onions

I had the same problem the week I bought my Disco (which is the same year and spec as yours). My problem happened after letting a main stealer try to programme my car to accept a second remote. I ended up with constant chirping and no wipers etc. The car obviously thought a door was open. After much arguing with the bloke I got him to accept responsibility, put it on testbook and fiddle about with it. On returning the car to me he said he had accidentally put it into some kind of "transport" mode while programming it for the remote. What he meant by that I don't know, but after he had it on testbook for 20 minutes the problem was sorted and hasn't arisen since. Can't help with the battery bit though.

My two-penneth: My 300 used to make a nasty knocking and banging which sounded like it was coming from under the floor at the back end. It would happen on uneven road surfaces especially cobbles and the bumps in the road weren't big enough to bring the bump stops into play (I've had one missing for a couple of years anyway). I fiddled around with all kinds of things and even fixed my back door too. In the end it turned out to be play in the a-frame ball-joint. That a-frame is a big thing to have rattling about under a car I can tell you.

Thanks for all your input chaps. Since I needed the car urgently and I have completely lost faith in the shocks that were on I got the good lady wife to repeat last year's birthday present by getting me some gas shocks (at her expense). Things I have noticed are: the threaded section is about 6mm longer than the old one making it a good bit easier to get the bottom nut on; the supplied washers were a lot stronger than the one (!) that was left; there was no play between the top bush and the top mount of the shock on the new one (the old one was moving around freely); they're a good deal more expensive, a good bit firmer and have helped with my wandering steering. In short - I had the wrong ones on in the first place. Now to do the radius arm bushes.

I've not really off-roaded it hard in over a year (I don't have a spare car any more, so I don't have the luxury of having the Disco up on axle stands for a week at a time) and I don't think I hammer it over the speed bumps too much, but I do have to go over loads of the beggars to and from work. I think I'm just going to get me a new set - for the sake of £20 it's not such a big deal. I'm more concerned that it's my poor workmanship that's causing the problem.

Being a decent sort, my good lady wife bought me a set of rear shocks for my birthday in July last year; just the standard Armstrong £10 jobs. She sourced them herself (not sure where from) and had them delivered. When I came to fit them I couldn't help noticing that the threaded end of the shock seemed a little bit shorter than the ones I was taking off and the bushes were smaller than the outgoing ones, but since I had damaged the old shocks in the process of removing them I had to plough on and fit the new ones. About 4000 miles later the offside shock pulled right through it's bottom washer and lost it's bottom bush, so I bodged a repair to get me home and replaced all the bushes and washers with the right ones. It was a real pain trying to get the nuts to grip the thread on the shocks because they were so short, but it did the job. Until yesterday. Now the nearside shock has done the same; washer missing and the bush pulled right up around the nut meaning that the shock could move freely up and down through it's mounting. So on neither occasion has the nut come adrift, I have just lost the washer. Any suggestions of what I am doing wrong? Are the shocks the wrong ones? Could a lack of travel in the shocks be causing this? Changing a rear shock is hardly a tricky operation so I can't believe it's beating me like this.

Yes it'll go in no bother. I've put one in mine which has no air-con and the one I took it out of had no air-con either. There weren't any mounting points as such, but a bit of drilling, trim pulling and the help of a slim-wristed assistant got in on in no time.

Update I have a new nearside trailing arm in place which is all good, but can someone give me an opinion or two on the following new things: 1) When the car sits on level ground there is clearly more clearance between the top of the rearside rear wheel and the top of the arch that there is on the off side. It wasn't like that before! 2) Under braking it feels like the car pulls to the off-side even with new rear pads in the past 9 months and brand new front pads. 3) I feel like I am constantly correcting the car away from the middle of the road. It's nowhere near as wandery as it was when the axle was only partly attached (obviously), but it feels different to how it did before. My 2 thoughts so far are that either the trailing arms should have been replaced as a pair rather than just on 1 side, or that the tracking was set with a bent trailing arm in the first place so now that it's back to being OK the car needs the tracking doing again. The 3rd option is that I have a case of post-repair paranoia (I'm very paranoid about my truck). Any ideas?

