Well, I've had it!

My Discovery is the biggest unforgiving, wasteful, time consuming, POS money pit on the planet. No matter how much patience, love and caring I bestow upon this vehicle it always gives me the finger.

Yesterday my XYZ switch went belly up. Okay, I know it's going to be a PITA but I make the time and dig in. Turns out one of the bolts that holds the switch onto the transmission case is so rusted from the A/C condenser drip hole that even with plenty of penetrating oil and kid gloves the head snapped right off.

So now I have only one hole to mount up my new $320 XYZ switch. Tapping the hole where the bolt snapped is a complete impossibility from the underside of the truck - no way to get a drill in there. Heck, it would be hard even with the transmission OUT of the vehicle.

F THIS TRUCK.

 

Sorry to hear of your dilemma but it is a 13+ year old truck. If you use the search facility you'll see my old post regarding extending and re-directing the A/C drain tube away from the XYZ switch which unfortunately results in your problem. If it's the original XYZ switch 10+ years of service is pretty good going IMO and there is a simple fix for refurbishing the old XYZ switch which probably takes a hour or two longer than replacing it with new.

 

I say step back and take a time out vs throwing in the towel over one silly bolt. **** happens no matter what the brand of vehicle. Age and the Environment have a lot to do with fasteners and their condition (Yes I know the AC Drains don't help either).

Did it break of flush with the transmission? Or did it leave a little knub? You can get some pretty short extractors, or a 90 angle drill as well. I say just calm down and take some time to attack it differently.

Dunno how many times I've attempted to do a quick repair only to have it take up most of the day over something silly.

I recently installed some TerraFirma Rocker Guards with steps and while the drivers side maybe took me 30min with zero issues the right side took me 2.5hr. All because my 99 D2 is equipped with ACE and they mount a little sensor to the body right where the Rocker Guards would sit. Sounds like all you do is just unbolt the sensor, and remount it huh? WRONG.. The thing is on there with some sort of serious pop rivet/tamper proof fasteners and it took me an hour per rivet/bolt to get the heads broken off using a small chisel, a sledge hammer, and a hand saw......

I should have been done in 1hr tops and instead half my day went poof. I've also done a simple brake job on my inlaws Hyundai Santa Fe turn into an all nighter when I broke or stripped off 2 to 3 lugs per wheel as someone over-tightened them at Discount Tire several days earlier. Leaving me with a vehicle that couldn't go anywhere, broken/stripped lugs/lug nuts at 8PM at night.... The bad part was the next morning my inlaws were supposed to be heading out of town...

I had to find an auto parts store open till 10PM, grab what I needed, and work thru the night to get it done before they left. After that I will admit I cringed every time I saw another Santa Fe lol, but it honestly wasn't the vehicles fault. Someone at Discount had gone to town with the torque gun!

 

Sure, I know. But the damage to the front bolt of the XYZ switch occurred in the 12 years prior to my ownership, so I'm experiencing the result of poor engineering on the part of Rover. Again.

And while I have the full ability to rebuild the old XYZ switch I felt more comfortable with a new unit with zero miles which equates to new contact switches, new seals, and probably another 100K miles of service.

What am I talking about - another 100K miles of service in this truck? Yeah right.

 

Appreciate your post. Thing is, both of your circumstances were not the product of poor engineering - one was an optional add-on and the other was the result of an incompetent mechanic.

I'm just sick of getting my *** kicked every two weeks over things that just should never happen. I'm just about at the end of my damned rope.

 

You may be fine using just one of the 10mm bolts. Remember the only thing they do is keep the switch from rotating.

 

I wouldn't really call it poor engineering. Bolts break & switches wear out.

Poor engineering would be all the crappy air bag recalls lately, or a 2016 Ford Explorer having a throttle body seize up wide open throttle with only 4k on it (inlaws 47k new vehicle), or the shifter linkage falling off my 05 Jeep Wranglers causing my Jeep to slam into a wall because I thought it was in Park when it was really in N.

I quickly added it up, I've owned 15 Land Rover's, 3 Jeeps, 5 Mitsubishi Montero's, 1 Nissan Xterra, 1 Ford FX4 F150, and 2 Hummer H3's (Adventure & Alpha models). Out of all of those my Land Rover's were the easiest to work on and the most reliable. The Nissan Xterra was a lemon, FX4 F150 had the $$$$ issue with broken spark plugs in the heads, and the Wranglers were a massive joke on/off road.

Land Rover's are a different breed for sure, but engineered garbage I don't think so.

My 02 Kalahari has nearly 230K on it and all original equipment works like the day it was sold.

 

It's pretty close tolerances, between the trans and the body tunnel, not sure if even the smallest off-set drill (blue point) I've ever seen would work. I believe, like previously mentioned...one bolt may do the trick. However, if you are hell-bent on making it right...pull the carpet on the drivers side, cut an access hole in the tunnel and drill it out. Just be very careful centering the drill bit, if you get off center you'll end up doing more damage than good.

I know this is a little late, but whenever I run into a bolt that won't come out of aluminum, I heat the bolt cherry red, a couple times. The heated up bolt expands enough to break its bond with the aluminum as it cools. Wait until the bolt is completely cooled, spray the living **** out of it with WD 40 and then try loosening the bolt.

Side note...while discussing poor LR engineering...just wait until you have to remove the radiator someday. Talk about a ****ed up design...lol.

Brian.

 

I haven't replaced an XYZ yet, so I'm not familiar with the switch and how it mounts, but I'd at least consider using the single bolt and silicon sealant to hold it in place.

 

old cars are hit and miss. some new cars are too. lol. my sister has an 02 xterra thats been running strong for over 10 years and she has done almost no maintenance on it at all and hardly any oil changes and she over heated the engine a few times this last summer and there was a nest in the airbox. lol and it still runs like a tank and it just wont die. four wheel drive always works, dad pulls stumps with it because his 06 ridegline cant pull like hers xterra does. granted hers is the 4 cylinder xterra too. my 2000 jetta has been awesome with 235k miles on it. granted i replaced multiple things on it and head gasket twice due to timing belt brake and second was a autozone water pump locked up and ate the belt. it still runs great today. best friends GF had a jetta that was always having problems. Also cant say i dont blame you either with these D2's lol but its just one of those cars thats been on my bucket list to own and well, its gone ok so far and almost one year of ownership.

maybe try another D2,

or not.