Yo all,

I'm brand new here, so maybe that's why I think I can get away with this. Spike or DiscoMike, by all means if this unacceptable IM me and I'll make amends.

I recently bought an 2003 D2 within the VIN death range. I had no idea about the VIN thing before I bought it, and now I'm thoroughly freaked out, especially since SnowDude's 03 is taking a crap as we speak. How coincidental.

The problem is all we have is a crappy vague TSB from LRNA that says if you have oil pump problems within the VIN range, replace the whole freakin engine. That's great, if you want to invest the entire value of your vehicle in a single repair bill. Not so good for little guys like me who have two and a half kids and plenty of other broken stuff to spend my money on.

Here's a simple proposal: every '03 owner (or other charitably minded LR owners) that wants to find out if replacing the front cover on these engines will remedy the oil pump death problem, chip in and let SnowDude do a write up for us. I'm willing to shell out $50. If we got 12 '03 owners to do the same, he'll have a brand new front cover from AB paid for. We'll tabulate how much support we have for this idea through the poll.

If we have at least 5 contributors we'll do it. The amount's up to you. Then on a given date of SnowDude's choosing we'll Paypal him the money. SnowDude or the mods can cancel this idea at any time.

This forum rocks hard. But the single biggest consternation about these engines (including some 04's I hear) is that stupid oil pump dowel issue. AND WE DON'T HAVE A GOOD ANSWER FOR IT.

Full disclosure: I do not know SnowDude. Don't even know his real name. I just know he's bummed about his 03. I also know that I want to plan on how to fix my 03 when it follows merrily down the same road.

Simple poll is attached...is this a good idea?

 

This is the word that I got straight from LR about the bulletin. The results of the oil pump problem was on early engines. The engines were going so early that Rover wanted new engines. If the issue occurs after the warrantee then its a problem with the vehicle itself. Either lack of maintenance or just bad oil pump. But it is not the dowel issue. The dowel issue happened quickly not over a long period of time. The only issue I saw from Rover that was a major issue long out of warrantee was the lack of correct torque and application of bolt sealant on the early TD5. That caused total loss of the engine with no warning whatsoever. One minute it ran and the next the engine was seized.

 

I'm in for $25 to help snow dude. Lets setup the PayPal account!
I also have a 2003 with 88k... I think he should try the oil gear first for $99 from AB. Then the new front cover if that does not work. From reading his posts his mileage is 104k so I think it may just be the oil gear, if the above post is right from Rovin4life.

 

How many members are there for this site?

Personally I don't have enought disposable income or the f'ing inclination to give anyone $50 to help them fix a 2003 Disco. You might get a lot more people to donate a dollar or two.

I think instead of automatically replacing the engine, someone should do a teardown to see what the root cause is and the true extent needed to repair one. There is probably someone that has an engine they could make available for examination.

Also, whereever there is a sizable local club with enough members to make it wothwhile, that group should undertake a fact-finding exercise to evaluate most economical route for such vehicles.

LR probably wanted to collect as much as possible from whatever supplier was at fault for this issue. The simplest way for them to address it was a simple complete replacement. They probably collected losses from a supplier I would think.