An addition to the fleet

[removeduser185]

A period of bright, warm weather has made all the difference. Being able to spend time in, or in fact, out, of the garage every day this week has meant I have been able to get quite a bit done.

The priority was to waterproof the roof. This has now been done: the roof bars, the sunroofs and the "bung" at the rear of the roof (presumably for mounting some sort of aerial) have all been removed, cleaned up, sealed with silicone sealant and refitted. The front edges of the gutters have also been sealed. So, I hope, there will be no more cases of water getting in and running down the passenger seatbelt as has been the care hitherto. The second sunroof motor arrived yesterday and that was fitted so, today, it was a case of refitting the headlining and the pillar trims. All that went well without any hiccups so I now have a pair of working sunroofs. I took the opportunity to upgrade to an auto-dipping interior mirror and illuminated passenger sunvisor. I haven't done the same for the driver as I thought I'd rather have the power lead for the O/S sunvisor available to do something else with. I don't know what yet - it might be a map-reading light.

The tops of the plastic wheelarch eyebrows had been attacked by something - a cleaner of some sort, I would think. They had discoloured badly and become very rough in patches. I sanded down the roughness and used some trim dye to improve things. They do look better, but not as good as I had hoped.

Then Mr Hermes dropped off the new pump for the headlight washers so I fitted that, replaced the headlamp, fog lamp, grille and bumper trim. Fill up with windscreen washer and slam the bonnet shut! That's that phase of improving the Discovery.

The next job will be to return to the Lightweight and top up various oils and sort leaks. I suspect I have a leak near the top of one of the fuel tanks as well, so I shall drop that tank and have a look at it. I have some "one-shot" grease for the steering relay as that leaks and given that it holds about a thimble full of oil t the best of times, I suspect it is already dry.

And then I want to tidy up the wheel on the Discovery which are shocking. So, enough to keep me busy during lock down! Hope everyone has a good weekend and enjoys the best of the weather. For us in Central Wales, it seems that April is always our best month, so I need to make the most of it. Walking the dog on the mountain has additional hazards at the moment, though - ticks. I have had to take over 70 off poor old Harry following a trog up an old sheep trail through the bracken. Fortunately, there were none on me - Harry gets a monthly wormer which kills them - I don't!

[Jon S]

Hi Fred

All very organised and great progress with the Disco. Sounds like a man who needs a Sankey Trailer project!

Regards

[removeduser185]

Sounds like a man who needs a Sankey Trailer project!

Hmmm! Actually, yes, I am looking for a trailer. But, what I would really like is an older one - perhaps a WWII 10cwt trailer. The thing is, I am sure there will be one tucked in a barn or a hedge around here somewhere as it is very rural and generally not very affluent so ex-WD bits and pieces will have been popular after the war. The trouble is, they're difficult to spot once the brambles take over. Came across a single-furrow plough, the other day in the edge of a field. In the Southeast, that would be on someone's lawn with a smart paint job!

An older trailer has the advantage of my being able to use wood for the tub rather than sheet steel - easier for me to work with!

[removeduser185]

So, I finally got round to sorting out the wheels. I had them all off in turn, rubbed them down and resprayed and lacquered them all. I even got a small brush and repainted the Land Rover logos in the wheel centres. I must say, I'm pleased with the result. At the same time, I found a spare wheel cover on eBay for £20 which simply needed a few coats of semi-matt black paint and that has also been fitted.

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The car is rather grubby as I went to walk the dog at the dam today and there is a hydro electric scheme going on there so the road was filthy with large puddles. But, this is how the front bumper looks now (with working headlamp washers as well!) I'm quite pleased with how it looks now, better than the scrubbed silver. I also cleaned the haze off the headlamps and sealed them to stop them misting up.

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I have, as I reported in the last post, sealed everything I could find on the roof. It still leaked. SO I went round everything on the outside: the alpine windows had their edges sealed, the windscreen rubber and the entire length of the gutters were all sealed with silicone. SO no chance of any water getting in side now. Until it rained today and the N/S front headlining was just as wet as before. I am really puzzled now - there is nothing left to seal - everything is as waterproof as I can get! So, no idea. It may just have to stay like that.

