I just bought a 2004 Discovery II with less than 24k on it. I bought it because it was extremely clean and still in warranty (thank God!). We took it on our first long trip this past weekend for the Memorial Day holiday. On the way out, it ran fine with absolutely no issues. Coming home, going up a fairly steep grade it started losing power and a few seconds later the oil light came on and we totally lost power with barely enough time to pull over. Had it towed to the not so local Land Rover dealer and he says we have a shot oil pump. Currently pulling the engine apart to assess any permanent damage and we may need a new engine (all warranty work.. whew!). The service manager admitted that the Discovery II engine has a TSB regarding the oil pump. After reading through some of these forums, I am finding that this has the potential of happening again. Do you guys know whether or not the replacement pumps are the exact same design that is set up to fail once again or have they been fixed?
What should I expect from the dealer?

 

Update!
I just spoke to the service manager. They are putting a new engine in it. He says the oil pump timing belt cover clearance issues have been resolved in the new engines and I should not expect any further problems. Truth or just trying to appease me?

 

Glad to hear they are taking care of it. The bulk of the engine failure were with the 03's, surprised to hear your 04 failed.
Mike

 

Do you know if the problem was a design flaw or a manufacturing defect? He explained that the way the pump sits behind the timing belt cover, there was clearance issues that put a load on the pump bearings causing them to eventually disintegrate. Supposedly, this new engine I am getting will not have that issue..... do I buy that?

 

WTF is up with the conspiracy?[/align]

 

What c-o-n-spiracy?

 

The holes and pins to line up the front cover(oil pump location)to the block weren't machined right. The blocks were wrong. Most commonly in the 03, but it happens. My 97 got a new ticker at 50K because of this same problem. Poor machining. I deal with this every day. It isn't LR's fault, they just need a new machinist.

 

LR's printed explanation. http://home.comcast.net/~bhcmbailey/lrna_tsb.pdfFor info on a class action lawsuit regarding this advisory contact sucksdisco@yahoo.com

 

So if I want to prevent the oil pump failure problem on my 03 what should I replace and will the new part fix the problem?

 

First you need to find out if you are in the VIN# range. Basically the first 6 months worth of production engines had the defect, after that it was corrected. The ONLY fix is a new engine that does not fall into that # range.