I love Land Rover's and I enjoy driving something that isn't common and more rare/unique. I've been around Land Rover's since I was 14-15 years old, and 87-04 are very simple to work on with the right tools/knowledge. Parts wise you either have LKQ, Wrench A Part, Pick N Pull, or LR specific folks that part out LR's for a living. Then you have a lot of stuff which cross references over to other vehicles like the Purge Control Valve, Seat Switches, AC hardware, Rotoflex couplings, and many many more parts.

The #1 thing I tell anyone with an itch for a LR is save your $$$$ and get a clean one without any stereo, DVD entertainment, or alarm modifications. You also want to buy one from a LR enthusiasts vs a shady car lot or someone on FB Marketplace that list is as a Range Rover or Land Cruiser.... Sure there are plenty of 500-1,000.00 D1's and D2's out there, but it's cheap for a reason! Either it has rust, electrical issues, engine was never maintained & is inop or the transmission/TC was never touched and it all locked up. Also a lot of people get it into there head that they want a 20 year old LR with the lowest miles possible.... That is a true boo boo IMHO. If you are looking at a 20-23 year old D2 and it's got 80K on the Odometer that tells me it's just been sitting either out in the elements most of it's like or if you're lucky a garage, but why was it sitting so long??? What issues does it have that no one can apparently fix?? I prefer over 150K to 250K LR's as they've been driven and maintained to get that kind of mileage. Sure they might have a few trim pieces missing, or some dings/dents from life on the road, but I'd certainly take my chances with a LR with higher mileage and more maintenance vs some low mileage LR that's just been sitting slowly rotting away before someone found it and slapped it up for sale with nothing done to it at all.

Plenty of people want the LR name and prestige associated with it and think they can buy a 2k wonder and be all set. I call that having a caviar diet on a ramen noodle budget..... You don't have to be a LR certified mechanic to own a LR, but you should perform regular maintenance and be familiar with trouble shooting. Nothing wrong with taking a LR to a good LR shop and having them do the work, but expect to pay for it. I have loved wrenching on vehicles since I was old enough to hold a flashlight for my dad and I honestly find it fun. I honestly wrenched on my 05 Jeep Wranglers WAY more than any LR I've ever owned and several parts back when I had the Jeeps were on national back order and if you needed one = your Jeep just had to sit until you could get your hands on the part (Cats & OPDA were 2 parts which back then had serious issues in 05-06 Wranglers with the 4.0L I6 and no one could keep those parts on hand).

Bottom line get a good LR to start with and if that means saving a bit of cash before buying it so be it. You will be so much better off in the long run for sure. Forums like this have a HUGE wealth of info, and if you search you should certainly find all the answers to your issues as I'm pretty certain it's been covered before.

 

I almost replied to Richard Gallant's post about 19yo vehicles. Age alone isn't the determining factor, as Alex_M points out. Richard certainly isn't wrong but one has to consider other issues with LRs from the 90s-2000s, IE questionable manufacturing practices (slipped sleeves, misaligned dowel pins, non-galvanized frames) along with dodgy engineering (cooling systems, non-greaseable double cardon joints, the two big ones that spring to mind), all of which keep us on our toes. BMWs which are two decades older are super reliable, currently I have 498k miles on my 535 and wouldn't hesitate to drive it anywhere (full disclosure, almost nothing is stock any longer but mainly for upgrade purposes rather than simple R&R or failure), and the other ones I own from that era are equally bulletproof. In addition to aforementioned challenges with 20yo LRs, vehicles got way more complicated and full of electronics in those years. With regard to BMWs from that same generation as our Discos, they are nowhere near as reliable and suffer from similar challenges in keeping them on the road. All the additional electronics mean a lot more wire and to balance the extra weight and maintain EPA & CAFE standards, more plastics are used which don't stand the test of time the way their metal counterparts would. BMW went to fiber-optic canbus in the late 2000s, talk about a troubleshooting nightmare. You couldn't give me a 20yo BMW with 175k on the clock, yet I'd take that Disco all day long. The fuel pump goes on your 3-Series E92 sedan? You have to replace the ENTIRE fuel system because the Super Low Emissions engines in some of them use a completely sealed single component, from the gas cap to the injectors. A $150 fuel pump is a $1,500 expense. For the parts! Thank you BMW.

