DDO173

If its just to start it to get it to a place where they can program in a new fob then its quite easy. Take a piece of wire from 12V+ of the battery to the fuel stop solenoid on the back of the injector pump and secure it using a female spade connector. Then take a nice large rubber/plastic handled screwdriver and bridge it across the solenoid and main post of the starter motor (you will have to remove the induction hose to the turbo to get at it). This will then fire the start motor and when she starts remove the screwdriver.

Dont forget to put into into diff lock if you drop a prop - or you're going nowhere!

Most common vibration are caused by problems with propshafts most likely are the UJs. Dipping the clutch is releasing the drive load on the shafts (and worn UJ) alleviating the severity of the vibration if not removing it completely. Put some chocks behind the wheels and let the handbrake off then crawl underneath and give each shaft a good tug up/down, side-side at either end near the UJs and see if theres any play in the joints.

They will also chew through your wheel bearings for you too

there are 2 pulley sizes depending on year and application of the alternator, so maybe the wrong 1 fitted

http://forums.lr4x4.com/index.php?showtopic=71684

could be the little plastic 'donut' at the bottom of the gear stick in the top of the box. These can often break up making it stiff or impossible to get certain gears. Relatively easy to see from the top of the box if you remove some interior trim and the rubber diaphram that the gearstick pokes through.

D'oh didnt I read but didnt digest that it was an auto - oh well!

I took the transfer box off the main box, but mainly as I was fitting a rebuilt unit on return. It does however make it easier to handle as not an awkward off centre weight. Depending on how many miles the vehicle has done you may as well put a new clutch (and pivot arm!) in while you're at it - with a leaking crank seal the clutch plate is more than likely contaminated (mine was slipping because of it).

The union on the bracket. Quite common for those to corrode badly there. When i went to change my flexis i realised i did have everything i needed but had attempted to undo the union before leaving it for another day. Next day my foot went to the floor when braking as it had burst due to bad corrosion just about the union. For this reason if it too difficult to undo even with mole-grips I would cut it and fit a new bit of pipe to be safe

Rev counter could be the 'w' terminal being a little loose on the back of the alternator (where the rev information is picked up from) cheack all the leads are nice and tight and secure. Clunking in the drive could be at several points in the drive-train. Transfer box diffs are known to go a little sloppy as are the axle differentials. I wouldnt have thought the input shaft splines are that worn on your MY as it should have the cross drilled input gear but anything is possible! disconnect the props and check all drive flanges for backlash to see where the most is. Trouble is every little bit adds up in series to create a larger overall amount of slop.

Dont take the teflon coating off! If you do it will be sloppy and horrible and also wear itself worse at an alarming rate. They need to fully in line and use lots on clean grease and it will go back.

just found a more clearer diagram here - new there was a better 1 somewhere! http://www.horodecki.pl/rajdy4x4/ABS/Jay%20Beale_%201997%20Land%20Rover%20Discovery%20-%20reset%20ABS%20warning%20light.pdf

Dont need an expensive code reader to diagnose ABS on a 300 disco. It can be done with blink codes and bit of bent paperclip. Blink code description can be found here: http://www.bba-reman.com/content.aspx?content=landrover_abs_ecu_fault_code_identification Then you need a jumper (paperclip) to short pins 4 and 15 together. Full proceedure instructions can be found here http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=300%20tdi%20abs%20paperclip&source=web&cd=7&ved=0CHsQFjAG&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhomepage.ntlworld.com%2Frichard.martin%2Fdiscovery%2Fabs%2520diagnostics.rtf&ei=KlClTtHXEsSnhAfjpvnxBA&usg=AFQjCNGBx9nJbN9AxdkTgQknmdfRfbQWsQ When I did it last i forget to d/c the abs relayed but the process still worked so its up to you.

The core casing of the LT230 is the same so as long as its a later rather than earlier Tdi transfer box then you will be fine. Earlier ones had corser cut gears and more importantly no crossdrilled input gear leading to gearbox exit shaft spline wear. I have done a few LT230 rebuilds and they are a piece of cake to do. Only thing is you cant order the required bearing shims before hand as you need to measure up for the bearing preload. The overhaul kits are not hard to come by and not badly priced either http://www.shop4autoparts.net/Discovery-2/Gearbox/Transfer-Box/Overhaul-Kits I recommend paper gaskets instead of instant gasket anytime!

