Hello all, I previously owned a 1996 Discovery, Manunal Transmission, but traded it in on a truck in 1999. Loved the vehicle but needed a truck.

I have the opportunity to purchase a 2004 SE with 211,000 miles on it mostly highway commuting. Has a ding in the left rear fender but nothing major. Appears to run good. Drivers seat doesn't move forward or back and the lady sad it keeps blowing the fuse. I can probably pick it up for $3000 but the miles really concern me. Is that too much for this rig? What's the life expectancy of the motor? Is it a ford motor or LR? Are rebuild kits available?

Any advice would be appreciated?
Regards

 

Actually you have what started out as as buick motor, bored and stroked to its max. in its current state.
To correctly rebuild it you would have to do a lot of machine work including replacing the steel sleeves.
Your best choice would be to buy one done from one of several supplies they runs around 6-8k plus your core. And installation.

 

Sounds like a lot of money for a truck with such high mileage. You would have a lot of preventative maintenance ahead of you even if the engine checks out to be good before you could consider this a reliable vehicle. Unless she has detailed service records to bring you up to speed on what has been done recently. In many ways these cars are like airplanes, most parts have predictable shelf life's and end up on borrowed time when you don't know how old some of the parts are.

 

That's a shedload of mileage in anyones book and particularly on a 4x4 of 2004 and a V8 to boot. The problem is most cars only have one axle and a limited transmission train whereas the 4x4 has multiple boxes and axles and hence bearings to wear out. IMO you will be getting an expensive project for $3K or even zero bucks and you'll sink mega bucks into maintenance parts and servicing. Personally I wouldn't even go there but that's an individual choice.

 

That truck has averaged 20k miles/year, likely heavily highway driven, which is good. Mine is getting close to 200k, good maintenance and highway miles will always be better than soccer-mom miles and neglect, or off-road/towing miles and abuse.


If the truck has been well maintained, and is mostly highway use, it's likely a good truck for miles to come. The downside? Very hard to sell if you choose to, not many people will look at a vehicle with those miles. If everything works however and it is in good condition it is hard to find a respectable driver in many areas for under $3k, especially a good AWD truck.


Do some research, look at the normal stuff that wears out, if it's good I'd say it's worth serious consideration.

 

Thanks for the reponse and what i was thinking. I still have to go over the vehicle with a come to check out the driveline and will definitely do a compression check. Whats the compression supposed to be on this engine?

 

Sounds like your mind was already made up...only responded to the 1 post that told you to go for it. Given that, make sure you have it checked out by a good Indy mechanic...could give you some good bargaining info that will likely more than cover the cost of their time. Best of luck either way.

 

If it made it to 211k miles, I would suspect a lot of the major stuff has already been fixed. That being said, some things (like the power steering pump) might be coming due for a second replacement.

If it were me, I'd keep looking around. Depending on what part of the country you live in, or if you don't mind driving a few hours to get one that's not in your local area, you can find a much better deal than that.

I just bought a 2003 HSE7 last week, 81k miles, $3900. Here in Colorado, the Disco II's are pretty common.

Good luck.

-Tim

 

Wow, I'm still at 68k on my 01.

 

I definitely haven't made up my mind whether to buy the vehicle. I don't really need one but a freinds mom has it and want's to sell it. During my first look she said she wanted $5K. LOL That's not going to happen given the miles and NADA clean retail is only $4K. The other down side is it appears Land Rover has pulled out of AK so any parts may have to come from online...not sure what NAPA carries for these rigs. It was a commuter and all the miles are mostly highway. At the moment I'm only thinking about offering at most $2500 or maybe $2K if and only if the compression is really good and theres no major leaks. For a V8 it didn't seem that peppy. My girl friends Montero, pushing 200K with a V6 seems peppier but it also doesn't ride as nice. The DII just feels like a stouter rig. Being in AK the heated seats are nice as well.