I own a 2000 Disco II. I purchased it from a guy who had taken very good care of it. He wanted to sell it because he wanted a mercedes and I had always wanted a Disco. He had it serviced at the dealership every service mileage date up through 62,500 miles. When I bought it it had about 85000miles on it. I had only had it about a year when in August of 2006 I began noticing my car was getting hot and didnt have much anti-freeze in it. I took it to the dealership and found out that it had two head gaskets that the seals had gonebad on. Also, the cruise control had stopped since i had it and it had an idle pulley that needed to be fixed. They found all this cause I had taken it in for the 900000 mile service. All the repairs cost me around 2000. Then in this month, I had parked it the night before and came out the next morning to get in and found that it wouldn't go out of park. I had it towed to the dealership and found that a wire had gotten trapped, blown a fuse and the sloenoid valve. I had also noticed that it was leaking oil slightly and turns out it had a clog that needed to be fixed. Both these repairs ran me about 200. So I guess you might be wondering where I am going with this.

I am a student in college. My family doesn't have a lot of money and this car was a graduation present that my dad really didn't want me to have. I am wondering what I can do to help keep my Disco running good. I really can't afford another dealership visit any time soon. I have read about using sea foam but I was wondering if there was anything else I could do. I only run premium fuel. Any ideas are greatly appreciated.

Also, on my driver side passenger door the locked stopped working. It doesn't work for the clicker on my key or the power button in the dash. Any idea for a fix other than the dealership; and one more thing, as it is cold here I had been using my seat warmer a lot. I noticed that recently it had been getting really really hot. Almost to the point it would burn you. Now it has stopped working all together. Any idea why? Any tips to keeping my car runningat an optimal level and fixes to my problems are greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

Sounds like your actuator is bad. If you un-bolt the handle and pop off the door panel, you can see. It might be something in the linkage, but I'll bet it's the actuator. Here isa used one..

http://www.roverlandparts.com/index....p;Category=296

The seat warmer sound like the regulator went out and blew the element. I am sure Mike will let you know what is wrong... might just have to pull the seat off and replace the element.

If you are mechanical, I would change your drive lubricants to synthetic. It will help you on maintenance and mileage. Other than that, just be sure to run the right gas and change you oil when you are supposed to.

Good Luck!

oops, just realized they don't have one used for a D II. you can get a new one here http://www.roverparts.com/ProductLis...imageField.y=0. Check your dealer, but I'll bet it is cheaper.

 

You have to stop spending money on your truck and let the people on this site know what is going on before you spend more money.
I am confused, you mentioned doing a 90K and head gaskets and spending $2000 so far. Well head gaskets alone are around $2500, the service could be an easy grand.
So what exactly have you had done so far?
Mike

 

I took my disco in for the 90K service. Evidently when they were checking it out before they started the service they found that both my headgaskets had seals that were going bad and needed to be replaced. I had noticed fora while before I took it for the service that it had been getting rather warm when I was driving it. Also, I had to keep putting water in it to keep it cool because it kept leaking. It was summer so I didnt need anti-freeze at the time. That is what was causing my car temperature to get pretty close to the red on the temperature guage when I was driving it. It was leaking the water from the seals in the headgaskets. They told me that the seals had broken due to just normal wear and tear to the vehicle and the only way to fix them was to replace both headgaskets. That replacement cost me 1875 parts and labor. I told them of a squeakynoise I had heard as well and that turned out to be the idle pulley. It was like one something i think. Lastly my cruise had been messed up, it wouldnt keeprunning at the speed iwould set it at...it would slowly decline,so i told them to fix that as well.That ran mea hundred bucks. So initially i took my car to the dealership to have the ninety thousand mile service done and to fix the cruise and the noise which i assumed was a belt of some kind. However when i had to replace the headgaskets i couldnt afford the nintey thousand mile service on top of the 2100 in repairs for headgasket cruise and idle pulley.So i just had them fix that and i got my carback after they made the repairs.Make sense?

 

I agree with Mike about the cost of your head gasket job sounding a little inexpensive......especially at a dealer. After reading your follow-up post to Mike's reply, those head gaskets, and what lead up to their replacement, would be my biggest concern about your rig and it's long term future.

It sounds to me like you went through a stretch of runningyourtruckhot. These motors don't hold up well to extended periods of excessive heat. Therecan be major irreversible damage caused by overheating and head gasket issues (specifically, cylinder liners and/or head warping). I'm only throwing that out as a concern. Your head-related problems my be solved.