I had a quick look underneath this morning when I got to work but I get there in the dark so it was hard to see what was going on. Which is quite surprising when on closer inspection the nearside trailing arm has completely sheared. So it turns out the car is not attached to the rear axle at all well. I'll be needing a new one of those then. Thanks for the replies. Yout hit the nail on the head 1st time. That's service for you!

I don't post here too often but I'm an avid reader - if you can be such a thing. I'm looking for a bit of diagnosis on a sudden problem that developed on the Disco on the way to work today. Background It started when I went over one of those speed-bumps that are placed in the middle of the road to tempt you to put your wheels either side of it. I didn't hit it fast by any means. At I went over it there was a bang from the back end. Now I have a Southdown tank guard on so I assumed that it was just the removable towing hitch moving about but then things started to happen: Symptoms Under power the car tracks in a straight line but as soon as I engage the clutch it veers out into the middle of the road (that's to the right - I'm in the UK). If I get to anything over 25 miles an hour the car starts to weave about as if the back end of the car is not attached to the rear axle at all! Under braking it feels similar to when I engage the clutch; it just pulls a bit to the right. What I Know It's pretty certain that there is nothing wrong at the front end - the front offside wheel bearing was changed only a week ago after collapsing completely and there is no play in the nearside one. The swivels have been recently filled with grease. In the work car park I was able to drive in circles at full lock and he steering felt positive in both directions with no excessive play to be found. The steering box is brand new. The back axle is a different matter: there seemed to be a good bit of play in the rear nearside wheel. I alos had a strange problem with the same rear wheel recently where the wheel nuts would loosen off, I'd tighten them but a week or so later they would be loose again - I put it down to local chavs mucking about, but would they really have a massive breaker-bar? On Saturday night, when I found myself in the passenger seat of the car I was sure I could hear some squeaking from an offside wheel but I put that down to "bearing paranoia" and the fact that I'd had a couple of shandies. Your Thoughts? Could a collapsed rear bearing make the car perform like this or should I be looking for something more ... well ... complicated? All suggestions are gladly received. I'm a total amateur when it comes to diagnosing anything except a flat tyre or a knackered UJ (I've had my share of those).

Mine used to take at least 15 minutes to get up to temperature and the heater wouldn't give me any heat until the temp gauge was reading normal operating temperature. Turned out to be a knackered thermostat. It cost next to nowt to buy and very little time to fit - in fact most of the time was spent draining the coolant. Now I get heat within the first couple of minutes regardless of whether the temp gauge has moved at all.

There you go - I was corrected before I even posted!

To the best of my (very limited) knowledge the Disco was only ever fitted with 2 different engines the 200tdi and the 300tdi. With both of them being 2.5 turbo diesels it's entirely possible if you're looking at car listings (Auto Trader etc..) that people could describe either of these engines as a 2.5TD. Of course I'm willing to be corrected by a proper expert at any point. I've driven Landys with both lumps in them and I can't find a lot to choose between them from a driving point of view apart from a little more refinement to the 300, but I must admit to loving my 300 to bits - often lots of oily little bits - so I'm biased. Never had the pleasure of working on a 200 engine so, again, I'll leave that opinion to one of the proper experts lurking around here. Happy Land Rovering.

As soon as the fuel light comes on I'm straight to the petrol station. Touch wood I've never had any bother doing that - the only bother I have is affording the £70-£80 to fill her up.

If it's the actuator that's gone and the set-up is the same as a 300tdi you can replace it with this unit from Maplin: 5 Way Actuator I definitely know that you can replace the other door actuators with this one: 2 Way Actuator I did the job myeslf in half-an-hour. The part was a direct replacement and only cost £10 - while you're at it you can get yourself some replacement lock springs from ebay (or a more reliable source if you can find one) and you should be back to normal.

If it's any help to someone who knows more than me about such things: My 98 Disco was running a pretty ropey set of 235/70/16s and had a nasty wobbly shake like yours at about the speed you describe. I couldn't get it to go away no matter what happened. After living with it for months on end it came to the time for a new set of tyres - as soon as I had 4 new tyres put on it went away immediately. I've had the tyres on for just over a year now and the shake is starting to come back with about 14000 miles of wear on them. My guess is the new rubber was masking another problem but I don't claim to know what. Hopefully this might help someone diagnose freeagent's problem.