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One interesting point is that, on the V5 it mentions that the registration number is non-transferable. I have no idea why that should be as it is clearly from a straightforward run of numbers issued in June 2004 to Solihull products - several in the series are still on the road. Any ideas?

[AR4412]

Hiya Fred! ,

The wheels have come up nicely. I'd best think about cleaning up the ones on the 90 as I ordered some new tyres for it on Friday. (Ouch! They don't get any cheaper do they?)

Sorry to hear that you still have a water leak in the D2 somewhere. If you do a search on 'discovery water ingress manual' a result will come up from Landyzone with PDF in the address line, this will open up the LR Technical Bulletin that went out to all the main dealers and may be of some help in tracking it down/stopping it.

Regards,

[AR4412]

Forgot to say in my last post, that my Td5 also has a 'non transferable registration mark'. It might be, in the case of mine, that it is because it went back to it's original registration from it's private plate registration , (M1LRO to name-drop. ), just before I bought it from LRO.

Regards,

[removeduser185]

Thanks for that, Neil. I did see the technical bulletin, but I have done what it suggests. The only place left I can think of which may be the problem is the very forward edge of the O/S windscreen/A pillar joint. I re-did the N/S one as that is where the main leak is, but, of course, as the car is always parked on the slant - and generally N/S down, it is possible that the water is coming in form the other side and running straight across. So, I'll have a look at that next and see where that takes me. I was fiddling with the O/S rear light cluster yesterday... and now the parking sensors don't work. I don;'t know! What a car! Still certainly keeps me busy. And thanks for the guidance on the number plate - I'm sure that's the issue - it probably had a private plate at some time.

[removeduser185]

Just a quick one to thank Neil for the advice on the Freelander 1. I got the door card off easily enough, unscrewed the solenoid and pulled the lever - the door opened straight away. With the door open I was able to remove the lock and solenoid, check both out (both were fine) and rebuild it. So, all seems OK for now and the solenoid wasn't full of water as I had expected. So, once again - many thanks for your excellent advice.

[removeduser185]

Well, the Discovery has seen a lot of service since I bought it last October, even though I haven't been far during the lockdown. I have tried to keep on top of things and generally make improvements as well. recent work has included replacing the rear N/S door lock/actuator. The old one started to get lazy about unlocking, then decided not to altogether which was a bit of a nuisance. That was fairly straightforward, though involved removing the window frame and glass. Today I started to give it a proper service. I topped up the power-steering fluid, changed the air filter, and the fuel filter, greased the propshafts, changed the oil in the two diffs and replaced the plastic plugs with brass ones and changed the transfer box oil.

Then I ground to a halt. Some gibbon in a previous life had managed to round off the sump plug so I couldn't get it undone to change the engine oil. I am quite sure I'd have had some fun with the oil filter as well had I got that far, as it is very hard to get at and it is wound on tight. I also failed to change the gearbox oil as I didn't have anything to undo the filler plug. So those jobs must wait. I have ordered a replacement sump plug which will arrive next week - so I won't do any more until then, but, if anyone can tell me what tool i need to get the gearbox filler plug undone I'd be most grateful!

I also decided to get a TD5 oil filter removal tool - it will be handy to have and give me a better chance of getting the filter off than with a strap spanner - which struggled enough with the fuel filter!

And still there are no photos. I will have to remedy that.

[AR4412]

Hiya Fred! ,

Finding rounded off Td5 sump plugs is an occupational hazard for me. It's easily done as the socket head on the plug is so shallow. I have a six sided impact socket that I have ground down to remove the recess before the flats start. This allows the socket to grip right to the base of the socket head. A ground down normal socket should do the job, as long as it is six sided. Sometimes you do need to hammer them all the way on.

As long as the oil filter is genuine, or has the half moon cutouts the filter tool will do it. If the filter is aftermarket with flats on then you will need a filter strap, the kind you tighten with a ratchet, or one of the wrenches that you screw up to pull the metal band tight. Put some rag under the filter before you fully undo it, as it needs to be tilted to get it out, and you will get oil everywhere if you don't have anything to catch it on.

The gearbox filler plug is a T55 Torx.

Regards,