Member Since: 23 Sep 2024
Location: Berkshire
Posts: 101
Sundayjumper from Berkshire
This seems to be the place for a journal of sorts so I figured I make a start with "the story so far" and then add other bits & bobs as they occur. I'm hands-on with fixing stuff so some of my ramblings may prove useful to others
22 Sep 2024 - I bought a Discovery. A 2012 HSE in Indus Silver with black interior. 117k miles. Looks in nice condition but as we'll see, it will be keeping me busy for a while.
Click image to enlarge
22 Sep 2024 - on arriving home from collecting it (a private sale) I noticed one of the brake lights was not working. Long story short - something funky with the wiring in the nsr corner. After a few days investigating, and waggling, and plugging & unplugging, and the fault moving from one side to the other and back again, it's been working fine the last few days. I'm chalking it up to some damp somewhere.
23 Sep 2024 - no key present for the OEM removable tow hook so I removed it by tapping out the roll pin and turning the mechanism with some mole grips. The tabs on the cover for the electrical sockets were a bit wonky. If you warm them up with a heat gun you can gently straighten them out again. Same with the tabs at the bottom of the boot cubby hole covers.
26 Sep 2024 - fitted front wiper blades. Bosch.
27 Sep 2024 - fitted LED number plate lights. Probably a bit too bright tbh but the old incandescent bulbs looked rubbish alongside the nice LED tail lights. Fitted new wheel nuts. The security nuts were a rusty mess and of the regular ones, half of them were corroded & swelling, making it hard or impossible to get a socket on them. Lights & nuts bought from ebay. Not expensive.
28 Sep 2024 - busy day ! Front discs, pads, drop links, air filter, pollen filter (all Febi). The discs were well past their useful life, down to 26.2 - 26.4mm vs. the minimum of 27mm and starting thickness of 30mm. The filters were FILTHY, the air filter manufacturing date being 2017 ! That's the value of "full service history" for you
29 Sep 2024 - oil change, which means removing the undertray, and I get to my favourite part of getting to know a new car - complaining about the number of fittings that are seized, stripped, rounded, bodged, or just plain missing. See above about FSH. Angle grinder for a couple of them. All threads chased through and a dab of copper grease. Noticed the gearbox undertray was entirely absent; ordered a replacement from ebay. Drained the engine oil, which was blacker than a mole. I use Mannol oils as they're very good value, there's frequent promo deals on ebay. Oil filter from Febi.
30 Sep 2024 - reset the misfuelling flap using a slim Allen key. Fitted rear wiper blade. Bosch again.
1 Oct 2024 - popped it in for an MOT expecting an easy pass but got a fail First item, rear brake pads. My bad for not checking, but there was no warning on the dash so I'd not thought about it. The discs were a bit crusty but still perfectly usable. New Febi discs & pads ordered, along with front track rod ends that I'd missed off a previous order. Second failure item was for osr upper wishbone which seems to be super-common on these. To hopefully save myself some time in the long run I've ordered a full set of all four rear wishbones, new bolts, and four new ball joints for the hubs. That'll keep me busy over the weekend and by Sunday night I'll be enjoying a nice tight rear end.
3rd Oct 2024 2:31 pm
Sundayjumper
Member Since: 23 Sep 2024
Location: Berkshire
Posts: 101
5 Oct 2024 - rear passenger side brake & wishbones almost done but spoiler alert: I bought the wrong discs
Although the car failed the MOT for the offside upper wishbone I started with the nearside. Not sure why. Here's the wishbone that didn't fail the MOT:
Cripey. Those passed an MOT this week.
The ball joints were OK but the bolt through the top one was thoroughly seized in place so I had to get the angle grinder and start cutting. I'd already bought new ones. Bearing press kit from ebay that I already had from a previous project worked perfectly to remove & replace.
And then I could finally reassemble with the new wishbones, new bolts, plenty of copper grease, brake discs & pads.
This had taken me all day 9-5 by this point so I packed up and only when looking at the photos realised I'd bought the wrong discs. 325mm where I need 350mm. At least I didn't try driving it anywhere. I'll order new ones and drop links too as I had to cut this one off. At least discs & drop links are a nice easy weekday evening job.
5th Oct 2024 5:35 pm
Sundayjumper
Member Since: 23 Sep 2024
Location: Berkshire
Posts: 101
Lessons learned from this (so far) & advice I would give...
* I'm very much in favour of people having a go and getting their hands dirty, but this is not an easy job. I needed a good selection of tools, a long breaker bar (some of the bolts are very hard to shift), pry bars, a bit of scaffolding and of course bearing presses. An impact driver is useful with the press. You won't manage this job with just a basic Halfords socket set.
