Hi Some of you might recognize me from other forms that I have joined- I recognized a few names- Anyway- for those here who don't recognize me-

My name is JoAnn - My husband and I live in Arizona- My hobbies are photography and horses and exploring in the desert back roads.
My Husband likes to take his metal detector out on our drives and I take my camera. We also own 2 horses. (Can a Land Rover pull a 2 horse trailer? I can't seem to find the pull capacity on them)

Although we really don't qualify as "Yuppies" we purchased our first Land Rover Discovery (97) last weekend.
We expected it would probably need some repair as it is used and we have no history on it. First noticed it needs a rear break disk . No biggie- thats a maintainence thing. And one of the windows doesn't work- No biggie, 3 work fine. And cruise control doesn't work either- can live with that too, But learned it takes 5 or 6 tries ( waiting 10 seconds between tries) before it will start when it's cold. - - So I have been Google searching trying to figure out what might be the cause.
We plan to get a tune up, change the oil and all the fluids and filters and hope that will correct the problem. I filled it with the "good" (expensive) gasoline yesterday ( $39.00 for half a tank OUCH!)
And filled again after 80 miles to get the MPG (OUCH again!!) 12 MPG- is this NORMAL??

Getting very discouraged with all the bad reviews we have been reading and thinking of selling it. I hope you folks can give us some encouragement. We want to keep it if we can but worry that we have just purchased a Money Pit.
JoAnn

 

Im not a Land Rover expert by any means, but the cold starting issue could be due to the cold start valve. as that is what usually seems to effect most cars in this situation.

and the MPG, well it is a suv. after the tune up you might see a slight better MPG. how many miles does the Discovery have? have them also check the fuel filter.

I have been looking into getting a Discovery and well, from what I have found they are claimed to get 14MPG city and 18MPG highway.

 

> the cold starting issue could be due to the cold start valve. as that is what usually seems to effect most cars in this situation. <
Thanks, I'll make a note of that. I'll have to look up what a "cold start valve" is. The other day after sitting in the sun for 5 hours it started right up for me. So even a hot day makes a difference. Unless I was just lucky that time.

>and the MPG, well it is a suv. after the tune up you might see a slight better MPG. <
We are waiting for a repair manual to come in the mail. The check engine light is on and my Husband has a code reader but doesn't know where to plug it in.
Once we get a tune up , oil change and replace ALL the filters hopefully the mileage will be better. If not we might put it up for sale.
I'll share info when we get on top of everything in case it might be helpful to someone else someday.


>how many miles does the Discovery have? <
132,000 miles

I have been looking into getting a Discovery and well, from what I have found they are claimed to get 14MPG city and 18MPG highway.
We expected it to be bad but didn't expect it to be awful. I drove Highway non stop for 60 of the 80 miles and it was 12mpg. Maybe 13 because the way I rounded the numbers off.
18mpg I might be able to live with but I know people with small motorhomes that get 12.
Thanks for replying.

JoAnn

 

12 is a little bad. I get 14.9 driving conservatively in my Range Rover, simillar gross vehicle weight and engine size. Only real difference is the aerodynamics I guess. As for your towing capacity, I wanna say its around 5500 lbs..but don't quote me. Your milage should increase when you do the tune up and filter change.

You've probably fallen victim of the classic 'why keep up maintenance while I try to sell it' disease. Most of the members on here will probably agree it'll take $500-1000 to overcome the previous owners lethargy and get your Rover back to normal [:@]. Mine took a suspension replacement and the $200 tune up.

Also, the OBD port for the diagnostics should be on the passenger side under the dash. That's where it is on my Range at least (just trying to help!).

AND lastly, as for your original problem of cold starts...that could be quite a few things, hopefully the CEL light will give you some direction. As with any ignition issue, you've got to have FUEL, AIR, and SPARK. My first guess is fuel supply. A simple test would be to turn the key to on (but don't crank it) and let the pressure in the fuel lines build up for a few seconds, then try cranking it. If that works on the cold mornings, then you've either got a bad pressure regulator or a fuel pump. The second would be spark. With 130k, the plugs probably havn't been changed in a while, and you could be arc-ing some wires when you try to crank on cold mornings. LOTS of things.

Start with the tune up, get those codes read, post back here, and hopefully most-to-all of your problems will be fixed Good luck!

 

For mpg you're not going to get a good average from only driving 80 miles. Too many variables. You should run at least 3 tankfulls, filling it the same way each time (like stopping after the first time the pump clicks off). Then total your last two fillups (assuming you fill it 3 times) and figure your milage.

When you get your tuneup done, don't let them talk you in to fancy plugs, like platinums, the D1's perfer regular plugs. I use whatever is on sale.. Champion, AC, whatever. Usually pay about $1 each.
For filters don't pay for OEM. AC Delco for the fuel filter is fine. WIX makes excellent oil filters, very highly rated (NAPA golds are made by WIX). A NAPA air filter is fine.