Hi all.
After having had a few 3.9 Discovery's (200 series and 300 series) and a much loved and many times repaired 300Tdi I have reached the point where the old Discovery has become too rotten to bother with.
Boot floor I can stand thru the holes in it, battery tray is just rust crumbs, inner wings are rotten, chassis and sills are just too far gone for me to bother with the car. It's a shame as the engine has 177,000 miles but starts and runs fine, gearbox and transfer box were rebuild by a local gearbox specialist and the gearbox is the best of any Land Rover I've used.
But it's time to move on I feel. I've already stripped out the custom leather interior, black carpet and other bits I feel I can use elsewhere.
I'm going to take the range rover wheels off it and the hub adaptors and scrap it or sell it for whatever I can get for the engine and gearbox and get a Discovery 2.

Now, I know early Td5 engines are sometimes a problem but I'm after the Ford generation one with the high level rear indicators and the pocket style headlamps. I would prefer a manual V8 but I don't think they did a manual in the face-lift Discovery 2 as I've never seen one on the V8 so I'm thinking of a manual Td5.
Aside from chassis corrosion what other areas of concern are there with the D2 td5?
I'd like one that doesn't have a passenger airbag as I want the grab handle and storage on the dash, that would be a pursuit model I believe? That means no air suspension to worry about and no fancy ACE to worry about I think?

Also, can the ABS system be disabled completely by something simple as removing the fuse? My 300Tdi had no abs, no air bags and no obd2 which was great, I know I'd be stuck with obd2 with a td5 but if I can go without the ABS and air bags that would be brilliant.

Also, I know they are more powerful than a 300tdi on paper but in terms of low end grunt they are not as torquey is that right?

Thanks in advance.

Areas of concern? Even if you get the latest youngest one you can find; it's going to be 12 years old!

Anything can be altered, changed, added to, taken off etc., get one with relatively low miles and with a good service history...

ABS disabling can be dangerous, it is pretty good on these, also if you have an accident with it disabled you are in the poo.

Also needed for TC.

Plenty of grunt as well

No offence but instead of a Discovery Series 2 i think you better ger a LR Series 2

+1

I sometimes wonder at some people. And this is written very "tongue-in-cheek" ....
They want a Td5 facelift Disco 2, and when they find one, the first jobs to do list goes something like:
Remove ACE, so that it wallows a bit when cornering
Remove the air SLS, so that it bounces around on steel springs like a jack in the box and they wonder why the extra lift switch has stopped working
Then they put a t least a 2" lift on it 'cos without the extra lift switch it isn't high enough for off-roading. And anyway it now wallows a bit more.
Then they decide that in order to get the axle clearance for off-roading they'll put super knobbly big tyres on it.
And then they realise that they're going to need special wheels 'cos the off-the-shelf wheels for those big tyres don't have the right stud pattern.
Then they find that the new wheels which incidentally have really upset the centre of gravity so it wallows even more won't fit on the lovely Disco 2 without some serious cutting and filing of the bodywork.
That means that the front bumper doesn't fit or work properly without all that metal which was removed to get the big wheels on, so they fit a brand new heavy duty steel bumper, but what to do about those nice little fog lights?
Not to worry, they can go on the big lighting bar that's going to have to be fitted to roof. But then they have to paint the bonnet matt black to reduce the glare.
They try to get a Td5 engine to run without the electrics, 'cos they might get wet when they're off-roading and anyway, they don't want all that "OBDII Crap" on their wonder monster truck.
Then blame the manufacturer for not making it possible and so they enrol on every website that they can to tell the whole world what a heap of s**t the facelift Disco 2 is.
And they wonder why they have to put it on a trailer towed by another Disco 2 to get to the "pay 'n' play" site 'cos they can't get an MoT on it.

And we all say "Any similarity between a Disco 2 and that heap of **** is purely coincidental. Burn it!"

CYANIDE-2600 said:

I'd like one that doesn't have a passenger airbag as I want the grab handle and storage on the dash, that would be a pursuit model I believe? That means no air suspension to worry about and no fancy ACE to worry about I think?

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If you are looking for one to play with, the Commercial model would be worth thinking about for the following reasons;
They (usually) came without the following:
ACE
Sunroofs
AC
Pass airbag
They did come with rear airbags, which I think are great!
They were usually bought by companies who, if your lucky, looked after them.
Mine was a Thames Water/lease, car so it was well maintained, the chassis is rock solid.

As advised, dont play around with ABS etc, it works great, the "3 Amigos" faults etc are usually the flag that something else is wrong, like wheel bearings, so think of it as an early warning system!

IMO, Ignore mileage when your looking, condition is everything.

Thanks for the replies. I'm after one as close to as basic as my 300Tdi so a commercial one seems the way to go, no sunroof is definitely a bonus as mine always leaked.
Definitely don't want ACE I'd just like a basic td5 so in theory much less to go wrong with it.
Do they all suffer with chassis corrosion or is it just the early ones?
Also. Do they have the same issue with boot floor rot and rear door corrosion by the hinges?
I assume they use the same R380 gearbox as the tdi too so I could maybe keep my old gearbox as a spare?

CYANIDE-2600 said:

I'd just like a basic td5 so in theory much less to go wrong with it.

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I don't know where you've got the idea of a "basic Td5".
There are still some reasonable examples of 300tdi's about:-
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Land-Rove...697357?hash=item3f6a33770d:g:5uQAAOSwaB5XtZo8

sierrafery said:

No offence but instead of a Discovery Series 2 i think you better ger a LR Series 2

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Or a Discovery 300tdi......no, wait.

The ones that rot are those that haven't been looked after same as any other vehicle, mileage means bugger all if it hasn't neen properly serviced with good quality parts and especially good oil and filters