Nothing is useless at this stage. Thanks Fellas.

It's a very late (98) 300tdi, but I'll probably take your advice on the HD track rods anyway. I'm going to look for an old 2nd hand front bumper to practice my cutting on - that way I can do the job with the part off the car and I'm not stuck with a big mess if I go wrong. Anyone who happens to have any of the bits I'm looking for - just let me know. I'm going to Billing so I'm happy to meet up and do business if anyone has any spare bits.

Yeah. The ATs are my compromise between the stacks of motorway miles I put in and the expense/hassle of running/storing 2 sets of tyres. At the minute I've not been seriously stuck with the ATs, but I'm sure that'll change once the truck is kitted up and I feel even more adventurous. Cheers for your thoughts chaps. Keep 'em coming.

Since (touch wood) everything seems to be going OK mechanically with the Disco at the minute I have a bit of spare cash to invest in adding some off-road protection/modifications to it. At the moment the additions it has are (in no particular order): 1 – Front diff guard … and that’s it; an otherwise completely standard 98 Disco apart from a set of AT tyres. The Disco gets used as my day-to-day transport, but when it comes to off-roading at playdays I’m not shy of bashing it about if necessary/fun. I have done a little bit of looking into the pricing and practicalities of some of the following items, but I would appreciate any feedback on: 1 – The order I should be getting these things in. 2 – Places you have bought these things and what the items and the service were like. 3 – How much I should be paying for any of them (i.e. the cheapest without compromising on quality). So – again in no particular order – what do you think about: 1 – A heavy-duty or tubular front bumper (not considering a winch bumper at the minute because that takes me down the road of getting a winch etc… I’m open to persuasion on just cutting the valance off the factory-fit bumper to improve entry angle - anyone done it?). 2 – Replacement rear bumper with jacking points (my bumper has started to droop at one end , and those end-caps won’t last forever). 3 – Tank guard (as soon as I remove my tow-bar I’m opening up my tank to a fair bit of abuse. Any thought on a tank guard with a removable towing hitch?). 4 – Rock Sliders/Jackable Sills (apart from the obvious use, people seem to think that the flimsy plastic sill which is there at the moment is strong enough to use as a step). 5 – QT rear slider/diff guard. 6 – Steering guard (for all the newly exposed bits and bobs). 7 – +1” New springs/shocks to carry all this extra weight! I can probably muster up the cash to do this all at once if I’m careful; so, go on, spend my cash for me. I realise that is a lot to take in and reply to, but any nuggets of info are appreciated. Cheers onions

Cheers for the input chaps. I've lubed it up and I'm using the spare key until I can have a better look at it.

I've just spent 3 hours round at muddyplugger's house. My hands smell like diesel/unleaded mix. Anyhow, it's running again, but I'll leave it to MP to update you on the full procedure.

Over the past two days I have been having trouble getting my key out of the ignition when I turn the engine off. I have since discovered that the same problem occurs if you just put the key in and then try to take it straight back out; but it seem to sticks much more regularly after the key has been turned. It feels marginally better if I use one of my spare keys (which is slightly less worn than my regular one), but it is still not as good as it was last week. I have put a tiny bit of lube on the key and worked it in and out with no resulting improvement. Any suggestions? Is this a standard Disco feature? What would be needed to put it right? Can it be sorted without a new ignition assembly? If I do have to change it will I end up with a different key to all the other locks? All these questions and more .... Thanks in advance for your help - as always.

My front windows were a bit iffy when I first got my Disco and I put it down to switches - in fact I swapped the front and rear switches around as a temporary fix until I found time to look at it properly. In the end I took the switches out, gave the contacts a clean and put them back and I've had no trouble out of them since. If it's not that then you have a motor or wiring problem and I know nowt about either of those. As far as the cruise control goes, my understanding is that the D2 kit is easy to fit because the engine is fly-by-wire and the switch is just a connection to the ECU that says "stay at this speed please". With a D1 you'll have a physical throttle so I doubt it would be so simple. If you do find an easy way I'd be interested to hear: for my own selfish purposes of course.

My previous car was owned by my girlfriend but insured by me (at another address). No problem with the insurance company; even when we made a claim. I can't see it being any kind of problem.

... and smother the connector in copper grease to avoid future problems.