Early disco 3 or late 2

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emwmarine

New Member
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I am sure this has been asked before but I thought t was worth a specific. I will be looking to spend 10 ish k on a discovery.

I want lowish mileage and reliability as I do a fair few miles, towing and also going to the Alps.


I know the disco 3 s meant to be a much nicer car, but I did like my old TD5.

Would I be better off going for a late low mileage 2 or a higher milage 3? Is the 3 so much better a vehicle that it is worth the risk?
 
The 3 is a lovely vehicle to drive etc but early ones can be unreliable needing many ££'s to fix,I know the D2 is no saint but at least the repairs are fairly do-able.
 
For ten grand you should pretty much get the best D2 available and still have a few shillings left. The same money will get a D3 but I suspect you'll find it hard to find one in the condition with low mileage. For that reason, were I you, I'd go for a D2.
 
200tdi ayre said:
or the right computers and know how to fix them
Click to expand...

which you will be doing more often than you'll be driving it.

we had two, primarily for towing box trailers. the one was just a never ending list of problems. the handbrake shoes disintegrated while it was parked and locked it up so it physically couldn't be moved. fortunately it was on a hard concrete floor and we could shift it on jacks enough to get access to the wheel and move it around the warehouse where it was parked so it could be looked at. This was just after it had been returned by the LR dealer after the clutch had destroyed itself on the motorway. A short time later the gearbox fell apart while towing on the motorway, and all the while the engine management kept throwing up phantom faults and putting it into limp mode or trying to force you to stop the car at the most inopportune moments, often hundreds of miles from home. this is only a little glimpse of the long line of faults and problems. needless to say when the warranty ran out it was promptly traded in for something a lot more reliable and more foreign of origin. Our other D3 was a saint by comparison, but that too has had its fair share of warranty work, and needless to say when the warranty runs out on that one it too will be going.

these issues would have been incredibly expensive to have a mechanic sort, and incredibly time consuming and only a little less expensive to sort ourselves.


yours sincerely,
Not a Fan of the D3 ;)
 
Jay reKx said:
which you will be doing more often than you'll be driving it.

we had two, primarily for towing box trailers. the one was just a never ending list of problems. the handbrake shoes disintegrated while it was parked and locked it up so it physically couldn't be moved. fortunately it was on a hard concrete floor and we could shift it on jacks enough to get access to the wheel and move it around the warehouse where it was parked so it could be looked at. This was just after it had been returned by the LR dealer after the clutch had destroyed itself on the motorway. A short time later the gearbox fell apart while towing on the motorway, and all the while the engine management kept throwing up phantom faults and putting it into limp mode or trying to force you to stop the car at the most inopportune moments, often hundreds of miles from home. this is only a little glimpse of the long line of faults and problems. needless to say when the warranty ran out it was promptly traded in for something a lot more reliable and more foreign of origin. Our other D3 was a saint by comparison, but that too has had its fair share of warranty work, and needless to say when the warranty runs out on that one it too will be going.

these issues would have been incredibly expensive to have a mechanic sort, and incredibly time consuming and only a little less expensive to sort ourselves.


yours sincerely,
Not a Fan of the D3 ;)
Click to expand...

Haha sounds like a lemon, we've had ours from new for 85000 miles alot of towing involved in that, handbrake we haven't had a problem as its regularly cleaned and adjusted, the brakes were lost though when an I ring failed, factory recall for that ! Apart from that its had few problems, although one of the bushes in the bottom wishbone is dying and there's a vibration at 1600 rpm subsequent of towing I think, possibly flywheel damper but not sure, got offered 15 to trade in, I keep telling dad to get shut before more things start to go wrong, other than that there's no other car that will tow as well or comfortably
 
Recent work I've done on both, disco 2, welded up rear chassis leg where it was cracking in half, replaced the position sensor on a auto box, replaced a starter motor after it constantly engaged and burnt itself out, removed the immobiliser after it constantly played up, replaced the rear airbag potentieometer, replaced the injector loom after it got oil contamination, replaced the steering dohnut that controls the steering wheel functions and more I can't remember

Disco 3 headlight bulb, brake light bulb adjusted a few handbrake drums and services . . .
 
Dr_evil said:
so newish then after they ironed out bugs
Click to expand...

We've had D3's since they came out I think we've had 4 but not entirely sure so we've experienced alot of the bugs the current one though lost brakes when the o ring failed in the master cylinder. And the flywheel damper is dying I suspect really want to get rid of this one before everything goes wrong but it's had a hard life
 
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