Possible Disco for Streakerfreak

Streakerfreak · Jun 25, 2008

No I do not want to get rid of my Tacoma. If we some how had enough to pay it off by next week we would keep it, but life gets in the way sometimes. So, I came across this Land Rover in Colorado and I have been in talks with the owner. If it works out we will meet him half way in Idaho July 4th weekend and be free of car payments within two months.

Anyways, since I am new to Rovers I was looking for your opinions.

Yes, No, Maybe... any thing I should ask him? Is there anything I should look out for?

1996

Full-time 4WD with lockingcenter diff
5 speed manual. Less than 10,000 miles on new clutch.
New Alternator.
Power Steering just serviced (new hoses)
Oil cooling system just serviced (new lines).
New motor mounts just installed.
New rotors and pads on all four.
New front wheel bearings
After-market exhaust. Sounds like a V8 should! Two new oxygen sensors.
2.5" Old Man Emu suspension lift with OME shocks. All stock linkage underneath that was affected by the lift have been upgraded with the appropriate Safari Gard linkages.
Less than 5,000 miles on BFG All Terrains (265/75R16).
Safari Gard differential skid-plate protectors.
Nice stereo system with 12 MB Quart speakers installed throughout. Two separate amps handle power to 4 tweets, 4 mids, and 4 lows. An additional sub amp can be added as it is wired for a third amplifier.
Black Magic Hella lights on Safari Gard rack + Hella driving lights up front + Hella back-up light.
Black in color with tinted windows.

And here I told myself I would never buy black again. I wish it was green but oh well.

MuddyMudskipper · Jun 25, 2008

¿Quanto cuesta?

Green96D1 · Jun 25, 2008

that looks nice. And that is higher than the OME 2" lift

if it's in good condition that will be a very reliable and a rare 5speed at that:bowdown:

Streakerfreak · Jun 25, 2008

I know it cost a lot to repair these things and has poor milage, but lets wiegh the alterntive....

.......$28,000 Car loan which by the time we payed the rest off would be over $40,000.......

......or $3,000 left to pay on that loan after we get this and have that payed off in three months.....

He needs a truck and loves mine. So instead of selling my truck for $26,000, we are selling it to him for $20,000 and taking the Disco. Then when we get home we will put the $20,000 into the loan plus another $5,000 and then we only have a little more left.

4Rescue · Jun 25, 2008

So a couple odd things that stand out to me...

As with any radius arm/coil suspension, lifting the truck (w/o replacing the R-arms) moves the tires/wheels in towards the center of the rig. That looks to be at the absolute limit of the radius-arms and I can't fathom how they keep the fronts out of the fenders. The rears look like they're in the same boat. Adn personaly, isn't that ALOT of work to have been done on a 12 year old rig??? I'm all for the rare 5-speed and it's a sharp looking truck, but I'm really warry of Disco's and personaly I'd lust look for an 80 series Cruiser and be done with it. Also, is that a black out light on the rack??? that would be cool.

Cheers

Dave :safari-rig:

sinuhexavier · Jun 25, 2008

If it were me, I would get one that hasn't been molested. Here are the reasons why...

If there are only two O2 sensors that means the other two will be coming up in short order.

Tinted windows are lame, tough to see out of at night on the trail.

Especially with the stereo work and aux lights, you have no idea how he wired it and if he didn't do it right this could be you... Two days of pulling bad wiring out because of a bad circuit. You can tell his attention to detail is lacking by the way he ran the power from his rear light, not a good sign.

I'd say that thing is worth $3500 as is. Less if the mileage is over 125k.

Be aware the 5 speed is a pig. Mine gets 8MPG in town and maybe 15Mpg Hwy, if it's your daily driver you're in for a world of hurt.

If you are still determined...

Ask if he has had the rotoflex converted to a ujoint... That is def more than 2 inches and you could be in for driveline problems...

Ask for picks of the seats, drivers side takes a serious beating...

Good luck.

Streakerfreak · Jun 25, 2008

I can't answer any of that, but I will talk to him some more.

But the 80 thing...yeah I tryed. I would love to have one, but the deal is we must get rid of this truck soon and with the way things are now its turning out to be a major hurdle since people just don't want modded trucks. I have a taker on the truck and I can't let it go. Besides if this turns out to be a bust, it won't hurt us too much. We will have the rest of the loan payed off in the next few months and I can take my time in the future if I decide to get rid of the Disco and find a nice LC.

