My Disco Ownership Off To A Shaky Start!
 

Hello All,

I have had the Disco for about 2 1/2 weeks now and I am not yet sure about my purchase.....Thursday night, my wife was driving our 'new' Disco home from Cincy with the 2 kids along. She calls me to tell me what a joy it is to drive the Disco (so smooth, comfortable & quiet) then we hang up. I get on with SportsCenter and the phone rings again. She says "this truck is making some wierd noises" I say "can you describe the noises?" She says "sounded like a tire blew -then a shrill squeal and then grinding noise" I tell her to get off of the highway at the first safe place. She drives into a rest area and parks it. I get in the Montero and drive 30 minutes to 'rescue' her and the kids. I call the flatbed to come get the Disco and wait. About an hour later, tow truck shows up and we to the Disco to our local dealer in Dayton.
This morning the results are in......the front differential is toast! Apparently a bearing seized and trashed the entire assembly. Problem is, we bought the truck to drive to Boston (1600 miles) for Thanksgiving (needed to replace the Monetro because it is now an oil burner). Land Rover says that there is only one new complete diff unit in the N.A. parts network and they can have it here by tomorrow A.M. and have us on our way to Boston by 5 p.m. Tues. If this all works out, then this will be good. The truck came from a Mitsu. dealer in Cincy with a 3000 mi./3 mo. warranty which is going to cover all of the repair which is great but I haven't even made the first payment on the thing yet and here it strands my wife and kids at a rest area on I-75!

The "shaky start" part is that I drive an 1987 Audi 5000 CS Turbo Quattro with all-wheel drive that has 288,000 miles on it and the wife's 1995 Montero has 165,000 miles on it and neither car has ever broken down or stranded us anywhere and both are all original. I did not expect my 'New' 2003 Land Rover Discovery SE7 with 73,000 miles to blow and entire differential assembly and leave my wife and kids stranded at a rest area! Not sure what to think about this vehicle. I know I'm going to love it off-road butit scares me. Guess I let you all know after the 1600 mile trip this week!

Thanks for listening,

-aaron
2003 Land Rover Discovery SE7
73,000 miles
soon to have a new front differential:D

RE: My Disco Ownership Off To A Shaky Start!
 

Ouch, bad luck. Any idea what the condition of the fluid was. If it had any? Sounds likepossibly it was a maintenance issue. That could happen to any vehicle. Be thankful it was covered under warrenty.

RE: My Disco Ownership Off To A Shaky Start!
 

Your experience tells me that the previous owner probablydidn't keep up on the recommended maintenance items. When you get back from the holidays,take Mike's 60,000 mile service checklist (below) and go through the whole thing. Before you leave though, you might want to also get and oil/filter change and the rear diff fluid changed.

My guess is that there was water in the differential from some deep water fording activities somewhere along the way, thateventually did enough damage to the internals to shell a bearing.

These trucks are quite reliable when properly taken care of. Skip the maintenance and all bets are off.

Dave

This is the parts list for a 60,000 mile service the way I do it.
1 Oil filter , K&N 3001
1 Air filter
1 Transmission filter kit
6 Qts of engine oil
12 Qts of ATF
7 Qts of 80/90W gear oil
2 Qts of Brake fluid
2 Qts of synthetic Power steering fluid
2 Gallons of OAT, orange coolant
1 Bottle of Lucas Power Steering additive
1 Bottle of Lucas Transsmission additive
1 Can of Spray Carb Spray
1 Can Of Brake cleaner
8 Spark Plugs, I use Bosch Platium Plus 4's
1 Set of Magnacor 8mm plug wires
1 Serpentine belt if not yet replaced
2 Bottles of SeaFoam


60,000 Mile Service
Bleed the brakes
Flush and change the power steering fluid adding one bottle of additive
Service the tranny adding one bottle of additive
Flush the coolant system
Do an engine flush before changing the oil
Do an induction cleaning
Clean the throttle body
Add fuel additive to full gas tank
Change both od the diffs fluid
Change the t/case oil
Replace the plugs and wires
Replace the air filter
Lube all the drive shaft grease fitting including the 2 slip shafts
Do full inspection of brakes, hoses, bushings etc.

RE: My Disco Ownership Off To A Shaky Start!
 

I send you an e-mail.