Richard Mills

My friends disco 3 does that, I will ask him how he fixed it, when he says that he has fixed it!

Hi There, When I did the brake pipes on my disco I got all the clips from Rimmers. They were quite cheap. I also used a few black zip fastners. Plenty of greese after to keep the rust off. They managed 12 years from new without, so I will be happy if they get through another 12 years. On the wifes car no clips were avaliable, so zips were used through out, and my friendly MOT man added two more!

Beware of over tightening the alternator belt. Too tight either causes front bearing failure (loads of noise) or the sleeve bearing at the back to go oval or the shaft to be ground away. Too loose only makes the belt squeal under load, reminding you to turn something off. When the play in the alternator gets too much the parts will touch, and the iron filings will collapse the magnetic field, and no more output!

Hi There, The wheel sensors go faulty mainly because of hitting the castleations on the hub. The first sign is iron filings stuck to the end of the sensor, then later the sensor fails short or open circuit. This process can be started by wheel bearing play, or rust getting into the sensor mounting. The required gap is rather small, so any change in normal position between sensor and castleations will cause intermittent then permanant failure. My disco also has the SRS lamp lit, I let the battery go flat, and it will have black PVC tape over the lamp for the rest of it's days, just like the other 2 cars that live with me!

Also after work on the brakes that involves new fluid, it takes time for the new fluid to "Harden up". The new fluid contains atomised air that can take a while to remove it's self from the system. It does not show up as air that can be bled out.

Hi There, The reversing lights on my 300tdi are just as useless. The new switch cured them for a couple of days only. I am also thinking of fitting a manual switch, and your idea of where to put it is good. My local supplier "Maplin Electronics " should be able to provide the switch. If the switch is like a mains illuminated type, they supply a LED with internal resistor to work off 12 volts, so a small engineering job may be required. I know they also have small 12 volt lamps that will swap with the neon quite well. This is a task for tomorrow, if the weather is ok.

Hi There, I had the same problem, and it was the connector unit in the passengers footwell side panel. As I have never heard of it being called the Spider, I will have to look it up as well. This unit has a number of spade terminals on it and the one to the heater can carry well over 10 amps which is the maximum load for a 1/4" spade terminal, and as it gets hot it lets go and as it cools it makes contact again. I cut the spade off and put a proper ring tag on and put it under the same nut that the whole tag assembly mounts on. All ok for a year now. I also know the previous owner had the heater fan unit changed to try to cure this fault. Amazing what a cheap multimeter and a wiring diagram can fix.

Rather than sell the Disco, which will tow that van perfectly, I would contact the Caravan club. They will be able to advise you. Maybe take the Part E ( I think) and solve the problem that way. Apart from that, The disco is one of the best towing vehicles on the market. My disco is 2720 Kg Gross Vehicle weight and My Caravan is 1040 Kg adding up to 3760Kg. This according to the manual is 260Kg over weight!. But without a visit to the weigh bridge to prove it, neither the car or van is loaded to its maximum. So I have to assume I am OK, but not many other cars can get the recommended ratio of car to van weight. I was pushing it with my 2.9i Granada and this van. Check out the caravan club website first before committing more cash to the problem.

Also..... With the voltage at 13 or above going into the battery. Turn on the lights and a few other things. If it drops below 13 then maybe the alternator is either week output or the wiring is going High resistance. Also check the earth connection from battery to engine. On my old Granada, using a clip on ammeter, the alternator gave 145 amps before dropping the volts. At this output it will be squeeking rather loudly, and if the drive belt is not tight enough that will be making much more noise. The biggest problem is most likley to be the earth side, corroded or loose in the crimps.

Hi There, This is exactly the problem I had with my doors. It's the spring!. Doing the rear doors, a spring can be borrowed from the child lock lever, but remember to fasten it in the off position. The job is fiddley but the glass can stay in. Just remove the panel and the screws holding the lock in and it all falls out. They will need a good clean also. My replacement springs came from Disco-compatible-parts.com ( link from this forum) They come with photo's and left and right hand versions. Also the plastic clips that hold the door panel on are very fragile, I recommend buying 10 before you start, got mine from "Rimmers" . If you look in the technical archive part of this forum you will find a link to a repair manual. Door locks are on section 76. It doesn't show you how to change the spring but it does show how to get the lock out and in again. Allow at least 2 hours per door. Good luck.

Hi there, I got a 300tdi "N"reg ES version with 170K miles on the clock. It was a rush purchace due to my trusty Granada doing a triple into a ditch! Paid £2500 for it. It had a few faults and bits falling off the interior. First repair was the earth tag by the passengers door, then It took me on 2 holidays, towing my new caravan, (no money left after buying that) even air con was ok. Did over 35 mpg too. Since then I have done a few much needed repairs. Shockers, brake-pipes, indicators, door springs, and the most expensive 2 tyres. It behaves really well, tows well, and copes with a bit of off road. I will be keeping it for the forseeable future. I would not recommend the Astra though, my brother had 2 really fault prone ones, he's got a Mondeo now.

Hi There, The fuel guage can fail for a few reasons. A good first start is to get someone to watch the guage, ignition on , and connect the tank end of the wire to ground. This should then give full scale on the guage, though it takes a few seconds to move. If it moves then the fault is likely to be the earth connection to the tank sender. If it doesn't then it's into the instrument enclosure for the next test. A good thing to have is a multimeter. Cheap one from the likes of Maplin or B&Q about £5. This will help and will come in handy again for the next fault or bulb and fuse testing. The fuel guage circuit comes from the 12 volts line through a regulator, just for the instruments, through the guage, down to the tank sender, then to ground. It's nearly always the ground that fails due to corrosion somewhere.

