Hello everyone! Just bought my first disco 2 weeks ago.

2003, SE7, Safari Green, 87,000 Miles. Currently living in central Ohio.

Was looking to get a classic SUV (Jeep XJ or Land Rover Disco), and just couldn't find the Jeep that fit the specs. The Discos were pricing a bit higher (and I had to drive farther to see them) so they were on the backburner for a bit. After a couple weeks of striking out with XJs and local Discos, I took the plunge and drove to the nearest big city to look at a few. The one I bought was the first I saw (I looked at others, but they didn't compare).

Came to me in decent shape and runs well. First order of business was a thorough vacuuming. Then I picked up some leather cleaner + conditioner and combined it with a soft drill brush (available on Amazon) to clean and condition the leather. The leather is still worn looking, but much cleaner.

Has/had a few issues:

Heated seats not working
Front cig lighter not working
A bulb blown behind the switches (I hope)
Burning a little oil
Intermittent three amigos
Cracked windshield wiper reservoir

• The first two were easy enough to fix with a fuse replacement. And appreciated in this cold weather!
• Haven't looked into the blown bulb yet or the burning oil. I understand a lot of these need gasket replacements around this mileage (someone want to link me to some good threads on that?).
• I've started researching the three amigos. First thing I'm going to do is clean all of the tires real good, as I saw a lot of brake dust. If that doesn't banish them, then I'll probably spring for the Amigo scanner. I already have a decent, $50 OBD unit. However, I'm wondering if I should return that (just bought it), and spring for an all-in-one.
• The reservoir should hopefully be an easy fix. Either the crack is small and I can seal it up. Or, I can just replace the whole thing, which I've seen for $60 on Ebay. I just haven't had the chance to crawl under the vehicle and see what's going on, as it has consistently been 20-30 degrees since owning the vehicle. Looking at a 40 degree day soon, so I might make that the day's project (along with cleaning the tires).

In short, happy to be here, and looking forward to learning and contributing!

 

I don't know how much you've got into your disco, but that can sometimes affect how much you're willing to spend on a scanner.

I highly recommend the nanocom for a d2 owner. It's normally about $475 shipped depending on what you get with it. But they are having a 20% off sale for Christmas. I think someone posted it was closer to $380 shipped right now.

It pretty much sings and dances when it comes to D2. I've got one with licenses for D2 and LR3.

 

no pressure in the washer res. if its not a pump then I'd coat the outside with that fancy screen door boat bottom stop leak spray stuff.

this guy would be proud

 

With an endorsement like that, how can I do anything else? But that is a good recommendation.

It's not an issue of pressure. You put a gallon of fluid in there, and it just goes right through to the pavement.

 

Gotta be a big crack or a pump not seated. There is like 4 pumps on it

 

Thanks for the advice. If the weather ever becomes a little forgiving, I'll take a crack at it [no pun intended].

 

Time for a follow up. Over the holidays, I took the Rover home and had a chance to get it up on stands and really work through some things.

The previous week, I'd taken care of my amigos with the "Option B" fix. In the process I cross-threaded my ABS modulator, but it works.

Ended up returning my $50 scanner and going for the Autel 619 on ($170 or so).

After some headaches getting it updated, the device worked perfectly and diagnosed my Shuttle Valve Electrical Fault.

What I thought was a cracked windshield wiper reservoir was just a busted line from reservoir to jets. Fixing the tubing took care of the leak. However, the headlamps jets are not working. [Edit: Jafir took care of me. Headlamp washers are working perfectly!]

[Edit: Disregard!]
I didn't see a special button for my headlamps, so I'm assuming that the washers for those are automatically activated with the windscreen washer jets. (Could someone please confirm this?) If so, I need to go see if I can pick up a replacement pump for the headlamps (after checking on the multimeter to make sure the pump is getting juice).
[Edit: End Disregard]

Lastly, I was all ready to tackle a front propshaft rebuild. And then I got under the car and saw that it wasn't a stock front propshaft. All U-joints had zerks on them, and grease flowed through them with minimal effort. I know some would suggest that I should replace the U joints because I don't know their greasing history. However, they looked good, there was no play in the front propshaft, and the grease went in there really easily (suggesting they've been greased on schedule, or close to). I'll keep an eye on it. But I'm in no hurry to rebuild a propshaft that is otherwise in excellent shape.

While I was down there, I hit the back shaft with grease as well. The grease did not flow easily there. So we hit it with a little heat and pumped like crazy until the grease started flowing properly. Again, I'll keep an eye on that.

Lastly, I discovered that the stock jack was dead (oil in the stowage compartment). The seal is clearly gone. Although I might make a project out of it for fun, I went down to Harbor Freight and got a 4 ton bottle jack that fits in the stowage for $14.99. Only thing I don't like about this bottle is that it does not have a cradle. Also, I don't think it will be high enough on it's own. I'll add a 4x4 block to my roadside kit and call it a day.

Next step is to start tackling the 90,000 maintenance. I piggy backed a brake flush along with the Amigos fix, and the oil was recently changed with a full synthetic.

The oil "leaks" are really minor, and would be expensive to fix. I don't plan on worrying about that any time soon. Final piece of the to-do list is an idler pulley that's noisy.

Love my rover!

 

The headlight washers only work when the headlights are on and only come on for a few seconds when you use the washers.

 

Jafir, again a big "thank you" for that tip.

I read your post, ran outside, and they worked without any problem.

One less thing!

 

Did my first oil change yesterday. I wasn't at 3,000 miles, but I wanted to get one under my belt (especially because I wanted to get some Rotella in there, as opposed to the full synth I got at JiffyLube). Oil change went well enough. The Drain Screw was tightened on there REAL tight. I had to pull like hell to get it to come undone. I almost gave up, but on my 4th try I just pulled on my ratchet with all my might and it came free. (Didn't have a cheater pipe handy).

Moving on to the oil filter. It was some little, crappy filter (thankfully it unscrewed by hand easily). So I was happy to replace it with a Mobil-1 big boy. I filled the oil filter half way with the Rotella before putting it on. At this point, I was a greasy mess, so it took me a bit to get the filter on. Another 6 quart of Rotella into the top and it started up nicely. Oil light was only on for 4-5 seconds, which I think is a pretty good job at minimizing the dry start.

One question I had regarding the oi filter. I still have the plastic underneath the Rover (with the circle cut out to get to the filter). Everything I've read suggests that I can safely remove that piece of plastic and toss it away. I just wanted to confirm that before I do it. The risk averse side of me is saying "If it isn't important, why did they include it?!"

I also attempted to grease the U-joints. That didn't go very well. First I got a grease gun coupler stuck on a zerk (got it out without damaging the zerk). Then I tried the next day but couldn't get at the zerks down in the valleys of the double cardon joint. So I picked up a needle fitting that I'll use today to grease that. I also greased the rear slip joint. Last time, I didn't have any trouble reaching the U joints, but it was up on stands. I'm guessing if I put it on stands again, the regular coupler will be able to reach the zerks.

Another question. As I posted up thread, I was prepared to rebuild the propshaft, but was pleasantly surprised when I got down there and saw servicable u-joints and a whole new front propshaft. However, this front propshaft doesn't have a slip joint. Is this normal? Most of the aftermarket ones I looked at had slip joints. Anyone have any experience with this? Should I be replacing the propshaft to one with a slip joint?

To be clear, in case anyone has this question first: there really is no slip joint. It's not just that there's no zerk (or a flush screw in the grease fitting). There really is no slip joint.