[Timing belt and the sock...........]

I was going to make some socky comments but didn't want to put my foot in it!!!

He he he.....

[Timing belt and the sock...........]

I wanted to save some cash. Having done all work on my non computerish cars, I tackled the Discovery 300 TDi timing belt replacement myself.

Did everything by the book (Heyns, LR workshop Manuals, Forum advice....). She started, but had a bad, bad misfire...... Tried to set the timing, no improvement, the exhaust blew and sucked......bent valve??

Decided not to rev the engine, and as she is automatic, had her towed in to the local LR specialist.

Phone call came this morning, no 2 inlet valve is stuck open, and probably bent. Fortunately I was sitting when I took the call. I gave them the go-ahead to remove the head, and repair.

Got a call late this afternoon; no damage, they were busy removing the inlet/outlet manifold, and found a foreign object in the no 2 combustion chamber, a sock was caught around the no 2 inlet valve head. As I did not rev the engine the stock stayed put, but jammed the valve without the valve hitting the piston top.

The sock? I keep my worn out socks as oil rags. I also have the habit of closing open sections of pipes when working on engines. The sock worked fine, until the one I put in the inlet air duct to the combustion chamber. There were two, one inside the other. When I re-assembled, I pulled the sock out, but did not notice the second sock staying behind. The rest is history.

I am a very lucky "sock mechanic", if that sock got through the combustion camber into the turbo drive impeller, I would have been a sad day for me.

[1996 Discovery I 300 Tdi Automatic]

There is always the slim possibility somebody has fitted one of the older Torqueflite 3 speed boxes that the old RR's used to have but I can't imagine why anybody would go to the bother of fitting an older, less refined gearbox with 1 less gear which wasn't a straightforward fit...

No mine has a four speed auto-box, and I must admit it is an extremely smooth box, some hunting occurs when driving at 80 km/h on an uphill, but by pulling the box into 3rd, she goes like a dream.

[1996 Discovery I 300 Tdi Automatic]

Should be all the same - ZF 4HP22

Thanks for the reply BogMonster, I did find it strange that the person just took a quick glance below my Discovery, and then made this wild statement. I must admit, I was worried for a couple of days, thought that I will run into problems if my Discovery had a auto-box that was different to the local Discovery boxes.

I hope you had a good Christmas, and may you have a prosperous new year.

Seasons greetings

Thys

[Replace Fuel Lift Pump]

As I remember the swap is very easy. Undo pipe unions remove bolts holding fuel pump to block, remove gasket and replace (I used some hymolar ) fit new pump to block, tighten bolts. I do remember having to get the old pipework nuts from the old pump, bit of a pain as you have to remove the old olives first.

Put the pipe unions onto the new pump followed by new olives. Make sure the pipe unions are from the correct pipes as I think they are slightly different in size.

Tighten pipework up and you're done. (check for leaks)

I.me sure someone will elaborate or blow this out the water

Ivan

Oh yes, I did blow this out of the water a couple of posts ago, look for the two topics I posted on 04 November 2007, "Hand priming ......" and "Non OE lifting pump...."

[Discovery I 300 Tdi Timing belt cover]

I purchased a timing belt replacement kit, which included the crankshaft pulley, tensioner pulley & bearing, tensioner plate, idler pulley & bearing, idler stud & nut, tensioned bolt, Dayco timing belt and timing belt cover gasket. The crankshaft oil seal and O-ring was purchased separately. Only later did I discover that the kit did not include the timing belt cover plate dust seal, fitted from the inside of the cover plate at the crankshaft pulley opening.

I am of the opinion that this dust seal also acts as a water seal if one goes wading. This seal on my Discovery had hardened, and does no sealing any more. Some people reckon it is not a requirement to replace this dust seal. I want to replace it, as I reckon severe dust penetration, or water, will shorten the life expectancy of the timing belt and pulley bearings.

Secondly this is not a standard type of oil seal, as it runs completely dry. Is it a special type of seal?

[1996 Discovery I 300 Tdi Automatic]

My Discovery was not a Land Rover South Africa import, it was brought in privately.

I had someone look at the auto-box, as I wanted to buy a "bottom end" service kit (filter and new packing). The person was quite surprised and noted that this specific auto-box look quite different than the auto-box the SA Land Rover Discovery has.

I was not aware of different types of auto-boxes used on the Discovery I?

