Just started hanging here recently. I have been looking for a newer Disco for a few months now and I found one that SEEMS decent. I never had a Land Rover before but I know cars failry well and this car looks pretty decent (from what I can tell). This is about the 5th truck I looked at and it is easily in the best shape of them all. The only thing is that it does have hight miles on it...112K; but apparently has had regular oil changes done.
Can any of you seasoned guys help me out with any advice as to what I might want to look at specifically? Its a 2004 SE.
Any help thoughts would be great.

 

Savanah Buzz has a very comprehensive answer to your question in the thread:
https://landroverforums.com/forum/di...-1997-a-48158/
and here is his advise:
Oh, little ones on the way?

I bought my 97 for $1750, 175K. It has dominated my life since then, gobbled up more available resources and time than you ever imagined. And it is not perfected yet. And it brought me to this forum. As far as what to look for, see our tech area under the D1 section of the forum for a brief list of things to look for.

Do not purchase this vehicle if you are not prepared to do most repairs yourself. An old "runner" (running condition) will need most everything slowly or all at once. I have owned all sorts of vehicles since the late 60's, including SUVs and 4WD, and this one is certainly in the class of "high maintenace". It is not a tires and oil changes kind of truck, but it may have been treated that way.

An older D1 can easily take $1000 in repairs fairly quickly. Not talking about new tires. Think battery, alternator, electric seat motors, water pump, radiator repair, several engine sensors, your own data reading code scanner, some U-joints, brake pads, some ramps to support the truck, wheel bearings, and plenty of oil, grease, ATF, and time to become enslaved to the RAVE, a fiendishly designed set of tech manuals that was written by Klingons.

If you have access to salvage yards the prices can be moderated a little with some bits of trim and such, there are also a number of dismantlers on this forum who sell posh pre-owned parts at vey reasonable parted out prices. On line sites, like Atlantic British and a number of others can sell you lots of new goodies.

If I was going with you, and looking for some of the worst problems, I'd pay attention to these and use them as negotiation points

1. Crawl under truck and look for grease and oil leaks. Check oil level, and look at dip stick for oil to be clean, and no burnt on varnish deposits on the stick. Look at tranny fluid dipstick and smell it. Should be red and clear. If dark, that's particles of the clutches. If smells like a burnt coffee pot, that would be a sign tranny is soon to need repair. Look at power steering fluid (driver side by radiator), should also be red and clear, it is also ATF. Should be half full. Look below it at steering box, should not be covered in grease or wet with fluid.

2. Turn on key but don't crank truck. Several lights should come on at the instrument cluster. Battery, check engine, ABS, airbag, oil, etc. When cranked they should go out. If they don't light, bulb could be blown, removed, or painted over. Oil light should go out in less than 5 seconds.

3. Take a code reader scanner with you. Plug in and check for MIL (check engine light status) and any codes. Watch coolant temp. Should start out as ambient and build up to say 180 - 195 F. If only goes to 130 - 150, there is no thermostat in the truck. If it goes beyound 210F at 20 minutes of idle, this time of year, maybe a problem. Drive truck and watch temps, again, should stay in the 195 - 205 range. A head gasket can make temps spike much higher, and all sorts of other issues. Listen for a gurgling sound of rushing wate under the dash. This is bubbles in the coolant circulating thru the heater core. Could be air, could be exhaust gas from bad head gasket.

4. If you want to check for head gaskets and are willing to spend $50, there is a chemical test you can buy from auto parts store that measures a sample of hot coolant and changes color if exhaust gas is in the coolant. Coolant can also go in the oil and look like a milk shake. You can look under the oil fill cap and if you see stuff that looks like light colored goo, could be oil has been contaminated at some point. Before truck heats up, open coolant container and look inside. Should be a clear green liquid antifreeze, and there should not be lots of tiny stuff floating in there. The particles swirling around indicate that "stop leak" has been applied to seal up a head gasket problem. A head gasket project is a $500 DIY cost, $1500 - $2000 at a shop, or up to $3500 at a dealer.

5. You'ld want to drive it, and cycle thru all the gears and thru the various positions of the locking CDL shifter on the console. Watch for a loud whine that goes away at speed when you let off the gas, can indicate a worn transfer case.

6. Sun roof leak will require roof liner be removed to make repairs, PITA. And it will continue to leak.

7. Ask what he uses for swivel grease. Any hesitation means he has no idea what you are talking about, and he has not greased the front CV swivel joints either.

