Hi,
Just purchased my long-time dream car, a 2003 Discovery II, Silver with black leather, perfect condition everywhere, top and bottom.
Then I took a look at this Forum, and I see that maybe I should have stayed away from a 2003 model because of possible oil-pump problems.
How can I find out if my particular VIN is a problem unit ?
Is there any other issue I should stay awake nights worring about ?
I would appreciate any thoughts, I really dreamed of this car for many years now, and really had planned to keep this baby for a long time.

 

well if it's any consolation my rover falls in the middle of the dead zone...lol

 

Call your local dealer and ask them if your vin is on their list and also ask them to give you a print out of all recalls, radio code and key codes so you will have them when and if you need them.
Also, you will need to verify if the front drive shaft has ever been rebuilt or replaced to prevent a u-joint failure from lack of grease fittings.

 

Read all of the sticky's ontop of the page.

 

RoverR, you didn't mention the number of miles on your '03. I have ~120K on mine and I am in the middle of the Death VIN Range. From what I have heard, once you are over ~75K you are pretty much out of the woods. Keep your oil changed (I use Rotella 5W40 synthetic), pay attention to your truck (i.e listen to it), and enjoy it.

BTW - it doesn't hurt to get a real oil pressure gauge....

 

I disagree with your premace, how can a rover be a long time dream car and you have never been to this sight and read about how sucky they are?

 

Many thanks for your help guys, especially Disco Mike. Sorry that I posted this concern twice, apparently my registration error originally did not allow my first post to go through.

 

Thanks for your help. My truck has 105,000 miles, but being a long-time auto restorer and having an idea where to look for decay, this truck looks like a 40,000 oiginal mile unit, it is near-mint. I wanted one for many years, and I looked for an especially nice one until I located this one. Thanks again.

 

Here is the the death VIN range official post from LR.
http://www.landroverclubvi.com/oil-gauge.html

For peace of mind is good to install a oil pressure guage. Here is link to the oil gauge install. I did the tap out portion to simplfy the install after much podering and reseach on how to do it the most simple way.
https://landroverforums.com/forum/sh...ad.php?t=33978

I have 92k on my 2003 and am in the Death VIN range. It been good so far with a stong oil pump.

 

Hey guys, I have an 03 Disco in the dreaded vin range and I am having the hardest time killing this thing, I do hardly any maintainence besides changing the oil every 3,000 miles and bringing it through the car wash every once in a while and still, this thing just keeps on running. What do I have to do to break this thing so I can post some scary things on here and freak other people out about a problem they will probably never encounter? Sorry, I'm just joking around, I really do have a Discovery in the vin range but at 135000 miles I still have yet to have ANY problems. These really are great vehicles, I just want to make a point to anybody out there who owns one of these things. A lot of these things were bad, but most went within the first 50,000 miles give or take, it seems very clear to me that even in the range, not ALL of them were bad. I LOVE MY DISCOVERY, and seriously all I do is check my fluids frequently and listen to the engins once in a while. Sometimes it has a tendency to tick a little bit, sounds to me like maybe just one lifter sometimes possibly even two. My point is, don't let this stuff scare you, what I've found is that most of these posts on a lot of the forums where people really down these things came from people with a vehicle that was only a year or two old. I cant say I wouldn't be pissed if it was me, but, if you've just bought one of these at 7... almost 8 model years later and you've got 100,000 miles or somewhere in that area, just enjoy the truck, you're probably WELL out of the woods on the oil pump so stop worrying and have some fun, in my experience these things are fun to drive, are built extremely well, have great options, don't seem to have too many problems (if any) and they are real head turners. Just a great truck all the way around. p.s.-once in a while mine ticks when it's warmed up, I personally have had great luck with marvel mystery oil. I put in about 4 to 8 ounces and let it run for about 20 min. to a half an hour, then change oil and filter and that seems to take care of at least MOST of it. By the way, I run 5w-40 european synthetic valvoline (v996 I believe it is, but don't quote me) in the winter and a good synthetic, high mile 10w-30 in the summer. Change it often enough for a while and at 3000 miles it still looks almost like new oil when I change it. Just want to ease some nerves out there, I went through the same thing when I first got mine, I was scared to death. I shouldn't have even wasted my time worrying, NOTHING has EVER gone wrong with my truck, treat it right and pay some attention to it and it WILL give you years and years of flawless service. Thanks for listening to me ramble, good luck everyone, especially fellow "bad vin#" owners.