4Rescue said:
So a couple odd things that stand out to me...

As with any radius arm/coil suspension, lifting the truck (w/o replacing the R-arms) moves the tires/wheels in towards the center of the rig. That looks to be at the absolute limit of the radius-arms and I can't fathom how they keep the fronts out of the fenders. The rears look like they're in the same boat. Adn personaly, isn't that ALOT of work to have been done on a 12 year old rig??? I'm all for the rare 5-speed and it's a sharp looking truck, but I'm really warry of Disco's and personaly I'd lust look for an 80 series Cruiser and be done with it. Also, is that a black out light on the rack??? that would be cool.

Cheers

Dave :safari-rig:

Streakerfreak · Jun 25, 2008

sinuhexavier said:
If it were me, I would get one that hasn't been molested. Here are the reasons why...

If there are only two O2 sensors that means the other two will be coming up in short order.

Tinted windows are lame, tough to see out of at night on the trail.

Especially with the stereo work and aux lights, you have no idea how he wired it and if he didn't do it right this could be you... Two days of pulling bad wiring out because of a bad circuit. You can tell his attention to detail is lacking by the way he ran the power from his rear light, not a good sign.

I'd say that thing is worth $3500 as is. Less if the mileage is over 125k.

Be aware the 5 speed is a pig. Mine gets 8MPG in town and maybe 15Mpg Hwy, if it's your daily driver you're in for a world of hurt.

If you are still determined...

Ask if he has had the rotoflex converted to a ujoint... That is def more than 2 inches and you could be in for driveline problems...

Ask for picks of the seats, drivers side takes a serious beating...

Good luck.

I will ask him about the lift and talk to him about the aux stuff. He seems to be anal like me when we add stuff.

I would prefer it if it was not molested either, as I would rather do a lift myself, but (this might seem lame) that roof rack is important since they ain't cheap.

Any rig I get in our price range will cost us something to get it up to snuff so I am prepared for that and I will take advantage of my last two months working at an automotive shop with ASE techs.

Oh and I will take the tint off anyways.

Streakerfreak · Jun 25, 2008

If I was able to sell my Truck by next Thursday I would forgo this purchase and search for a LC or 4Runner. Unfortunately, we are on a limited time frame.

sinuhexavier · Jun 25, 2008

6k is way to much my friend...

stevenmd · Jun 26, 2008

4Rescue said:
So a couple odd things that stand out to me...

As with any radius arm/coil suspension, lifting the truck (w/o replacing the R-arms) moves the tires/wheels in towards the center of the rig. That looks to be at the absolute limit of the radius-arms and I can't fathom how they keep the fronts out of the fenders. The rears look like they're in the same boat. Adn personaly, isn't that ALOT of work to have been done on a 12 year old rig??? I'm all for the rare 5-speed and it's a sharp looking truck, but I'm really warry of Disco's and personaly I'd lust look for an 80 series Cruiser and be done with it. Also, is that a black out light on the rack??? that would be cool.

Cheers

Dave :safari-rig:

radius arms and rear trailing links are an easy buy and an easy install.

as for the O2 sensors... they do not last forever. replacing them may be as simple as it was time. replacing them between 90,000 - 120,000 miles is the norm, although i never replaced mine in my disco up until i sold it with 160,000 miles on it.

as for the rototampon...er... rotoflex, with the amount of lift he has, i would think he has replaced it with a standard u-joint to avoid vibrations. but i would check to see. i has almost 3" lift on my disco with a roto-tampon and had no issues. every rover is different.

as for the price, i'd say $3200 max. anything more than that, you are just paying for what he thinks he should get for the mods.

in my opinion, buying an unmolested truck vs. a molested one... if it has the mods you want and they are done right, buy one that has been molested.

but the most important thing here is this: maintenance records. are there any???? my rangie (see sig line) has all the records dating back to the original purchase agreement.... oh, and i paid $2500 for it with a 2" lift (later replaced by me), rock sliders, diff guards, and 106,000 miles.

if he will not go down on price, keep looking. if he does not have good records, even from the PO before him, keep looking.

Superu · Jun 26, 2008

Phil.

