I'm looking at a 2003 DII and I looked at the front drive shaft, but I'm not sure if it has been replaced or not. My feeling is that it is not, but I found a grease fitting. There wasn't any play with the drive shaft. The owner says he does not know one way or the other. He seems like the kind of owner that would sign off on what ever a repair shop would say. The Disco has 70k miles. He says he's the original owner. I attached an image of a U-Joint. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Aloha,

C

 

The factory front prop shaft has one grease zerk at the joint with the front diff. If he's the original owner and doesn't know if the front shaft has been serviced, it has not and will need to be replaced or rebuilt soon. There should be a grease zerk on each u-joint. You can't test for play in the u-joints while the prop shaft is installed. I had no play at all in mine and when I took it out to replace it, it was near failure.

 

Thanks, the rest if seems to be in decent shape. Looks like I'll be picking it up.

 

You need to take a pic of the double U-joint or whatever it's called, nearest the transmission. That's the one that fails and takes out the tranny with it.

The double joint may look good, but you can't tell that it's failing just by looking at it. The grease gets baked out of it over thousands of miles, and it wears from the inside out. Before you know it, you're looking at a nice U-joint, next drive, it's in pieces with a hole in your transmission. At 70k, don't take the chance, that is the ideal mileage for it to occur.

 

definitely check the other end.
the dealer would not have rebuilt it they would have replaced it with a new one to the tune of like $800, I think he would have remembered that bill.

 

Ok, I checked the other end, no fittings. Now I just need to talk him down on price. My friend who is a mech looked at it for me and found a few things with the steering suspension that need to be replaced as well.

 

cogsley;

deduct $300 for a new shaft

 

>>>>>> 2003 LAND ROVER DISCOVERY - BLACK - 4WD <<<&lt

This is the vehicle I'm looking at.

 

Check the VIN against the known oil pump issue.

 

i find terms like "needs a tune up" possible wires, plugs or coils" and "runs great" to be oxymoron's.