The Land Rover Discovery is a good vehicle, has impressive off road capabilities and can allow the whole family to all enjoy the trip. There is ample room for the Driver, passenger, the kids and two dogs with enough room to spare to pack a picnic.
It does however have some common niggles; which isn't any different to other vehicles I suppose. On the Discovery they are known to be:
Gear crunch. Usually into either reverse, first or second. Most commonaly this is stated in ebay adds as "starting to niggle into 2nd" shortly followed by "it doesn't bother me, so I've left it". What this probably means is this; 'My synchromesh has started to (or has) worn and as I can't or don't want to pay for the gearbox to be dropped, striped and synch replaced - I just keep crunching the gear hoping that I don't do any more damage'. Having siad that, years ago - nothing had synchro, so we all had to learn to 'drive'. I suppose, today, we simply dip the clutch and expect everything to fly in.
Steering Wobble or shimmy. Your driving along at say 50mph or so, hit a bump in the road (which is unavoidable) and you end up having to juggle with the steering wheel to keep the car straight as she attempts to wobble all over the place. There are a few reasons for this, one of which could be play in the stabalisation bar. Land Rover Club.net has a page that talks more about this HERE. Rust. The boot floor, rear X members, chassis mounts, rear wheel iner door wells (just inside the 90 bend), the front foot wells and iner wings. Although not as bad as the Range Rover, you still need to get to grips with it, before you end up having a lot of welding work for an MOT.
Boot inspection is either by getting your head under the back end or better still - lifting the rear carpet and cover to inspect the floor. Replacement sills are available at about £60 and should cost around £200 to weld in (unless you can do this yourself). The X member can be beefed up and the front floors can be patched (if caught in time) easily, unless you need a patch in the very front corner of the foot well, then you have access problems with the driver peddles. But its still feasible. The front iner wings are simply after market kits.
The BEST solution is to simply WASH your car after being off road, and try and not let mud 'store' in creases, and areas which can hold water - it will only rot the car in time.
Engine Noise. This can be the tappets or other engine ware issues. But commonly - its either the Vacuum pump (£85 replacement unit), a lift pump (£35) or a blown injector washer. One of the easiest ways to test this is to place one end of a long screw driver on the part being tested, and place your ear on the handle end and listen, You will clearly hear the clicking sound of the part which is faulty. All parts shouldn't take more than an hour to fix.
Smoke. The tdi engines tend to produce smoke if not looked after or sometimes can be traced to a faulty EGR valve sticking open. This later can either be replaced or removed and blanked off (covered soon).
Front seat collapse. The Driver seats usually go first as expected due to the level of use, anlong with the seat wall on the outer side loosing its 'stifness'. There are enough spares around to replace the seat with a new one, but expect this to fail unless you know the miles its done. Otherwise, a repair will be needed.
Electrics. Electric windows usually stick. This fault seams to be split between switches or actuator. The dash clock normally goes 'loopy' or looses bits of its self. The radio can stop working, and if fitted - the CD changer can cause battery drain.
Sunroof leak. Either electric or manual. Two manual setups are seen. Manual lift or crank. All are prone to seal failure resulting in being rained on inside.
Dash curl. The dash on the 300 will at some time start curling up. This is common and can be fixed with a kit for about £50. Its an absolute PIG to fit though.
Now - with all these faults - you might ask WHY OH WHY would anyone own such a vehicle. Simple. Its Brilliant, confitable and pending the niggling faults - pritty reliable. One thing I have found , is that LR's tend to keep going even with faults where other vehicles stop at the first thing going wrong. If you find a LR with everything working and no oil leaks... then It's never been used, probbly still in the dealer or a picture in the catalogue. For the oil leak - there is a saying. If your LR is not leaking - there is no oil in it. lol!
