Spent the last two days working at my Brother’s LR disco 3.

62K on it FSH and it needs:-

Front wishbones
Discs and pads all round & delaer only handbrake reset.
Clutch
Timing belts
Power steering rack (leaking).

Meanwhile my Dads TD5 disco with 156K on it and at 13 years of age soldiers on with little more needed than service items and it has had one clutch.

Pure dung, if you are gonna drive one you either need to be able to afford to change it every three years or have a £3K in reserve at all times.

Also the suspension units look like they are made from shite and are £300 a corner when they fail.

Apparently the discovery 4 is worse!

Well done Land Rover, you used to make decent cars!

I dare say someone else has had exactly the opposite experience to yours. A sample of one vehicle is hardly fair, is it? 🙂

Have you googled ‘land Rover Discovery 3 Problems’???

Land Rover Hell

Perhaps I am being too harsh! 😆

JoeBones – Member
Spent the last two days working at my Brother’s LR disco 3.

62K on it FSH and it needs:-

Front wishbones
Discs and pads all round & delaer only handbrake reset.
Clutch
Timing belts
Power steering rack (leaking).

Front bushes are known to wear fast as they support 2.7tonnes of vehicle. Not a massive job and you can replace with uprated bushes rather than entire wishbone (or go for armoured rangey bits and they have uprated bushes fitted).
Discs and pads all round at 60k on a big vehicle like that – not that surprising. Parts about £130 and a very easy job. Handbrake is far from dealer reset – it will take you about 10 mins each side – I’ve just done discs and pads all round on mine and didn’t go near a dealership 🙄
Belts at 7 years or 105k miles – standard service interval.
Power steering rack leaking – I’ve no answer to that, must be because LR now make crap cars 😆

How did you get it into mount mode to do the basic setting on the handbrake?

I got one of the discs on but she wouldn’t turn.

I take your point about the weight of it

Your dad has one of the very few early 2000 td5s whos chassis didnt rot out within 5 years . Wow. Im impressed.

Disco 3 lost its way when the spare tire went under the boot floor.

http://www.disco3.co.uk/gallery/albums/userpics/11748/Bodsys_Brake_Bible_V1_6a_CompressPics.pdf

Try this – everything you need to know about brakes. You need to back off the handbrake shoes – well through the guide but it’s all in there…

For the parking brake and Land Rover in general these guys make some useful equipment…EPB tool

Check out the Red dongle for EPBR.

Land Rover Schlandrover, My mrs has a Merc 320 CLK, 06 model with 66k on. Just cost 2.2K for an auto gearbox repair. Electrics pack & valve block or summink.

She’s doing overtime as I speak.

LR Discovery 3 biggest heap of shite ever!

That’s a pretty good summary of my experience too. Ours had so many unscheduled garage visits we got shot after 18 months.

The electronic handbrake is simply not fit for purpose. It WILL go wrong every 6 months.

The highlight of my ownership experience was when the electronic boot release failed (a £19 part). Obviously you only know it’s failed when you can’t open the boot, but with the boot closed you can’t remove any of the interior trim to access the part. Oh how we laughed when the dealer told us they would need to ‘break off the interior trim’. Not.

Unlikely I will ever buy a JL product again.

A mate had one for a few years, and followed it up with a vogue, he said the same as one of the posts above, you either need to get shot every three years or be prepared for big bills, suspension units & just about every bush on his went at not huge miles, had major engine & box trouble with range rover too. Lovely things, very practical, but very pricey.

The one that hauled my 1800kg Galaxy & 1500kg caravan (still hitched) up a muddy field was impressive.

+1 to dashed’s link; the disco3 forum is a great source of info.
I have owned a D3 for over 8 years and it’s been fab. Suspension parts have been replaced like disks & pads, but as mentioned, it’s a heavy car and the roads around here can be bad.

