Discovery 3 tdv6 build

[A.J.M]

Been reading other build threads on LR3's so thought i would make up my own about the changes and mods of my own, plus the plans for the future for it.

Brief history.

I've wanted a Land Rover for years, my first meet with one was in 94 when i was on a family holiday, in the car park was a new 94 300tdi Disco 1, my dad and i had a chat with the owner and i climbed up into it and i was hooked. When you are 7 and you climb UP into a car. That's cool.
Fast forward a few years and my Gran got me a lift and explore of a family friends last of the line Disco 1 ES auto, A 99 model in silver with black interior.

Roll on several years and Top Gear UK, reviewed the Disco 3. I was 17 and in my final year of high school but i wanted one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVpVLH4M4R4&index=1&list=PLHHQpn27j4Ak-qf54jZ-yCXPmhCdDZh29
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKGLXnJfKwY&index=2&list=PLHHQpn27j4Ak-qf54jZ-yCXPmhCdDZh29
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QunqcDxP3Mw&index=3&list=PLHHQpn27j4Ak-qf54jZ-yCXPmhCdDZh29

Sadly, for the UK, fuel prices and insurance for young drivers is a killer for ideas so my first car was nothing special but it did a job. It taught me mechanics as being French, it was rather flaky for reliability.

Come turning 21, i wanted something better and insurance prices drop a lot when you turn 21.
So i went out to buy a LR Freelander, a td4 model from 2001-2004. It would be a TD4 and ES spec. I had about £4000 to spend.

Then. As ever. I found that the facelift 2 model came with heated windscreen and parking sensors. Bye bye to the old budget.
I found a Oslo Blue, SE TD4 manual, with 2 owners. My favourite colour and it had good history.
Dealer threw in a full service, new brakes, 2 new Michelin tyres. It was a great deal.

I had that car 7 weeks before a lorry skidded on black ice and rear ended it. It was to be a 5 vehicle accident that closed a slip road on one of the busiest junctions in central Scotland and made every radio traffic announcement in the area. It went as a class C write off and i lost a chunk of money due to my insurance company being a shower of scum.

So. Armed with my payout, i bought another one. Which was a Friday afternoon car. It did the Freelander reputation for being hopelessly unreliable proud.
It ate it's transmission at 45k, 3 clutch master cylinders, 1 slave, 1 high pressure fuel pump, 1 propshaft, the 3 rear diff mounts.
It had also been run on petrol at some point which had done the fuel system no favours and by the time i got rid, it was quoted over £1800 for injectors and such to be renewed and other bits sorted.
Shame as i spent a lot on getting the light guards, genuine spot lights, a VERY rare genuine A bar, dog guard and born free load liner.
It was remapped, had the egr blanked and the hoses upgraded. It went well and handled great. But i was never truly happy with it.

Step forward again, to my 25th. Disco 3 prices had finally came down to my level and on the 29th August 2012 i bought my Disco3.

Now. Legend says to NEVER buy the first car you see. I bought the first car i liked, unseen. :sombrero:
I, however, asked the seller so many questions about the car, what work had been done, the numbers so i could check it's mot history, and asked for it to be taken to the mot garage for a check over, they were likely glad i bought it.

The check up showed a wheel bearing and an alternator needing changed. Which was done as part of the sale.

It was my ideal car.
A silver UK HSE spec, with black leather interior, privacy glass, auto gearbox and the 2.7 tdv6 engine.
It had extra's i didn't really need, like the dvd player, and extra's i didn't know about. The big one being the adaptive headlights.
I had tried to buy a v8 HSE but it sold before i could put a deposit down on the car.

It wasn't perfect though. The front lowers had a faint knock, the front parking sensors had a intermittent fault, the drivers seat foam had sunk and there was a tear in the seat base, the alloy's were needing a refurb and the wipers were terrible. I don't know why but every car i seem to get has terrible wipers. Which considering Scotland has a wet climate, always surprises me.

