So I started seeing this girl back in October. The holidays went great, spent time with her family on Cristmas. They like me so all is good. Just recently our relationship began to go to the next level. That's right, I'm working on her Land Rover. It's a '99 Disco II, not sure how many miles.

Thought I would introduce myself here since I have some questions. I've found some good info here so far with some great explainations for problems I've found. The truck has the 3 amigos on a regular basis. Haven't looked at the wheel sensors yet. Not knowing the history of the truck I'm not sure where to begin.

The most recent problem has been the cooling system. Seems my girlisthe low maintenence type (as in she perfoms a very low amount of maintenence on her truck). The cooling level got so low that the heater stopped working for a while. I topped it off and it started working again. On Friday it started to leak coolant. Found the throttle body heater plate was leaking and warped. Replaced that yesterday but am wondering what other damage may have been done. I suspect that there is another leak somewhere else and the tb plate warped from the lack of coolant. Are there any areas I should look at first?

A little background on me- I've been working on cars, trucks, and bikes since my teens on a "recreational" level. Rebuilt a few bike engines.Replaced enough parts on my F-150 that I don't think it qualifies as an '87 anymore. I'm only able to work on my girls Disco one or two nights a week and I don't get the chance to drive it much so that's been a real drag for tracking down problems.

Thanks for having me, I'm greatful for the information.

 

The t-body heater leaking is thee most common leak on DII's.
As long as she did not overheat the engine she should be fine.
It is a all aluminum engine with steel cylinder liners so if it is overheated then she will need a new engine.
Does she know that the truck requires premium gas?
How about the double cardon joint on the front driveshaft?
She is going to cost you a TON of money by neglecting this truck.
Buy here Disco from her and then get a new girlfriend.

 

Ha Ha..

Funny guy..

Open the system after engine is cooled
Resevoir, and the plug on top of the radiator
Make sure the radiator is filled all the way

Do this a couple times over a couple diffrent days
this will ensure you have all the air out of the system

 

That's a good one, tell it again. I think she had the oil changed last summer. Seriously.

Haven't looked at it. Is that the one that I should swap for greasable units?

Oh no, she's a keeper (the girl, not sure about the disco yet). She is paying for the parts too. Lucky me gets to do the labor. I have a nice shop so I don't mind too much. Gets me points with her and her dad. I think the truck can be saved and once I get on top of things it won't be such a hassle.

I didn't see any plug on top of the radiator. I took the shroud off yesterday. There's a plug in the upper radiator hose, is that it?

 

The double cardon joint on the front driveshaft comes with out grease zerks.
All you need to do is remove the front driveshaft and then rebuild that double cardon joint with greaseable u-joints, make sure that you include a new centering ball too.
Yes, it is the bleed screw ontop of the upper radiator hose.

 

ok,,,,

here we go.

first off DO NOT BUY HER PARTS FOR THIS RIG.

secondly DO NOT SKIMP.

thirdly PREMIUM PREMIUM PREMIUM GAS!!!

i was buying some stuff at the parts store today and a guy and gal in their early 20's walk in and they walk over to the oil section.

he is obviously doing an oil change for her as i heard her say something about the car being out of warranty. he says to her ok we need one of these (filter) and 6 of these.

she blurts out "6 of those!!! I HAVE TO BUY 6 OF THOSE OIL THINGS?!?!??!?!?!?? CANT I BUY ONLY LIKE 1 and MIX IT WITH THE REST????

then she starts asking customers loudly i might add (which is making her boyfriend look embarrassed) my ex would question my abilities and knowledge on things she had ZERO experience with. DROVE ME INSANE,,,,,

anywho,,,

she says to one guy "SIR HOW MANY OF THESE DO YOU PUT IN YOUR CAR?"

the guy says 5 for my car. she annoyingly makes this odd whimper/growl sound and says "you guys cant be right about this!!!"

i then from 2 isles over say loudly " WHAT KIND OF CAR?" she says its a audi a4,,,,


I then say " you need 5 or 6 for sure. and it has to be synthetic. " i ask her if he has ever done this before and he says many times.

so i turn to her and say " trust the guy, he knows what he is doing" and to her i say " stop complaining i have a car that takes 10 quarts and the filter costs me $35"


as they were leaving the dude looked over at me and rolled his eyes and shot me a wink and a nod.

i do not miss that nagging thats for sure,,,,,,,,,

 

My ex wife was that way..."your changing the oil again? you just changed it like 3 months ago"
I was the last person to change the oil on her MPV, 2.5 year later the engine finally ran out of oil and siezed.
Damn I love full synthetic oil.
Castrol Syntec 20W-50, 2.5 years without changing the oil or adding any oil before it siezed, well worth the money for the full syn, and worth 4 times that when the engine siezed.

 

we did not live together so when i would change her oil in her truck i would put the little sticker in the window and tell her to tell me then she was close to the mileage,,, simple enough,,,,


well she would let it roll WAYYYYYYYYYY beyond the mileage, before i would just happen to drive it and notice it was past due. i would have got mad, but i stopped trying in that she just didnt care.

 

I've had girlfriends like the ex's you guys have mentioned for sure. My current girl listens to me somewhat and knows the truckwill fall apart if she doesn't do what I tell her. We already went through that talk when the ACT system started to blink. "Why do I even, like, need that.The truck doesn't roll when I go around corners at 50?"

We're not at the point in the relationship when I buy her parts or even oil so I'm not too worried about the money. We don't live together so I'll have to notice the mileage for oil changes when it comes up. Fortunatly I keep a close eye on my truck, car, and bikes so adding one more to the rotation won't be that bad. She also doesn't drive that much, work is less than a mile away.

The last British vehicle I worked on was a '68/'69 Triumph (for the most parta Daytona). At least the Disco doesn't weep that much oil and doesn't have Lucas electrics.