Okay, so for the past decade, I've always wanted a Land Rover Discovery II, but could never really afford one. I love the classic, rugged look and it's ability to go off road.

Other than the basic specs and fuel economy, I never did any serious research on it. I never thought there would have had to be a reason to.

A month ago, I came across a 2004 Disco SE for a decent price (so I thought) on Ebay no less, and in the description, the only issue it had was a "tapping" noise. I figured, "Great! I'll take advantage of the great deal and finally buy a Disco, take it to a mechanic and get the tapping noise fixed." Since the truck was selling on Ebay, I took the leap and purchased the car before it was sold out from under me. After that, I started doing research on what the tapping could be and how much fixing it will cost.

I WAS FLOORED. Every auto site, almost every comment about the Discovery II was "STAY AWAY, UNRELIABLE, MONEY PIT, P.O.S. ". It was unbelievable! Then on top of that, I'm pretty damn sure the "tapping" is the dreaded slipped liner syndrome. No way to fix it. You have replace it with a rebuilt engine and the cost of these rebuilt engines made me want to cry. Not only are they extremely expensive for an engine, but they are worth MORE OUTSIDE the truck than INSIDE the truck.

Faced with this reality, I'm at a crossroads... Do I not bother doing anything with this truck and get rid of it ASAP, or do I invest in it?

So to the Disco II community, my question is this, if I decided to invest in this truck, and spend up to $10,000 for a rebuilt engine from Atlantic British. Will that, for the most part, solve the reliability issue? Or are there tons of other things I will most likely have to deal with and spend money on just to keep it on the road? (Not counting regular maintenance and upkeep.)

Any advice or perspective would be very appreciative!

 

Sorry to hear about your plight. Keep in mind most owners of reliable cars don't post on forums. Forums and the web are where people go when they have problems generally. Hence all the negativity.

Now is the time for you to do all the research you failed to do before spending your money. At least at this point if you have enough money to be this careless then you should have enough to at least get the truck fixed.

I've been told three times that i needed to spend $10k to get my truck fixed... never had the tapping though... All three times however those people were wrong!

Find a reputable independent Land Rover specific (exclusive) repair shop and have a proper inspection done before proceeding. Where are you at? Maybe someone here can point you toward one. Do not go to the dealer, don't go to a "foreign" car shop.

Only with that information can you be informed enough to answer your question about which fork in the crossroad to take. It all depends on your wallet and the size of your tool box. It will be way cheaper if you can do some of the work yourself.

Now, Have you heard the tapping? Can you post a video with audio?

Best case scenario it has 5w30 in it and a worn oil pump with low oil pressure. You know the worst case.

As for the rest of the maintenance, assuming you pay a mechanic rather than DIY, I figure an owner of one of these should budget $2000 per year for maintenance. There will be years it is more and years it is less, but that is a good number that wont leave you shocked when something does happen.

Remember, these were and are premium luxury vehicles. Just because they are cheap to buy now does not mean that you can go cheap on maintenance. In the future, when buying one of these, only buy one with a long list of service history. Otherwise the chances are you have a truck that nobody touched for 100k miles with a whole lot of neglected maintenance items that will need catching up on.

 

It's a LR and a 4.6L at that. You can get good motors from people like Paul Grant or Will as well as a few others. I personally prefer the 4.0L myself as it seems more reliable vs the 4.6L and it came with a stock oil cooler.

I say find a wrecked D2 and get the good motor out of it, do the head gaskets, front timing cover, waterpump, front/rear main seals, and the oil pan gasket replaced and drop it into your D2 (much easier when not in the D2). Also does your current D2 run & drive fine besides the tapping? Does it loose coolant? If it runs fine and doesn't loose coolant I'd make sure to switch over to some Rotella 15/40w oil, a larger filter, install an OEM LR Grey 180F thermostat, and drive it till it blows. Some people have reported the ticking to go away with the 15/40w oil and using the 180F thermostat. All my D2's are 4.0's and I don't have any ticks.

Then the only issue would be the 3 amigo's but you can still drive it with those faults. Besides that the rest is TLC and routine maintenance.

 

Unfortunately you have already taken the giant step and bought a D2. Every 4x4 without exception is a money pit for the enthusiast/owner unless you turn wrenches yourself or you are very rich and have someone else do the repairs and servicing. If you want/need an economical daily driver you need a standard Ford type saloon car or better still a VW, Audi, Skoda or similar but even then you'll have garage bills to settle.

It's a shame you weren't better informed before you committed to the purchase as the V8 is OK provided you get a good one and know what to expect. Unfortunately the Rover V8 has a speckled history of problems hence I prefer to stick with diesels.
What to do now, hmmm, IMO get someone knowledgeable to analyse the tapping noise for you, if it's the liners just sell the truck on as is. If it's simple then rectify the issue. D2's are relatively reliable PROVIDED they have been well maintained and serviced. If neglected they are like any other truck/car that has been ill treated, unreliable and a money pit. Good luck.

 

"If you have enough money to be this careless then you should have enough to at least get the truck fixed." I completely agree. I pretty much did everything opposite of what you're suppose to do when buying a car. The excitement of owning a Discovery completely over came me, skewing my judgement.

I will definitely have the truck inspected by a reputable Land Rover repair shop. I'm in Los Angeles, so hopefully there should be some around.

I'll try to have a video or audio clip uploaded of the tapping noise as soon as I can.

Thanks so much for sharing your experience and what I should expect, Dave. It's eased my anxiety.

 

Well, what's done is done.
You selling it, or keeping it is on you, but most of us on here, would say keep it, fix it and keep

Yea, bout that. My money would quicker be spent at
Rover V8 Engines for Range Rover, Discovery and Defender, remanufactured and new options available

Cheaper, most would say the standard bearer in replacement engines.


Or you can join the waiting list for a Chevy engine swap......

 

X1 ............ good wise words Dave.

 

X1 ............... Turner Engineering IMO is the DB's in quality Rover V8 engines and highly unlikely to go wrong out of the box. Not the cheapest but I've seen other cheapo engines .................. grenade

 

There's a guy on here with the user name abran, whose info says he's in Huntington Beach. He's a dismantler, so he could likely supply you a good, used engine if you can be patient. Paul Grant and Will Tillery are great but they are on the other side of the country. With abran you'd save shipping.

More importantly abran might be able to steer you to a good Rover shop near you. In a city of that size I expect there are several.

If abran doesn't soon weigh in on this thread just send him a private message from here. But he's on often so I expect we or you will hear from him.

Good luck.

 

^Thanks! I don't have any engines right now except rebuilds I'm doing.., but I have now opened s repair shop. I'll PM the OP.