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Land Rover Discovery 2 TD5


Dave1973
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Hello all. I'm new to the Pigeon Watch website, fresh out of my wrapper. I'm guessing that there will be a few people on here who own or have owned a Land Rover. I'm at a stage in my life where i think i'm going to get my first Landy however, several of my friends and family are advising that its a bad idea due to reliability issues. Are Land Rover Discoverys as bad as what people makeout? My current vehicle is a Volvo XC90,54 plate and this hasn't been trouble free! Any parts the Volvo has been in need of has had to be coded to the vehicle by a Volvo specialist or main dealer - is this the case with Land Rover Discovery 2's? The next thing is, spares for the Discoverys seem reasonably priced i.e. front discs and pads approx £50, whereas Volvo brakes are double in fact - on a similar price level to those used on the space shuttle! My last concern is mpg, the Volvo driven locally gets about 28-32mpg and on a 280 mile trip it saw an average of approx 50mpg. What are the mpg figures on a Discovery 2? I know i've thrown a lot of questions down but, any answers would be greatly apreciated. Thanks

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Hi Dave, welcome to PW.

 

I have an older Discovery 300TDi that is due for replacement soon. Ive owned a good few Land Rovers (a Defender 90, 3 Series 2a's and a Range Rover P38) but never a TD5.

 

I do fancy one as a next vehicle. As far as I am aware they are still quite DIY friendly. There are some well known and documented issues with the TD5 engine (oil in the loom that runds through the rocker cover or something I think being one of them) but are not an expensive fix. Spares wise there are many places you can get them from, John Craddocks, Paddocks etc and the prices are very reasonable.

Some of the Discovery 2's have air suspension on the rear, and the air bags can fail, about £300 for a pair fitted.

 

Early TD5's (1999ish?) used plastic dowels on the heads and this can cause Head Gasket failure, but I think resolved on later ones. After 2003 they are very well equiped vehicles. I would go for an ES spec model, has leather and all the toys.

 

MPG wise, again probably the same as your Volvo around the doors, 28-30ish? I wouldnt have thought you would see 50mpg on a run though!

 

Kind regards

Jonathan

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I have owned a 53 plate Disco 2 for just over two years and so far the car has been great.

 

In the 2 years I have owned it, (other than servicing myself) my drivers window regulator snapped, and I got a leaking fuel line, both of which were cheap parts and I managed to change myself through internet research, I can promis you I'm no mechanic :)

 

Parts are readily available and being an enthusiast car there isn't much you won't find on the net for these cars. There is a great forum called TheD2BoysClub which is a great place for advice and help; I would strongly recommend joining up and getting all the "do's and don'ts" for choosing a D2.

 

Overall I love the car, it's equally great on as well as off road and comfortable to drive.

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Thanks for your response Cosd. I wouldn't say that I'm a mechanic but, i don't mind having a try. The little add ons such as lift kits etc seem practical and a good idea for where i shoot. Like i mentioned in my original post, most jobs on the XC90 need a Volvo computer to pair the new part to the vehicles EMU. The XC90 is a great vehicle, it's interior is leather and it has every extra possible.Some sites have slated the XC90's off road ability but, i've found it good both on and off the road, i've never been stuck and i live in the hills of West Yorkshire. Regarding the Discovery i'm looking at, this would be a 53 or 54 plate. I don't think i'd go as far as a Discovery 3 as I would imagine like the Volvo, it will become a mobile computer and anything newer than a April 06 costs £490 to tax - almost £10 a week!

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seeing you mention a lift kit, here's my video on fitting a 40mm lift to my freelander, I'm no mechanic, but was told it was doable, it took a few days and thankfully I kept the vitara on the road as a back up car, Im back to driving my freelander, having took no notice of all the horror stories, I wish I'd bought one years ago, so far all my fixes and a few bodges have been done by me, rather than paying out £££££'s

 

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Thanks for that Stubby, 40mm puts it a lot higher and no doubt makes it better off road. So it seems you've been able to maintain your own vehicle and the horror stories are most likely a myth - am sure there's bad stories about all vehicles. I've just got to get my plans for a new car by the wife even though she doesn't drive, if i buy a Discovery the same colour as my Volvo she'll probably not notice!

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Hello Dave, welcome to the forum. The discovery 2 gets a yes from me, i have ran my current one for six years and other than the usual odd fuel leak /injector loom and regular servicing i have had no major problems and although diagnostics will be needed at times the d2 is diy mechanic friendly imo.

For sure there will be bad ones out there but most complaints come from bad maintenance. the td5 engine is very good in my eyes with plenty of torque, but must be serviced regular. pick one which has had regular oil changes and has not been run on chip fat.

