I pawned the discovery off to my father when I went to college, and drive a much more reliable, and inconspicuous Volvo. However I'm back over break, and realized there are some serious issues with the big Grey box. (115k miles, in the vin range)

Since the temperatures have started dropping below freezing in Wisconsin, The disco has apparently been having the oil light come on on the morning cold start for the past month. Once the truck has warmed up for about three minutes the light does not come back on, and it does not have a lifter pinging sound ever.

I put 15w40 in it over the summer, and apparently he changed it to 10w40 Castrol GTX High millage in November, and thats still whats in it now. It had a oil light issue two summers ago during a 90+F day towing a boat of a inclined ramp. At the time there was 5w30 put in it for some reason by the dealer, and they figured that was the problem.

Other issues include (but are not limited too): The headlight switch, directional switch works, but needs lubrication. I rebuilt it two summers ago, and apprently the electrical paste I used has worn off.

The Drive Shaft is still original

The transmission is also holding gears longer then i think its supposed to be, although that might be due to my dads driving style.

---------------------------

I think he needs to trade it in to a dealer and make it their problem-

 

replace the shaft.

change all fluids to synthetic and make 100% sure they are at proper levels. same for the fluid levels in the truck now.

 

X2 on replace shaft or rebuild (or have rebuilt by driveline shop) - write up with pix in our tech section.

Even down here in south Georgia in the 30's you notice a change when running 5W40 syn vs 15W40 dino Rotella. My oil light goes out almost instantly, and certainly before the brake warning light bulb test, oil used to be the last one off, now it is ahead of the rest (which are on a three second POST (Power On Self Test).

In the RAVE, the use of xW30 cuts off at 90F, so that is a bad choice for these engines in many places. I figure in stop and go traffic in July it will be above 90F big time. You could also have quite a bit of sludge build up, so running the diesel rated oil will also do a better job of cleaning up the gunk.

The 10Wx oil bottoms out at about 14F degrees, but with wind chill added in you are below that just parked in the driveway.

Note: the reset point for the oil light is on the order of 3.5 to 6 PSI. So operation with that light on is a bad idea. Not to say that those switches can't go bad as well. Another thing you may want to get done is a manual oil PSI test because of miles and VIN range. The oil pump can crack, may (but not always) cause a tick, and can make enough PSI for the light to go out, but not the 50 PSI that is spec for a warm D2 engine at 2000 rpm. And the extended light at startup, if not cured 100% by oil change, should be viewed as a good reason to check oil pump pressure.

 

Trade it in and be done with it.

 

Fix it first then sell it. This is why land rover forums are so active, as soon as somebody runs into a big repair bill they trade it in and some poor sap buys what they think is a nice vehicle only to be hit with some major bills. This is partly why land rover has the reputation it does.