Richard Mills

If you have a problem with the upper tailgate door, one of the items in the photo is to blame. Item 1 is the push button, push it and nothing happens. The button itself is OK it's the zinc alluminium alloy lever that has turned to white dust. Maybe they should have made it out of plastic. Item 2 is the latch mechanism, press the button, it gives a good klunk and the door only opens onto the safety catch. More pushes on the button gives similarly loud clukns but may nver open the door. It's that little hook on the end broken off. Item 3 The actuator. press the button and get a weak clunk and it doesn't open the door, press again and the clunk gets weaker each time. But it might work properly the next day, just until you are in a hurry then it goes to sleep again. The advice is, for any problem, change all three, it's a pain to get a stuck door open and you don't want to be doing it time and time again.

Hi there, Check the contacts on the back of the alternator, the older versions feed the tachometer signal from there. A corroded tag will stop it working.

There are numerous faults on the air suspension system. First is to check for leaks, go around the vehicle and listen for hissing. You might not hear any though. The compressor has various switch blocks that put the air into the suspension legs. Remove the fuse for the air suspension and look to see if one corner goes down, if so check with soap suds for a leak. The switch blocks themselves can stick causing the pressure to be vented. If they have gotten wet then corrosion inside the block can cause this. I stripped them down and changed the seals, very fiddly. I replaced one block entirely, the rear one. ( back goes down first) Finally, the pump has an exhaust valve on it, this is also prone to corrosion and can waste away the air. After a drive, listen to the vehicle with the ignition off. Over the next twenty minutes you should hear the switch blocks clicking to keep the vehicle level, and the exhaust valve popping to vent the excess gas if all is well. An Hitachi pump unit is about £300! Investigate the cause quickly. The new pump is supplied with it's relay, another thing to change before the pump.

Check the alternator connections, the speedo is fed from there, it will be corrosion on the tag of one of the smaller spade terminals, or just plain loose.

I had the local garage change both of the lower arms and the ride was very much better, it cost £400 though. Make sure the steering drop links are all right because slack in those can ruin the new ball joints and the whole job will need to be done again.

The switch provides 12 volts to the relay, one tag at least must be low before the switch is operated then full 12 volts when the switch is on. It sounds like the switch is dodgy, try WD40 in it before buying a replacement. If all tags on the switch are at full 12 volts all the time then the switch is locked on and needs replacing. And there is another fault to find, suspect a relay too.

I fixed mine, just took them both out, cleaned up the seal and the roof and refitted using sealant, no more leaks. Make sure the drain holes are clear and work properly, they make a lot of difference.

Hi there, Mine was much worse than yours, holes big enough to put a foot through. I fitted a new boot floor over the old one, mig welded it in place. The hardest bit was getting the seat belt parts out. I took three days doing it and finished off with a good coat of hammerite green paint. It made the world of difference to my Disco. It's well worth buying a gas-less mig welder and learning to use it, an angle grinder too. Good luck with it.

Hi, Mine did the exact same thing. To prove what it is, I used a wire with clips on and connected the fuel cut off switch directly to the battery, the fault went away. The trouble is then stopping the engine, just un-clip the lead to stop. The real fault was in the unit hidden behind the radio. Pull the module out and prize it open, look for the mounting lug of the relay, that is the power connection to the fuel switch. The soldering had let go. The manufacturing process doesn't heat that huge lug up enough. Buy a cheap soldering iron and solder it up. Hold the iron for a long time to get it properly heated up. Lots of car modules and washing machine ones too, have exactly the same problem.

I think that if it were the slave cylinder seals leaking you should see a loss of fluid. The master cylinder seal can allow the fluid back past the seal and into the reservoir. Have a look at the push rod from the clutch pedal and see if there is any fluid leaking there, it's a sign that the master cylinder is past its best.

If the battery light stays on it's a sign that the rectifier pack in the alternator is broken. First out is to get the alternator checked out.

Mine was noisy but it appeared to work just fine. They have a plastic case around them with a foam rubber pad to keep the noise down. I ended up changing mine and it is much quieter, but the noise from it releasing the air is much louder. Mine failed with error "Gallery pressure not decreasing when vented." That's the vent valve and it was too corroded to replace, so it ended up being the whole lot. Much better now.

My 2005 Disco 3 showed no fault light, but did have error code P140A. Which is from the left hand EGR valve, circuit 3 low. With a new valve in hand I was able to prove it was an electrical fault while the EGR valve still worked, may be not OK . As expected I was unable to change said valve in it's entirety so opted to change just the actuator. It still was pretty hard to do, but possible. This fixed the fault. Below are the pictures that show the various bits. 3 screws remove the actuator from the casting and the thing springs to one end. It needs a finger in the EGR output to stop the bar moving while the "U" shaped actuator thing is giggled into place. I stripped the actuator down to find exactly what I expected, the coil comes off seperately and has no problem (resistance of 4 ohms). The real failure can be seen in the last picture, the tiny wipers that run on the feedback tracks have fell off. It's always the smallest bit! The easier fix might have been to just change the feed back section, held on by 4 screws, it located with a "D" drive to the coil, but it would have been just as fiddley as it has the return spring inside it.

In my opinion injector No1 is not delivering enough, but it is marginal. A round of injector cleaner should fix it. The test results are very detailed, a good report. On the V6, it's normally injector 6 that overheats and fails.