[central locking alarm prob help please]

the definitive spider post

Kill the Spider

Alex

Thanks Alex, I will try the local LR agents on the codes. I followed the link, and reading the introduction, mine does not have those symptoms, yet.

As mentioned before, I've again come to the realization what the value of the Forum is.

This is great stuff!

Cheers and thanks again!

Thys

[central locking alarm prob help please]

It is generally accepted here, that where a confluence of radio/radar/TV/phone etc signals exists, (ie. on hilltops, mountains etc) then the key should always be used for locking & unlocking.

I haven't heard about F2 & D3 doing it, but it would not surprise me.

Good morning First Fleet, thanks for last night's reply.

This brings me to my next question. The owners manual gives a detail procedure to deactivate the alarm system, by putting the key in the driver's door and going through a sequence of left and right turns equal to the vehicle's security code. This I've tried many times, with no success, the security code is correct, as it unlocks the radio.

I've read on the Forum of the removal of the "spider", but cannot trace that.

Thys

[central locking alarm prob help please]

Ahhh the joys of punctuation

You have almost certainly tripped the crash sensor, or it is faulty. It disables the central locking (after opening all doors) and makes the indicators flash. IIRC it is in the engine bay somewhere, check in your handbook but I think it is on the bulkhead to the left side of the engine. Press the top down to reset, or maybe it is a dud. Often trips if you hit a massive pothole or a cattle grid or something, a common problem here.

Good evening from down South, I have the same problem. my 300 Tdi hit a pothole and the doors un-locked and the emergency flashers started flashing. Grabbing the instruction manual, it noted that this will happen in the event of the vehicle being subjected to a jolt. The book says switch the Discovery off and on twice in succession. I did that end things were back to normal. This happened on two occasions, and the reset procedure worked. The only other item I had to attend to was resetting the clock. This may have been due to a bad connection?

My second frustration with my remote is that it works perfectly in my garage, in the bush, in a parking garage with concrete slabs over. The following locations does however render the remote useless:

parked near a cellphone service provider mast,

parked near a satelite dish,

parked under a steel roof,

parked alongside modern cars (2004 onwards) and this includes the Freelander 2, Discovery 3.

I then lock the Discovery with the key, and when returning, unlock the door, with the alarm sounding loud and clear. I normally jump into the Disco, put the key in the ignition switch, and then de-activate the alarm with the remote. The putting the key in the ignition and then pressing the remote seems to be the only way out.

One car security "expert" suggested thatI locate the actual receiver, find the antenna, and lengthen the antenna. To date I could not locate this receiver.

Has anyone tried this before?

The agents just shrugged their shoulders, blaming the current signals of the cell phone companies as the culprits!

LR regards

Thys

[Non-OE lifting pump for a 300Tdi]

To add to my previous post. I must admit that there were some differences between the OE lifting pump and a pirate, but if you have mechanical knowlage, patience and inovation skills, there will be a workable answer.

Comparing the Britpart to the lifting pump I removed I found the following:

1. Looking from the top down the suction and delivery pipes are swapped in terms of position.

2. The two pipes run parallel to the enjine block on the OE pump, as opposed to the delivery pipe being angled at 15º away from the engine block.

3. The pirate pump body protrudes furter away from the engine block.

I sollved the discrepancies as follows:

1. The pipe to the fillter is long enough and flexable enough to re-allign it, by slacking the connection on the filter base.

2. To ease access to the lifting pump, I removed the four supply pipes to the injectors. Noting the different connection points on the new pump, it was clear to me that the piping harnesses to the injectors willl clash with the new pump. I simply removed the spacing clamps, re-installed the supply pipes to the injectors one by one, and did some slight pipe bending, with a proper pipe bender, and they eventually fitted, with no rubbing, or obstructions, I even managed to find sufficient space to re-install the spacer clamps.

3. The pirate pump had no crimp washers, or flare nuts suppllied. The crimp washers are available from any Hyraulics Supplier, and the flare nuts were re-used. never try to use a hose clamp on diesel lines with smooth connection piping.

Hope this is usefull information!

Regards

Thys.

These changes were of such nature that in the event of fitting an OE, if required, it will be possible./

[Hand-priming a Discovery 300 TDi]

I had to servive my 1996 300TDi Auto (180 000 km sevice). Got the best price for the filters at the agents! Oil change and oil fiter change went without a hitch. Air cleaner filter element was changed without a hitch.