Your dad has one of the very few early 2000 td5s whos chassis didnt rot out within 5 years . Wow. Im impressed

I had a 1999 TD5 DII which had a new chassis in 2002 under LR warranty due to corrosion. Had the Disco 1 and 2 and loads of problem so didn’t go with a 3 or an RR. Went down the BMW route instead.

internet is full of Disco 3 problem stories, they seem to easy to come by

stop messing around and get one of these: tows an uplift trailer all day long, and has 400k on the odo.

Those Cruisers are epic, I had one for work in Australia, superb and a great tool for the job. Almost unstoppable..

And not available in the UK.

Though with the Defender on its way out, maybe that could change.

you need the second tank, and the fridge in the back. Frosty beers after a day in the 40C heat.

Sheesh, is that all you’ve had to replace? I’d say your brother has got away lightly so far. Another 20k & he’ll be looking at a susoension compressor & a handbrake module too (like i did).
Best can i’ve ever owned but i wouldn’t keep one past 2 yrs old if i had one again.

Timc – Member
internet is full of Disco 3 problem stories, they seem to easy to come by

The internet is full of car woes, full stop
My partner focus came up with a warning message yesterday, I googled it and the forum posts would be enough to stop you buying the car in the 1st place.

Luckily in our case, a quick fault code test and a new air flow meter later it was fixed. The car though has been dead reliable otherwise (ok it has a new dual mass flywheel, but that a risk with most TDI nowadays with big miles), doing pretty big journeys regularly, nice to drive & with her driving.. great miles per gallon 😳
The internet is full of ppl complaining, you don’t simply don’t get huge thread about how amazing stuff is… (not suggest the Disco 3 is any good BTW 😉 )

As a former Alfa driver, I feel your pain, the irony being that as a result of these issues there was a very lively online community waiting to advise on how to fix most common problems, very helpful bunch of people.

“expensive car in expensive repairs shocker”

Don’t forget the turbo at £2500 😥

I have no idea why people buy them?

mrmonkfinger +1

The bestt car I ever bought – Mitsuibishi Colt – brand new at £6K was the cheapest and most fault free car I ever owned (zero faults), and it did 70K miles in 3 years!
The most expensive cars I have owned, German and Swedish were the most expensive to maintain!
IMO Landrovers are a joke and always have been, if you are not a farmer/soldier/remote access repair man you don’t really need one.

And most of us don’t need the high end bikes we ride. But need and want are very different.

My most reliable car 1966 landrover (10 years daily drive )
My worst is the more modern defender td5 I have now

“Big, Heavy, Complicated & Expensive car in expensive repairs shocker”

^^EFA 😉

I bought one bang on a year ago. 57 plate Disco 3 with 60k on the clock.

It made it to March and 10k when the big ends went and the engine went bang. It had a full LR dealers service history, last one about 2k before.

All I can say is the main dealers were utterly pants and in the end a specialist in Birmingham sorted it out. Thankfully I had a warranty and they paid out in full with no messing – I can recommend Car Care Plan and also recommend Jameson AWD on Summer Lane.

According to the forums the main bearings slip, and block off the oil feed to the crankshaft – which is helpful. If they don’t do that, they are also known to over fuel one cyclnder – which throws a rod or the oil pressure sensor fails (there is no dipstick ) and the engine runs dry.

I am massive JLR fan and still have a Series III Lightweight which is great for chucking the bikes in the back and blasting round the Dales but they need to sort out their arsey dealers and LR3 problems.

Bought a Disco 3 55 plate from new. Done 120K. Never really had much problem. Stuff has needed replacing (bushes, discs etc.) but nothing major except cam belt (105K)

Maybe the secret is buying from new and knowing it’s history?

I have owned an Alfa (P Reg GTV) which was flawless for 6 years… so maybe I’m just a lucky bastard!

I used a mates recently for a w/e, road and some offroad use. Very capable beast!

Mind you, there was a red warning light on at the end of the w/e which wasn’t there at the start 😳

Our family’s Range Rover has been waiting for a new diesel engine for a couple of months after it died. There is a shortage. And as for the K-series in the Freelander my sister owned – the only car to have more engines than owners.

We have a Honda CRV; 120K (so far) of faultless miles. There is a reason why you see so many old ones about.