Hi all,
My name is Richard and I have a problem...
(I do but that's not the point of this post).
Almost 12 years ago my then fiancee convinced me that she needed a Freelander and so we bought one. It was a 2004 HSE TD4 which I scoffed at and then sold after about 9 years of largely trouble-free motoring, on many occasion being made to eat my words from my initial comments about it. There's no two ways, it was simply an excellent little car for a family and we were all very fond of it.
In February this year, Claire finally wore me down (after 10 years) with her desire for a Discovery 4, I caved and bought it. 4 days later, it was riddled with Air Suspension faults and I was cross having bought the best one I could find, 1-owner, always garaged, full history etc. Well, it was actually just a broken wire on the ride height sensor that took me a while to diagnose successfully and was fiddly to repair. Other than that, she adores her Disco and it's been fantastic. I've done preventative maintenance and had it fully serviced including a gearbox flush, 4 new Conti tyres, alignment etc.
A pic of the Disco and some of my others
(One of the) problems I have is that as much as I didn't think I would, I utterly adore that Discovery especially the way it drives and that got me thinking; "I can't really use and leave my little C43 outside all winter can I? No, that's not fair. I should definitely buy another car. But what? I want a Disco but I don't really have budget for another nice one and it wouldn't be fair on Claire... Ooh, Range Rover... Full fat. Yesss!!!"
In my eyes, the RR represents far better value for money than a Disco in real world family life (i.e. no further off road than a village fete grass car park or garden centre). So l started looking around and then made the smartest move EVER and bought one from an auction. Yeah, I'm a genius! It arrived 10 days later and here is my stupid prize:
So far, I have done a full service (aside from gearbox but it's booked in), all filters including fuel filter, new battery as well as bonnet and tailgate dampers & lower tailgate straps. It smells like wet Labrador inside and I've been wet vac'ing the carpets and scrubbing furiously, it's slowly getting better, sadly we're on a hosepipe ban in the SE so I can't clean the outside to the standard I really want to right now.
The side steps were rotten so they've been removed. I have a snapped bolt to deal with before they can be replaced but I need to concentrate on the running of the car first but I'll come to that bit later.
That's it for now, I need some technical advice but that will go in a different section of course.
Nice to virtually meet you and I look forward to being an active member on here as I work my way through my RR.
All the best
Richard
My name is Richard and I have a problem...
(I do but that's not the point of this post).Almost 12 years ago my then fiancee convinced me that she needed a Freelander and so we bought one. It was a 2004 HSE TD4 which I scoffed at and then sold after about 9 years of largely trouble-free motoring, on many occasion being made to eat my words from my initial comments about it. There's no two ways, it was simply an excellent little car for a family and we were all very fond of it.
In February this year, Claire finally wore me down (after 10 years) with her desire for a Discovery 4, I caved and bought it. 4 days later, it was riddled with Air Suspension faults and I was cross having bought the best one I could find, 1-owner, always garaged, full history etc. Well, it was actually just a broken wire on the ride height sensor that took me a while to diagnose successfully and was fiddly to repair. Other than that, she adores her Disco and it's been fantastic. I've done preventative maintenance and had it fully serviced including a gearbox flush, 4 new Conti tyres, alignment etc.
A pic of the Disco and some of my others
(One of the) problems I have is that as much as I didn't think I would, I utterly adore that Discovery especially the way it drives and that got me thinking; "I can't really use and leave my little C43 outside all winter can I? No, that's not fair. I should definitely buy another car. But what? I want a Disco but I don't really have budget for another nice one and it wouldn't be fair on Claire... Ooh, Range Rover... Full fat. Yesss!!!"
In my eyes, the RR represents far better value for money than a Disco in real world family life (i.e. no further off road than a village fete grass car park or garden centre). So l started looking around and then made the smartest move EVER and bought one from an auction. Yeah, I'm a genius! It arrived 10 days later and here is my stupid prize:
So far, I have done a full service (aside from gearbox but it's booked in), all filters including fuel filter, new battery as well as bonnet and tailgate dampers & lower tailgate straps. It smells like wet Labrador inside and I've been wet vac'ing the carpets and scrubbing furiously, it's slowly getting better, sadly we're on a hosepipe ban in the SE so I can't clean the outside to the standard I really want to right now.
The side steps were rotten so they've been removed. I have a snapped bolt to deal with before they can be replaced but I need to concentrate on the running of the car first but I'll come to that bit later.
That's it for now, I need some technical advice but that will go in a different section of course.
Nice to virtually meet you and I look forward to being an active member on here as I work my way through my RR.
All the best
Richard