Hi There, My recommendation is to log on to Toolstation's web site and buy shiny a new gas less MIG welder. I did for my disco 1 and it saved it from the scrap yard. The first job was the boot floor, and you have already done that one. Get some sheet steel, even sides from an old washing machine will do, and patch it up. You won't find anything as good as the one you have. I miss my disco 1; it's replacement, a D3 is much harder to work on. The inner wings are not that hard to do once you get going and as no one can see them, you can weld on as many bits as you need. Plenty of under seal and it will last another 20 years.

Hi Max-ie. I had a disco 1 300 tdi and it towed really well. I changed it a few years ago for an 05 reg Dicso 3 2.7 d. This one tows so well it is possible to forget the caravan is there! A word of warning though.... The D3 2.7d has an "Exhaust cross over pipe". If this is leaking it costs shed loads to fix. The D3 I got was in this condition and I was unable to fix it myself and had to get the main agent to fix it. They remove the body for this job. As I knew about it the cost of buying it was lowered by £3000 to cover the repair. The main agents did a super job and I am glad I bought the D3, and I hope the people who bought my D1 are as happy with it as I was.

Hi Niel, My disco 3 has the air suspension and it goes down too. I have an idea that the software in the ECU is set to try and level the vehicle every twenty minutes. I think that this would use up all of the stored air in an evening, which it does on mine. I also suspect that it's one of the height sensors that is causing it. It's expensive to change out the air suspension for conventional spring type, (£700+) so I reccomend trying to find the real fault first. One thaught is to have the ride height re-calibrated, but the main agents costs to do that may well be more than changing all four ride height sensors. (£64 each!) I am still looking at mine and it might take me a while to find the real fault. [ The coil spring conversion kit contains an ECU foxer, which plugs in and says everything OK to the ECU]

Hi There, My td300 was always a good starter until one day and it got really hard to get going. One check of the glow plugs proved the fault, the lot were faulty. It only takes one good glow plug to get it going. Undo the wire from any one and check it with a meter or test lamp, it should be a low resistance, anything over a few ohms and it's dead.

Try Rimmer Brothers in Lincoln, I just replaced mine, can't remember how much but its worth it to stop the oil loss.

If the engine cuts when its been running for a while, that is a symptom of the bad solder joint in the box under the radio. Use a jump wire to prove it, pull off the spade on the fuel shut off solenoid and loop it to the battery positive. If the engine will start again then its definitely the solder joint. Open the box and its obvious, its the big lug on the relay in the middle, the manufacturing process is to flow solder the board and it doesn't heat up this lug enough to make a perfect joint. The same style of relay is used in tumble driers and washing machines and also suffers exactly the same problem. Buying A soldering iron is cheaper than a new unit.

Hi All, To start the new year my disco 1 decided to leak water through the rear sunroof. I decided to do a proper repair rather than using silicone to glue it up. The Rave disc gives the instructions, but here's my story. To remove the glass one needs to remove the headlining, it only took half an hour to get it out. There is one awkward screw right in the middle to watch out for, its behind the rear switch. Next is the removal of the glass. Set the roof to tilt and there are 4 torx screws that can be accessed through holes provided in the tray for this purpose. Next out was the tray. Now, my sunroof was leaking badly and it was not just the rubbers. There is a foam rubber seal to fix the frame to the roof, it was folded over in one corner, its obviously been leaking all its life. After a good clean up I glued it back in with silicone. But for most people the fix will be easier. Tilt the glass and clean the surfaces well. Pull out the sealing rubber around the tray where the glass sits, and clean and polish it. Clean up the rim from where the rubber came and replace the rubber. Not forgetting to poke out the drain tubes which are only at the front of the tray. If the car is parked facing up hill the tray will not drain, so its vital to make the rubber seal properly and keep the water out of the mechanism tray. Mine always faces up hill. This should fix most leaks without taking the head lining out. I also found that the fixings for the roof bars were leaking too so I removed them, cleaned up the fixing holes and the silicone fixed them too, they are only accessable with the head lining out! My Disco is now dry again. Good luck with this kind of task.

I have just done the rear body mountings and the boot floor, be prepared to add extra bits of steel to make the new bits fit over the big holes. The mig welder is the same as the one I use and I think its great. Every hour you put in on repairing it saves you between £60 and £120 in garage fees. Get in there and work on it. If new holes appear, weld over them, steel is cheaper than garage labour. Second user steel is even cheaper, washing machine sides and computer case bits and cable trunking is great stuff, just wear a mask if its zinc plated, that spits and stinks. Body mountings about £16 each and boot floor £50, lots of bits for Land Rovers out there, I get mine form Paddock in Matlock. Stick goop over the joins and under seal afterwards. It will last another twenty years then. Good luck.

Hi There, Fuse F4 feeds other things too, if the circuit to it is broken then things like the dash lights will not work too. Some models have an anti theft thingy fitted. This then routes the wiring of the right door via connector C2104 which is in the drivers door post. its a 12 way thing according to my picture. Then connector C607 in the door. The wire leaves fuse F4 as pink and ends up as Brown /Black. Well that's the way I read it. Look for other things that don't work but I bet the fault is in the drivers door post. Good luck with it.

Hi there, my N reg 300Tdi failed its MOT earlier in the year on the rear body mountings being rusted. I took some photo's and then fixed them. Paddocks provided new mounts at a very reasonable price. The mounts were of good material and have enough overlap to enable them to be welded to any rusty cross member. It took only a few minutes to knock em off, but the bumper has to come off to get them back on, this took some time, and of course welding the mouse holes in the rear cross member too. Overall about 5 hours work.

Hi There, I got mine from Rimmers at Lincoln. I just asked for the intake hose that goes from the intercooler to the inlet chamber. The man on the desk knew exactly what I wanted and it was in the post the same day.