Hi all,
Having replaced my last disco about 4 months ago, this time with an older, more of a workhorse model, to get me about my work (farming), I am enjoying being much less precious with it.

I has it out in the snow and ice last saturday and with lowered tire pressures, on front road tyres, and rear all terrains, I very much enjoyed how far these things can go with half decent driving. It's something I never realised when pussyfooting around in my last one which had a seized difflock. Watching a mitsubishi get stuck in what can only be described as a blizzard on top of the black mountains, and then towing a big ford pickup truck out of waist deep snowdrifts (about three times) were two highlights of the day.

Anyway, I've got a bit of time off this week and next and I'm looking to sort a few things out on the disco and perhaps take her to north wales for a few days but I've got a quick roofrack question:
Last year I made myself a full safari roofrack (I posted a pic heavy guide on here actually if you wana see it), but eventually sold it, as although it looked the part, it didn't get used once, and prevented me from parking in many-a-car park. I instead decided I'd use the discos roof bars if ever I needed to.
Well, my current disco doesn't have roof bars on it which is a bit of a pain so I'm planning on buying a pair which can just sit over the lower front part of the roof, and then I will fabricate myself a half-size basket to just sit over the front bars out of some scrap box section steel I can get my hands on.

The question is, where can I find roof bars which are high enough to fit over the front bit of the disco (without factory roof bars in place)? and has anyone done this kind of thing before?


The other question (if you're still awake that is...), is I can hear a loudish whining which increases as I steer left and right, or rev the engine, and the power steering is pretty much non existant when starting up from cold, but only slightly better when warmed up, so what's gone wrong do we think? My best guess is power steering pump?

Cheers all.

Halfords should sort you out with Thule roof bars, they will go over the lower front roof, or over the higher back part. Yes, I'd say your PAS pump is on its knees by the sounds of it.

could be the pump, or could just be lack of fluid, check that first (its cheaper)

Roof bars, you could make some easily enough, or as said halffords, or if youve got time, why not fith the proper disco ones, means dropping rooflining though

I was topping up my PAS fluid quite regularly around christmas but admittedly haven't checked it for a while, so I'll have a look.

It just struck me as something going kaput, as opposed to fluid gradually decreasing, because steering was fine, then I went and got myself stuck in several snow drifts which packed the front end in snow and required lots of digging out, and when I increased the tire pressures back up from about 15 psi to 35 psi after the off road stuff, the steering was still very hard, and has been as I described above ever since.

If its loosing fluid it probably is the pump

+1 on the pump. Easy job to do.

It's a 2 stage process whereby you remove the supporting bracket first and then remove the pump from the bracket. 30 mins to do I would say.

See here for an idea of costs:

Land Rover Discovery 1 Power Steering Pumps | Paddock


Dave