I really like the truck. It's exciting to drive and it's like a burly bull dog. Ford and Chevy's are plain jane vehicles. This Rover has character. Rugged and tough.

I'm just trying to save $ in the long run.

 

Forgot to add, do you have a local dealer that you like to work with?
Get your feelers out there, talk to the dealer here in GR, tell them what you want, they will find one for you.
www.carmax.com is in North West Indiana off of I-94 in Burns Harbor, they will ship the car to you. It is a 3 hour drive from Ionia, US-131 South to I-94 West, past Benton Harbor and you are almost there.
You are working to hard for this truck, let the dealers work for you, they are desperate to make a sale.
Here is what you do, go to www.foxmotorgroup.com and look up the 29th street location, go talk to Jim Davis, tell him that I sent you and tell him what you are looking for.
They will either find one at auction or from another dealer, they will ship it to GR, you test drive it, settle on a price and then drive it home.
If you do not want that one then they will send it back to auction.
Take your time, if you buy with your heart you will no be happy, buy with your gut and you cant go wrong.
Also check out the repo lots, there are 3 that I know of here in town.
One in Wyiming on Chicago drive, one in Walker on Rememberance Rd, and one in Hudsonville.

 

Well your girlfirend might get pregnant, so dump her and be single, a asteroid might crash into earth and kill us all, so build a underground shelter, you can choke on carrots and hotdogs so dont eat.
Icecream makes you fat, so no desert.
Do you get my point?
Life is short, live it. You do not know what is going to happen tommorrow, your truck might last 300,000 miles with no problems, it might die tommorrow.
Open a savings account, put $10 per week in the savings account, more if you can, dont touch it.
If you need a new engine, then buy a new engine with that money. You want a cheesburger, dont use that money.
10 years from now take your wife on a nice vaction with that money.
You only have one life, live it.
Dont worry about the truck, its just a truck and you can always make more money.

 

The dealer will probably add $10k on to the price for mentioning Spike's name.

 

Spike is absolutely correct. If you worry about everything in life than your life becomes worrying, not living. I understand trying to save money but you'll lose money on your Disco by the time you replace it. Drive it and enjoy.

 

My take on cars.... I don't want a headache. My first car was a 89 Dodge Daytona, 2.5 litre 4 banger. Put 85,000 miles on it, towed bikes all the way to VA. No problems. Then I bought a 97 Nissan Altima..... not a single problem. I bought a new 2002 Z06 back in 2002 for that reason, low maintenance and pretty much problem free. I don't mind forking over $$ on maint but a whole new engine is absurd. I think LR nas a very bad design with that 4.6 engine.

I have it on my task list to get my 03 Disco corrected. For now I still have it and wil drive it as soon as it's fixed.

I'm not worried about my health issues, getting fat, choking, etc. I do have a concern about fixing lemons.

If it weren't for that TSB on the oil pump I'd keep the Rover for many miles to come.
For now.... I'll entertain the idea of selling it.

Should I use thicker (15w or 20w) oil or thinner oil to assist in achieving longer oil pump life?

 

I think that this whole issue with the 2003 engine, etc. is becoming more hype than reality. The Discovery is a great vehicle no matter what. The oil pump problems in the 2003 4.6 L when compared with problems that other vehicle owners face are no different. Recall these fiascos:
[ul][*]BMW 4.4 L V8, cylinder bore problem[*]GM Northstar headgaskets[*]Ford 4.0 V6 timing chains[*]Saab 2.3 L[*]VW 1.8 L Turbo and the 2.0 L Turbo[*]Toyota 3.0 L V6[*]Toyota 2.4 L in the Camry[*]Lexus V6 3.0 L V6[*]Honda 4 and 5 speed automatic transmissions in the accord and Odyssey[*]So on and so forth.[/ul]So, my recommendation is to keep an eye on the oil pressure light, if it blows put a used engine in it and keep on driving a Land Rover.

The Disco is one of the best and most versatile vehicle out there. This is why we have three Discos.

 

If you want to own something that you can use and abuse, change the oil once every couple of years then by a Mitsubishi.
Yes the 4.6 when it first came out has some problems, but like unimog said all cars have problems.
Ford is to blame for this mess, they owned LR at the time this happened and they swept it under the carpet hoping that it would go away. Rather than recall all of the affected trks they posted a TSB and let the dealers worry about it.
That right there is good old fashined customer service, and they wonder why nobody wants to buy their cars and trucks.
When I bought my 2001 Mitusubishi Montero in 2001 the dealer goofed on the paper work, they entered the wrong VIN#, no big deal.
They had me come back in and they gave me two free oil changes for the trouble of having to come back in and resign the paperwork with the correct VIN#.
GM, Ford or Chrysler would never do that.
And after each oil change they washed the truck too. All for free. And gave me a loaner car, for free. And parked my truck inside the shop since it was winter time.
GM, Ford or Chrysler wouldnt do that.
My point is you cant blame this on LR, blame this on Ford.
If you want to sell your truck then sell it.
And as much as I like thicker motor oils, it will not help extend the life of your oil pump.

 

Don't forget the H1 cracking in the #8 and it went on for I think 4 or 5 years.

 

And don't forget the Saab 2.5L V6. Or should I say GM since they own them and took this POS engine that was built with a defective timing belt tensioner and would destroy the engine once the belt snapped long before it was ever supposed to be replaced. It didn't work in the Opel but they put it in the Saab anyway. That's what happens when companies like Ford and GM use these other guys as their guinea pigs.