A maintenance gremlin worth mentioning. Replace the air bleed valve with something that isn't plastic. Mine deteriorated at ~98K miles and I had coolant everywhere. Stuck on side of road with overheated engine :frown
The post:
http://www.landroversonly.com/forum...e-coolant-hose-uncertain-pending-doom-119826/
I still get random "Low coolant" warnings after driving only ~10 miles, yet coolant level is fine and so is engine temp. I am still contemplating replacing that one hose, and also getting something more practical (my brass replacement is rather large and obnoxious, but it works) like this:
Upgrade for silly plastic T fitting in hose for Land Rover LR3
I was lucky enough to smell the coolant on a side gravel road - I was actually concerned enough by the smell alone that I bothered to pop the hood and pull the engine cover and discovered the broken tee... in hindsight I'm sorta surprised I bothered lol. Rigged a straight tube and clamps for a couple days and replaced it with a
BRASS tee (1/8" NPT I think) and a hose end on either side. Put a 1/8" plug in middle hole of tee. Added advantage is that I can screw a funnel / hose and hose barb into the middle of the tee to help bleed the system since the contraption is a foot above the top of the engine. Worked great the only time I used it (only bothered because it was taking 30+ min doing it the regular way!!!)
The low coolant warning is caused by a faulty coolant level sensor float which has absorbed water/coolant. Both my '06 RRS and '06 LR3 did it. Both were fine when I bought them and by 85k miles had started throwing the warning. First during acceleration / cornering and eventually it was constant.
I feel really guilty admitting this... but if you jump the two wires of the coolant level sensor, it eliminates the warning (verified by checking switch continuity before hand). :devil I got KILLED on trade-in from a super sketchy used car dealership and desperately wanted to get the LR3 (ironic I know.. coming from a RRS LUX, but I needed the space/utility back that I loved in my DII!!) so I feel way less guilty admitting this to you all.
Plus a) I knew it was a false warning, and b) the only time I've had a potentially catastrophic coolant leak, I caught it by smell (bleeder tee mentioned above) with ZERO warning from the damn level sensor.. :serious
As for the OP:
I still have my Disco II and wouldn't trade it for anything - mostly because it isn't WORTH anything :wink ..but still lol
I do love it, and it's the main reason I traded the RRS for the LR3. I wanted the utility of the disco and the upgraded technology of the RRS (obviously same driveline, frame, suspension, electronics, etc). I've enjoyed the LR3 much more than the RRS in the 1.5 yrs I've had it.
I think the LR3's ability to drive like it's a new vehicle with minor maintenance is very impressive. Something about this suspension geometry and frame design is very solid (well, a unibody on a ladder frame will do that lol) - but many people have said the same thing, at 10 years old these still feel "tight" while most vehicles develop shakes, rattles, squeaks, vibrations, and ALL parts of suspension and steering become very sloppy in general. While the LR3 may squeak and develop hard-to-pinpoint driveline vibrations, the brakes/suspension/steering are almost showroom quality at 106k miles.
For a vehicle of this size/weight it's VERY impressive when you can plow down a crappy gravel road and the vehicle just "floats" and absorbs everything in stride, it's very hard to upset over difficult terrain. It also handles very well for a tank - steering inputs have perfect weight and balance, road feedback is good, ratio is always right (variable ratio / speed-sensitive ZF servotronic) brake feel/fade is great as well (60-0 is 1' better than a Ferrari 360 sypder?!) So all-in-all the performance is generally on an entirely different level than the disco.
That leads me to two things - the first is the air suspension. I think every person that's ever been in my LR3 has commented on how smooth it is, and every time I ride in something else I notice it too. It's just a superior method of dampening/weight bearing, hands down. I can also hitch up a 6500lb trailer with ~700lb tongue weight and the suspension will handle impossible tasks like the bouncing expansion joints on a long bridge at highway speeds - it won't bounce and amplify like a regular suspension, it just plows through it and stays level, I can't say enough about the suspension when it's working correctly.
Second thing - the weight. The Integrated Body Frame concept automatically means an extra 500+lbs from what I can gather (based on other vehicles plus what they cut when switching to aluminum and a simplified design on new RRS/FFRR). It's strong, but in some situations like snow and ice, it's REALLY ANNOYING#$%@ The best tires, best traction control programming, and decent driving can't overcome inertia - the RRS and my LR3 (4 different sets of tires total) are consistently all over the place when braking or turning at slow speeds. The things just want to go straight - and at 6000lbs, that's understandable lol.
Even with three amigos, my DII seems totally unstoppable in the snow compared to LR3 and RRS which really bums me out, but just the thought of adding 1500lbs in cargo to my DII and asking it to stop, turn, or climb a hill in the snow with the same performance seems like such a joke, and that's basically what you get with the LR3. This is another reason why the latest generation aluminum LR's are going to be the new high-tech kings of the off-road world. Shave 800lbs off an LR3 and double the computing power of the traction systems and see what happens.
The biggest upgrade from the DII was actually the transmission - having a 6 speed w/ TC that can lock in all forward gears is a HUGE change from the disco's 4 speed. Cruising RPM's are almost 1k lower lol, and you don't have to string-out gears at high RPM to go somewhere. Throw in a modern DOHC high(ish) compression V8 aaaaaaand... your mileage goes up 1mpg! :grin:grin:grin
..so that part was a little disappointing, but I've come to the conclusion that no one should own any LR for fuel economy. Ever. Gaining a 6 speed and jumping generations ahead in engine design can't overcome 1,500lbs of additional dead weight unfortunately.
One rarely-mentioned fact about the the IBF-based LR's from 2005ish (first ground-up designs of the new non-BMW LR era) was the INCREDIBLE safety that the new IBF designs of the RRS and LR3 offered.
Of all the vehicles IIHS looked at (over 150) of 05-08 models in one huge study of deaths per vehicle with over 100,000 registered "vehicle-years" ie, they'd combine the number of vehicles x number of years to achieve the same numbers across the board.
Only 7 vehicles in total recorded ZERO DEATHS per 100,000+ years equivalent.
BOTH the LR3 and the Range Rover Sport (with their IBF-bodies) were in the list of vehicles with 0 deaths!! Same frame, same safety systems, same stability systems, same 10+ airbag systems including 3rd row curtain in LR3, etc etc.
I mean this is up against ALL Volvos, Mercedes, Audis, BMWs, Hondas, etc etc etc.. SUVs, sedans whatever. Only 5 non-Land Rovers scored 0 deaths.
Oh and at the time I think LR only MADE about 5 models total.
Sorry to get slightly off-topic, but if you have a family or something (or you're just worried about yourself :wink ) it's something to consider, you know, being in one of the safest vehicles on the planet lol.
In contrast, I think the DII received generally poor crash ratings, especially front-end in which I believe the front footwell and chest areas were severely prone to collapse and telescoping into occupants.
Anyways I've already written a novel so I apologize, but I could definitely elaborate on this subject forever. They both have strengths and weaknesses, and honestly I'd feel totally empty inside of I had to get rid of either vehicles. The disco is just a Sunday driver now that always puts a smile on my face in a way that the LR3 can't do.. I still love it.