When my wife was told by the dealer, it would be just £1000 to fix, her reply was "For a tenth of that I can have a gold plated box with a 555 timer in it which will make the lamp look just like its working" Our real fault was an intermittent wheel sensor. I plugged out the control unit and metered the 4 sensor leads 3 were 1300 ohms about and the fourth was 5k plus. The sensor was touching the notched ring on the wheel, if I had spotted it sooner I could have adjusted it before the sensor was bashed so badly it was going open circuit. Good luck with it.

Hi There, I had the same problem on Saturday, towing the caravan to Norwich. I made it much worse by stopping for a break, and on resuming the trip, failed to press the "unlock" button. Fortunately when it died I was in sight of a lay-by and coasted in. The engine re started ok and ticked over ok, but when revved it just died. It turned out to be an air leak into fuel system from the sedimenter. A half of a turn on the drain tap fixed it and its original power was restored. Maybe this is why some people recommend changing the drain plug and washer every time. The rubber washer just lets go!

Hi There, It might be that they are all there and intact. Because the person who did them last time just did not flush the bits out of the sump. Any more bits might come out with one of those magnetic pick up things and a round of flushing oil. Good luck.

Hi there, I got a wheel baring kit from www.rimmerbros.co.uk, it came with all the parts needed to do the baring. All the rest of the assembly was ok. You will also need a big box spanner... http://shop.difflock.com/tools-workshop-la...ls-c-29_30.html Follow this link and the spanner is in the middle right side of the page. I borrowed one from a friend. Don't forget the "Swarfega" it can be a rather messy job. Good luck.

Hi There, I recomend the good quality socket that fits well, not the normal 12 sided socket. Also a long bar socket handle will help. Not really too safe is the use of a blow-lamp to heat it , then cool it fast with WD40. Lots of smoke when doing this but after a few hot cold cycles it should shift. Be very careful about stray oil and fuel if doing this. The next to worst one I ever came across was so bad nothing would fit it, except the stilsons, with a long tube. Finally for the snapped off one, I welded a long bar to it and it came undone easily. As said before most of the options will require a new sump nut. The good news is that the threads in the sump are of good quality, and when the head is removed the threaded portion will be easily moved. It has only got like this because someone has thrown away the alloy washer. If you drill it for an extractor, remember to get a can big enough to catch nearly 7 liters of smelly black stuff. Good luck.

It's always nice to have something new.... A new MIG will cost a lot less than getting the local garage to weld it! Secondly.. it will be there when you need it again. Happy Migging.

Hi There, My EGR was disabled by removing the vaccum pipe. But I decided to fit a blanking plate between the valve and the inlet pipe. This was easier than removing the rusty bolts, and risking damaging something. I made a blanking plate out of a scrap of metal, done by copying the gasket, but without the big hole in the middle. This guarantees the lack of flow of "Marmite" into the inlet. But it still relys on the EGR not falling to bits. If it does it would vent exhaust gasses into the engine compartment. This is not a great risk, and it wont gum up the engine in the event of failure. 10 Minute task, no cost!

Here is the page...

Hi There, My disco is just as rusty there. I just painted it with Hammerite for now, but will look into a proper repair when time permits. Until then, From "Microcat" there are 2 possible parts:- The first is part 9 on the drwaing C01.215 called "Panel to floor Rear end " part number ALR 1773 The second is part 7 on the same page called "Crossing-Rear crossmember " part number MWC 7562 and it says "Sold as a kit". I assume this kit will have all the bits to fix it. Part 7 looks to me to be the right one. But it's just a straight piece of steel with to lengthwise folds, and 2 screw holes. It also looks like a lot of work for not too much reward. I would be tempted to have a piece made up at the local sheet metal works. If I can figure out how to get the drawing onto this page I will post it later.

Hi There, I also had this problem, the new bulb didn't fix it for long. The new ones are a little shorter on the metal contacts, and so drop the connection after a day or two. I examined it carefully and found that the contacts could be pulled and tweaked to make a much better connection. All is well with my clock now.

Hi There, I also have the srs light on... mine was caused by letting the battery go flat ( left the ignition on overnight). The book says it will reset after disconnecting the battery for half an hour. But mine did not. Before you try the battery off trick, just make sure you have the radio code! I am interested in seeing what the real problem is.

Hi There, I also had an ABS light come up on another car... My wife took it in to be diagnosed. Reply:- " Yes missus, solenoid valve and 2 wheel cylinders. That will be £1700, shal I book you in for Thursday?". Her reply " For that price I can get a 555 timer and LED to fix it in a gold plated box!" On returning home, I pulled off the ABS control unit. There are 4 sleeved connections along with many others. As there are 4 wheel sensors, I checked these with a Digital volt meter. (£4.99 from Maplins). They tested 1300 ohms except for the duff one, which was open circuit. Pulling off the connectors from the wheel sensors and applying a short on the tags proved the wiring. A single new sensor fixed it. The bad news it for a Korean Vauhall they are £100 each. Since then I have had to replace the other front sensor. I blame this failure on the road humps down the lane to school. It is possible that water has infected a wheel sensor connector. A short or High resistance from corrosion will also bring on the light. First check for this, it's the cheap option and may well fix it. Good luck.

Hi There, I disabled the EGR valve by putting a tin shim between the EGR valves output and the inlet pipe. The 2 bolts on this coupling come apart quite easily. I used the gasket in there to draw around and cut a tin shim withiut the big hole, just the 2 small ones for the bolts. This fitted and the EGR is stuffed. Even if it sticks full open it cannot do any more harm. Its just a 15 minute job.