Hello, I just recently signed up to the forum. I have been lurking around for a while, but figured it is time to post.


I have wanted a Discovery for years... as long as they were available new. I never bought one in the past.


We own a vacation home in Lake Arrowhead CA and from time to time it snows up there. We sold our 4WD SUV last year and have been relying on a BMW 5 series with X Drive to get us up to the home on snowy days. Around Christmas time, we had 1 foot of snow overnight and I knew the BMW would not do.


I found a 2003 Disco online, bought it and have been fixing issues and updating it every since.


I am a hands on type of person and do the repairs to all of my vehicles. This "ride" has been fun so far.


When I test drove the car, the 3 amigos were singing their song!! The dealer we bought the car from replaced a module and that fixed the problem. When I got it home, the check engine light promptly let me know that I just bought a British car!!! I hooked my tester up and figured out (thanks to this forum) that a Hyundai purge valve would fix the problem... it did...


When I got the car, it leaked like the Exxon Valdez... it also had a bad exhaust leak. Both leaks were easily fixed by tightening up the oil pan and tightening up and replacing a missing bolt in the passenger exhaust manifold to cat converter connection.


I could go on and on about other small fixes I made... but I am VERY impressed about this cars ability.


Last weekend I decided to take my son out for some offroad "playing". Living in SoCal, we are blessed with weather and plenty of places to go playing off road. (Not so blessed with taxes, traffic and cost of living)!!. We went on what they call the Willow Creek Jeep trail and quickly found ourselves off the beaten path. The trail got worse and worse. We found ourselves entering into an area they consider "Black" trails. They designate trails like Ski Slopes here in SoCal....Green easy..blue harder.. black... HARD! The disco did not let down and absolutely made a believer out of me!!!


We were following a Jacked up Jeep (Rubicon) with proper tires. Before he took off on the adventure, he let down the air in his tires and had all of his "proper" gear to go off roading. We did nothing, but drive and enjoy.


And enjoy we did... I am simply amazed at the performance of the Discovery... We never got stuck or hung up (Oh wait a minute.. maybe hung up a little on the passenger running board), and was able to keep up with this "prepared" Rubicon everywhere it went. The factory traction control system is AMAZING. It really actually works and works well!! I have been "wheeling" many times in the past with 4WD vehicles that would just spin one front tire and one back tire. The disco is smart and modulates the traction where it is needed!! Simply brilliant!!!


Anyhow, not to be too wordy.. but I am glad to be onboard as part of this forum. We plan to do many modifications and do plenty of wheeling here in SoCal.


Cheers!!!

 

Welcome!, this forum is definitely informative and fun.

 

Amen! Welcome to the forums. Video please. Never had that kind of adventure yet.

 

Thanks!! I will take some video next time. I am planning to go play again this weekend.

 

Welcome aboard. Sounds like you found a good one sans a lot of issues. Excellent vehicles and relatively easy to maintain/repair. I like mine a lot.
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https://landroverforums.com/forum/di...service-29020/

If you don't already have an aftermarket gauge to monitor your coolant temps, this should be your first investment. If your OBD device has live data mode then you can employ that until you get something more function-specific. In my experience, the factory unit begins to come off normal at 240-ish so it's purpose is to inform you that you've just been Had. You want it operating under 200 deg and may yet need the updated-spec 180 F thermostat. It will be gray or black in color.

 

Or white in my case.

Please do take the advice on having a good way to monitor coolant temps etc. I use a ScanGageII as some others do and many favor the Ultragage.
......

 

Unfortunately my OBD scan tool is just the cheapie. It does not do live scanning.


I would like to add temperature, oil pressure, and volt gages. Does anyone sell a dash mount unit? I would like a gage pod that mounts on the dash above the radio area.

 

Well... maybe just sans of major issues... It still has kept me busy..


Before I bought the car I did a check of the coolant system to see if their was exhaust gases in there. I have a quad gas meter that senses exhaust gas in coolant down to PPM level. It passed with no problem!!


I did have to repair the heater. It would not heat. I took the hoses off the heater core and flushed back and forth with water.. It was plugged so bad water would not pass through at first. finally it came clear, I hooked the hoses back up, changed the coolant, then purged all the air out. Now heat and no problem.


The rear driver side door would not open from the outside...it would open from the inside though. My wife figured it was the child lock (she did not know...), and she shut the door!!! Now the door would not open from the inside or outside!! I had to unbolt the door and then slip a screwdriver in to switch the child lock and then open. The repair was fairly simple... the rod from the outside handle to lock mechanism needed to be adjusted.. basically shortened. Now it works great.


Now I am slowly working on doing the major service. I have changed the oil to 15W40 Rotella. Changed the power steering fluid, changed the air filter and cleaned throttle body.


Next I need to change the sparkplugs, plug wires, transmission service, gear oil changes and brake fluid change.


So far... it seems to be a friendly and simple vehicle to work on.

 

this company GlowShift Performance Gauges & Pods ? Automotive Boost Gauges, Pyrometer puts out a really nice product. all the accessories are there too for mounting bezels, wiring, etc. The "white, 7-color series" is affordable and looks sharp. the "maxtow" is even better.


You can get the water temp sender adapter
32 MM or 1 1/4 Inch Water Sender Attachment
through them as well; it is the 1.25 inch version, splices into the upper coolant hose. Roverware.us sells a oil-pressure sender adapter that splices into the factory oil pressure sender and is an easy tap. don't do the oil filter sandwich adapter, its not necessary.


here is a dash mount unit



I highly suggest purchasing the extended wiring harness and these expandable fuses (ATC for D2) for splicing into power. With these added, wiring the gauges becomes a cinch.