After 35 years of really wanting a land rover, i broke down and purchased a 2004 Discovery sight unseen from a small enthusiast shop in LA and drove it home to Seattle this weekend.

It was a pretty "eventful" trip starting 4 hours late because unbeknownst to me, the shop decided to pull and replace the motor with a fresher one out of a Range Rover the night before i flew down to LA to pick it up. As i got to the shop, i was greeted by 3 mechanics all pouring over my new truck, looking for loose fittings etc.

Trundling up the I5 nothbound my first curve ball was i5 northbound over the grapevine being closed. the "detour" option was several hundred miles out of my way via the Mohave desert! I've driven in lots of bad conditions over the years, but the sideways white out blizzard in the Mohave with so much snow on the ground that you couldnt identify the road was probably one of the worst.

I hit my first mechanical issue about 40 miles north of Sacramento. I stopped at a rest area and when i came out i was met by a massive pool of ATF coating the drivers side suspension and all over the ground. A 60 mile tow (thanks AAA!) to Land Rover Rocklin, CA had their tech, replace the hose, refill the ATF and get me back on my way.

Finally, i broke down for the last time in Vancouver, WA, just north of Portland, OR. This time the truck wouldn't start. I'd turn the key , the starter would begin to engage, but sluggishly and then the horn would start going and the immobilizer would switch on. I had my fingers crossed that it was a dead battery and the AAA tech that came out agreed with me. One new battery later, i'm back up and running and home safely to my wife and 14month old, just a day late !

I think i'm going to have lots of questions for the forum, but i'm going to take a dive through all of the info already here first. My ultimate goal is to turn my Disco (our second car) into somewhat of an Overlander. We want to do all the national parks and spend more time in Alaska and northern canada and we're starting to run out of room in our Subaru.

The initial ****les that i've experienced tell me that i need to have the car gone through to see if there are any other areas needing addressed urgently that may affect reliability. I definitely need to look into the tires/wheels/lift issue. At various points on the drive north, I5's lanes are quite worn into ruts or grooves. Changing lanes was a bit of a white knuckle experience with the Disco trying to follow the contours of the road surface. not a lot of fun at 70 mph !

The previous owner put on an OME lift and really large tires (Falken ?), mating these to the 20" wheels. I'm hoping that a return to a sensible oversized tire, may solve the "death weave" i was getting under circumstances when the road wasn't smooth.

I've attached a couple of pics, I really do love it already ! Just hopefully i won't have to get used to the view of it on the back of a flat bed too often

Robert

 

Welcome. The factory manuals in the RAVE (their name) download. Our tech area has high miles service lists, etc. Watch for any sign of overheating (gauge over 50%). Front drive shaft needs to have grease fittings on all the joints, oem comes sealed on some. When they dry out, the shaft splits and pokes hole in tranny.

 

I previously owned a 2004 Disco II for about 3 years(daily driver!) and never needed a tow truck.Like you I bought it used(over 70k miles),It was stable as a rock at any speed but it had stock springs and tires.Hope your luck with the disco gets better.Im currently looking for another 04....2words(PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE).

 

welcome fellow Washington onianite? i have a set of 18" factory land rover wheels with practically brand new street tires on them. dirt cheap if you are interested.
are you going for an offraoder? or comfortable street car?
these are the wheels i have. just let me know, about 5000 miles on the tires.
jon

 

Quite an adventure. Welcome!

 

Thanks to all for the warm welcome! I'm quite convinced that my two minor breakdowns were due to the overnight engine swap rush job and the battery death being exacerbated by the extreme cold temperatures in Mt Shasta overnight. The disco has been running great since i got back to Seattle.

I did make a typo in my welcome post. The car currently sits on 18" rims, not 20 as i mistyped. I have Falken 285/60R18's on right now. I think that a combination of the tire and the suspension lift are contributing to my lane changing/handling issues. I want to confirm that, but i'm gravitating towards a more street biased set of tires for the 18" rims and a winter/offroad set on a 16" wheel set i'm about to pick up off of ebay.

Thanks again for all of the links (downloading service manual now!)

one last question for Seattle folks. I see that we are lucky enough to have a couple of independent land rover service mechanics in the area. Any recomendations as to who i should have go through my truck ?

 

i can not vouch for these guys on price, or work performance, however i called them and talked to a technician there for a good 2-3 hours in total trying to figure out a problem i was having. he was super helpful, sent me info and drawings via email, and never once seemed to be tired of hearing from me, or expecting payment.
i promised him if i was ever on the Seattle side and needed work done, it'd be with them.
British Automotive - Complete British Auto Repair - Seattle, WA 206-782-7950

 

This is supposed to be the primo Rover shop in the region. I live on Bainbridge Island, so it is inconvenient for me (and I do most of my own work now).

Lamorna Garage -- Seattle Washington's Independent Land Rover and Range Rover Specialists

 

Welcome Robert, sounds like quite the adventure getting up here!

Lamorna Garage in Ballard.

Biggs Eastside Automotive in Bellevue

I've only dealt with Lamorna buying and selling parts, but I've heard 2nd hand about the quality work they do. Biggs will shoot you straight, I've had a couple positive experiences with them.

 

Thanks all ! I've a call into Lamorna. First order of business is to have my steering looked at, sort out the tires and have the transmission looked at (blots don't seem to have come off in a while).

If you see me driving around Seattle, i'll be the guy in the super tall silver Disco that can't fit in parking garages