* Patience very much key. Wire brush, penetrating oil, wire brush, penetrating oil, repeat as many times as possible. And knowing when to back off. You'll get in a pickle of you're too gung-ho.
* I've long been almost evangelical about PlusGas being better than WD40, but PlusGas seems to have got very expensive so I went with Screwfix "No Nonsense" penetrating oil this time. Seems to work pretty well.
* Febi ball joints fitted perfectly but the circlip for the lower one was way too big. I reused the original.
* Febi rear brake pads included the stainless clip-in guide bits. I wasn't expecting that, the front pads I fitted last week didn't.
* I had the bearing/bushing tool set already, it worked perfectly, available from various sellers on ebay.
5th Oct 2024 7:30 pm
Sundayjumper
Member Since: 23 Sep 2024
Location: Berkshire
Posts: 101
6 Oct 2024 - driver's side rear wishbones. Whereas on the passenger side the top ball joint was well & truly seized and needed cutting off while the upper rear bush came out OK, this one was reversed. Apart from that it all went quite smoothly.
8 Oct 2024 - drop links & parking brake shoes. First set of shoes went on very easily, the other side was a git and took a lot of force to get the disc back on. Turns out you're supposed to do a little dance* to fully release the EPB first. Oops. Seems to be no damage done though.
9 Oct 2024 - correctly-sized brake discs received at last meaning I can drive it again. Tracking was miles off; not really surprising after having the whole rear end apart. Both rear wheels pointing significantly to the left. Tweaked it up with the string & tape measure method.
10 Oct 2024 - back in for the MOT re-test. I was feeling slightly anxious as although the brake lights had been working for about a week and were fine for the MOT, the passenger side had now stopped again It got a pass though. In the evening the reverse camera decided to go psychedelic on me.
* press the brake pedal three times and hold it down, then push down & hold the EPB switch for 5 seconds
11th Oct 2024 10:31 am
Gary_P
Member Since: 03 May 2016
Location: Kent
Posts: 1656
Excellent work.Well done. Thanks for sharing.Gary
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Discovery 4 HSE 2016MY
11th Oct 2024 12:13 pm
Sundayjumper
Member Since: 23 Sep 2024
Location: Berkshire
Posts: 101
12 Oct 2024 - just some cleaning & faffing really. Removed all the wheels to give them a thorough clean, including the spare which dated 2012 is presumably the original and looks to have never been used, possibly never even moved from its hiding spot.
I took a trip to Kent to pick up a great deal on some OEM mats, 4x carpet + rubber 3rd row:
And when I got home a shiny new Sprinter jack had arrived:
13 Oct 2024 - errands. A trip to collect some chairs, and another trip to collect an organ. The musical type. Not the ones in your body. Also a useful flight case that I was really chuffed fitted nicely between the wheel arches:
Except the gunwales of the boot are slightly narrower than the wheel arches meaning I can't actually open it unless I drag it all the way out onto the tailgate
After doing a reasonable number of miles this weekend, I have both brake lights working again ! Supporting my suspicion that it's a mild damp issue somewhere and some regular use/heat will sort it out.
13th Oct 2024 9:19 pm
Moo D3 Decade
Member Since: 13 Aug 2010
Location: UK
Posts: 14382
Great effort New Defender L663 110 SE (known as Noddy!)
Sold Volvo XC90 R-Design (known as Basil)
Sold - D4 HSE (Known as Gerty)
No longer the Old Buses original owner
231,000 miles and counting
05 S manual owned from March 2005
D4 Face lifted
Still original injectors and turbo
V8 Front brakes
BAS Remap, Allisport Intercooler and deCat
EGRs blanked
T-Max split charge
Hanibal Expeedition rack
Prospeed ladder
Duratrac tyres
IID BT
BAS FBH control
13th Oct 2024 11:23 pm
Sundayjumper
Member Since: 23 Sep 2024
Location: Berkshire
Posts: 101
Sundayjumper wrote:
22 Sep 2024 - on arriving home from collecting it (a private sale) I noticed one of the brake lights was not working.
10 Oct 2024 - back in for the MOT re-test. I was feeling slightly anxious as although the brake lights had been working for about a week and were fine for the MOT, the passenger side had now stopped again
13 Oct 2024 - After doing a reasonable number of miles this weekend, I have both brake lights working again ! Supporting my suspicion that it's a mild damp issue somewhere and some regular use/heat will sort it out.
14 Oct 2024 - it rained quite a lot overnight and this morning the driver's side has stopped working. FFS.
There's no sign of damp anywhere inside the car but I'm feeling sure it's related.