Then the trouble started:

I replaced the diesel fillter, cleaned the sediment filter, cleaned the crankcase breather system. As i tried to prime the diesel fuel system the priming movement felt very slack. I checked the cam position, it was fine, I then disarmed the soleniod on the diesel injector pump, and cranked the engine; no delivery from the lifting pump. This after I drove the Discovery from work, and parked in my garage.

Next step, go on the LR4x4 Discovery Forum, and thankfully find the related topics, an old lifting pump my damage if primed by hand, due to the increased stroke if primed by hand, and the fact that the diaphragm has deterioated over the years.

Next step; buy a new pump. Quote from the agents is a wopping R 2000.00. Quotes from the LR Specialists, and there are plenty of them, all average at R 300.00, and the majority stock the Britpart pump. I also read the negative comments on the Britpart pump, but at a rate of 6 failures to one OE pump, I went for the Britpart option.

So far so good, I will report on any premature failure of the Britpart lifting pump.

Thanks for all the informative Forum items. It makes my LR life interesting and I am up to date with many topics on our great vehicles (or trucks an some forum members call them).

Regard from RSA.

Thys Willemse

[rear door needs adjusting...]

I think the weight of the spare on the door contributes to the door dropping on the hinges over time. This also seems to contribute to reduced effectiveness of the top seal leading to water ingress to the boot area. I started at the hinge end anyway on mine by slackening the top hinge bolts (on the body side) and then slackening off all bar one of the lower hinge bolts. I then opened the door to 90 degrees and lifted the end of it with a hi-lift (and a bit of wood). Once the wieght is on the jack it may be necessary to slacken the one bottom bolt just a little. You should see the door rotate about that bolt though. When it has moved up a bit then tighten a top and bottom bolt and see how it fits. When happy tighten them all. You may, at this stage, want to slacken off the strike plate and the anti rattle thing on the closure side. When happy with the door fit then get the strike plate in the right position so it is a tight fit against the door seal before the second click. Finally set the anti-rattle thingy (sort of triangular doobry) so that it just lifts the door a fraction as it shuts. This will take a fair bit of trial and error but its worth it in the end.

I experience the same thumping of my 300TDi's rear door, and it is at it's worst when driving on corrigated dirt roads. With this I have dust ingress at the back as well. Thanks for the advice, I am going to tackle the rear door this weekend. I noted that my Discovery's rear door has actually sagged to the point where the bottom left corner is bent outwards, as it continiously strikes the door reveal. The door also requires a hefty shove to close properly.

This brings a question to my mind. I saw a phtograph of a Discovery, with two spare wheels mounted on the same doorbracket. What are the limits of door loading on the rear door hinges?

Regards

Thys

[Discovery I and the Central Diff Lock]

What you saw there with the roller stand is one of the advantages of the traction control Disco II has.

Now here is a movie with the advantage a lockable center diff has: When to engage 4x4 (47MB avi - better use right click > Save As ...).

That is the case with the old Disco I with center diff lock versus traction control without a lockable center diff the Disco 2 has.

Thanks, I will look this movie up!

Thys

[Discovery I and the Central Diff Lock]

Hi,

The car has three diffs - one in the centre and one on each axle. Their purposes are

The axle diffs allow the outer wheel to go faster when the car is turning a corner since the outer wheel has further to go.

The centre diff allows the front axle to go faster when the car is turning a corner since the front axle has further to go.

With this setup and nothing locked, if any ONE wheel loses traction completely then we can expect that any drive goes to that wheel and you are stuck. (not quite true but would be in a perfect theoretical world). This is much the same as a normal car with only one driven axle - if you completely lose traction on ONE wheel you are stuck.

With the centre diff locked, it requires one wheel ON EACH AXLE to lose traction before you get stuck. Therefore (ignoring other factors) you are twice as well-off as a single axle drive car. It is not difficult however, to contrive of ways to get these cars stuck even with the centre diff locked - one of which is the rollers you describe (although you would only need a set of rollers under one wheel from each axle), and another more normal one, is getting the car 'cross-axled' - the situation here is that due to terrain, diagonally opposing wheels are on hollows and hence spinning uselessly. This is why so many people spend s much effort on long travel suspension - to keep all four wheels on the ground!