Check out this link for some sound advice from a local Rover shop.

Here's an excerpt from it.

Build quality of the 1996-7 Discoveries is the lowest of any modern Land Rover product. Avoid these years if possible.

Check the tie rod ends carefully, especially the one at the steering gear pitman arm. If they have any play they should be changed. These joints can fail without warning. For that reason if you are at 60,000 miles we suggest replacing any original pitman arm joints, and we’d change the other three also by 90,000. If the pitman arm joint falls off you’ll lose all steering control. We’ve seen several Rovers crash as a result of this failure.

1996 to 1998 4.0 engines are terrible oil leakers. These are the common leaks: cylinder head gaskets, intake gaskets, front seals, oil cooler lines, oil pans, rear main seals and valve cover gaskets. Updated repair parts are available. Always surface heads when you change head gaskets or you’ll be doing the job again in a year or two.

Oil all the door hinges, and pay particular attention to the underside of the rear gate handle. If you don’t keep them oiled you’ll be paying to fix doors that don’t open one day. Dealers seldom spend the 10-15 minutes it takes to do this unless asked, in our experience.

Pre 1998 4.0 engines are prone to develop carbon buildup on the exhaust valve stems. Symptoms are intermittent missing or staggering of the engine, usually on long drives and at high speed. Frequently a check engine light is seen with random misfire codes and specific cylinder misfire codes. Read my articles (Carbon Fouling#1, Carbon Fouling#2)* from American Rovers about fixing this problem. Repair is costly, generally over $2,000.

It's always tough to make a decision like this when there is a potential for significant financial advantage for you. Just be sure you don't get out of your problem and inherit someone else's! Good luck.

UnfrozenCaveman · Jun 26, 2008

Wow, after looking at the description and scrolling throught the responses so far, you'd be well advised to re-read Sinuhexavier's comments carefully.

a) that's too much $$
b) there's no way the vehicle in the photos has any modification to its radius arms.
c) I sure don't see evidence of any Safari gard bits on that truck...and I'm looking out the window at my '94 that has the $G bumpers, sliders, etc for a direct comparison.

There are plenty of Mall Cruiser Disco's out three just waiting to be released form their years of shopping / carpool duty. Find one of those and go crazy.

Oh, and if anybody reeeeally neeeds an o.e. roof rack give me a shout. Mine's been hanging up in the garage for the past five years since it won't fit through the door

Dendy Jarrett · Jun 26, 2008

I purchased my 98 Disco I 50th Anniversary Edition with 46K original miles (Desirable Willow Green) without a scratch on it for $6500.00. I have since dropped about $2500 into it adding roof rack, ladder, A bar, 6 LR Safari 5000 lights, and new Land Rover Waterproof Seat Covers (added because the seats didn't have a crease in them!)

I think that the guy is asking too much for this truck. You should be able to close that gap with him by 2K in my opinion.

Dendy

Streakerfreak · Jun 26, 2008

Monkeyboy said:
Wow, after looking at the description and scrolling throught the responses so far, you'd be well advised to re-read Sinuhexavier's comments carefully.

a) that's too much $$
b) there's no way the vehicle in the photos has any modification to its radius arms.
c) I sure don't see evidence of any Safari gard bits on that truck...and I'm looking out the window at my '94 that has the $G bumpers, sliders, etc for a direct comparison.

There are plenty of Mall Cruiser Disco's out three just waiting to be released form their years of shopping / carpool duty. Find one of those and go crazy.

Oh, and if anybody reeeeally neeeds an o.e. roof rack give me a shout. Mine's been hanging up in the garage for the past five years since it won't fit through the door

Basically I am taking a gamble no matter what I do.

Okay here is the situation. We are moving back to CT at the end of August. If the truck won't sell in Oregon there will be NO WAY I can sell it in Connecticut.

So here's are my options

1. Don't sell the truck and with each passing month our financial situation gets worse and worse (yes we can find a way to deal with it, but who wants that kind of debt)

2. Take a gamble that the truck will sell by mid August with gas prices and the economy the way it is. There is no way the truck would sell in CT. Heck, even on ebay I only have one watcher.

3. Get our debt paid off by taking this rig. Putting repairs into it or selling it in a year or two after we recover from medical bills and such.

What's the most attractive option?

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