Hey all, I am 100% new to Land Rover so I hate to say it but I think for the first little while I will be acting a little like your younger brother, lots of questions, annoying questions, pleas for help and advice, looking for reassurance and making a ton of mistakes. That is worse case scenario. I do hope to make a few friends, learn a lot and hopefully somewhere in the midst of my Land Rover journey, actually be able to help someone else out. I am supposed to, weather permitting pick up a 2001 Disco 2 SD V8 Auto,( I tried so hard to find a Diesel with manual tranny or at least the v8 with a manual tranny but no luck) Its Originally American and then brought to Canada and has 240,000KM on it. It looks to be in very good shape, no rust, service records from day 1 and I will be the 3rd owner. It was owned by a family first, a single lady second and I am assuming it has never left pavement. I think it is bare bones as it has no sunroofs, but she did say it has 6pack cd and there is wood trim. Anyways That's a quick intro, any questions just ask, I will and here is to what I hope to be a great forum. Cheers guys and Take care.

 

Welcome! There's a laundry list of things to look for before signing on the dotted line and if you're not familiar with Rovers, don't skip out on hiring a mechanic to do a once over. Here's a few for starters:

-When were the Head Gaskets replaced? If there's no documentation, assume it'll need it & that's $1-3K.
-Check the front prop shaft. If it doesn't have 4+ grease zerks, it'll need to be upgraded.
-Get a CARFAX if you haven't already. Look for accidents.

Happy hunting!

 

Welcome to the Land Rover family my friend.

I'll jump right into the good stuff.

1) check the front drive shaft to make sure it has been rebuilt with zerk fittings so you can grease it. If it hasn't been rebuilt yet then that should be your first project, because if that fails while driving you are looking at a new transmission.

2) get yourself an "ultragauge". It will give you real time data and allow you to read and clear trouble codes. Do you have any warning lights on?

 

Welcome to the Landy clan. Best advice I got, and took- read up first! Get as much info as you can, as it seems like you are doing. Have only been in the 'clan' about a month myself and with that little experience can say that I'm always spending a little spare time working to get the DiscoLady up to excellent running condition, and even at that, I frickin' love driving this truck. Mrs. jamestfl has asked why our perfectly good, very low mileage, 2 y/o Passat sits in the lot so much. I have previously driven Wranglers and a Grand Cherokee, and nothing comes close to how much I enjoy driving the Landy, when she'll cooperate, of course. So yeah, welcome aboard. Best advice:
1) Ultragauge
2) front prop shaft
3) remainder of 90k (mi., not km) service
4) Enjoy!

 

Climb a freaking mountain with that thing.

Welcome to the clan.

 

I am a member of BMW forums, Saab forums and VW forums, as you can tell I love my cars. I can sure as hell tell from the responses so far that this is going to be a kick-*** friendly forum with everything I will ever need to keep the beast roaring! Thanks guys. Well picked her up today, passed safety with flying colors only needed a $500 suspension part, need to look up what it was, but beast drives like a dream, My wife had to ask if it was running the engine is so quiet. The front and rear bumpers both have cracks in them so I will need to do something, the headliner is sagging so will be replacing that once weather warms up, no sunroofs, sounds like a good thing from what I have heard on here, guessing it might be called a hardtop? Its all in miles so it took some getting used to as being Canadian I am KPH. Drove it 160km home and everything sounds and feels nice. I have all history from birth, I cant see anything in regards to the driveshaft, the u joints with the oil nipples or whatever that is, could be done, will check in morning. Two lights on in the cluster, SRS and check engine, which owner said has been checked out and has been on for a year with no ill effects, any ideas guys? There is also some oil leaking from the valve cover, to be fixed. It says that the head gasket was done in 08, say'" coolant leak from front timing cover, while removing timing cover sump tube timing cover broke. correction: replace timing cover and gaskets for leak for a total of $1400. how long should that last and what causes the head gasket to go on the v8 anyways? It is the SD but has 6 cd changer and wood trim so some goodies. She has been using synthetic oil, I will need to find out what is the best to use, will be using only the best materials on it.


Also, will be needing some new parts, additions like bull bars, lighting, bumpers etc, Being in Canada I hope there is a good used parts dealer in Ontario, but when it comes to new parts, what are the best brands for land rover add on's the company that makes the best of the best that everyone uses. Also what are some of the must haves for the Disco II I want it done up but I will not make it tacky, just tough as hell and running like a well oiled machine.

 

You'll find a lot of good info in the stickies section of the forum on the top of the D2 section.

If you are mechanical you are in for a treat, if you have lots of spare money to spend that's always an option too.

You'll find out about all sorts of quirks that come with land rovers and many British vehicles in time haha.

First thing I would recommend is going through DiscoMike's 60k service in the sticky section to get started.

Also get yourself a scanner that can read obd2 codes and ABS. You will most likely need it. I use a Autel AL 619 (best price for the quality)

Also don't use synthetic oil. These engines are prone to leakage and can use the thicker oil. Down here in Cali I use 10w-40 with a m1-301 filter.

Best of luck!

Edit: Atlantic British is an excellent new part supplier and there are a ton of land rover dismantlers to call on.

If you need any inspiration for what add ons to get watch some camel trophy videos! Haha

 

For Oil please see https://landroverforums.com/forum/sh...399#post445399

Head gaskets fail prematurely due to overheating or slipped liners beating on them. Otherwise i'd say they last on avg 100-120K Km.

Best brands??? There are as many opinions as there are members on this forum but if you want to know about something more specific (lift kit, bumpers, etc) that would help.