BogMonster

Thanks Ian Would the tighter tolerances mean problems with thicker oil or is it not enough to make any difference? My engine has 37k miles on now anyway so everything has loosened up a bit anyway I expect. Not bothered about MPG etc as it is bank breakingly expensive anyway so not gonna make much difference The low compression engine is specified in RAVE as using 10w40 which is odd as I would have thought high and low compression engines would be much the same

All mine has http://forums.lr4x4.com/index.php?showtopi...20&start=20 is about 1.3" lift on the front end (Mill Services spacers and a set of Discovery rear spring isolator rings) and nothing on the back (though something is planned when I find something that is what I want!) - no significant problems with rubbing, i.e. you can occasionally hear it but nothing that does any damage. A lot of it depends on the load in the vehicle, if I was running it heavily laden it might be more of a problem, as it is, it normally just has 2 people and about 100kg of kit in the back though I have done a few trips with 4 up and the same kit in the back with not much more noise. Usually with std suspension the tyres rub on the plastic arches a bit but those just bend out of the way normally and then spring back afterwards. May be a different story if on wide offset rims or 10x15s where the tyres stick out a mile, mine are std 8x15 modulars.

Looking for informed views on the following please. Old V8 engines (3.5, 3.9 up to the end of Discovery 1 production in 1998) have a mineral oil specified e.g. 15w40 (there's a range of viscosities depending on the temperature but for the range -10 to +50 its a 15w40 or 15w50) SG or SH according to RAVE Later 4.0 Thor engines (such as in my 2002 Discovery II) specify a 5w30 synthetic ACEA A1 or API SJ Why? There has been some discussion on "which oil is best for a V8" in the past on here but I don't think I have ever seen an explanation as to why what is basically the same engine block etc, has two fairly different sorts of oil specified by the manufacturer. - Is it just because on the later vehicles the quoted service interval is 12000 miles (yes I know that is too long for a V8) hence needing a synthetic to "stay in grade" longer? - Is the oil pump/relief valve/something else different to NEED the oil to be thinner? I know the oil pump changed somewhere in the 3.9s but not sure what is fitted to the Thor engine - is it the same as a late 3.9?? - Is there another reason or physical change in the engine - if so what is it? The reason I am asking is because of the cost of synthetic oil here is now near 5x the cost of mineral oil and I can't immediately see a reason why I shouldn't run a Thor V8 on a 15w40 mineral oil (good quality Castrol Tection T 15w40), same as my old 3.9, given that it has 6000 mile changes (sometimes less) but then why would the spec be changed if there was not a reason? The vehicle is not doing anything unusual, will be operating in a temperature range -5 to +20 C (usually somewhere in the middle of that) nor sustained high speed, towing or off road use. Is there a cast-iron reason for NOT using a good 15w40 mineral oil in a Thor age V8? I have re-read this http://forums.lr4x4.com/index.php?showtopic=27742&st=0 but it didn't answer the above question just made my head hurt I don't wish waste the best part of £100 on oil for each change if I can do it for much less, and I can't see why the oil that my 3.9 was happy running on, shouldn't do the 4.0 as well?

Check this if you haven't already found it http://forums.lr4x4.com/index.php?showtopic=12088 You could always set up a hinged hammer operated by a piece of string

OK thanks - so its all a ripoff price then

You are probably OK pulling any fuses with the ignition off but I would leave the airbag related ones till last. If you have a 400ma current drain you should be able to see that drop to 20-30ma when you find the circuit with the problem, yes if there is a "leak" somewhere then it should show up.

Yes. Check out the posts in the tech archive forum for a pretty good idea of what you need (and what not to do - though marshals at these events should take control of any recovery anyway) If you are new to it all then remember that water up over the roof looks great in photos but is often a recipe for serious engine damage if you get it wrong!

Leave it overnight and see what happens ... I have seen clutches that will NOT bleed after 20+ attempts but if left to settle for a while, they suddenly start working! May not work but worth a try...

Ohhh yes... See the photos from me towards the end of this post http://forums.lr4x4.com/index.php?showtopic=78 and hold any 300Tdi air filter can up to a bright light ... some are worse than others but most have daylight coming through! I was looking at a Puma the other day with a view to fitting a snorkel on (wondered if a 300Tdi Safari would fit, not a chance for anybody else thinking about it) and the intake system seems to be much the same collection of poorly assembled inexpensive plastic as the standard fit inside the wing of a 300, I wouldn't bet on it being at all waterproof around where it goes into the air filter box

A lot easier to not have to jack the vehicle right up to do it though. 5 min and a bench grinder modified my grease gun to suit

Could somebody do me a favour and have a look next time in Halfrauds etc and tell me what the retail price is in stores for Castrol Magnatec 5w30 synthetic oil, as used in a Td5 etc, for say a 5 litre can? Having a bit of an argument at work about a nearly six-fold increase in the price of this from suppliers and want some more ammo! Thanks

Yes I have it as a PDF at work MOG - I will send it to you on Monday if you can wait till then... can you PM me your email address.

