Hey guys I have a couple of questions about a 2003 land rover discovery that i've been looking at, I've read that the 03 year did not have the center diff. in them now does that mean that its not as good offroading as the years that have the center diff. and by not having the center diff. does that affect the offroad ability any. by the way what does the center diff. do anyway. thanks for all your help

 

Because it has what would be refered to as an open t/case, you are unable to run any type of locke, so yes they are a little less effective off road. The good new is that the traction control on the 03 was updated over past models and performs well off road with just a little getting used to. Don't feel like yours is the only Disco with this issue, most of the 01, and all the02's didn't have it either.
The other good news is that if you want to get into hard core wheeling, you can swap out your t/case for one with CDL and now you can make any sort of changes you want.

 

thanks for the info how much would that cost to do a t case swap or would it be better for me to get say an 04 model that way it would all ready have the center diff and everything. or does'nt the 00, 01 have the center diff.

 

Figure about $1500 total to do a swap. It's possible to do cheaper if you do your own activation system or use an old-style linkage, I used the 2004 cable one because the old ones sieze up fairly easily and that adds a lot of cost. If you do your own labour it cuts about a 5 hour shop cost off as well. A case can be had for between $150 and $500 or so used or about $1500 new/rebuilt from Ashcroft but then you've got some other interesting options the rest of us don't, like custom gearing or an underdrive. Lots of choice, but if you're doing all the work it's not too bad.