I bought the car the same week i started back as a full time college student. It stood out in the car park, i got a lot of looks in it.
It also came with the private plate from the previous owner, that was being swapped through the DVLA back to them, i had the original plates with dealer stamps on them to go on when i got my letter through to say it was ok to do so.

My other big purchase of 2012 liked it.

My Fox Red Labrador called Alfie.

I will wrap up part 1 here.
Future ones will have off road trips, some unfortunate errors, 2 ditch visits, 3 small features in 2 global LR magazines, 2 weekend off road competitions across Scotland and a whole lot of accessories and repairs/maintenance work.

 

[A.J.M]

Part 2.

Armed with my Disco, i wanted to use this off road. To see how good it was and to show that a comfy well specced car can be used off road but still retain the road manners and comfort it has.

I got it on the Wednesday, the drive home was 200 miles, which is nothing for you US folk, but over here that's a fair distance. 200 miles from my home can get me 2/3rds up Scotland or over 100 miles into England.
The Sunday, i had it off road with the Scottish Land Rover Owners Club, ( SLROC for short ) i had done 50 miles since driving it home, i had no real idea about the terrain response or how the stuff worked in practice. I met up with some people from Disco3.co.uk and they helped explain the various stuff, after towing me out the muddy car park into the site as i had parked in a bad spot and couldn't get it out. Typical.

I bought a set of front light guards for it, and when fitting them, i found the white wing grommets already in place, the car had previously had guards fitted, plus front spot lights in the bumper. Both were missing for some reason. There was no evidence of accident damage though.
I also found a LR load guard for £100 and a generic no name boot liner for £20. That has been the greatest £20 i've spent on this car, It's still there and still in daily use. It doesn't fit 100% but it does a job and it does it well.

It also tried it luck with throwing a fault at me. It's attempt was to fail to release the EPB and flash lights at me claiming it was broke.
My response was to turn the car off, take the key out. Then proceed to shout at the car in such a manner and give it threats that the Sargent from the film Full Metal Jacket would have been proud of. Put key back in, turned on and tried the EPB again. It worked. :sombrero:

You just need to show LR's who's boss. My car learned who that was and it wasn't it.

Sadly, Scotland doesn't have public trails you can drive on. They are all closed to car traffic and have been for years, England has over 5,000 miles of them. We have none. If you want to use your car off road, you need to be part of a club, and get land owner's permission for being on the land.

These are from some trips up in the highlands, with part of clubs and with land owner's permission. Nothing challenging really.

It also hit a mileage milestone. I've never had a car go over 100k. I bought it with 97,752 miles and the UK has a stigma about cars that are over 100k. Based on the rubbish cars we made from the 60s-80s and the awful build quality they were blighted with.

One trail was in December, it went up through the snow line and the views were superb. I was car 25 of 27 in the group.

The hill going up was slippery, it had caught a few cars out but going down was to prove even worse.
One down hill section was a long shallow gradient with a wide gentle right turn at the bottom. By the time i got to it, the surface was very polished with the cars going before me. HDC was selected and i set off at a gentle walking pace, letting the car find it's own grip and control the braking.
About 1/3rd down, HDC slipped. Not just a small slip either. It lost it completely. ********.

Options tried were to let HDC find it's feet. Candance braking to try and find some grip, speed up to try and let the wheels match the increasing downhill speeds and then good old both feet on the brake and try to push it through the bulkhead as the speed was still gaining and i was starting to panic.

By sheer luck i managed to miss the large rocks and boulders and slid off the road into a gravel section of the ditch before coming to a rest. Thankfully it didn't roll over onto it's side. But the angle shows it was rather close for comfort.
I was reminded of target fixation a biking friend had told me about, if you stare at something, you are likely to aim for it. So i stared at the gap and hoped for the best.

I had to rest my feet on the centre console to push the door open and climb out.

It did, eventually drive out. By driving into the ditch, putting wheels either side of the banking to drive down to find a suitable place to drive out.

That was the last run i did on road tyres.

