HI everyone.. I am a first time Land Rover owner and was so positively excited about this .. then get it home, take it to a local mechanic who promplty told me to get my money back or sell it.

I am a woman that admittedly knows nothing about cars, my husband knows a little but no expert. We Bought a 2003 Land Rover Discovery, one owner, the other day knowing it needed work, but we got it for such a low price and after discussing with a mechanic where the car was located we felt that it was worth buying to fix. .. So to come home and have the mechanic we bring it to give such a vitriol reaction has me feeling like a total fool but at the same time puzzled.

The engine light came on had a loud knocking sound, the guy said after checking it there was a misfire in cylinder four and could be fixed he thought for a few hundred dollars.

He suggested not driving it till it was fixed. So we had it towed to our town an hour away. They crank it up and it was loud as expected, looked around for about 15 secs, got under the car for a minute and came back out and said.. really bad news you need a new engine. SO he told me it would be thousands of dollars to fix and he wasn't interested in a project.

SO, we called another mechanic in another town that was referred as he has never worked on anything BUT rovers and he said he had never seen an engine completely fail at 100k miles?

Now.. about mechanic A) I know nothing and the seller did, I was in a strange town for all I know they were in cahoots and selling me a bill of goods, or didn't know what they were talking about.

Mechanic B) is a tire shop predominantly, we live in a small town where I only know of two people in town that have Range Rovers, there may be more but I never see them... so I doubt they have very much experience at all on rovers.
the owner of the shop admittedly said he hates Range Rovers and hates it when one of the people that has one in town brings it for service.

Mechanic C) specializes in rovers and of course without looking at it can only speculate of course, problem is he is over an hour away in the other direction and we will have to have the expense of towing again. But says if the body and interior are in good condition .. which they really are in very good condition for a 13 year old vehicle.. if we can fix it it is an awesome car.

I feel like i would be willing to put 4k or so in repairs on this vehicle.. but am I just barking up a never ending tree,..

So what would you do?.. go to the effort and expense to haul it over based on what I've told you? or throw back on craigs list and sell as is and what do you think would be a fair price for one that has a great interior and good exterior?

 

oh, and now it doesn't crank.. I just called Mechanic b and asked him to take it out of the garage so we could get information on the engine out of it for Mechanic c and they said it wouldn't crank so they rolled it out.

 

2003 land rover discovery , 103k miles. .. engine light came on and loud knocking noise.. quick look by mechanic said misfire on 4 cyl.

had towed to another mechanic in town and they told me with a quick look (1 min max) .. I needed a new engine.
they hate land rovers and didn't want the project.

I say, ok, I will be back monday and figure out what to do with it, as both mechanics said don't drive till fixed. .. So we make arrangements to have another person come look at it this weekend and asked the shop to please take it out of garage and leave for us.

I get a text it won't crank or lock so they left it for us with key in glove box so the other person can come in the morning. .. We go over and realize it won't crank because battery is dead.. hook it up .. it cranks right up.. and oddly enough NO KNOCKING noise.. but engine light is still on.

SO it occured to us that the common factor here is cold equals knocking.. the other times it cranked up.. the loud knocking begins to subside when it warms up some.. today, the difference in the other days was it was sitting out in the sun and quite warm.. and NO knocking.

Any thoughts?.. and just nuts how different both mechanics said.

 

? Knocking or tapping?

Oil level checked and good?

Engine light may get set by multiple causes unrelated to engine noise.

Good idea you have to get a Rover mech to take a look.
......

 

well.. not sure how else to describe the noise except it sort of reminds me of my husbands f25o diesel when he cranks it up but louder.. yet it kind of levels out after being cranked a couple of minutes.. when he backed it up to move it today there was no loud rattle (yet it was also in warm sunny weather vs all the other times in the 30's).. I did notice a bit of the rattleing noise when he backed it up.

 

Last Feb, I purchased an 03 for cheap also. It had 2 misfires,CEL on, multitude of codes, engine tapping. It also had 103000 miles.
I took it one step at a time. The misfires= I replaced the coils(70.00 advance auto), wires(45.00 Kingsborne 8mm Ebay or Amazon, can't remember), plugs(iridium from Advance Auto) Misfire was gone and engine ran smooth.
tapping noise=I changed the oil and filter and used Rosella T5 15w40, and tapping was gone.
I found several vacuum hoses that were leaking at connections to engine and vacuum canister, and replaced the purge valve(using the Hyundai one that is identical to LR from Autozone about 40.00).
I went ahead and purchased all 4 O2 sensors and it eliminated the remaining codes.
Only a mechanic with an engine stethoscope can pinpoint the tapping/knocking noise.
If your mechanic can get it running right, I urge you to get the LR original Equipment 180 degree thermostat and replace the stock one(this will keep your engine temps more in line with desired temperature.
All these things, I did myself but I have been working on vehicles all my adult life.
If you do some searching and purchase the parts yourself, take them to your mechanic, you will save some money. On some things, you really want to get the same brand as LR uses.
For example, Bosch O2 sensors, Bosch MAF sensor, LR branded thermostat(not aftermarket).
Amazon is the best price on O2 sensors, and I got the Bosch MAF from Advance Auto)
Good Luck with the Rover, and post what you decide and what is achieved.
There are many members, itching to help.

 

Thank you..it seems from what I keep reading that it is certainly possible that this is not the dire situation Mechanic B said it was?..

We were really shocked to go over there today to find that they "couldnt' start it so we pushed it out and left it".. to realize when we got there after hours it didnt crank b/c the battery was dead.. we were alone when we got there so we jumped it and it cranked immediately and NO crazy noises.. but engine light still on .. Is it really possible that a full time mechanic.. even though we know they don't specialize in range rovers, would look at something for one minute and say.. oh this is awful, you will have to replace everythign.. when it is really something not so difficult?.. can they be that off?.. but again, he didn't look at it but a minute. I'd love to think that Mechanic A was not lying to us and it really is just a few hundred dollars to fix vs. the second one!

 

If the mechanic does not know Land Rovers, he is shooting in the dark and is scared of them.
I had plenty of experience on other vehicles and equipment, but had to re-educate myself on Rovers. They can be real picky, and don't respond well to use of aftermarket parts on critical sensors. Mine ended up being just that, several hundred dollars. You may have to pay some labor, unless your husband is handy with a wrench. You need to download the repair manual and it is good about giving you explicit directions on replacing parts.
The manual is listed on the first page of the D2 forum in one of the stickys. If you can't find it, let me know and I will guide you to it.

 

here is link to manual:

land rover service factory manual RAVE download land rover resource, service manual, workshop factory manual, download, rave, vehicles including discovery, series, defender, range rover, freelander, LR3, Handbooks, Catalog, Catalogue, Land Rover Inte

 

FYI, In the future, post in the Discovery 2 forum, You will get answers from other Disco owners.