disco questions

[basics]

have my eye on a 94 discovery from down the road. cant afford a toyota right now and the subaru isnt the best for all the farm roads i travel.

i have heard the front ends are weak. if i run standard size tires and drive sensible will they be ok on your average rutted farm track?

they have alot of electrics (compared to a 1980s toyota) should i expect any troubles from a truck of this age?

what are the comon faults.

and what are the 3.9l v8s like?fuel/power ect..

thanks for any advice

[oldyella]

Wouldn't expect you would have any trouble with the front or rear end running standard tyres unless you were jumping it or something.

The 3950cc injected V8 is a pushrod motor with about 180hp stock and will consume over 13 litres per 100km on the open road and I expect somewhere over 18 litres per 100km around the farm (if it is running correctly).

A 4.0 lexus V8 is closer to 240hp with probably slightly better fuel consumption due to the DOCH configuration.

Some things to look for:

Engine oil pressure should be 40psi at 1000rpm when warm

Is coolant seeping from the heads? Blown or about to blow head gaskets

Excessive amounts of oil skunge under the rockercovers - poor servicing and/or blown head gaskets

Cylinder compression within 10% of each other. No - Blown head gasket

Auto changes smooth when cold? No -metal in tranz causing various valves to stick. Time to install a second hand tranz from a wreaker. No auto computer here so don't worry about that.

They often have trouble with the ABS systems, broken wires or stuffed sensors. Some earlier model discos, possible like the one you are looking at, don't have ABS or Air Bags. A big plus for anything used offroad often. No air bags also simplifies the installation of a bar.

The injection system electrics are OK but can have issues. Most expensive problems are the Air Flow Meter, EFI Computer or injectors crapping out. The V8's run a pretty simple distributior with ignition module so no major problems there (except the factory system doesn't like water. The dizy is right next to the viscious fan).

Plus side - disc brakes all around, coil suspension flexs well (compared to other stock vehicles), twice the power of a toyota, comfortable ride, V8 sound instead of horrible horrible toyota desiel noise.\

Cheers,

Pete

[skid]

Buy Pedros

[basics]

i figure if i cant afford a basic hilux or cruiser i cant afford his

oldyella, cheers for that.

[ant-neil]

Discos are thirsty hell yeah and been told front end weak but I've only broken one cv and I beat the shit out of mine on 33" simexs . You shouldn't have to much trouble with it standard .

[Ralfie]

Front diffs are exactly the same as rear and are not necessarily weak. Just like most other vehicles, abuse them and they will break especially fitted with larger wheels and tyres.

Discovery (and other coil sprung LR's) have good clearance under the diffs standard compared with Toyota's and Nissans so can do really well on standard tyres.

For tracks and normal use with standard tyres (or even 31-32's) they will be fine. Just don't sit there spinning one wheel at 100kph. Also as soon as you go off road, engage that centre diff lock.

As for fuel, they aren't too bad on a trip but around town, especially with an automatic, they tend to be a bit thirsty if you have a heavy right foot.

[xj]

Have thrashed the tits out my bush truck, no breakages (yet) on beadlocked rims with 35 Silverstones. My sister truck though has, after about three years of being beaten up, (again with 35s and beadlocks) finally shat the rear diff just before christmas. We bought two donor trucks for $600 (one running!) and had the diff replaced in about an hour.

Mass Airflow sensor and computer has created a little bit of problem on mine with it running rich & gulping petrol, but changing both seems to have sorted it out.

Cant speak for how they perform onroad, only did about 130km in mine before the grinder came out.

[basics]

son of a b.......

i thought about it too much and it sold today i was gona hand cash over tonight. so my search continues

[oldyella]

i figure if i cant afford a basic hilux or cruiser i cant afford his

oldyella, cheers for that.

It depends on what the sale price is. You should be able to pick up a pretty mint standard V8 disco which hass been well maintained for less than 5K where as your toyota hilux will likely be a molestered POS

If your not planning on using it as a daily driver, a V8 petrol can be "affordable" due to less rego costs and no desiel km's costs.

For example, if you did 5,000km/yr in a toyota desiel, (assuming you could put up with the horrible noise and ride) and used 12L/100km, you would need about 600 litres of desiel. At a cost of about $1.40/L your fuel cost is about $840 per year. Allowing another $250 in d-km's and your rego will be about $600/yr. Total Cost $1,940.

Now if you had a disco, and did 5,000km/yr in that, and you averaged 15L/100km, you would need about 750 litres of 91 and at a cost of $2.10/litre thats about $1,575. Allowing another $400 for rego costs thats $1,975.

So if you do less than 5000km/year in your V8 landrover, its probably going to cost you less than the desiel toyota.

At 5000km/yr you can do about 100km/week), and your V8 costs the same to run as a gutless desiel

Plus your disco purchase price is much lower than the purchase price of a Toyota hilux.

I haven't considered servicing costs here as this would primarly depend on the condition you purchase the second hand vehicle in.

Now if you want to do 100km/day, unless your loaded, best by a desiel.

Cheers,

Pete

[basics]

the cheap　price of land rover is what made me consider them. now iv got bit of a liking for them

will keep looking for a reasonable one

[L-andy]

As mentioned above, front and rear diffs are the same although 94 would be right on the change from 10 spline (approx 25mm dia) to 24 spline (approx 32mm dia) halfshafts.

Also as mentioned above, prolonged high-speed spinning of one wheel can cause diff cross-pin to run dry/seize then finally break.

Discovery/Rangie steering damper is located in a very vunerable spot where it snags on stuff (and usually results in a bent tie rod at the same time) but is easily re-located to the Defender location.

That said, I know a couple of Discos on 35" extremes which go pretty hard and don't seem to have problems.

Andy