Are you 100% sure its the gearbox that whines. Normally whine can be attributed to the LT230 transfer box. Mine had a slight whine and tonnes of slop, so i rebuilt it and now the transmission is much tighter and quiet.

The australians swear by using road pattern tyres in the sand/desert conditions. So that makes sense. How much sand driving will you be doing?

I have a virtually identical MY and spec (not that it makes much difference). But I do know theres a relay behind the glovebox in a line of 4, its the one nearest to you as you look in. Sorry I dont know where they ALL are but if you need any clarification I can take a look at items on my car and see if it matches up.

I looked at Xtrons when looking for a PNA for my disco. Came to a similar conclusion that they looked a bit cheap and eventually went for an Eonon unit (G1303). All the chinese made units like this are going to have some quirks like the translation of the manual from chinese into french can be a little testing to understand, however the unit I have I'm pretty happy with. My plan (which I succesfully achieved after some some long hours working on the software mods) was to get the unit to run Memory Map for greenlaning and Tom Tom or similar for road nav. All in all im pretty happy with Eonon, they seem to have quite a good portfolio of products with good support. Incidentally I didnt think you could fit double din into D2s or Freelanders.

Now the following symptoms I beleive are not unheard of on a 300 Tdi but after trawling this forum and the web for quite some time and speaking to some diesel specialists I am still none the wiser as to why. My disco starts, runs, drives and pulls well with no real concerns, however there is quite a considerable variation between hot and cold idle speeds. To this extent I have to set the throttle stop screw accurately so the idle is not too high when warm but at the same time enough to allow the engine to run smoothly on cold startup. The differences betweem cold a warm rpm is about 200. So my cold rpm is 700 and warm 900. After reading up on the bosch manual for the VE pumps I am familiar with their method of operation but without further experience and even talking to a bosch specialist I (we) cannot identify where the symptoms may be emanating from. So chaps, anyone else come across this before before I have to schedule pulling the pump off and getting it checked over on a test bench for muchos beer tokens?

If I take the plunge I will certainly document it for my own purposes as well. As an additional challenge, with mine being a late vehicle it has DDS fuel stop solenoid arrangement on the back that is secured by what look like shear bolts. Have done a lot of reading of the bosch manual and made some tweaks to my pump (now I understand more clearly its internal method of operations and what the adjustment screws actually do) and its seems to run a lot better so will see how it goes - if a 'spare' comes along at the right price I may give it a go.

I am fully aware how much of a precision engineered piece of equipment they are and naturally if I attempt it I would carry it out with meticulous cleanliness. I have ultrasonic cleaning equipment and further more as I mentioned before I know the procedures for rebuilding FIPs, just no direct experience on the VE. As an engineer I have carried out many operations in the past that are considered specialist only, and with success. The driving factor is that specialist recon is in the region of £500 which if that was the bill for sone crash damage on this age of vehicle it would be close to being a commercial write off.

Having just replaced the injector nozzles on my engine as they were well past their best, things have improved a bit. However.... I still have a fair amount of black smoke puff on startup and although it runs well its still not optimum. Now that I have ruled out bad fuel atomisation with new nozzles (timing was adjusted too) I suspect delivery and governing on my pump may not be at its best. What I would like to know has anyone rebuilt one of these Bosch VE pumps. Seal kits are readily available but a complete strip down, clean and reseal its not likely to bring a pump back to optimum working conditions - is it?! the timing scroll ring may just be sticky? I used to work for Delphi and have have had experience stripping and rebuilding a number of their DP series of pumps so have general rotary pump experience. I am tempted to get a used 'temporary' pump and have a go at rebuilding mine. Do we have any experienced bosch service centre engineers on the forum that may be able to offer some advice as to what pitfalls, likely wear/failure points to look out for in these pumps? Any other words of wisdom would be useful too!

Ive got RRC Police Spec (HD) springs on my 'standard' disco and find them too soft so they might be just right for you (170 lbs/inch)

The hardest part of the whole job is getting the 2 torx screws on the bottom of the housing undone. They hold the bottom swivel pin and damping bar in place and when fitted at the factory (assuming its never been replaced before) locktight/sealing adhessive is used and they are stuck fast! I found the easiest way to get them out was a lot of heat from the hot spanner and usual case is the heads get cheesed off. I bought replacement CSK hex head bolts and put pleanty of sealant/locktite on, IIRC they are M8x40mm...genuine is FTC3455.