|
I am considering buying a Range Rover Discovery diesel 1992 on a K reg from a friend of mine, it has only done 25k and my pal has had it for at least 8 yrs.It looks on the surface in VGC and is up for sale for £4000. Any suggestions of what to look for and opinions about this car would be greatly appreciated. Gary Blunt
|
|
Well Gary, if you do buy a 10 year old silly low miles Disco for 4k then you are a brave man.
|
|
If you like it and you want it,buy it.I woudnt have one for a gift,way too troublesome.You might be lucky.
|
Budget fro new gearbox, clutch, cam belt and pulleys in 1 st year.
That's about £4k..so you now have an £8k Discovery. And it's still a heap of rubbish imo.
(Like a Frontera but worse)
|
(Like a Frontera but worse)
Sorry, but I can't believe that is possible!
|
Gary
To start with, you need to ask two questions - has it really done only 25,000 miles, and if so, why? 25K as a quarry site vehicle (for example) and it would probably be fit only for scrap. If your friend has owned this vehicle for almost its whole life, he should be able to give you a convincing explanation and detailed documentation to back it up.
If all that checks out OK, the information in HJ's 'Car by Car Breakdown' is an excellent place to start. A K plate vehicle could be an early 300 series vehicle, and these had faulty cambelt pulleys and tensioners. Land Rover introduced a retrofit modification, but there was never an official recall. Most of the unmodified engines will have blown up a long time ago, but a 25,000 miler might just have survived, in which case it is living on borrowed time.
Gearbox input shaft (actually the shaft from the main gearbox to transfer box) is a problem as HJ mentions. There is a simple modfication available from many independent Land Rover specialists which will prevent the shaft splines from wearing, but it's only worth fitting if the splines haven't worn away already. At 25,000 miles the splines should be OK, in which case have this kit fitted straight away. It isn't expensive.
Look out for corrosion of chassis and inner body structure. By 1993 Land Rover were really struggling to meet the demand for Discoveries and cut a lot of corners on paint and corrosion protection. Have a really good poke round underneath, and I mean poke. Use a small pointy hammer if the owner will let you.
Just occasionally Landies turn up with ultra low mileage in pampered condition. If this is one of them, it could be good value. The TDi engine is long lasting, and most of the running gear was inherited from the 1970 Range Rover, so it's simple well-proven stuff.
Richard Hall
bangernomics.tripod.com
|
|
|
|
Gary, No such thing as a Range Rover Discovery, either a Range Rover or a Land Rover Discovery.
I bought an almost new (95 model) Land Rover Discovery, top of the range ES, TDI 300 engine. At 2 years and six months old I got rid of it because of the following: Tractor engine, Poor build quality, Corrosion and slug like performance.
I then bought a 96 Range Rover, 6 cylinder BMW engine good performance (chipped), much better comfort and more toys. The RR was also poor build quality, numerous things broke but I held on to it for 80000 miles.
I now drive a Citroen C3 HDI 16 valve, much more fun.
|
|
|
