Thinking of buying a Disco3.

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mrnice

mrnice

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Up **** creek.
We are keeping the Disco 1 but the Mrs fancies part exing the audi with a friend for a Disco 3 TDV6 SE (2007) full service history, are they any good or just money pits?

What are the common faults and problems to look out for?

We are looking at the reviews online but would also like to hear what you fellas say.

Cheers.
 
Haven't got one, but loads of stuff about them in the magazines over the years and from LR indies that we use.

Front suspension bushes seem to be the biggest problem, 50k and they are shot.

Clutches on the manuals, fuel pump drive belt at the back of the engine is a sod to get at.

The biggest single issue that stops me getting one is that most major assemblies are not catered for in terms of parts, while you can get every nut and bolt for D1's and D2's, D3/D4 are exchange units only, even the engine has no internal spares listed.

Peter
 
I've seen reports of crankshafts failing due to some of the bearing shells rotating and blocking the oil feeds.
 
I recently drove a 2008 Tdv6 2.7 auto and it was a real eye-opener.

For the first time ever, I drove an LR product that really felt modern, smooth comfortable with adequate performance.

It was VERY impressive. Engine/transmission integration, comfort, handling -it had the lot.

Please don't get me wrong, TDi's and TD's do have their pluses, but they're not in the same league as the DIII I drove.


Dave
 
I had one of them and it was a money pit, had 80k year 06 Replaced clutch, air suspension compressor ,heater egr, handbrake. pre heater. luckily I had bought warranty . But beautiful car to drive .Since sold it and back to my D1 300tdi .
 
Cheers fellas, hmmmm I might have to get some sort of warranty for it (if I can?).

Presumably insurance only covers accidents and not engine blown up etc?
 
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The 2007 era is known to have a problem with the oil pump casing which supports one of the pulleys for the timing belt. If this goes, it's new engine time as you can't seem to buy the bits to rebuild them. Earlier cars don't suffer this problem but do have odd reports of the crankshafts failing (as said above).

Air suspension can give problems but it's usually something fairly simple. I had a range rover sport which used to through up the air suspension fault quite regularly. I changed the valve and air drier which cost less than £80 all in and this completely cured it.

Cruise control can sometimes fail too. This is usually the clock spring / rotary coupler that costs around 220 to replace.

Timing belt and fuel pump belt at the back of the engine is every 7 years or 105k miles. This is about 900 at a dealer, 450-500 independent or 150-200 diy.

Have a look on the disco 3 and rrs forums as the common problems are pretty well documented now.
 
Yes they do have their reported problems, but remember there is a hell of a lot of them out there! Awesome vehicles :D
 
Cheers everyone,

We had it last night and tbh I think its going to be a "white elephant" situation that cannot be achieved on a carpet fitters wage, whilst it was nice and with selling the allroad I can afford it its just the maintaining and repair costs that with probably make it unrealistic, unless I can get a warranty to cover repair costs.

It was like driving a very posh house, stunning vehicle but I felt very detached from driving, it felt more like sitting in an armchair looking at a big screen TV and using a steering wheel joypad to drive it, I felt very little feedback, plus its nowhere near as quick as the allroad.

The Mrs on the other hand loved it and is gutted that its probably not going to happen as she would be driving it 95% of the time as I have my Disco and my Transit, I liked the idea of more metal between my kids and the other car if we had a crash but the audi is covered in airbags, has the quattro system, ESP and is a big car anyhow.

We are toying with the idea of a nice Disco 2 now as she likes the landy driving position and road presence but with the handling and refinement of the audi, plus I can fix and maintain a D2.

You never know it may still happen if I can get the warranty but atm I feel its going to be later rather than sooner.
 
D2 is very 'fixable' and nice to drive, I'd not change mine for any of the new Land Rovers, they are just too full of gadgets and electronics (which was said about the D2's as well) and too nice inside to start chucking tools and gear into.

Peter
 
I remember about 10 yrs ago and nearly everyone was saying that the D2's were far too electronic and unfixable by a home mechanic, so stick to a TDi.

Now we've got used to D2 and found it is easy to work on, we have a pop at DIII.

Watch this space, in 10 yrs time we'll all love DIII.
 
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