Drakx
Member Since: 21 Jan 2021
Location: West Yorkshire
Posts: 48
  
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| My 2 years of ownership D3 |
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Hey,
This might be a long one, but hopefully it’ll help someone who’s thinking of buying a Disco 3/4 and hopefully give you some stuff to learn by using my mistakes!
Background:
Two years ago I couldn’t get my mini off the drive due to snow even though I dug it out I was still unable to get it out, so I had the bright idea of buying a 4x4. After looking at all the options available I decided I’d stick with the OG 4x4 manufacturer, so I started looking and found a Disco 3, that I kept going back and forth to look at (total of 5 times) before I decided to buy it.
I took the car for a test drive and came back and said “suspension light is on” to which I was told “oh, it’ll be a sensor” naively I thought great that should be a 10 min job, so to sweeten the deal the seller said I could buy it for a lower price. I was almost put off due to lack of full service history, my thinking was how bad could it really be?
From then to now:
Not long after 2 days of buying the car I found this treasure of knowledge and saw a topic about the oil pump, since I had no idea if it had the old style oil pump I decided that I’ll check. So, for the next couple of days I started to strip the disco down and found to my horror it had the old style pump. Again, coming back here to find out more info I found AF and ordered myself the new oil pump, timing belt and kit, spent roughly a week doing this in the snow and rain, everything was going well until the starter motor god is that a pain in the  to get out and in again!
Down the rabbit hole:
So, there I am disco back together, thinking fantastic! Then I get the dreaded ding (only three days after doing the oil pump) “air suspension“ fault.
Again coming back here checking existing topics I found lots of information it started with the Air compressor (eBay job) didn’t work, air reservoir tank, still the same issue, so I thought right… I’ll change the air valves again, still the same issue! So getting at my wits end I decided it can only be one other thing, there’s a leak in the shocks somewhere?! So, I go to AF order the full air shock system bolts an all.
I fitted them and thought right that has to fix it right? Nope! Just another ding “air suspension“ fault again  so I did a little bit more digging and found it might have been because I bought a cheap air compressor rather than a genuine one, so once again off I go to AF and order the AMK air compressor kit, fitted that the dare raised and I thought great that’s all fixed. You guessed it ding at this point I was considering scrapping the car, but I had invested so much time and effort that I couldn’t give in just yet.
I asked for a friend to start the car while I listened for anything obvious, then a hiss comes from near the rear valve block, Ah, found it I said to myself, so I go check the connections oddly enough they was all in correctly, it couldn’t be that could it! I asked for the car to be turned off and turned back on again the same hiss at the same location, at this point I was so desperate that I decided to stick my hand near the block to see if I could feel the hiss, then all of a sudden I felt air, I immediately got the location and managed to bring the hiss sound so I could see where it was.
To my annoyance some had put some kind of putty on the hole and it had dried up and leaked again, so I fixed it. Fantastic my car is all working again…
Yet another issue:
Here I am smug with myself, thinking this car is now running as should be then I get “hand break fault” at this point I was going nuts I thought to myself FFS how much more could this car go wrong? (Ha the laugh was on me, more was coming). So, again I come here and check. Found that I could repair the EPB by replacing the gears so I did that, while doing so I decided to change all oils, shoes and pads I even upgraded the car to the V8 drilled and groved breaks, the car finally get’s put back together and I go do the embed procedure, everything went as expected until the infamous ding again. EPB fault yet again, so I decided okay well I don’t know if the current EPB had ever been changed before and chances are it’s the OG, so off I go again to AF and order myself a new EPB, again going through the whole fit and replace procedure as described above.
There I was happy that my car had no more issues… so I thought:
The battery light came on, so I get the multimeter out and check that the batteries volts is 12.0 I think wow that’s rather low, I started the car and it dropped to 11.9v so off to Halfords I go and get a replacement battery, still the same issue, I figure it could only be one thing the alternator so once again I go buy a new alternator from AF, fitted it, replaced the fan belt and life was good, right?
Wrong! The alternator bracket (mounted to the block) fell off! To my horror it looked as though someone had snapped a bolt, so after nearly a week of drilling I was finally able to tap the new thread fitted the new bracket and the alternator, job done, finally!
MOT:
Thinking to myself this is going to fly through the mot, I left it with them and said I’d come pick it up later.. Fail! I was like What?! How?! It needed new suspension arms on the rear top and bottom, ah ffs.. AF to the rescue again, trying to do the job the drive shaft wouldn’t come loose from the wheel knuckle. It got to the point where I could see I was starting to damage the drive shaft so I took the decision to just replace it. Again AF, new drive shaft, knuckle, wheel bearing and bolts, new side steps and a couple of other minor things like lights, new tyres all around, etc, etc, etc. Finally I can get the car through it’s MOT right? (Bear in mind I’d only done 2k miles with the car at this point) The car goes back for it’s MOT and they say passed! What a relief that was.
HDC fault:
I cried I was completely and utterly upset by this point, again coming here I found it could be one of two things, the break switch or the steering angle sensor rather than take a chance I bought the two new parts and fitted them, yay no more faults… until the car went into limp mode I couldn’t believe it! Again I check around the forums and found it might be the EGRs, so I blanked them and got the software patch and voilà car runs like a dream.
More to come (this year):
The car started knocking when turning left, I figured that’s odd at first I ignore the issue then it got progressively worse, so this time I took it to my local independent they called me back saying it needed the steering system rebuilding and a new bearing. Okay you can go do that for me. A few days later they called me back saying we’ve replaced the drive shaft and a wheel bearing but there’s still a knocking sound and we think it needs two more drive shafts and bearings replacing. Okay, fine but I need the car back this weekend, the weekend came and they called me said “car’s done, no more sounds” and then told me the bill (close to 3k) turns out it needed in totally 3 drive shafts, three wheel bearings and a hub 
I’m pleased to say that my car is in a state where I’d be more than happy and indeed have taken it to Scotland and back (about 4-600 mile round trip)
I service the car every 10k miles now, yes it might cost a fair bit but I promise you it’s worth the money to know your car is in tip top shape.
Moral of this story DO NOT BUY a Disco WITH NO SERVICE HISTORY!
In the two short years of owning this car, I’ve racked up a total of £15k in parts (with receipt to prove the money spent on the car) and another £3k in the last repair. These cars are fantastic and lovely to drive, but please learn from my mistake if you think your getting a bargain you’re wrong, your getting a world of pain, pay the extra for the one that has had regular maintenance and service history to prove it.
This car has been an expensive lesson learned but while it was expensive to repair the knowledge I gained has been invaluable to me.
TLDR;
Car costs a lot to repair when it goes wrong, don’t buy cheap, check the cars history.
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 13th Sep 2022 10:37 am |
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V8man
Member Since: 01 Jan 2021
Location: Dunno i was just following the satnav😳
Posts: 288
 
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Wow thats epic ! Thank for this forum and all it members  1996 Defender -died (now in landrover heaven😇)chassis to ashes , rust to dust !
2004 Defender td5 gone
2012 Evoque gone
2007 D3 V8 HSE
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| 13th Sep 2022 11:46 am |
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