Hi everyone.

I just picked myself up a 2003 Land Rover Discovery SE edition. She only has 77k miles. I took her for a test drive locally and two major concerns are bothering me.

1 is the thing gets super hot in the nose area. The stock temp gauge inside stays mid mark but yet up front outside seems real excessively hot to the touch. The lights, fender, hood, etc. So much so I had trouble opening the hood w out letting her cool off.

2 shes making a ticking noise. Not at first @ startup, but the warmer it gets the louder the tick.

I just joined so I'm off to searching older threads now. Any info at all would be very much appreciated.

Also thanks for having me.

 

Welcome to the forum. Take a look at the coolant. See if it looks rusty. You might need to do a radiator flush.

 

Welcome to the Forum.
Do not believe the temp gauge. I happen to use dash command(phone app) and never concerned myself with the temp, until I read posts on here. I then saw my temps ranged from 205-211 degrees, and my temp gauge was smack dab in the middle. I replaced the thermostat and temps dropped 10 degrees. After seeing this, I wish I had opted for the 180 degree thermostat.
Also make sure, you properly bleed all the air out of the system(many posts on this).
Note: ticking is a Land Rover trait, that being said.
The ticking can be a number of things, exhaust leak, rocker arm, lifters, liners, even the power steering pump. Sometimes you can use an engine stethoscope and pinpoint. I am old school and use a wooden broom stick with my ear to it and touch different parts of the engine and can hear very well what is going on in the engine. valve train noise is usually 1/2 the speed of crank related noise(camshaft goes 1/2 the speed of crankshaft)
Good luck with your Disco.

 

Thanks guys for the quick responses.

Also I noticed a pretty bad oil leak. Got under her and noticed two giant bolts right near the oil filter area. Both were leaking and loose. I'm thinking an oil cooler went in and out here maybe on the higher model...???