New to the game

Hi chaps

I'm new to the wonderful world of the Discovery having just bought my first at the weekend ('95 N Plate) i bought from a dealer and paid a reasonable price, the car is in good condition but i have a slight issue regarding electrics...when it came time to inspect the car i noticed a couple of blown bulbs, NS Headlight and NS Brake light, the dealer told me they would be replaced prior to collection and swears blind that they were, i say he swears blind because i've just finished telling him off for not having fixed them for me resulting in me doing them myself, not a big job i know but annoying all the same.

Anyhoo...i've also noticed the initial turnover is rubbish, again my dealer promised to swap out the battery and again he swears blind that he has, on inspection the battery looks new, terminals are spotless and there are no marks to suggest otherwise yet from cold the car is sluggish to start, when warm it fires first go.

In a nutshell...is anyone aware of a common fault on Discoveries that may result in blown bulbs/loss of battery power? i have a trade garage as i run my own business and intend on taking the car in there for a double check before i start screaming 'warranty' it's just handy to know if there is a common theme or am i maybe being a bit paranoid?

Thanks in advance if anyone is willing/able to answer.

Yella Disco's the chap to speak with. No doubt you'll catch him on soon chap.

Regards WP.

sounds like you got a touch of the electrical gremlins to me, have the replacement bulbs you put in blown yet, is the lasy starter thing all the time or just now and then. have a look at the battery and see if it is new or has he just put a different one one, check the ampage of the new battery and report back with all your answers

sounds like you have a lazy starter or a lazy battery. my disco spins up rapid every time. no matter what the temp is.

Cheers fella's, i'll have a rummage around and see what i can come up with, a lazy anything i can cope with, i was just hoping it wasn't some huge fault that's well known in such circles and results in instant Disco death!

Will report back later on, thanks again.

Sounds like something is dodgey, check your negative harness in the engine bay has a good solid connection.

Does the car just turn over slow or is it just slow to fire? your glow plugs may be away, our Discovery for years went to a Land Rover garage before I had time and started doing things myself. It was slow to start, I told him this and said could it be the glows, and he said "no no there fine".

So I gave up and did it myself; out comes the ammeter, glow 1 reading 0A, and so on except 3 which was was reading 12Aish. So thats fine, the glows were jiggered, replaced them and it works a treat. I would take the wire off the first glow plug, and connect an ammeter between it and the wire, and see what you get, they should all be the same or near abouts.

Thanks again chaps, for a total novice advice like this is most helpful, i've been over to my garage this morning and they've confirmed a duff battery as the cause, they've changed it out and all is well, it seems that the muppet dealer was simply telling porkies and had fitted an old battery, the bulbs i replaced are also cock on so i have to assume that he was at it again when he told me he had fitted new one's, despite having a virtually full ticket the car is in for a service & Pre MOT now in the hopes that my boys can find something that'll cost him a few quid under his warranty terms, what goes around...

Ah yes, so it was simply a wide boy mechanic that tried to sting you.

I would watch the battery, it might last the day and be dead again tomorrow morning.

I would go back and tell him it can't be a new battery, and if it is tell him he will have to get it replaced from the place he bought it, failing that tell him you will get in touch with the supplier, that will make most of them change their tune, as you would soon learn from the supplier the truth, and that makes him look bad...

Lol i'm already fretting about firing her up in the morning but we'll cross that bridge if and when it happens (or not) i've been pondering all day about how best to make the bloke look like the mug he tried to take me for, at this point i'm all set to roll over there on Saturday morning, say about 11am when his pitch has a few punters on, and present him with his old battery whilst, in my loudest voice, telling him what i think of his pathetic attempts to make an extra £35 (the money he no doubt saved by fitting an old instead of new battery) i might also toss in how wonderful i think it was that he was happy to take my cash and promise minor repairs to blown bulbs etc but then decide not bother doing them...

In the cold light of day it's my fault for not double checking he had done what he promised when i collected the car but i guess that's what you get when you trust people, if it were one of my customers and i'd just taken a sizeable lump of cash from them i know full well that customer service or even after sales service (not really applicable in my line) would be spot on as repeat business is king, i've already fallen in love with my Disco and know straight away that i'll be having another, just not from him.

Similar thing here..I had a 5 hour trip to pick up my beasty having been down a few weeks earlier to purchase it... promised to fix the fuel filler flap (kept flapping open!) and the drink holder on the dash.(sticks and wont come out..until you hit a bump..and we hit LOTS of bumps out here). I was so pleased to get the beastie that I jumped in and headed home without checking...only to find the problems still existed.

And like you, he said that he had done them....liar. I fixed them myself! It's too far to take it back for tiny things like that and he knew that. I must admit that the drink holder pops out at about 35degree angle now(the car not the holder) so it lets me know when I am about to tip over!!