Hey everyone, I'm new here and to the Land Rover world. I've been looking at a 2002 Land Rover Discovery se and it has about 78,000 miles on it. Its in great shape, good tires and a great interior. I've always wanted one of these and think it would be a great vehicle. It does have a slight squeak from the motor, i'm thinking its just a serpentine belt tensioner. Now the thing i'm having a problem with is that I've got a good mechanic buddy that has worked on these in the past, and he says they are junk. That parts are really expensive and that they have issues. Now, i've done some research and it doesn't look any different than some of the problems with my subaru outback. (When I bought it, it had blown headgaskets and a junk transmission. Plus other odds and ends.) I did all the work on it and it works great. So I figure I should be able to upkeep a discovery pretty well. Just wondering if my friends warnings about these vehicles are something I really should heed or if I should just follow my gut and pull the trigger. I am aware that everyone here might be biased, but I just want to know that if I do get this I wont be in the garage with it wrenching on it most of the time I own it. Thanks for your help everyone, and I hope to become a fellow owner.

 

I just purchased a 00 D2 with over 90k miles afte much reading here. You need to have a good mechanic or mechanical skills. Some people run troublefree and some have a lot of problems.

The main problems with the D2 are blown headgasket and the front driveshaft needs to be rebuilt.

I always owned Japaneese and a few American cars. I took a risk and purchased the D2 bc I have always loved them.

 

The place I'm looking at also has a 03 discovery se. Which has around 87,000 miles. It does have the 4.6l motor and wonder if that would make it less prone to the sleeve issue.

 

No less prone to the sleeve issue, as engine tolerances got worse in later years, and the 2003 is known for oil pump issues.

 

Hmmm. Maybe ill keep my eyes on the 02.

 

You better be a mechanic and keep the parts store on speed dial. No joke. Buy a jeep. Seriously.

 

I have a jeep yj and an 03' disco. Maintenance on the disco is well over 3 or 4 times what it is on the jeep. Oil pump went out a year ago, so I have a new engine.
A week ago I replaced the crank shaft position sensor, and over the past 2 days I rebuilt the front prop shaft. It now have 140k miles... I love that oil leaking, gas drinking, money burning piece of British engineering.