8. While test driving and no one is near you on the road turn to the right or left while braking sharply, like an expressway exit ramp. You are hoping that the whole truck does not shake violently, which is called the Death Wobble, from worn suspension parts.

9. See that air conditioning works and makes cold air and truck does not overheat with it on.

10. Be prepared to fall in love with the vehicle and dedicate your life to its care and maintenance. They are easy to work on, fun to drive, get maybe 12 - 16 mpg, and are best not used as a daily driver if you have long commutes.

11. The whole owners and tech manuals, called the RAVE, are in links below.

12. Normally I would suggest a mechanical inspecton by a pro, which is worth the hour of time you'll pay for.

13. You can use www.statewidelist.com to search for all rovers in your state, grouped by metro area. Some say it is best to drive several before taking the plunge.

14. Listen to the engine for noises. Knocking when first started, ticking when running, etc. Ask what kind of oil he used ( bonus points for Shell Rotella 15W40), take off points for 10W30. May be an oil change sticker on windshield if he had a shop do it.

15. It is a 15 year old truck. Won't be new again. Seats are probably ripped and coved with a seat cover. Paint on the roof could be quite faded. Would be nice if all windows roll up and down smoothly. Would be nice if all doors locked and unlocked from the turn of the front driver door key and key fob remote you will want. Would be nice if electric seats move in all directions. Any service history on paper or atleast in a log book would be good. Look around the engine for joints with a thin blue line. That would be RTV sealant on a replaced gasket, sometimes sloppy repair, etc.

16. You'll have a great deal of fun with one of these. It won't be cheap to keep. But most on the forum think it is well worth the work. Rovers were put on the Earth to challenge you. How far you'll go, and what you'll do is up to you. Negotiate the best deal you can. Do not trust the temp gauge, it is way too slow to respond. Above 9:00 is trouble. See pix.

17. Be prepared for surprise and costs. Many new owners have head gaskets go in the first few days of ownership. As great as these trucks are, why would anyone want to sell one that is in good condition? But it does happen. One gal bought a D2 with 117 original miles for $2000, from an eccentric owner, garage kept.

18. Vehicles are pretty sturdy, around 4500 pounds. Tall in the saddle, this is no sports car. Tiny engine. Not a rocket ship. Loves mud and dirt and rocks and gravel and sand and wading in da water.


I don't think that there is much to add to his response.
Regular oil change is not the only thing that Discovery needs.
And one other thing is they really like gas and consume quite a bit of it. I had a Nissan Armda, which was given me a better gas mileage than my 2004 Disco.

 

Thanks halimi & buzz. I am going to print that out and bring it with me when I go back and road test the truck.

 

Dont let the miles scare you, the more the merrier.
That just means more things have already been replaced as most things on these trucks fail in the 80-90k range.

 

I bought my '04 Discovery SE with 140,000 miles at an auction. Turns out it has beaucoup problems, including head gasket repair which is in progress.

Heads are back from machine shop and started to torque down head bolts. Uh, oh, stripped out first hole. Not sure how to proceed from here after reading JE Robinson blog on this aluminum block casting problems.

Would like to fix problem so car can be driven, but don't know what to do about head bolts. Any thoughts are welcome

 

it appears from the plates and license frame you are in Fairfield county CT. There are no real LR indy mechs in the area that I know of: I live in lower fairfield County CT. The closest place is Holland's Garage in Guilford. If you are handy and have a place to work on it great. See if you can get the full service log via the current owner and LR of Darien. If the owner hesitates you make be sitting on a ticking wallet bomb.

 

Hi,
I bought a Discovery II with 96,000 on it. I bought it nearly dead as it had tons of Check Engine Light codes and bad head gaskets.

I would:

Look at the oil if possible after it was sitting all night. See if there is white milk looking stuff on the oil.

Start it up - take off the coolant cap. Let it idle until warm. No coolant should blast out of the overflow tank.

Get a code scanner and check for codes which may be present but have not lit up the CEL light yet.

Listen - for noises.
When driven for 5 miles - listen that there is not a valve tapping sound. Which could be a loose liner.

Make sure it shifts fine.

Check the transfer case - can it go into low range?

Make sure all the door locks work.

There should be no warning lights on.

Make sure the front drive shaft was replaced. Well, I guess you do that one on your own.

There is no easy way to look at the transmission fluid.

Maybe get a carfax on it - for sure.
Before you plunk down the cash.

 

bring it to a LR specialist pay them the money to check the truck out completely, this could be an expensive learning curve. Have an independent set of eyes look it over.