Reasons for not buying a Disco 3 or 4, as if you would...

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silverbullet
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Reasons for not buying a Disco 3 or 4, as if you would...

Post by silverbullet »

I know that some T3 engine jobs can be a bit awkward, but think yourselves lucky. I've just had our tame glowplug man in for some tool mods and over a brew he told me this about the Solihull 2.7 tonne Chelsea tractors:

On the TDV6 (PSA engine) you can't get to the rear two glowplugs if they need extracting or drilling, the bulkhead gets in the way.
One of the front g.p. is only accessible if you take off one cam cover (with integral inlet manifold) the injectors on that side and part of the front timing cover.
The turbo lives over the top of the bellhousing. It's not accessible from above. The only route is taking the transmission out first (more on this below*)
The HP pump is in the middle of the Vee, driven by a belt off the back of one cam. It's just possible to change it, but your hands will be slashed to ribbons because it's so tight for access, directly in front of the turbo with all the fuel lines in the way.
The main loom passes directly over the top of the turbo, wrapped in aluminized sleeving. By now, on a mid-5 plate, many are now setting fire to the loom as this sleeve gives up. This means an insurance write-off.
*The engine cannot be removed downward through the chassis or out the front, structural members get in the way. In the factory, the complete drivetrain is built up and the body dropped on. Any engine faults = body lift.

Just what kind of morons are designing these things?!!

P.S. Range Rover Sport models seem to have an appetite for front diffs too...along with Beemer X5's that do for the rear one. I must get at least one enquiry every day about doing those. I don't! :lol:
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Re: Reasons for not buying a Disco 3 or 4, as if you would...

Post by Simon Baxter »

My mate works at Land Rover in Barnsley, he came over the other weeks and showed me a picture of him doing just that job, chassis on floor, body up in the air..
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Re: Reasons for not buying a Disco 3 or 4, as if you would...

Post by silverbullet »

I've got some horror stories about PD engines too, but you've probably already seen a bit of that by now!
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Re: Reasons for not buying a Disco 3 or 4, as if you would...

Post by max and caddy »

silverbullet wrote:I've got some horror stories about PD engines too, but you've probably already seen a bit of that by now!
Like what?...vw PDs?


Good to hear the landrovers are programmed to catch fire anyway..those sport "look at me..I'm a knob" type vehicles annoy me.

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Re: Reasons for not buying a Disco 3 or 4, as if you would...

Post by ..lee.. »

Welcome to the world of modern sh** heaps. :)

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Re: Reasons for not buying a Disco 3 or 4, as if you would...

Post by keith »

They are bloody good when they aren't broke though.
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Re: Reasons for not buying a Disco 3 or 4, as if you would...

Post by ELVIS »

LR 1 Vw 0

Me = OS front bumper pushed in, wing battered and ripped open, side light smashed. Parked in barn , braced porta power against barn upright, jacked bumper out, braced porta power against out rigger, jacked front part of wing out, beat the side shut/closed with a soft faced, £5 roll of black gaffe tape and a £5 side light, fixed.

Five year old VW people carrier , B pillar pushed in , pillar has pulled sill up, drivers door, passenger door, a pillar hinge area has pulled, rear quarter creased.

Me on road for £10
VW is total loss

Not all bad I guess :mrgreen:

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Re: Reasons for not buying a Disco 3 or 4, as if you would...

Post by Simon Baxter »

silverbullet wrote:I've got some horror stories about PD engines too, but you've probably already seen a bit of that by now!

No, not really, I don't really move in those circles and fixing T3 and T4 for the last 8 years we don't see many normal cars.
We do look after a few PD engined golfs and passats but on the whole, apart from a few cam belts which we don't do enough to get quick at them and a few injector wiring looms which are a piece of pi$$ then in my experience they have been good engines.
I've heard talk of injectors popping out but never seen it myself.
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Re: Reasons for not buying a Disco 3 or 4, as if you would...

Post by max and caddy »

Pd is a good engine! The common rails out are real turd in comparison...some isolated cam failures on the PDs..injector bores in head can wear and cause start issues...but new o rings will fix it for a good while...other than turbos what else is a problem on these workhorses?

Head looms can fail...but cheap and easy...even a passat one can be forced in.

Never heard of injectors popping out....the cam shaft is holding them in!


I like the pd.

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Re: Reasons for not buying a Disco 3 or 4, as if you would...

Post by trucker »

My 2004 130 pd engined Passat 200,000 miles, other than regular servicing never spent a penny on it. In fact the whole car feels like its hewn from granite.
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Re: Reasons for not buying a Disco 3 or 4, as if you would...

Post by jes*b »

The 130 pd is head and shoulders above all other engines I have owned . In an '53 plate passat it was bullet proof but not flood proof unfortunately. Am now running in a mk3 golf estate with 50k on clock, quietly impressed by the mildly agricultural AHU.

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Re: Reasons for not buying a Disco 3 or 4, as if you would...

Post by ..lee.. »

Whilst on the pd topic anyone found a cheaper source for the Siemens injectors ???

Lee

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Re: Reasons for not buying a Disco 3 or 4, as if you would...

Post by max and caddy »

..lee.. wrote:Whilst on the pd topic anyone found a cheaper source for the Siemens injectors ???

Lee
Cheaper than who...and for the 16v diesels or the old 8v?

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Re: Reasons for not buying a Disco 3 or 4, as if you would...

Post by ..lee.. »

8v. local derv specialist recon they cant get repair parts for the siemens injectors. have always had to get them from vw.

no probs reconning the bosch ones

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Re: Reasons for not buying a Disco 3 or 4, as if you would...

Post by lloydy »

This guy does them http://www.darksidedevelopments.co.uk/i ... and-parts/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
don't know if they are cheap though? I got my 0.216 injectors off him
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