Hey guys! My name is Ben I'm a student at the California Maritime Academy and I'm on the verge of buying my first land rover (within the next week or two).

I came here to preemptively start gaining knowledge in addition to seeing what others think of the car I've found.

It's a 1996 Discovery I 4.0L auto. It has 141,000 miles on it (more road than off). It has all the off road suspension goodies by Old Man Emu as well as after market compressor/lights/bumpers/winch/tow package. Asking price is 4800 dollars. I will mostly be using it for sporadic errands and camping/escaping on the weekends.

I have already test driven it and everything sounds fine to my somewhat untrained ear. I looked under the truck at the frame and found it to be straight and particularly rust free. I'm thinking about going back this week to have it inspected by a mechanic just to be sure.

Anyways, I love reading all the posts on here and seeing what other people are doing to their trucks. The discovery caught my eye a while ago and I've been in love ever since. I look forward to interacting with everyone in the future!

 

Inspection good idea. Funding on college budget may involve some DIY work, download the factory manual set called the RAVE. Simple to work on and I am a off-duty village idiot and I can do it, so most people can.

 

I wouldve loved one of these in college.

However...

If you arent gonna work on it yourself, you better have a nice chunk of extra cash to pay for maintenance/repairs that will inevitably come up.

If you are handy with a wrench then just be prepared to drop $30-200 every couple months or so on random stuff that eventually goes bad (dont forget its a 20 year old car).

 

Thanks Pinky and Buzz for the advice and yes I do plan on doing my own repairs I have looked through a lot of the major breakdowns that Discoverys have and the reasons behind them but what are some common ones to look for?

Also, can any of this be reduced further by preventative maintenance (fluid changes, regular inspections, the usual)?

 

The #1 preventative maintenance is to make sure the cooling system is functioning properly.

Check for coolant leaks at all hoses and at the front and back of the block.

Put a 180 thermostat in and hook a scanner that reads live data to the OBD2 port. With the 180 stat in a D1, your temps should be under 200 pretty much all the time unless it idling on really hot day and youre running AC.

If you dont have those temps, make sure the coolant bottle is sound, waterpump is spinning nicely, fan clutch is peanutbuttery, and radiator doesnt have a major temp discrepancy between top and bottom (i.e. bottom is clogged).

 

Again, thanks for the information. Is there a specific brand of thermostat that is better than others? I was reading Savannah's information regarding Motorad brand and was curious.

 

Here's an album of the potential steed.

100_4488.jpg Photo by roverrehoming | Photobucket