A few weeks later, these arrived. They were fresh into the UK market, the supplier got the largest shipment from Goodyear of 100 tyres. I got 5 of them.
They were Goodyear Duratrac in 255/55/19 111S and cost £197 each.

These were put to the test on some more green lanes and winter driving as i got the tyres in January.

I really like this picture, you can see the changes but also the styling themes that have been carried over.

The SLROC got access to Aberfoyle's forestry commissions ground, we had trails to explore, and some more interesting bits to try.

My apologies for the camera quality.
https://youtu.be/GOj9Fuyt5PY

A RLD front sump guard was bought for £125, it was used but unmarked and came with the bolts and fixings.

Plus we had some fun in the snow.

Even air suspension has it's limits and super extended mode couldn't get me past one point as the car kept bottoming out. So i turned around as it would have been a long walk to get help if i got stuck.

This chap was still enjoying his car as well.

There were a few more driving days with the SLROC, we have 3 sites we can get access to every year and they are all different for areas to be played in and enjoyed.

One of them is the Army off road course outside Stirling. They have a tank trap deep mud pond....

I did it to show it can be done, i've never been back in it and i've watched others get stuck in it, one Defender 90 ingest a few litres of water and it never recovered.

Also gained some inspiration for the future build.

 

[MontyMog]

Awesome build!!

 

[A.J.M]

Part 3.

Maintenance, tweaks and competitions.

The Disco's first mot under my ownership was looming, for those not sure of what that is.
It's an annual test of a car when it hits 3 years old. They check emissions, brakes, suspension, tyres, steering, lights, seatbelts, make sure no warning lights are on dash, and check the body and chassis for rust and corrosion.

It needed front lower arms, i knew that when i bought it so they were ordered as were steering inner arms. I had a mate fit them, he worked at a LR specialist and did them on the drive as a homer, he also did my mates D3's cambelts at the same time.


I also had to change the tensioner on the main cam belt, it developed a rattle so i stopped using the car till i could pin point the noise.
Turned out the main bearings had collapsed and when i took the tension off it to change it, the last 4 fell out it. A lucky escape as if that belt had slipped or jumped, it would be new engine time.

I also changed the wheels from the 19 inch HSE wheels to RRS V spoke 19 inch wheels. The D3 wheels had started to leak air and were needing refurbished, i fancied a change so got a set of 4 wheels, which came with 7 tyres as part of the deal. After selling my old HSE wheels and the 7 tyres, i made a small profit from them.

Competition time.

During one of the month meets for Scottish Disco3/4 owners, a few of the older guys were talking about a competition called Mud Master.
The general idea is it's a 2 day event, taking place in several locations across the central belt of Scotland. You start in Dumfermaline's army base and navigate your way across the country to various points to take part in a series of skills and challenges. These included 9 different off road section slalom driving courses. 2 time trials, 4 orienteering stages.

The rules are rather simple. You are not allowed to use any form of sat nav, gps, phone based navigation or any such stuff bar Ordnance survey maps.
You had to plot the route on the maps via grid reference points and follow it. You had to get it right as along the way were small markers with letters on them. You had to get them in order and mark them down on the paperwork provided.

It's teamwork, so i was the driver and my mate Kevin was the navigator for the weekend.
We used the Disco and nicknamed it "Team Luxury" as compared to most of the field of Defenders and such, we had heating, door seals that worked and heated seats to enjoy.

There were 72 entries. Split up into 3 groups, "Greenlane" "standard" "Competition" greenlane was easiest, standard was our class and competiton was for the nutters with air locking diffs and such.

For one of the time trail stages. We arrived shortly after Gordon. Who told us that he did it in 1:17.

Generally, you have to complete the stage in under 2 minutes, there are no points for doing it well under that time. However, if your mate says his time, it's not cause he's making small talk. It's throwing the challenge down to see if you can be faster or will he get the bragging rights.. We were having a friendly rivalry between the 5 of us who had Disco's and Defenders...
I could either be the mature adult and ignore such childish stuff....
We will let the video speak for itself.... Ahem.
https://youtu.be/JgyJ170alOU

After the 2 days. We finished 23rd overall. A respectable finish for the first ever D3 to enter. More importantly, we beat our mates, which caused no end of mocking from us and some annoyance and begruding well done from them haha.

