New to forum and have some questions

[SARROVER04]

Hello everyone, I am new to the forum and have some questions about doing some upgrades to my 2004 Discovery.

I would like to upgrade the wheels, from stock to some off road black rims with a n off road tire. Also can you give me some advice if I will need to upgrade the shocks, springs possibly put a lift kit on it, and if so how much of a lift. I am not going for anything over the top but would like to be able to get some more aggressive off road tires.

Last question is any advice on where to purchase the above mentioned items?

Thank in advance!

[Daedrix]

Welcome to the forum.

Before you start with that, i would suggest some preventative maintenance and/or upgrades. Depending on your mileage i would suggest the 90k maintenance and a front drive shaft upgrade just to start.

[SARROVER04]

Originally Posted by Daedrix

Welcome to the forum.

Before you start with that, i would suggest some preventative maintenance and/or upgrades. Depending on your mileage i would suggest the 90k maintenance and a front drive shaft upgrade just to start.

It has 50K miles on it.

[Daedrix]

Since you only have 50k on it you should be good. As for the front drive shaft you have two options. 1st options is to rebuild or buy a used one with grease-able U-joints like i did. This is the cheaper rout.This is the thread about it. 2nd option is to buy a after market drive shaft. I did this as well because after i rebuild mine it lasted about 5k miles the the housing cracked beyond repair.New drive shaft

In the first thread you can see what will happen if you don't attend to the front drive shaft. There are threads out there where the shaft broke while driving and caused allot of damage so in my opinion this should be the firs thing you do to avoid spending allot of money on repairs.

[roverandom]

Don't do anything to it. Just fix anything that is broken or worn and then service it.

Find a group of guys/club in your area (ideally a Land Rover club but any 4x4 operation will work) and tow rope, shovel etc and just drive it. You need some seat time to be able to find out what set-up will work best for you. Modifications and tyre choice is so user/terrain specific that it is impossible to offer any real meaningful advice via the interweb.

Having said that any good all terrain tyre (or if you are likely to see a lot of thick mud a MT tyre) in the stock size is a great starter set up and helps prevent damage. I wheeled 100% bone stock for years before I changed a thing on my Rover and I feel I am a better driver because of it. I still regularly take out stock rigs and am always impressed how well they work with no mods at all and mild tyres.

Look up 'The Camel trophy' and 'Land Rover G4 Event' on YouTube and you will see what a largely stock Land Rover will do.

[Disco Mike]

Patrick, do the service anyway, it is over 8 years old and all the fluids and tune-up issues need to be addressed anyway.
The look towards a lift, around 2"s plus, then your wheels and tires, the diff guards, I always suggest QT's, then sliders.
As already mentioned rebuild or replace the front drive shaft ASAP before it fails and takes out you tranny.

[roverandom]

Ok, so what's the big deal about the front drive shaft on the DII?

I get that it has unserviceable U joints and they can fail, and I get that a broken U joint can cause a real mess. It has even happened to me once or twice. But tell me how that is different to any other vehicle made in the last twenty years and why rebuilding it ASAP is such a high priority?

After all, a serviceable U joint can let you down just as easy if all you do is grease it and never properly check it.

This is not a smart arse question, I really want to know if there is something specific to the DII that I am missing here?

[helievacpilot]

Originally Posted by roverandom

Ok, so what's the big deal about the front drive shaft on the DII?

I get that it has unserviceable U joints and they can fail, and I get that a broken U joint can cause a real mess. It has even happened to me once or twice. But tell me how that is different to any other vehicle made in the last twenty years and why rebuilding it ASAP is such a high priority?

After all, a serviceable U joint can let you down just as easy if all you do is grease it and never properly check it.

This is not a smart arse question, I really want to know if there is something specific to the DII that I am missing here?

The D2 is noted for it's front driveshaft failure rate. And when it does fail, it usually beats the shit out of the tranny and anything else within it's reach.

[roverandom]

Can't be any worse than my 06 Dodge Diesel. It has 155,000KM on the clock and I have changed out every U joint on both propshafts already.

I check mine correctly and replaced as needed though so they have never failed completely in service. I make the checking of U joint condition a part of every oil change

I change a lot of U joints in all kinds of makes models in my job (mechanic) and I do switch to serviceable units when replacing if I can but I have found that they seem wear at a similar rate when used hard.

[SARROVER04]

Wheel and rim sizes? 15 inch rims or 16 inch rims. I am looking at the basic black off road wheels such as the NATO or American. I do not want to spend over $100 a rim. Also a tire that is not too wide. What sort of dimensions do you recommend? Any help would be appreciated.

[roverandom]

Stock 16" alloy wheels and some black paint.