Discovery II Questions

[wokkerk]

I'm sure that this has been covered many times here before so if someone could steer me in the right direction I would really appreciate it...

My wife and I are looking to get into weekend adventuring and are leaning towards getting a Discovery II as our adventure vehicle. We currently have two Audi Avants that I do all the work on myself but they are both lowered and not conducive to the off-road life.

My real question is how reliable is the Discovery II and when I'm looking for one what are some of the main things that I should be looking out for? I do all the wrenching myself but among people who don't drive LR's they seem to have a terrible reputation for reliability and need for constant maintenance. It would only be a weekend vehicle and not a daily driver but if someone could steer me towards some solid reading or hit me with some good advice I would really appreciate it.




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[pugslyyy]

A bunch of folks are about to jump in and tell you to either go with a Discovery / RRC or an LR3, and I can't disagree. The new Land Rovers do really well, the older Discovery and Range Rover Classics are great (just depends on how much loadspace you need), but hard to find a lot to love about the Disco2 unless you are a fanatic.

Of course I wheel in a P38 so ****** do I know. Get what you like!

 

[munimula]

Go Toyota - this comes from a Disco 2 owner who is going through a $5k head gasket repair right now.

 

[zelatore]

Ah yes, the old 'how reliable are they' question.

The answer is...depends.

The D2 certainly doesn't have the best reputation but that's mostly down to the people who bought them thinking it was a Mercedes or other luxury SUV, not an off-roader. To that end, those people tend to be 'drive and forget' types who don't pay the least bit of attention until it blows up on them. And unfortunately, a D2 can certainly do just that if you let it get too hot.

They do have their issues as do most older vehicles but good maintenance generally keeps them pretty happy. They are higher maintenance than the typical Japanese sedan to be sure, but I'll let other's get into the specifics on that since I seem to own about everything EXCEPT a D2.

Now I'll do as instructed in the first response and tell you maybe you should be looking at an LR3 instead if you're worried about reliability

I don't know what your budget or final build-out plans are for this vehicle, but the LR3 (the Discovery 3 everywhere but in the US) is light-years ahead of the earlier Rovers in terms of reliability. Mine has 130K and has never had any engine/transmission/t-case work done other than routine maintenance. It's _just_ developed it's first very small oil leak. Not enough to leave a drip on the driveway but I can see the wet area when I'm under it doing oil changes or the like. And I use my truck HARD.

Do a search for LR3 info here and you'll find plenty of buying advice. Figure about $10K gets you into a reasonable one. I've seen cheaper but they're a bit suspect. $15K gets you a really nice one. $20K gets you the world's best one with a bunch of extras. About the only reason I wouldn't recommend the LR3 is if you want to build it up to do more hard-core trails as the lack of solid axles means you can't get as crazy on the suspension work. But up to that point they're really competent off-road, have a ton of room, are nice to drive on and off road, and on top of that your neighbors will think it cost 4x as much as it did since it looks basically identical to the current model LR4 that sell for north of $60K

 

[zelatore]

Here's an example of the top-of-the range in a turn-key built low mileage LR3 from this very site.

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/153398-2008-Land-Rover-LR3-HSE-LUX-w-locker

Obviously most of them don't sell in this price range these days, but at the least it gives you some idea what one can be. For half that price you can buy a nice stocker, probably an '06-07, with around 100K miles and decent service records.

Oh yeah....get good service records on ANY Rover!

 

[wokkerk]

Thanks for the good advice. I'm trying to keep my entry budget low...hopefully under 5k so I'm thinking D2 is the way to go. I would love to do an LR3 in the long run but can't justify it as a weekend toy at this point.

Why do people go with the original discovery or the RRC over the 2?


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[Cupboard]

Because they're simpler and the D2 has a very big ******** which isn't helpful for the departure angle.

A D2 with a centre diff lock and the traction control is a very competent off road vehicle. On this side of the pond we got the TD5 engine which was fantastic and pretty bombproof. They are notorious for having issues with water in the electrics, the two common faults are "the three amigos" warning lights which means an issue with the traction control, ABS and hill descent control usually caused by an ABS wiring issue; and the other is water getting in the automatic gearbox selector switch (XYZ switch). Both are fixable by a home mechanic but both will need some sort of diagnostic plug in. The XYZ switch issue is either caused by frequent and repeated deep wading or more usually the drain for the air con dripping on it.