Now... In the case of traction control, by comparing the reported speeds of all four wheels, the computer will ascertain that three wheels are spinning and apply the brakes to them. By the action of the three (free) differentials, this will transfer the drive to the remaining wheel and hence you will pull free.

Hope this helps...

Roger (copy & pasted)

Thanks Roger, this helps a lot, I will be more cautious when negotiating axle twisting terrain, i had a false scence of security up to now.

Regards

Thys

[Discovery I and the Central Diff Lock]

I was watching a DVD on Safe 4X4 Driving Tips. In one of the chapters the presenter used a Disco I with central diff lock, and a Disco II with traction control. He then pullen both vehicles on a ramps with free running rollers on both rear wheels and one front wheel, the remaining front wheel had an obsticale against the wheel. The Disco II could drive over the obsticale, but the Disco I did not move; question then is what is the purpose of the old central diff lock?

[Fuel consuption 300TDi Auto?]

Hi.

Recently bought an old (L reg) 300 TDi auto, 128,000 miles on the clock. It goes well but sounds a bit noisy and don't know if it is running as well as it should. I was wondering what I should get to the gallon. Over the last 1000 miles I have averaged 27 mpg, that would be town driving and a few long runs. How does that compare with an engine in good nick?

Hi Mikey,

My 300 TDi Auto (non EDC) with 112500 miles on the odo, in town peak traffic, that is crawiling and stationary most of the time at 4 milles to work, returns 23 mpg. Open road at 75 mph with travel distances of 220 miles, which includes driving through villages returns 30 mpg. Both trips includes the use of the air conditioning system. Your discovery's average sounds good to me, taking into consideration the mass of the Discovery, the fact that the vehicle is in permanent four wheel drive and not one of the best in terms of aerodynamics.

Regards

Thys

[ANy ideas why my steering shakes?]

For some time now I've had a problem where if I drive my Discovery over 60mph and I hit a bump (even a cat's eye) the steering seems to go into some sort of resonance and shakes violently. I can still steer and brake but the shaking is horrendous. If I let the Disco slow down of its own accord then at some speed around 40 mph it suddenly stops shaking and returns to normal.

I've replaced the steering damper, replaced the swivel hubs and all the bearings in them. Checked the preload. It still does the shakes.

Any ideas?

Tim

Hi Tim! I had the same problem with my Discovery, as a matter of fact the seller warned me that the steering gets the shakes at 90 km/h and continues up to 110 km/h. Having checked out all the machanical items it was back to the tyres. Three reputable wheel balancing companies tried, and allthough the balancing equipment indicated the rims and tyres were balanced, the shakes did not go away!

By pure luck I passed a tyre dealer and noted the majority of vehicles in the bays were Land Rovers. I stopped and enquired about the large number of Land Rovers, to be proudly informed that they have the contract to balance the local Land Rover Dealer's rims and tyres. What followed was an eye opener to me. All four rims were removed, and the tyres removed from the rims. All four rims were checked for roundness, and all four rims had some form of out-off-roundness. I had them check my two spares as well. They then took the two "best" rims, put the tyres back on and checked the tyres. Both front tyres, allthough new, had "flat spots", but not visible to the naked eye. They then proceeded to repaetedly balance the tyres on the rims, by rotating the tyre on the rim, untill they reached a point with the least imbalance, and then added balancing weights. Interesting point was that the final tyre position was not the tyre manufacturer's valve allignment position.

I took her for a test drive and the shaking was gone, with an occasional faint shimmy if I traveled over an uneven patch of road.

I went back to the dealer to thank and pay them. Asking for an explanation for this scenario, they had two points; Land Rover Discovery not being in the light weight class, has a tendancy to deform the tyres if the vehicle is stationary for long periods. The steel rims does have a tendacy to go out-off-round if subjected to extreme harsh rock bashing, but they also mentioned that one will buy a brand new rim, and find it is out-off-round.

Moral of this story, my problems will go away if I replace the tyres, but at R 1100 each, for a Bridgestone Dueller, I will live with the shimmy for a while!

Regards from SA

Thys

[INCREASE THE PERFORMANCE OF MY 300tdi??]

The EGR system was fitted to reduce emissions not increase the longevity of the engine. when they fail they tend to allow hot exhuast gas in to the inlet tract all the time, making the engine less efficient and also clogging the inlet tract with a thick black sludge thus restricting the airflow. By removing the EGR and cleaning the inlet tract the engine gets to work properly again hense the improvements in performance and drop in fuel consumption.

