hi, I'm looking at the 2004 Land Rover discovery which was originally came from Rhode Island. The seller told me there is an undercarriage rust. I want to see if this is something that we should be aware of. Thanks!

 

yes the frames rot out on Discovery II

 

Welcome to the forum! Where do you live? Most vehicles from the north have some sort of underbody rust. That looks pretty minimal to me but you may want to crawl under prior to buying and see if there are any holes developing, etc. You can take a lot of that surface rust off. How many miles on the truck? Have the head gaskets been replaced? Heads resurfaced? How's the driveshaft? Has it been replaced? Greasable zerks? Green coolant in the overflow tank or is it still red (Dexcool)? Just some things to investigate prior to purchasing that will help with potential headaches down the road. Good luck - they're nice vehicles!

 

The car has 52000 miles.

 

Are you confident that the mileage is correct? If the miles are 'honest' then you found a needle in a haystack and I'd grab it. If you look closer and find that many things have already been replaced, I'd question the mileage and go elsewhere. Up to you - my 2 cents. If you post more specific questions in the DII forum (accessed by clicking 'forums' in the upper left hand corner) I'm sure someone will chime in and help you out to determine if this is a good buy or not. Best of luck and welcome again!

 

The frames on these rot bad up in new england. Check towards the back end of the frame it is likely much worse. That one looks like it was painted/sprayed over to make it look better.

 

AR, is 100% right! These frames are a PITA if the rust is bad. There is a reason this part is on the market > REAR QUARTER CHASSIS DISCOVERY II 1999-2004 - Rovers North - Classic Land Rover Parts AND NO, you don't want this to be your first repair on a DII!!

And as AR mentioned this rust is UNDER the undercoat/paint. So what you see isn't even half of it. Please before you buy this thing get under with a scraper and a sharp punch and poke around. If the frame has rot it won't take long to find it. I once pushed my finger through a frame (just in front of the fuel filler spout) on a '01 DII.

I do hope this rig is a good one, but just look at it hard. Or have a LR indy shop look at it for you! Good Luck

 

I will look at the potential issues you guys suggested. Thanks all for suggestion！

 

One thing the carfax shows that there were quite a few maintenance records up to 45000 miles. Also it shows that the previous owner reported that there is a rust in the report. I didn't know you have to report it. I feel it's something significant so he had to report it

 

Yep RED FLAG! IF the frame was "patched"/repaired then it's not long before the rest is toast. This truck may have already failed a state inspection at one point. And being that "rust" is disclosed, the seller just covered his A$$ if you find a big frame problem after the sale.

Again I go back to IF this is the truck for you....DON'T Fall in LOVE with IT UNTIL you GET IT INSPECTED!!!!!