I'm probably offering more opinion than you're looking for but, given your situation, you might want to consider selling this truck while the head gaskets are fresh and the only other problems are fairly incidental (locks, heated seats, etc.). Unfortunately, this truck is in a mileage range where you may have some other big ticket repairs coming your way in the near future. Since you bought it with 85k, there's a chance that the previous owner bailed out before having to shell out for things that typically go as you reach the 100k mark. Again, probably more opinion than you're looking for but I know how much attention (money and time) these trucks can require. As a full-time student without a lot of dough....you may not have too much of either to spare.

 

Yea I do not know why that was the cost of the headgaskets were cheap...but i took it to land rover of knoxville and that was the price they gave me...it didnt seem cheap to me lol...but i didnt ever let the car get hot...after i noticed it was getting warm while pulling a boat over the summer i pulled in a gas station...found it was low on coolant...and replaced it with water...i made sure that it never got low again so it didnt run hot fora long period of time....as far as the state of the headgaskets they told me that the seals had simply broken and that as far as they could tell it was caused from normal wear and tear to the vehicle. When you saidimay have big ticket repairs coming...what do you mean? I spokewith the owner of the car and hetold me he sold it simply because he wanted a mercedes...and thats what he drives now...i asked if he ever had to have any work done on it or any problems and he told me no...he saidhe just had it serviced at every mile request it had in the owners manuel.That was a reason i bought it...the interiorwas in perfectcondition andwith all theservice dates the car seemed to be really taken care of....ihave seen this guy around town several timesandhe has told me he wishedhe neversold it...so idont think it had ever given him any problems.

 

Okay guys-- the book time for pulling both cylinder heads and replacing the head gaskets is 12 hours. Take 12 times a typical labor rate of $120.00 and you get $1440.00 --- then add in the cost they sell a head gasket kit for of more than $300 with the new head bolts (which HAVE to replaced as they are stretch bolts).......and you are there. That does not even include sending the heads out for a valve job, which adds another $200 in labor PLUS any parts that may be required.

So... where does the $1875 the dealer charged come off as excessive?

I promote the idea of a Land Rover owner doing simple repairs themselves, and operate a on-linecompany catering to that part of the Land Rover repair market (www.eurotekapg.com) ---however some jobs are just beyond the skill set of an owner. The days are goneof replacing a head gasket over a fewbeers under a shade tree.

Geoman

 

I think they were saying it was too cheap to have the serviceAND replace both head gaskets. I think they were just making sure all of the had been done because$2000 for the 90K service plus the head gaskets sounds really cheap. Sounds that way to me too. I might drive to Knoxville the next time I need dealer service...

 

That would have been a great deal but that wasn't what i got...they wanted 600 to do the 90k service...they wanted 1875 to do just the headgaskets...so i had to forget the 90k and just fix the cruise, idle pulley, and headgaskets....total came to around 2300...with no 90K service.

 

Ok....Back in August I had planned on taking it in for the 90K. I scheduled an appointment and took it in. When i took it in....they asked me if i had anyhting in particular that i wanted them to look at. I told them that one time when i was driving it this summer i notice the engine starting to get warm. I pulled over and found it to be low on coolant. I filled it with water and kept driving it. I made sure to check it continuously to make sure that i didn't let it get got. I told them about that. I aslo told them that the cruise control wouldn't keep the speed i would set it at. It would continuously slow down. I also told them of a noise i heard when the car was idling. It sounded like a whining noise. They called me back about an hour later and told me that I had two headgaskets that the seals were broken on. They told me that this was due to normal wear and tear to the vehicle and that nothing had went wrong to cause it. They told me that was 1875 to fix. Also, they said the idler pulley was going bad along with the serpintine belt. This was 120 to fix. Finally they told me that the hose to the cruise control had a leak in the vaccum hose and that was 90. The total ran me about 2100. 2075 to be exact. They then asked me if i wanted to have the 90k done as well and i told them that i didnt. That was all i had done then. Recently about two week ago...i parked the car one night...having no problems at all...and came back out to drive it the next morning. When i tried to get it out of park it wouldn't go. I had to have it towed to the dealership. They told me a wire had gotten stuck and blown a fuse along with a sloenoid valve...it was 103 to fix. Also i had some type of clog causing a little oil to leak and that was another 100. That everything i had done so far.