As jgguinness said try to avoid early models and one with coil sprung suspension and no ace [active corner enhancement] would be my choice although conversion kits for these are available.

Expect around 28-30mpg and £285 a year road tax.

My td5 is driven by both me and the Mrs and we tow caravan/trailers with it.

It is a very safe place for my young kids to travel in and a big bonus when getting to some remote permissions.

pick the right one and you will get a lot of car for your money.

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Thanks for your reply Aga Man. One of the reasons behind the need for my XC90 was to lug my two young kids, wife and springer spaniel about the country in a bit of comfort with the added safety. As i mentioned earlier on i did consider the Discovery 2 years ago but, let folk talk me out of the idea.

My minds made up now, I'll be putting a fresh MOT on the Volvo next week and changing it for a Discovery at the earliest opportunity. I just need to get the wife to agree with my plans, hopefully she'll see that the maintenance should work out cheaper than the Volvo.

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Hello Dave, welcome to the forum. The discovery 2 gets a yes from me, i have ran my current one for six years and other than the usual odd fuel leak /injector loom and regular servicing i have had no major problems and although diagnostics will be needed at times the d2 is diy mechanic friendly imo.

For sure there will be bad ones out there but most complaints come from bad maintenance. the td5 engine is very good in my eyes with plenty of torque, but must be serviced regular. pick one which has had regular oil changes and has not been run on chip fat.

As jgguinness said try to avoid early models and one with coil sprung suspension and no ace [active corner enhancement] would be my choice although conversion kits for these are available.

Expect around 28-30mpg and £285 a year road tax.

My td5 is driven by both me and the Mrs and we tow caravan/trailers with it.

It is a very safe place for my young kids to travel in and a big bonus when getting to some remote permissions.

pick the right one and you will get a lot of car for your money.

 

Regards Diagnostics, on the D2BoysClub forum many of the guys have them, there's even a map of the UK where willing participants are marked out so if you ever need diagnostics they are more than happy to help out, usually costing you a cup of tea and some buscuits :)

 

I needed one and found someone three roads away from me.....

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Regards Diagnostics, on the D2BoysClub forum many of the guys have them, there's even a map of the UK where willing participants are marked out so if you ever need diagnostics they are more than happy to help out, usually costing you a cup of tea and some buscuits :)

 

I needed one and found someone three roads away from me.....

Yes that's a good point cos i forgot to mention you don't have to rely on LR main dealers for diagnostics many independent garages and as you say even enthusiast have the equipment nowadays.

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Hi Dave , I've had a Disco 2 from 1994 and I've covered 143 K . I've had a couple of air springs, engine harness due to oil Ingres , passenger window regulator, front prop shaft . I have totally abused it off road with mud terrain tyres. The biggest challenge a farmer can say to me is you won't get that up on the top meadow , I do because I can.

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Thanks guys for your reassurance re the Discovery. Am currently flipping between Ebay, Autotrader and here. With some luck I'll be changing to a Discovery this summer. I'll be going for the cloth seat option as the mother in law has struggled on the leather seats of the Volvo sliding about at the slightest change in direction although, she's provided great entertainment for the kids if we didn't tether her down tight!

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Thanks for that Arley, do you reckon you'll go back to a TD5? The Discovery 3 got a great review by Jeremy Clarkson when he drove it to the top of the mountain. It seems to me like there's a lot of computers talking to each other and associated components to enable it to perform its miracles, this puts me off the leap to the Discovery 3. I've read that the later Discovery 3's and the new 4's are flawless but, their reliability comes with a cost of a footballers bank balance and road tax bill to laugh at! Having said that, if I was without the financial responsibilities of a family and mortgage I'd have a new one.

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I took the plunge last November and bought a TD5 as a second car. Have to say I soooo wish I had done it sooner. There off road capability is amazing. Lots of bolt on goodies as you say and if you can handle a socket set, got a trolley jack , you can do a hell of a lot of the upgrades and maintenance yourself. I do own a Nanocom (Aftermarket diagnostic tool) and they are very good. £350 for the TD5 version but if you plan on having the motor for a long time they will be worth the extra spend. The thing that amazes me is A how easy they are to fix and B the cost of the parts is so cheap. quick example Disks and pads all round £100 if you can fit them yourself.

 

the D2BC forum also gets the thumbs up from me. Lots of information from what to look out for when buying through maintaining, fault finding and upgrading. Well worth a browse.

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Thanks SirDread, another glowing report for a Discovery 2. I'm wanting to settle on a vehicle that i'll stick with for a few years, the ability to do most service work myself and the tinkering that i could do with a Discovery would facilitate this. Its somthing for me to look forward to, years ago i would service and maintain my own Nova and Golf GTi and they were jobs i'd enjoy. My wife is thinking am having a mid life crisis!

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