If you do look at one check for damp in the headlining and around the sun roof if it's got one.

I can't tell you anything about the V8 you guys get, other than the fact it's a fairly late evolution of the old Rover V8, whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is rather down to personal preferences

 

[Stamos]

The D2s are not that complicated. Yes the air ride is problematic at times so look for one that has had it removed and converted to springs. D2s from 2000-2002 do not have the locking center diff control in the cabin like the D1s , but you can add that with a little work. Both D1s and IIs leak around the sunroofs (not all, but a lot)....both are prone to headgasket failures. On the east coast of the US clean rust-free D1s are getting scarce same goes for DIIS, but there are more D2s around.

Find one that has been maintained and get a pre purchase inspection or if you are competent, do your own. Look for the obvious (munged up coolant, vanilla milkshake oil) then look for rust.....

 

[lwg]

I'll defend the D2. I've had a RRC and you want to talk about a truck with issues... They are plagued with issues around electrical, etc. And the T-Case that comes with them stock will absolutely eventually need to be replaced, it's a viscous coupling. Great idea but maybe not for that truck.

I now have a D2 and love it. The departure angle is only really a thing on difficult trails and can easily be dealt with now days as there are many reasonably price bumper options that weren't once there. As for reliability a later model ('03 & '04) came with the more powerful engines but can have issues. However not all of them have issues. Honestly I bet it's way less than half as we only hear about the bad ones, not the mall crawler's that never have issues.

I'm personally a fan of the earlier ('99 & '00, early '01) as while the T-case doesn't come with a center diff lock standard, its fairly easy to retrofit one and makes the truck extremely capable in mildly lifted form with 32" tires. As for protection trim off the front bumper, get a decent rear bumper and some sliders and start your adventures. I personally have an ARB up front but there are a lot of cool options for that area now that don't break the bank.

Be prepared to eventually do a head gasket job though, if you're handy with an Audi you'll find working on the rover simple. Lots more room and much less complicated. I once did a timing belt on a '03 S6 Avant and that was a bear! Had to remove the front bumper just to get to the front of the engine!

There's a ton of good information on this vehicle on this forum and others. Spend some time learning about them and then start searching one out. Don't be afraid to travel or ship the right truck. In the end you'll love the truck if you stay on top of maintenance. I wouldn't trade mine for anything and I've had it over 10 years now.

 

[kcabpilot]

I'm another 10 year D2 owner. At a little over 100,000 miles there was a small coolant leak from the front of the left head. I did the job myself, not a big deal. Shortly after that I developed a slow leak in one of the rear air springs. I replaced them with the aftermarket replacements that come with lifetime warranty. At around 120,000 miles I started getting the 3 Amigos. I fixed that myself by following the well documented procedure for bypassing the embedded circuit board for the switch pack, took less than two hours. My truck is a 2001 and I enabled the center diff lock by installing a lever from a D1. I've also replaced the water pump and alternator, normal items for any truck going towards 200,000 miles. I've never had any trouble from the ACE or SLS or dual sunroofs and the only thing that stopped working that I didn't fix is the CD changer because who uses CD's anymore?

Other than that it's been a very reliable truck and has never left me stranded but I'll agree that if you are the type of person that is going to have to pay five thousand dollars to replace a head gasket you should probably get a Toyota.

 

[lwg]

I'm another 10 year D2 owner. At a little over 100,000 miles there was a small coolant leak from the front of the left head. I did the job myself, not a big deal. Shortly after that I developed a slow leak in one of the rear air springs. I replaced them with the aftermarket replacements that come with lifetime warranty. At around 120,000 miles I started getting the 3 Amigos. I fixed that myself by following the well documented procedure for bypassing the embedded circuit board for the switch pack, took less than two hours. My truck is a 2001 and I enabled the center diff lock by installing a lever from a D1. I've also replaced the water pump and alternator, normal items for any truck going towards 200,000 miles. I've never had any trouble from the ACE or SLS or dual sunroofs and the only thing that stopped working that I didn't fix is the CD changer because who uses CD's anymore?

