In my opinion the 2004 is the very finest Discovery make year and model. The one major setback is the 4.8 Rover V8 powerplant. The engine is not very durable and if you do fail to keep up with the maintainance than your engine will potentially develop serious issues down the road. Some argue that these engines deteriate faster under abuse than more common engines. In any case that don't make the 2004 D2 the worst model nor does it make it a bad model. Stop blaming the vehicle for peoples inability to maintain their vehicles. I don't believe these engines would gibe any issues if they were always maintained and treated very well. Operator error. But they are less durable. I love my 04 and that's why I just invested in a new Turner block for it because I can't part ways with it! Don't want to neither.

If the D2 came off the factory line with all the improvements than of course it would be more reliable and the engine would be more durable.

PS: The 4.8 engine used in the 2003-2004 D2 was the same block used in late model P38 Range Rovers and that was in what? 2002? And while it may be true that more D2's had engine issues than the P38, remember that the D2 was a mid class vehicle and most of the parts used for the model were grade b. The Range Rover being the flagship of the company used grade a parts and was also more expensive. Its possible that since it was more expensive that the owners actually took care of their investment more or could more easily afford to have it properly maintained. A properly maintained engine and vehicle as less likely to have a bad reputation.

 

wouldn't matter all the tooling was well out of spec. long before 04. and they stopped balancing engines.
used lighter gauge metal on the frames and no rust proofing, so except for the frames and engines there good .

the engine was destine for doom from day one when LR decided not to cast the sleeves in place like GM had done.
LR way was cheaper and faster.

the first 3.5 would drop the sleeves out of the block right down onto the rods, that's were "dropped sleeve" came from originally.
LR answer was to cast a shelf on the bottom of the bore so this couldn't continue to happen, so now they move up.

 

Easily fixed. A mere 4500 plus tax and shipping for a galvanized frame and you are good as new.

Estimated swap time, a mere 100 hours in a shop.

But seriously... WTFeak was Rover thinking when they didn't galvanize a frame that is 30% thinner?!

It seems like when I bought mine I read a brochure about them being hot dipped or something... In fact, I think I remember seeing a video about that at the dealership while they pondered accepting my offer/demand. YET GOOGLE REVEALS NOTHING. One more thing to worry about.

EDIT: Found it in the manual. FWIW my 15 year old Disco II doesn't have a spec of rust on it (that I can see). Reading further, I probably voided my warranty by careless lifting, and since my tape measure doesn't have thousandths of an inch, I am sure I have steam cleaned too closely.

 

True the best 4x4xfar should come standard with a galvanized frame. But I also see it from another angle. If you live in a cold climate where salt or any other corrosive material is used on the roads or if you live by the ocean than you as the owner of the vehicle should be responsible for ensuring that your vehicle gets a undercoating as directed and you should either power wash your vehicle or take it to the car wash twice a month. But of course many people are lazy, or careless, or just ignorant and neglect their vehicles so after say 5 years rust starts to build up and by 100k the frame is rotted out. How many vehicles come with a galvanized frame? I don't know but I'm willing to bet not many from the 90's or early 00's. So again the people the owners of these vehicles are partly responsible for rusted out frames. Its to easy to blame the automaker for our failures.

 

To many people just do not give a **** about their vehicles and not everyone is a car enthusiest like us. To many folks cars are just .... Cars. Nothing to get all excited about and certainly nothing worth spending money on. I've known some people (my ex included) who would run their cars dry of oil and even let the coolant leak out completely which in turn would cause the engine to overheat and start smoking. Her logic? Put more coolant in and keep driving, who cares that there is a big leak in the cooling system. They buy the cheapest gas they can find. They never clean their cars. They forget when they last changed the oil and hell some forget their cars even use oil. Some let their tires go completely bald and wait until the wires inside the tires are showing before they decide to replace the tire. So it all comes down to operator error.

 

Oh I totally agree. I LOVE lazy land rover owners. I can buy their who truck for less than the cost of a single new part.

Especially the ones with a bad head gasket and NO OTHER PROBLEMS... those are the ones I love the most. The ones who won't bother to fix it themselves, but will take a several thousand dollar bath on their vehicles. They are tops.

 

Well while this maybe true. Life does get in the way of things and the Discovery II is a very needy car by most people's standards.

It belongs to people that like to have them and work on them.

Overtime you have to deal with other things like not having working locking doors and such. Its a fortune to replace all of those door lock actuators and im not going to waste time fixing stuff like that.

Somethings can be forgone and pushed to the side but the Disco has baseline mechanical needs, that if done properly will keep them going for a long time. Now that "baseline" I must say certainly seems to be higher than other cars.

You dont buy a DII for reliability and gas mileage. You get them because they look badass and can do ****.

 

((thunderous applause!))

 

I bought my D2 because I believe in the capabilities of the vehicle, I love the styling inside and out, love how much room is inside and I love the history if the Discovery. Plus the first Discovery was introduced one year after my birth.

I intend to turn my Disco into a reliable vehicle.... A new block and a serviceable driveshaft are now reliable.

 

You could get 200K to 240K out of the engine if you are willing to pin the liners if they start flapping.

You may get lucky and just keep it going.

You should pull the pan and replace all the crank bearings at some point if they are slapping..

Make sure you are not in the self destructing OIL pump VIN range.

Keep the drive shaft lubricated.

Check the diffs.

Check the transfer case and keep it full.

That's all you have to do.

Don't over heat it.

Don't beat it with towing or driving thru mud, rivers, swamps or bogs and it will last.