Disco 3 - to buy or not to buy?

[Beardylong]

Hello out there in Disco land. My first post on this forum. I've owned a couple of Disco 2s and a Freelander but am thinking about getting a Disco 3. I've got £15-20k to put in to one. The only issue is that I've heard from various people (including my old garage) that they can be very expensive to maintain - much more than the Disco 2, for example. I've also heard that the earlier models should be avoided at all costs.

I hasten to add that I'm not a DIY mechanic so my local independent Land Rover specialist is going to get my business. I'm afraid, however, of investing in a money pit.

So, should I go ahead and get a Disco 3?

By when did they iron out the initial teething problems - model year wise?

What sort of things should I be looking out for?

I'm a big LR fan and I'm sure the D3 will be a big jump on from a D2, but I just need that bit of reassurance. Over to the experts!

[missingsid]

Hmm big question one topic to answer!

Firstly welcome to the forum.

You really need to go to Disco3.co.uk to find out as it is totaly focused. It took me a year to get one, mine is not perfect and out of the two I got down to time will tell. I love mine and so does my the family, we needed the number of seats. For your money could you not get a Disco 4? More issues resolved on that!

I started out looking at V8s then looked at diesels, the amount of problems that kill the engine put me off so I went back to V8 again.

Yes some mechanical things are fixed in the later models but all are retro fitable as are the software fixes.

Some things need the later part or to be replaced on time, cam belt on oil burner, old style engine oil pump in oil burner belt tensioner in oil burner, big end shells. Most will kill an oil burner engine (see why I went back to V8) but are avoidable. Handbrake is a big comment as is the compressor but there are cheaper fixes than total replacement. Suspension bushes, it is cheap and easy to replace whole arms rather than the bush, RR Sport bushes are longer lasting so you can fit the RRS arms to D3.

Four wheel alignment is important for driving in a sraight line, driving around bends and not destroying tyres.

Only something like 500 V8s are in the UK so the bad comments about diesel models are because there are thousands of them to complain about so it seems worse than it is.

I am not a fan of auto boxesand the Disco one does not dispell that as it is slow and gets lost between gears if you accelerate and then back off and accellerate again, this happens more than you think as most cars ar slow away from lights or when accelerating on the motorway a car in front may slow you down. The fabled gearbox flush is supposed to fix most problems (LR chose to make it a sealed for life item which is fine up until 80k miles onwards, nearer 200k miles and it is too late to flush if it hasn't been done slready), you can fit a BMW or ZF metal sump and separate filter when you have the flush done and the later model has a different gearbox and engine program which I am going to try. Apparently the cold running program stops the lock up lutch from doing so until higher revs so that the gb oil warms up faster, then the engine revs higher to stop it stalling as well? So if you back off to join a motorway (every morning) then accelerate the gbox is in too high a gear and nothing happens so you press harder, revs rise but nothing happens, by now trucks are getting close so you press HARDER, now the gbox changes down and because the revs are higher than it expects the torque converter clutch locks up as it should but with a mighty BANG and lurch that threatens to burst the gbox case!

Other than that it is great!!

Drive as many as possible before buying, ALWAYS drive on a fast road to check stability and gearbox,mine was choppy and skittish but alignment fixed that. Wet floors can simply be the sun roof drain, LR saved 1p per vehicle by cutting the drain pipe so short that it comes out of the rubber drain valve in the wings and floods the car, also said drain is a bad design later one is better. The windscreen plastic wind deflectors can also leak and the later clip kit fixes that.

Most stuff had a fix or mod by MY2008 but note early diesiels you can blank the EGR valves but IIRC MY2006 onwards you can't as it will show a continuos fault.

Keep the hand brake shoes new and adjusted anf you should avoid the EPB screech and jamming issue. I had a warning light twice with some noise but adjusting it has resolved it plus I now turn the hand brake off before pulling away instead of letting the accelerator from doing it, lots of people just use Park but My prevouse auto car had the Park brake pawn worn out from this practice? The D4 EPB is better but can't be fitted to a D3 as the computer communications bus is different.

Sorry if this is a bit randomly laid out. Other than a past V8 M5 this is the other car that I would hate to lose (aprt from the Series 1 of course!).

Marc.

[Beardylong]

Thanks Marc. Great info. I'll compile myself a checklist and become the buyer from hell! 'Only 3 pages of checks left ....'. Anyway, much appreciated. My pockets aren't deep enough to run a V8 so it's diesel for me and would prefer an auto box (getting lazy in my old age) but will drive a manual for comparison. Anyway, thanks again.

[Ally V8]

It sounds like you have a decent LR specialist which it sounds like you trust. If that is the case,any D3 you are serious about buying should be seen by them so they can point out any obvious faults.I've even seen rusty sills on early sports that look a million dollars from above,underneath they are a mess.These faults can also be used to negotiate a lower purchase price and have your trusted garage sort them out. Many aftermarket parts,esp suspension arms or bushes are very poor quality and as I witnessed last week dont pass more than one Mot...