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Buying an old Discovery - Advice Pls


chickeninabun

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Hello! *Waves*

I'm new on here and looking for some advice for buying an old Discovery.

Firstly, I'm a girl :blink: , so take it easy on me and try to use lay-man's terms where at all possible, because I haven't got a bloody clue and don't want to go crawling to the husband (also a member on here somewhere!) for explaination! I'm trying to impress him with my knowledge of all things "landy"! :lol:

We're looking at buying an old-ish (around the 1994-6 mark) Discovery for me to towing a horse box and for the husband to tinker with. We have a budget of a max of £2k and no real prefernces other than a diesel and preferably not the 2ltr.

What sort of things should be looking out for when viewing? Obviously they'll be rattles and clanks but which ones are usual and which ones are bad? Which bits need extra careful inspection for rust and corrosion? Any other tips/advice?

Cheers :)

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Welcom smile.gif

For that money - any 200TDi or early to mid 300TDi. Corrosion will be the thing to look out for (here we go)

Boot floor rusts quite badly on both models.

Rear body supports

Rear crossmember

Front body support - drivers side

Body support - passenger side - under the footwell.

Look inside rear wheel arches - at the top is the seat belt anchor support plate, which rusts.

Rear of the sills - inside the wheel arch.

The sills themselves.

Inner wings - particularly on the drivers side. Rear doors, at the bottom - closest to the wheel arch.

Erm......................... smile.gif

Les.

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So how much rust is acceptable?

The car is going to be 15 years old, so I can't expect it to be perfect, but is there a reasonable amount to expect, or should all corrosion have been fixed/welded?

I can understand that body supports etc are very important and therefore is very bad if they are rusted but sills/bottom of doors? It's not the end of the world is it?

I have seen a few ads with "bubbles" in the paint work. Is this the start of rusting or just a bad repair job?

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I would expect a vehicle of that age to have has at least the boot floor replaced, and perhaps a few other places. Standard of the repair/weld then comes into play, so look carefully at any repairs that have been done already. Bubbling on the body skin is not steel corrosion, but electrolytic corrosion from the reaction between steel and alluminium. The bubbles mean that there is now a complete pin hole through the alloy skin from the contact with the steel. Some corrosion is to be expected, but the less, the better. If it looks awkward to get at, then the repair will be awkward to do most likeley, so take that into account and perhaps use that as a good reason to reduce the selling price.

Les.

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Also stay clear of any that have white flakey patches on the outside of the body. Again that means the steel frame which you can't really get at is really rusty.

Another thing to remember, see if you can look at any advisories the last MOT gave out, it could point to something that won't pass the next one.

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