I've been reading the various sticky posts on here and lurking in some other threads, so bear with me here. I'm also new and need to get some posts under my belt before I can fully utilize the board, so here goes:

I am looking at trading for someone's 2003 LR Discovery that, on face value and via email correspondence/pictures, looks to be in good shape and taken care of (tons of repairs appear to have been completed and are documented, many of the problem areas that I have read about *seem* to have been addressed, it has had a respray of the paint by a former owner, etc.). Owner (who may be on this site for all I know ) states that it has had valve cover & intake manifold gaskets replaced, oil pressure sending unit, tune up, timing cover gasket, water pump, timing chain, crankshaft seal, oil pan gasket, thermostat, new battery, new tires, all fluids have been changed, power steering pump, upper/lower ball joints, tie rod ends and steering dampener, new front drive shaft, etc. have all been replaced and he has documentation for most of it.

It has around 176K on it, so it has some miles. This would not be a daily driver or anything, it would just be a backup/fun vehicle for us, so it's not like I would be beating the thing to death or anything. Nothing has been finalized and I haven't looked at it in person or anything, just getting a feel for it.

I guess I just want to hear from some other long term '03 owners about how they've held up and if any other issues have appeared. I'm not new to wrenching (not a mechanic or anything), but most of my experience has been with older cars (VW's) and bikes. It sounds like a lot of the stuff on these can be done by a DIY'er with tools and a hand scanner. Again, I don't anticipate this being a daily use vehicle, so I can deal with minor issues or quirks as they come up.

 

with 176k miles on it the fact that it is an 03 is not an issue, the engine was probably replaced a long time ago under warranty. funny that the po list everything but head gaskets.

 

Not all engines were replaced under warranty, so I wouldn't go into it thinking that it has. Take the VIN to your local dealer, have them run a service history on it.

You should be more concerned with the head gaskets and making sure the oil pump has been replaced. Seeing as they did all that front cover work, you're most likely ok with that one.

 

So how exactly did that issue go down? My understanding is the dowel pins or something were coming loose causing the oil pump to break free and cause the catastrophic failure? I didn't see any reading where simply replacing the oil pump was a fix - it was either the whole engine had to be replaced or different mounting holes drilled (or something along those lines?).

Thanks

 

At 173k the VIN range issue is the least of your potential problems.

As previously said it should not be an issue especially if it still runs with no loud noises.

Look for any history of overheating being involved with all those repairs. Ask about the head gaskets and what machine work was or was not done at the time of any head gasket work.

Take a code reader and see what comes up...

The usual diligence...

If everything is in perfect condition you are still getting a $40k vehicle for pennies on the dollar.

 

Yeah, how could the oil pump issue be a problem on an engine with that many miles? Either the pump was mis mounted, or not, and that one clearly was not.

 

because the oil-pumps on theses are a rotary design one gear inside the other, the outer ring tends to break over time. it only take 7 psi to shut the light off.

 

From what I gather, the current owner obtained the vehicle in pretty rough condition from someone/somewhere else, but had all the work done to get it road worthy. The only things they say are still problematic on the vehicle are the ABS light comes on intermittently (has another ABS pump that is included), cracked windshield (has replacement), cruise control does not work, I think one of the window regulators needs to be addressed, and there is an ignition issue with the key (abnormal wear or something - has replacement unit for that as well - not stolen, I already checked ). He's willing to drive it three to four hours to my house for the trade, so I figure it's OK.

I'm still on the fence since I'm more into older cars, but I have always liked these.

 

So this is a different problem from the misdrilled front cover? Did you mean to imply that the "rotary design" somehow leads to broken outer rings and failure?

 

Yes, Oil pump failure is common even among non "vin range" engines, 4.0 & 4.6.

Whether the rotary design leads to the failure or not I don't know but they break in engines that have the front cover attached correctly too.