14th Oct 2024 9:56 am
Disco4Chris
Member Since: 11 Oct 2022
Location: Reading
Posts: 36
And when I got home a shiny new Sprinter jack had arrived:
Great write up, thanks! Were did you get the Sprinter jack from, if you don't mind?Cheers
Chris
1999 D2 TD5 Manual
2015 Discovery 4 SDV6 HSE Luxury
Member Since: 23 Sep 2024
Location: Berkshire
Posts: 101
Jack from ebay. There seems to be an endless supply of them. As I understand it, rental companies etc. remove the jacks from their vehicles in case of liability if a numptie customer tries to use it and hurts themselves. Why they don't spec the vans from Mercedes without a jack in the first place I don't know !
So a lot of brand new jacks end up on ebay. Take a look through the ended listings to get a feel for prices. I decided under £50 is good. You just need to bide your time. This is the exact one I bought:
The wheel brace is 19mm so not a lot of use. The spanner is 16/19. The screwdriver is flat, Posi & two Torx bits, might be handy.
16th Oct 2024 7:06 am
Sundayjumper
Member Since: 23 Sep 2024
Location: Berkshire
Posts: 101
15 Oct 2024 - without any input from me whatsoever, both brake lights are now working <shrug>
16th Oct 2024 7:10 am
Sundayjumper
Member Since: 23 Sep 2024
Location: Berkshire
Posts: 101
14 Oct 2024 - ordered a fitted boot liner from ebay. The photo from the listing:
17 Oct 2024 - it arrived; it doesn't fit. Correctly hooked onto the flappy bit that covers the gap between the boot & lower tailgate when open, it doesn't reach the back seat:
18 Oct 2024 - sent it back. I'm not going to name & shame as there seem to be several sellers offering the same thing and it'd be unfair to single out this seller over the others.
This has been a Public Service Announcement.
18th Oct 2024 11:07 am
Sundayjumper
Member Since: 23 Sep 2024
Location: Berkshire
Posts: 101
18 Oct 2024 - I'm gradually clearing the errors on the car. A minor one has been for the passenger mirror:
PDM (Passenger's door module): B1163-15 Left mirror heater output
I removed the glass (just pull on the outer edge, it doesn't take a lot of force), unplugged and checked the resistance - about 150Ω. They should be <10Ω to work properly. Out of interest I also checked the driver's side and it measured about 50Ω. Far higher than it should be but evidently not yet bad enough to trigger a fault code. Both are the originals from 2012. I've ordered a pair of cheap non-OEM replacements and will update when they arrive.
18th Oct 2024 11:45 am
Sundayjumper
Member Since: 23 Sep 2024
Location: Berkshire
Posts: 101
18 Oct 2024 (evening) - I'd done an oil change a couple of weeks ago and had been slowly topping it up, letting it fully settle before checking the level, and then I found this:
The vehicle is on level ground.
The engine oil has reached operating temperature (oil is hot).
The engine has been switched off for 10 minutes. The system will not give an accurate reading until the oil level has stabilised.
It has to be hot So you have to remember to time it 10 mins after driving it, no less, but not significantly more, or else you need to warm it up and wait again
I had time on my hands so I figured I'd see how much difference it really makes.
Ten minutes:
Fifteen minutes:
Twenty minutes:
Next morning:
Conclusion: don't sweat it. If you check the level when it's cold you'll be about one notch low. Meh. It's apparently 1.5 litres min-to-max so one notch is just under 200ml, or interestingly, almost exactly a third of a pint.
20th Oct 2024 8:01 pm
Sundayjumper
Member Since: 23 Sep 2024
Location: Berkshire
Posts: 101
19 Oct 2024 - I realised I had some spare H7 LEDs from a previous car so I popped them in for the high beam. Much better colour:
But the main advantage is the instant turn on when flashing someone.
Also, Brownie points to whoever designed the way the grille & lights are removable so quickly, without tools
Unfortunately it just highlights the lame fog lights so I'll need to do those too. H11 and I don't have any lying around.
I was pleased to find there was no warning on the dash with the LEDs fitted. However, it does log an error code. So the car knows there's a lighting fault but it doesn't tell the driver I'll take those Brownie points back, thank you...
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First item, rear brake pads. My bad for not checking, but there was no warning on the dash so I'd not thought about it. The discs were a bit crusty but still perfectly usable. New Febi discs & pads ordered, along with front track rod ends that I'd missed off a previous order. Second failure item was for osr upper wishbone which seems to be super-common on these. To hopefully save myself some time in the long run I've ordered a full set of all four rear wishbones, new bolts, and four new ball joints for the hubs. That'll keep me busy over the weekend and by Sunday night I'll be enjoying a nice tight rear end.
