Been slowly getting my 2003 disco back to working order with A LOT of help from these forums... but my interactions with some mechanics have got me scratching my head today and would love to have some opinions on the matter.

Long story short, when I first bought my disco in July of 2016 (with 105K miles) I had a reputable shop replace the timing cover gasket (w/water pump), the oil pan gasket, and valve cover gaskets. This was in addition to many things I managed to do myself. Besides the odd gremlin or break lines needing fixed it has been a dream for the few miles I've been able to put onto it.

Just a few weeks ago (now with 110K miles) I noticed my oil/coolant levels were slowly declining and figured a shop could do a better job at finding the leaks than I could. I finally got it into a different shop (not the one above) to do a de-greasing / leak identification so that I could get a list of things to replace in the future. As a budding self initiated knuckle buster (read: not a real mechanic) I figured this would set me in the right direction. You could imagine the surprise on my face when they say that those same three things gaskets were leaking to the tune of ~$1300 in parts/labor.

I got in touch with the shop I used for the 2016 replacements and of course its outside their 1 year / 12K mile labor warranty, but they're looking into parts warranties... we'll see how that goes.

Depending on the parts the first shop used is there any reason that those gaskets would fail in 2 years with ~5K miles?
Do I have any leg to stand on if the original shop's warranty has expired?
Does this mean I finally get my "welcome to the club" land rover pin?

The funny part is that I think the answer to all of those questions is "no."

In any case, thanks to everyone for enabling my past lurking!

 

My guess is that they didn't find the actual leak and did find what they could charge you $1300.00 for. I had that done two years ago at the most expensive LR specialist in town and it was $800 with a new water pump and radiator.

Get another opinion now that it is clean.

 

Let's start simple :

Oil consumption can as simple as a clogged PCV - that is on the passenger side valve cover.

1. Note your oil level photo or however you want to do it
2. Pop the hose off the valve cover
3. Fire some carb cleaner down there - if it is clogged it will puddle at the top.
4. If it does let it trickle down and hit a few more times.
5. Hose back on and drive around
6. Check your oil - it may take a couple of tries

This corrected my 04 but the oil drop was slow maybe a quarter liter a month

Coolant is tougher, as it can be internal or external and both can be hard to find.

But start easy, put a big piece of CLEAN cardboard under your Disco. Get your Disco up to temp in the driveway, have a good flashlight and visually inspect for leaks. Rear of the engine, throttle body heater, passenger floor (heater core issue) check all your hoses visually. Shutdown and check your rad and flex your hoses you are looking for small leaks and loose hoses. Now look underneath, is the cardboard still clean any drips ect. If there no drip marks leave it for a few hours, and check again. With luck you will see something and have a better idea where to lookup top.

Also check you reservoir they have been know to leak.

I am assuming your oil looks normal and has no indication of anti freeze contamination.

 

I just did an engine-out full 4.6 V8 rebuild with all new gaskets.

I did all of the work myself. Took my time. Did everything right.

It still leaks.

It's British. If they don't leak, they're empty.