Either it is not fitting in as said, or the grease gun nozzle end (the bit that clamps on the nipple) is just not working properly - it happens and replacements are cheap so may be as well to start with that! Edited ... beat me to it - glad you got it fixed

We used to sell Exide/Chloride at work and had so many problems we also stopped selling them, we don't bother with anything other than the proper LR batteries now, which were Delphi last time I looked at one and almost never seem to go wrong. My D2 battery is six years old and still fine though the green light no longer "works" in the top to show it is fully charged, but as long as the oily bits go round I can live with that

Not worth spending £35 on a recon with the price of new ones but if you can get it done cheap, yes

I would not worry about that until you have checked the clutch switch. 8mm too high on the dipstick is nothing anyway, I have seen engines with oil anywhere between 50-80mm too high on the dipstick (usually caused by being filled by a dipstick!) and they suffered no problems though at that level you would definitely want to drain some out. I wouldn't even bother draining it out just keep an eye on it to make sure it isn't getting any higher, which would mean you are losing diesel into the oil from the fuel rail in the head which would be inconvenient and bl**dy expensive.

Yep - "if it ain't there it ain't broke"

I guess you've never had a wheelspanner go "ping" in the middle of nowhere then ... in countries where the AA/RAC doesn't exist you tend to over-specify critical tools, as well as carrying 2 spare wheels! I don't "need" a 3ft bar and an impact socket either, but I can be pretty darned sure it isn't going to break in the dark when its raining and I have a puncture miles from anywhere with no traffic and no mobile signal

You should try living here m8

BTTT - anybody got any more info on this in the last few months?

Just checked my D2 and that (2002 D2 V8 auto, no SLS or ACE, alarm and immobiliser fitted but alarm not armed as it is in the garage) draws 0.02 to 0.03 amps (20-30ma) on the 10A scale of my multimeter when at rest, which is about what I would expect. So a drain of 400ma or twenty times that, is the reason your battery is going flat

Mine is plugged into the same socket it has always been powered from but only started doing this after I lent it out

That is your problem then.... I am not sure what drain my D2 puts on the battery but 400ma or 0.4 amps sounds way too much and is more than enough to drain a battery down over a week or so - most vehicles I have ever needed to look at have been more like about 20ma for powering radio memories etc when everything is working properly. Remember that is 9.6Ah per day so after a week you are down by nearly 70Ah which is about the full capacity of an 072 battery, even the larger Td5 batteries which are 110Ah will be pretty flat by that stage and after ten days they will be completely dead. My D2 gets very little use now and has not been used for nearly a month and even before that only about once a week for a fairly short run, and while I have the battery on charge at the moment to top it up it was by no means flat. The best thing to do is get a 10 amp multimeter disconnect the battery lead and route it through the meter (don't switch the ignition on!) and then pull out all the fuses or disconnect accessories one by one till the drain disappears, this will tell you what circuit the problem is with. Alternatively you can pull everything out to start with, and then reconnect circuits one by one and see when the drain pops up. One possibility is that something like the alarm or BCU is not "going to sleep properly" - this is a problem in Discovery 3's when somebody leaves the key in the ignition the battery will go flat quite quickly as all the systems stay "on" until the key is removed, though this shouldn't affect a D2. You should be able to narrow it down by pulling fuses to isolate individual circuits though. One D2 vehicle we once had in at work with a similar fault was traced to a mashed wire behind the radio head unit which was shorting to ground but as it was a poor connection it was only drawing about 2 amps - battery would go flat within 2 days on that one, lucky it didn't cause a fire but the drain was not enough to blow the fuse! I doubt it will be that as it was down to a poorly installed radio on that particular vehicle. My experience of air suspension suggests that it does not flatten the battery on a D2, it does try and self-level every so often but what happens is that if there is an air leak, the reservoir empties and the suspension goes flat, it doesn't run the compressor to charge the pressure up again until the engine is running.

PMSL!!!

You can get 316 stainless A frames for RIBs etc (used to mount nav lights on at the stern) which are usually 2 inch or 3 inch tube so I guess the tube is available in the right sort of sizes ... but an A frame with maybe six or eight feet of tube in is usually the wrong side of five hundred quid and that doesn't have any silencers in so I'd hate to think what a complete exhaust would run at Interesting info on the corrosion