HTH

Pete.

Thanks Pete, but now the next question, how do I do this, are there any special precautions. Looking at the EGR unit, it has a number of piping connections. If I am correct it is the unit mounted on the engine side of the passanger side fender (right hand drive model) ?

[INCREASE THE PERFORMANCE OF MY 300tdi??]

What you are to do to your 300tdi sounds right to me. There is more you can do after you have done that lot.

Err... Please write in normal lower case, what you are doing is called 'SHOUTING' and is considered to be not nice. After all, you don't want to be taken for a Nigerian 419 scammer, do you? If you do happen to be Nigerian I take that back

And the colour you are using makes your post hard to read.

EGR: What is the purpose of the EGR? I read many articles about the gain there is on performance and fuel consumption after the removal (blanking off) of the EGR. Will this action not have a negative spin-off in terms of life expectancy as it was fitted as OE on the Tdi's?

[bulbs for dash switches]

does anyone know part number for these tiny bulbs which illuminate the switches heated rear screen fog lights etc it appears lucas dont do these bulbs any part no appreciated cheers chris

Chris

I don't know if Land Rover part numbers differs from Country to Country, but I got 5 from Land Rover Centurion, in South Africa, with the following part number:

STC1878.

68 6c7 A0309986 B47PG

and with a note "Made in UK"

Due to the geographical constraints this is probably useless information, but what I did discover after bying 5 bulbs & holders, was that only one bulb was actually blown. The other 4 made poor contact, and after cleaning the contact surfaces, and "lifting then very slightly, the lights worked!

My reply is one month later, but hope this helps!

Thys

[New member]

]

Welcome to the forum,

I may well be wrong but as a UK spec 300TDi Auto, you may find that you do actually have engine management as I believe that it should be fitted with an EDC injection pump and therfore has a flyby wire throttle. Well at least mine did .

Pete.

Hi Pete,

I checked, there is one mean throttle cable linked directly from the accelerator to the diesel injector pump, the system is as machanical as one can get, the only electric part being the fuel cut off.

As seen on the attached photo the only modification was the addition of a second deep cycle battery. The previous owner had it fitted by removing the window washer reservior. I have since re-installed and re-instated the window washer system, looking for an alternative position for the washer reservior. I noted that the Discovery II V8's has the washer reservior installed inside the left front fender. This option looks feasable to me?

I installed an engine monitoring system called The Little Black Box model EMSIV, and to date am happy with having the piece of mind of an individual engine temperature and coolant level monitor, the oil pressure and altenator charge/fan belt monitoring is handy as well.

[New member]

Hi,

I am new to this forum so let me introduce my Discovery and myself. I am the proud owner of a 1996 Discovery I, 300 Tdi Automatic, the two door body, with 175000 km on the odometer. I bought her from the second owner who looked after her very well. I live in South Africa, but discovered that my Discovery was not brought to SA by Land Rover SA. She was bought in London at Stratstone of Mayfair, then moved on to Oslo in Norway and eventually to South Africa by the original owner, who later sold her to the second owner.

She has the two manually operated sunroofs, the Land Rover radio-tape deck, with remote buttond on the sides of the instument binacle, cental locking and the Cats security system. No electric windows or mirrors. Diff lock Hi and Lo and normal Hi an Lo range. The rims are the standard white steel Land Rover rims. Now this is what I like about my Discovery, the simplicity, no fancy electronics, driving aids or engine management systems. It is a go-anywhere, can run on any diesel, and field repairs would be possible.

Breakdowns to date? None! Problems? Some; A whinning tranfer box, but fully operational, the passanger door locking mechanisim playing up on occasion, and the lack of response from the remote if parked near a cell phone mast, under a steel roof or near modern cars, including the Discovery 3 and Freelander 2, but the pure enjoyment from driving her makes up for the pccasional niggles.

The diesel consumption on the open road at a cruising speed of 110 -120 km/h varies from 10.12 to 9.8 litres/100 km. Peak hour traffic in town at 6 km per trip returns 12 - 13.56 litres/100 km.

Thats my Land Rover. I like classic cars and is involved with the Mercedes Benz Club of South Africa (....yes I am in the process of applying for membership of the Land Rover Owners Club of nSouthb Africa...) with my 1971 W114.