whopping $4, but it didn't include the plastic quick-connects I would have had to cut off.

Front driveshaft still needs to be replaced as it has the OEM non-serviceable unit. Normally I would have made it the first priority, but it's clearly a new(ish) shaft. Judging by the welded transmission case, and blast damage on and around the transmission, some previous owner had the ill-fate of having the shaft fall apart on them at speed. I'm sure glad someone else ate that cost, and even though they welded the transmission case, someone did a good job with the welding and it's a rock solid repair. I know I've got at LEAST a few thousand miles left out of the replacement shaft, likely years, but I won't try my luck for that long.

Coolant flush will take place with replacement thermostat. No overheating issues at all on this rig, and the coolant (pink in color, dexcool perhaps?) looks brand new with absolutely no visible contaminants in it. I don't know if these engines don't get the coolant dirty, or if possibly this is a sign that someone recently did a headgasket. I'm hoping for the latter. I'm going to switch it out for some (silicate-free) Pentofrost SF. I love their coolant products and have used them in all my previous vehicles with great success. They have a formula to suit nearly every OEM coolant type, plus they don't have the same OAT as Dexcool, which is a known plasticizer (softens plastics and gaskets).

Couple hard plastic hoses broke off while I was doing valve covers, I'm going to replace all these eventually as they are garbage. So are the OEM style hose clamps, I've never seen these before and was a bit perplexed when I saw them.

I lubed all grease fittings I could find, but there's a good possibility I've missed some. Can someone tell me where all the grease fittings that need regular greasing are?

Lots of other little things I plan to do that will eventually get done-- Power steering flush, brake fluid flush, Seafoam induction cleaning, probably a few things I'm missing.

All-in-all this vehicle has held up remarkably well, though it's relatively low-mileage at 112k presently. I'm using Castrol 5w-50 Synthetic oil for the summer as the inside of the valve cover was gooped up something fierce. Figure the synthetic may help clean things, but I used it primarily because I already had it. When it comes time to actually BUY oil, I'm going to use a 5w-40 or 15w-40 diesel rated oil, depending on the season it'll be used in. Walmart has a great deal on Chevron Delo 5w-40 Synthetic and I really like Chevron oils. I found some AC Delco Ultraguard Gold filters on clearance for about a $1 a pop at Rockauto. These things are years old, but I took one apart and it's mint inside. The filter size is the larger PH8A (in Fram terms) variant which fits just fine.

This site is a fantastic resource, and I appreciate everyone's efforts in putting together the how-to's, service suggestions, etc. I chose not to go through the service items verbatim, rather I substituted parts / brands / etc. with the emphasis on doing this as inexpensively as possible. Seems like I made out okay, though time will tell. Love the Rover, and hope to keep it running as long as possible.

I would appreciate any input or suggestions on what else I might do service-wise, anything I forgot, alternative sources for [cheap] parts, etc. I know some might not agree with cost cutting (there seems to be an emphasis on not cheaping out, or buying the best, most quality part available at whatever the cost), but that's a conscious decision I made, having taken all the info available to me in consideration, and knowing well the types of headaches that cheap parts can cause.

For anyone interested, here's a list of the parts I used (some are generic items like fuses that don't necessarily apply to the work I did):

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Cool story bro.