East TN here and just bought my first land rover, a 1998 discovery. Already having some setbacks I was not aware of when puchased. Please tell me this will all be worth it.
If you can do the work yourself and be OK with a high maintenance vehicle, it might turn out all right. However if you are expecting it to compare to a Toyota in terms of cost and reliability, you will likely be disappointed. That said it is really an off road vehicle and this is where it outshines others.
First off, welcome. Second these are excellent vehicles when maintenance is proactive vs reactive. When working properly they are a joy in inclement conditions and off road.
Well I didn't expect maintenance free, but it seems I have unknowingly bought the shop vehicle from a local high school. Everything has been done by teens who didn't have a care in the world how it turned out.
That said, I like vehicles that smell like the 90s and have something broken. I just didn't want to start day 2 off with a smoking engine.
Now that said... do these things always feel like satan's armpit under the hood or is my engine's temperature gauge not right?
Yes, it is too hot to touch adter just 5 minutes of the engine running. The gauge never gets hot, though. At 21 years old I don't know for sure if the gauge works properly. I had a 1984 Nissan in 96 and non of its gauges worked. So it makes me a bit nervous. I check the oil like crazy and it is still doing fine there. Wondering if that was a normal LR thing or I should be looking for issues.
Don't ask him about the temperature gauge. That might make him think that gauge means something. Get a real temp gauge and sender or a Scangauge and get the real number. The factory gauge is a complete waste of dashboard space. Trust me on this. Anyone with a Disco knows it to be true.
Yes, the in dash gauge is not designed to move in increments as the engine heats up; it only moves all the way to red in one fell swoop and that is often too late for the head gaskets. You need a third party gauge; many of use one which plugs into the OBDII reader but if you have a DI I am not sure you have this plug.
Yes, the in dash gauge is not designed to move in increments as the engine heats up; it only moves all the way to red in one fell swoop and that is often too late for the head gaskets. You need a third party gauge; many of use one which plugs into the OBDII reader but if you have a DI I am not sure you have this plug.
All US market vehicles were required to be OBDII compliant by model year 1996. So the OP’s will have an OBD port and will support at minimum the federally required functions.
Thank you! That confirms what I was afraid of. This forum has already helped me tremendously and I have only been here a week or so. Thank you!
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