Anyway, I'm veering off wildly off topic but these are the inherent problems of all cars from that era. Our Discos are extra special because they're British trucks with some poor design choices, which is even more reason for those not willing (or able) to make Disco ownership more than just a mode of transportation to either stay away or plan to get hurt.

 

Truth.

 

1) original stereo is the first thing I look for!
2) frame inspection
3) rust splitting the shock tower bases
4) rusty engine nuts/throttle cable....
5) then the usual check for all parts still there, electrical check, engine run, brakes, and drive

 

Bingo. There is sense in keeping an older paid off vehicle, but it comes at a cost. Cars cost money either way- new, old, doesn't matter, you pay.
I have a 99 Land Cruiser, which everyone thinks is a bulletproof tank, which, more or less is accurate but when things break or need fixed it is not cheap, as it was an $80k in today's money vehicle when new. I think when I checked Disco IIs were about $60k in todays money. You want cheap, buy a civic or a mini van.

Carry on...

 

PREACH!!!!!!!!!!!! I am well known for saying, it takes a year to get a D2 correct after rectifying the neglect and/or cheaped out repairs from the prior multiple owners at this point.

Here is the main rub: people buy the marque and want the image so they can say, “look at me, I’m a cool adventurererererery dork!” And they look at the price of entry and think, “wow, this is so cool, I got an expensive car for pennies!” That honeymoon is quickly ended when they realize, it is still a premium vehicle, that takes the associated level of cost and effort to keep up.

It’s kinda like the Porsche 944. They are cheap relative to 911s. However, it does still have the Stuttgart based coat of arms on the hood, which denotes $$$$ for parts and prowess to keep one running properly.

Most of you have probably read my aptly titled “build” thread for my 3rd (and now 4th including the last “parts” (that I’ll probably rescue as well)) that I think in title alone sums up D2 ownership. You see my highs, my lows, and everything in between. I have become absurdly addicted to the D2 because they hit some button in me that I just can’t shake. I have a better off road toy in my Jeep. I have more luxurious vehicles as well. Everything we have (save the G Wagen) is faster and gets measurably better economy. But after selling my last one (HUGE mistake) the whole family missed it dearly- which is why I have another one.

I’m such a dork, I love watching the Video Handbook videos, and other silly marketing drivel from their release. When we lived in UT and I got lucky and discovered GBR and ended up making friends with Tom and Bill, it finalized sucking me in. The community of masochists for these silly things is really what makes it great. No other platform of car that I’ve gotten into comes close to how wonderful this one is. The Jeep community purports themselves to be all close knit and such, but the reality is that is a high volume machine with lemmings flocking to buy the image as well, which never fosters cohesiveness- especially among enthusiasts.

Each D2 different and will have a different set of issues to address and subsequently has a different personality. If you are willing to be patient and listen to the machine, it will speak to you and tell you it’s foibles and history. If you take care of it, it will reward you like no other machine I’ve ever owned.

 

Disco 2 owners fall in 3 categories

A. Can do all the wrenching and keep spare disco's for parts

​​​​​​B. Give a blank check to your favorite Indy repair shop

C. You just look at it in the garage.

The rest sell

 

I am one foot in category A, two feet two hands in category C, and still ended up selling the one I had. Looking for another though

 

To add to what I babbled about above, something I’ve mentioned about a number of platform of vehicle is the definition of reliability. What exactly denotes reliable? Is it that you don’t ever have to maintain it and it never breaks? That’s dumb. Is it that parts are cheap and easy to replace? Is something not reliable because the proper service was not performed over the life of the vehicle and suddenly a lot of repairs are required?

I’ve run the spectrum of machines and used to buy into the myth that Land Rovers were “unreliable” (again, thus the title of my build thread). After getting into them, I learned they- like any other vehicle- have some design flaws, but once you sort those out, are pretty darn “reliable”. No vehicle that I’ve ever owned would I call unreliable. But that is probably because I maintain them pretty well and know how stuff works in general.