Other than that it's been a very reliable truck and has never left me stranded but I'll agree that if you are the type of person that is going to have to pay five thousand dollars to replace a head gasket you should probably get a Toyota.

Glad to hear there's another truck with ACE that's not had any issues. I love that system. I did replace a leaky actuator recently but that is because of my OCD around occasionally having a drip under it... Like you I've done just about every fix on my truck. I'm at 167K on the original short block (recently did the cam with a proper head gasket job). I fully expect 200K out of this truck or more with the block in tact! Original trans and T-case as well. It's really been a good truck.

 

[Explorer0863]

Because they're simpler and the D2 has a very big ******** which isn't helpful for the departure angle.

A D2 with a centre diff lock and the traction control is a very competent off road vehicle. On this side of the pond we got the TD5 engine which was fantastic and pretty bombproof. They are notorious for having issues with water in the electrics, the two common faults are "the three amigos" warning lights which means an issue with the traction control, ABS and hill descent control usually caused by an ABS wiring issue; and the other is water getting in the automatic gearbox selector switch (XYZ switch). Both are fixable by a home mechanic but both will need some sort of diagnostic plug in. The XYZ switch issue is either caused by frequent and repeated deep wading or more usually the drain for the air con dripping on it.

If you do look at one check for damp in the headlining and around the sun roof if it's got one.

I can't tell you anything about the V8 you guys get, other than the fact it's a fairly late evolution of the old Rover V8, whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is rather down to personal preferences

Exactly what he said X2.

 

[wokkerk]

I'm another 10 year D2 owner. At a little over 100,000 miles there was a small coolant leak from the front of the left head. I did the job myself, not a big deal. Shortly after that I developed a slow leak in one of the rear air springs. I replaced them with the aftermarket replacements that come with lifetime warranty. At around 120,000 miles I started getting the 3 Amigos. I fixed that myself by following the well documented procedure for bypassing the embedded circuit board for the switch pack, took less than two hours. My truck is a 2001 and I enabled the center diff lock by installing a lever from a D1. I've also replaced the water pump and alternator, normal items for any truck going towards 200,000 miles. I've never had any trouble from the ACE or SLS or dual sunroofs and the only thing that stopped working that I didn't fix is the CD changer because who uses CD's anymore?

Other than that it's been a very reliable truck and has never left me stranded but I'll agree that if you are the type of person that is going to have to pay five thousand dollars to replace a head gasket you should probably get a Toyota.

Thanks for all the input. This is really helpful to hear of someone doing all this stuff themselves. I'm a capable wrench turner and don't shy away from big projects so it sounds like this is stuff that I can do myself. It's also good to know that a lot of stuff from the D1 is swappable into the D2 if needed.


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[Explorer0863]

At around 120,000 miles I started getting the 3 Amigos. I fixed that myself by following the well documented procedure for bypassing the embedded circuit board for the switch pack, took less than two hours.

My apologies to the OP for hijacking the post for a second. Could you send to my inbox the link to the documented procedure pls?

I am a very satisfied D2 owner for the 2nd time. Both 99, the Rioja Red didn't have ACE. The one that I currently own, does. After fixing the ACE system twice, it started to leak again and I deleted the system. It was easy and I have zero problems.

I did the head gaskets on the red one. My current D2 is still running fine after 175K. I know that eventually I'll have to do them, but I am prepared for it. The key to D2 (and LR ownership in general) is preventive maintenance and to stay on top of things.

 

[lwg]

For the ABS Mod, Here are the basic instructions I used years ago. I think I probably did this mod in 2009 and haven't had an issue since.

http://landroverclubvi.weebly.com/abs-mod.html

To the original poster, search for the Land Rover Rave Manual to download if you get a D2. It is the factory manual that most of us rely on for the details that are sometimes missed with the interweb. To someone handy with tools and a decent toolset, some patience and ability to google things you will have no issues maintaining and repairing the vehicle yourself. At this point the Discovery 2 have been around a while and the community has more or less encountered every issue you can imagine. One good thing about Land Rovers is the community is relatively small and everybody is always willing to help out a new member!