hello,
I'm thinking of going to look at a 2000 disc II with 102000 miles on it...sunroofs don't work but everything else looks ok...no rust.....never had one before and from what I see a lot of things go wrong that cost a lot of money....just looking for a second vehicle to take fishing and stuff....he wants 2500....any help here would be appreciated...thanks

 

Price could go lower. No rust is a plus save you $1600++ replacing the rear chassis already. Sunroof temporay silicone fix $6, Low miles still sounds good. Ultras Gauge to check codes before you buy, $70.00
Taking a rover fishing . . . Priceless!

 

if you have a scanner, take it with you first and foremost!!!! The sunroof issue is common, take a water hose and drench it but it can be fixed easily. I had the same situation in mine. Check the coolant color, level, and smell. Reach your finger all the way around the block with it cool and see if there is a coolant leak (sign of blown headgasket) usually around the rear or front of the engine. Check for service records. Look under the vehicle at the transmission pan for a big dent (sign of propshaft failure) look to see that the driveshafts have grease points and are properly greased, especially the front one. If it's the factory driveshaft, it won't have grease zeros and will need to be replaced asap!!!! Look on inside of wheels for signs of oil (sign of oil seal leak). These vehicles leak but can be dependable as hell if they get maintained properly.

 

They aren't that expensive to maintain just gotta be prepared for the unexpected when u start a job. They are tons of fun

 

That and it being a 2000 you can add the linkage and have a center differential lock so that's a plus in itself

 

I will toss in my .02

Price seems right to me but, they tend to be a little more pricey over in the Pacific Northwest.

What to look for:

1. Check front and rear brakes for wear, cost to replace rotors and pads if you do it yourself $200 ish (includes pads, and rotors)

2. While checking front and rear breaks, look for oil or grease the dust shields. This would be an indicator that the hub and bearing may need to be replace or the "O" ring needs to be replaced. Rear hubs if you do it yourself $250 (includes hubs, bearings, ABS sensor, and gear oil)

3. Coolant Pump, heads gaskets some of the other members already hit on what too look for. To replace the Coolant pump, about $100 (includes pump gasket and antifreeze)

4. get a code reader such as icarsoft LR2, about $180 on Amazon and check the codes before you buy

5. O2 codes, the O2 sensors are easy to replace and if you buy all 4, about $200

6. Amigos, well I am sorting mine out today and may cost as little as $30 (wire harness, wire lug, and shrink wrap)

7. all other stuff (i.e oil, tires) should be relatively standard stuff to maintain on any truck.

To be honest, I purchased my 01 and in the purchase price I assumed I would pay a certain amount to fix it. My total budget to date is $6,200. The break down is as follows

Vehicle Purchase $3,600.00
Tabs/Tax $460.65
Tools/ Parts/ Fluids
Interior/exterior bits from Bob $45.00
LED Lights $60.90
Tires $691.88
Tire Install/alignment $335.02
Rear Brakes $48.32
leather boots $29.49
Key Referb $9.95
Floor Mats $39.99
Code Reader $185.75
Anitfreeze $32.64
K&N Air $49.99
Wiper Blades $25.00
Water Wetter $9.99
Upstream O2 $30.00
Rear Wheel Cover $69.50
Wheel Bearings $196.11
Purge Solenoid Valve w Harness Wire $21.40
Diff Oil $105.22
Tranny Oil $95.90
Engine Oil/filter $106.56
3 amigos parts $30.00
Grand Total $6,279.26

 

Good advice from ole tricky dick. Best advice is use your best judgement too man. You are looking at a 17 year old vehicle. There are gonna be issues. You have to be honest with yourself if you are gonna fix em yourself or pay somebody else. If you are mechanically inclined or willing to learn, it will be great especially with no rust. I have $2500 from mine and probally have about another grand in it so far since my wife took my credit card for my fun stuff. If you are offering cash, you should be able to get it for around $2000-$2250. Just check everything out and make sure you feel comfortable with it. Drive it around a bit and see if the "3 amigos" come on. He might have reset em prior to you getting there. Go through all the gears and from high to low range and find a small hill and engage hdc (hill descent control), make sure the windows all work properly along with door locks and such.

 

If you are somewhat mechanically inclined, enjoy tinkering on vehicles in your spare time, have a cell phone with good coverage and use this vehicle primarily as a second vehicle...and you really, really, really want to own one of these Discovery's...then it may workout for you.

You're probably looking at a head gasket job in the near future, if one hasn't been done yet. And a few other deferred maintenence issues to address.

Truth be told...they surely have their quirks. I've never owned a vehicle that I constantly had to move my coffee cup to adjust the heater or radio or one that the coffee cup adjusted things for me, if I hit a bump...or a vehicle that l had to turn the fan all the way on high, before I could adjusted it slower...or a vehicle where l had to reach to Nebraska on such a short door to fine the inner door release...or a vehicle where you could barely reach your fingers far enough to open the secondary hood latch...or a vehicle that took a brain surgeons muscle memory for figuring out the "spread location" of all four window switches...or...okay...I guess that is enough about that...lol. But, if things like this don't bother you...it will not be an issue.

Good luck, with your decision.

Brian.

 

Perfect advice from everyone. If you are new to the Disco (as I am), study up as there are 1,000,000 things that there are to mess with.

If you are good with a wrench, good with research, and like to tinker, there are few vehicles that will be as much fun. It's not fast, will put you on the Greenpeace no-fly list, and will ALWAYS have something needing to be monkeyed with, but in my couple months, I couldn't be happier I took the plunge (despite having a 10+ year affliction with them).

If I can pile on with the good things to do, take a really good code reader and pull them down. If there is anything in there, or the owner says anything about it has overheated and they didn't do head gaskets, I personally would drop $1k off the price. It's not that the parts to do that stuff are off the reservation, but it takes a decent bit of time from what I've seen.

My all in budget was to be $7500 for a good looking and fully functional and reliable daily driverish machine. $10k was to be my fully "built" (if I decide to use it off road to any degree) budget over a couple years to be invested in doing that. I'm currently going to be a bit under the DD budget and am just having a blast, so I'd say go for it.

 

Another good way to check the head gaskets even if you don't see any fluid leaking is start cold and get your hand close to where the heads meet the block everywhere you can reach and feel for puffs of air escaping. Mine had a blown gasket on the outside edge of the #6 cylinder, not a terribly unsusual spot for a blowout but less common than the rear of the heads. I was able to negotiate a much lower price after making a huge deal about it ( which it is).