Then to add more fun, this picture appeared in Land Rover Monthly magazine....

Sadly, charging about hills, driving through mud etc was taking it's toll along with general road use.
So at 117k, i paid off my bank loan i took to part buy the car and took some money from the savings to give the car a proper going over.


I walked into my local main dealer and gave them a list of everything i wanted. This is what i got back.
Even with discounts varying from 15-27% depending on parts, that picture cost £752 to make.

We have as follows.
2x RRS rear upper arms.
2x D3 rear lower arms.
2x D3 front upper arms.
4x arb bushes, front and rear.
2x Track rod ends.
All new bolts, nuts, washers, etc to go with each arm.

I also gave the brakes a proper going over as well.

I upgraded to RRS Supercharged 4 pot Brembo Calipers as i had a sticking front caliper and the cost to get these was deemed reasonable.
We have as follows.
2x RRS Brembos.
Terrafirma drilled and grooved front discs.
EPC Yellowstuff front Brembo pads.
Terrafirma drilled and grooved rear discs.
EPC Ultimate rear pads.
Pagid EPB shoe kit.

How big is a Brembo? This big.

I also had the rear brake lines replaced as they were going rusty.
The car also had the following software updates done.
Clock on dash, light to show headlights on, 3 flash indicators, satnav on the move unlocked.

My mate the Indy did the work again over 2 weekends.

How you deal with problem bolts that refuse to come out...

I also painted the calipers Subaru Blue Ridge pearl, 32k later, that paint is still on and still looks fresh. Proper caliper paint is worth it.

Mike had to deal with some adoring public member's who were keen to show love... haha.

All in. The work cost me £2000 for parts and labour. If i was to get it done at a garage it would have been well over £3000.

 

[DiscoDavis]

WOOOO Diesel build! Lookin' good eh

 

[jpc1818]

Great postings...
Now if i could get that TDI setup here in the US for my LR3....
LRUSA finally have gave it to us though in the big bodied RR and RRS for 16'..

 

[ColoDisco]

Love the build so far. Did you replace the rear arms due to wear or just a performance upgrade? I have rarely seen them fail in the US.

 

[A.J.M]

The rear uppers had half an inch of play in the bushes when I changed them. So was a wear and tear thing.
The rear lowers had some wear but since I was given everything an overhaul I changed them for peace of mind.

 

[A.J.M]

Next mods.

Through the land of Ebay, i found, bidded and after much self debating over the price. I won a set of Terrafirma Rock and tree sliders for the car.
These fit both D3/4 so will be good to sell on at some point when i change.

These got fitted at a mates house, who also has a nice 2 post ramp, which he has in his heated insulated garage...

These are the remains of the original factory side steps. I think i got my moneys worth from them...

While up on the ramp, we noticed a future problem...

That is the centre bearing for the rear propshaft. Which has totally broken apart. A call to Land Rover told me they were on back order and would be several weeks before a new one arrived.

I also changed the air filter as Mud Master had given it a nice new look and i wasn't keen on it.

A decent effort i felt and provided some ammo for the desire for a snorkel to get fitted to the car.

Also, fuel prices thankfully peaked and were slowly going down. That price is per litre, not gallon.

It's now sitting about about £1.08 to £1.10 a litre of diesel which works out about £700 a year saving for me.

 

[DiscoDavis]

Love the photos. RE: the snorkel, that's exactly what I hated looking at. Muddy filter...

Interested to see what photos you took of your install

 

[A.J.M]

I took very few pictures of the snorkel fitting. I'll be very honest on that.

Was too busy swearing at it and wondering why I had started it. Plus wondering how much a 05 Zambezi wing would cost to fit.

However, that's an update for an another day.
Plenty of other stuff to deal with before that.