Somewhere in Hollywood they should be considering another installment of the National Lampoon Vacation series where Chevy Chase has dozens of misadventures as he travels internationally, trying to find the fiendish engineers that designed the well used Discovery II that Chevy is trying to fix-up and give to his grandson, but that he cannot every completely fix. He finally finds the now retired engineers, chief amongst them Micheal Caine, sipping gin on a beach in Southwold, sharing roaring laughter as they read pitiful pleas for help on Land Rover Forums, recalling the mantra that was posted above all their desks "BUILD IT SO IT BREAKS".

I'm sure there are many with greater woes than me, but here is what I have endured in the 12 months since purchasing a very good looking '03 Discovery II. No Brakes ... I knew that when I bought it. Changed out pads, discs and brake lines. Window propped up with a stick ... Front passenger window wouldn't work. Opened the door panel to find no window motor and a 2x4 propping up the window. Battery died... Easy enough to fix with money. Starter died... Replaced starter and alternator, with the starter being a day-long struggle due to my man-paws not fitting well withing the available work space. Power steering pump seal blew-out... Fortunately it was kind enough to do that in my driveway, but getting down to the power steering pump was another long battle. Discovered both motor mounts were completely fractured... That was a long battle to replace those two square hockey pucks that cost me several knuckles. I got the "Three Amigos"... Easy to fix but tough to get to. The seals on the master brake cylinder began to leak... All that rather expensive DOT 4 fluid began to leak out overnight onto my already stained driveway. The Thermostat began to leak ... Actually it began to self-destruct at a molecular level. Replaced that and the upper and lower radiator hose assemblies. The throttle assembly behind the air intake was so filled with sticky muck that I had to disassemble and clean it twice before it would not stick on cold days. I made the mistake of adding a fuel injector cleaner to the gas, which caused years of carbon (presumably from using cheap gas) to break loose and foul one cylinder after another, making the truck run terribly for months. Not even Sea Foam, sucked directly into the engine via a vacuum line, could provide a quick-fix to that problem. Then the steering began to bind, so I replaced both the tie rod and drag link assemblies, which helped, but did not cure the issue. Now I am half way through replacing all four ball joints, and have found it to be the most physically challenging auto repair I have ever attempted. I am a Texan, and even amongst Texans I am considered "A big, strong man". For me to have to apply all my 240 lbs, plus all the torque I can generate from every muscle in my body, at the end of a 4' steel pipe, and still struggle to get these ball joints to break loose, means somebody had to be laughing when they designed this machine.

 

I weigh a buck seventy on a good day, and have a northeast Discovery II, and my ball joints weren't that bad.

What ball joint tool set are you using?

 

Its good of you to share these misadventures. I strongly suspect that the fine folks over at Jaguar were in collusion on this idea of planned self destruction. Have 3 Jags, 2 that Usually work, and just got this Discovery- completely because of the price! We shall see where it goes- if anywhere.

 

Michael Caine as head Discovery engineer, love it!

 

Yeah, immediately thought...Dirty Rotten Scoundrels...when I read the non fiction tale of Discovery ownership...lol.

Brian.

 

All four ball joints did finally surrender. The interior of the ball joint "wells" had some funky discoloration that only a forensic metalurgist could love. Some form of fusion had occured. Both lower ball joints were completely shot. Interestingly, both upper ball joints seemed to be functional, save their boots being missing. I haven't taken it out yet for a test drive, but I'm predicting that the steering is going to be darn tight. Manipulating the wheels by hand now takes a concerted effort. With the old ball joints they could be turned with little more than the pressure of a single finger (when up on jacks). I'm sure that will loosen in time, and it will beat the heck out of the steering locking up and turning you into oncoming traffic.

 

I sooooo want to hear the next episode of this adventure!

 

After replacing everything related to the steering system, save the steering rack and the high pressure line (Drag Link, Tie Rod, Upper and Lower Ball Joints, Steering Dampener), I figured out that the steering rack is fouled. No idea with what, but after putting 8 ounces of Sea Foam Trans Tune into the power steering tank, the steering has begun to get better. Still not fixed, but better. Meaning everything I replaced, while it looked broken, was not impacting the functionality of the steering, not even the two motor mounts that were completely fractured in the middle of their rubber blocks. An added task, while working on everything else, was realizing that the brake master cylinder was leaking. Replaced that. Easy and relatively inexpensive. Just a pain.

So ... now I'm down to two issues. The steering, which is improving but still is not quite right, and the part that is keeping my D2 from passing inspection: A misfire in cylinder #6. Judging from the coolant I seem to consistently lose, I'm guessing the gasket is blown on #6 and allowing coolant to enter the chamber. A complete head gasket kit is only $200, but I am just a wee bit intimidated by the hours involved in doing the job. Not as intimidated by the $1200 I've been quoated to have someone else do the work.

So ... I remain with an '03 Disco 2 that is physically almost perfect, but will require many more hours and a fair amount of luck to make fully functional.

 

Save yourself $125 Lucky8 has the gasket kit with bolts for $75 shipped.

https://landroverforums.com/forum/lu...livered-85200/

 

As #6 is not on a water channel in the block/head any coolant going into there is more likely coming from a crack in the block behind the liner rather than a head gasket failure. The water passages are on the 4 ends of the heads. So leaks into 1 & 7 and 2 & 8 are usually HG related, not so on the interior ones.

You can look into the cyl with a cheap boroscope (endoscope) to verify. You can get one that attaches to your smartphone on Amazon.

Good luck!