Disco 2 New toy woes....

Hi all, am new to this forum and LR in general. Have just brought what i thought was going to be a nice tidy 99 TD5 with 163k on it. Usual age related marks to the body, but over all I was very happy with it.
I was moving if from my driveway earlier and noticed what seemed to be the PAS struggling so assumed that it was a little low on fluid. Standing to one side I removed what I thought ( as it had a steering wheel image on it ) the correct cap and noticed that it was empty. After pouring for a few mins I noticed I could hear dripping and to my horror saw that I had poured half a bottle of PAS Oil thru the engine and on to the floor. Now as it turns out the lids had been swapped over and it was actually the ACE reservoir that I was attempting to fill. This is where it gets worse.... For some reason there is only one pipe connected to reservoir, the smaller of the two. The other, larger diameter is no where to be seen. After some panicked googling I think this is pretty serious. It looks like a deliberate attempt to cover up a fault in the system as there is no warning light on the dash when I turn the vehicle on, and seems to me that someone may have disabled the light in some way.
Id like to ask the collective here if they agree with how this looks, is it serious, and should I be demanding my money back? Its seems to handle well and I've tested a little "off road" to check the TC was working and I am fairly confident that it does, but never having a Disco before I am not sure what value or how important the ACE is. Having traded my van for this it is now my daily ride.

Thanks in advance

Rob

after reading some other threads here I had a quick look and can easily see the ram behind the drivers front wheel, so can I assume its not been removed?

You should check to see if the pulley and pump has been removed as well?

As I understand it, If the pulley and pump are still there and being turned by the fan belt then the pump runs dry and siezes, causing failure of the fan belt. Followed by no PAS and no water pump.

I believe it should be replaced by an idler.

Cheers

edited to add pump

Did you get it from a dealer?

ouch... it was a local dealer yes, not an LR tho. How easy is it to check for the pump and pulley? not sure where I am looking as yet

ok quick update.... might be panic over.... been out there with a torch and it looks like the pump has been removed and a smaller pulley idler assembly put in its place. I will have a chat with the local LR dealer and see what they recommend.
Thanks for the quick responses guys.

Mechman said:

ok quick update.... might be panic over.... been out there with a torch and it looks like the pump has been removed and a smaller pulley idler assembly put in its place. I will have a chat with the local LR dealer and see what they recommend.
Thanks for the quick responses guys.

Click to expand...

if ram and ace roll bar is still there you might want to remove them and fit solid roll bars, dealer should have said its been altered

It is in a half and half state, not good at all, either get them to reinstate pipes and pump, or remove rams and fit non ACE bars

Mines has had the ACE done away with, and has been running on the locked rams now for nearly 2 years without any issues. Done by someone who worked for a well known LR dealership, and done on countless D2's without an issue on any of them.

That's interesting meego as I was paying particular attention to the handling/rolling on the way home tonight at was thinking that this is probably the most stable 4wd ive owned (had landcrusiers, patrols and pajeros previously.)

Mechman said:

That's interesting meego as I was paying particular attention to the handling/rolling on the way home tonight at was thinking that this is probably the most stable 4wd ive owned (had landcrusiers, patrols and pajeros previously.)

Click to expand...

Exactly. Can't see the point of sourcing standard anti roll bars if what's there does the job. Which is exactly how the LR trained guy that done mine put it to me. Don't get me wrong, I would have liked nothing better than to keep the ACE system as is. But I think it is not good long term maintenance wise. Unless you are willing to keep spending plenty on it. Proper hydraulic fittings at the block coupled with pipes that don't corrode and it would be a perfect system.

meego said:

Exactly. Can't see the point of sourcing standard anti roll bars if what's there does the job. Which is exactly how the LR trained guy that done mine put it to me. Don't get me wrong, I would have liked nothing better than to keep the ACE system as is. But I think it is not good long term maintenance wise. Unless you are willing to keep spending plenty on it. Proper hydraulic fittings at the block coupled with pipes that don't corrode and it would be a perfect system.

Click to expand...

I have started this conversion bu tstuck at machining stage, noone seems to be able to do it.