An addition to the fleet

[removeduser185]

Neil, Thanks for that, as ever. My largest Torx was a T40, so I have sent off for a small set which will bring me up to T70. But, why on earth did Land Rover choose a torx head for that one when all the others are either hex heads or 1/2" squares? Blinking annoying. I take your point about the oil filter - the one I am taking off won't undo with the special tool, but I have ordered a replacement which will so, I hope this will be the last time I have to use a strap. I had copied the LR workshop manual pages which I needed as I have the full document on the computer, but the paper pages are better in the garage. I was, though, stumped when I tried to replace the centrifuge rotor - mine is nothing like that shown in the manual. Theirs is easy to spot and has a single central nut to undo, mine is hidden beneath a breather pipe in an insignificant dome with two nuts! Still, all that is for next week when the various bits arrive. Apart from which, it is piddling down at the moment!

[removeduser185]

IMG_0602.JPG (1.68 MiB) Viewed 6781 times

I know that this thread isn't to everyone's taste and it is hard to do photos for it, but I thought I'd include this one as it shows one little bit of fiddling I have been doing. Sitting in my thinking chair in the garage staring at the Discovery parked across the yard made me hink that, with the bumper covers now black instead of silver the grille looked unbalanced. So I painted the bottom rail of the grille silver to continue the line. It now looks more like a pre-facelift model, but I think it is more balanced and certainly no worse.

[Fossibear]

thinking chairs are a good invention

Steve

[removeduser185]

Blimey! Who'd have thought doing a few oil changes could be so difficult? I finally finished them today when I was able to borrow a set of special sockets for undoing rounded-off nuts from my local garage and a windy gun from my neighbour! I could not get the sump plug out, even with a breaker bar. As I suspected, a gorilla had tightened it up without a washer, so it was over-tight. Anyway, I fitted a new one and replaced the filter which was easier to remove than I had anticipated. As it became loose, I put it in a large plastic bag, so, when it finally separated, no oil was spilled. And the new one went on OK. The cover over the centrifuge rotor is held in place by two small bolts. Needless to say, they had destroyed the thread in the aluminium housing, so were giving no grip at all. I am surprised that it wasn't leaking oil everywhere. So I replaced them with the slightly larger 1/4" bolts which self-tapped neatly into the soft aly. What a pathetic set up though. The original style had a central wing nut on the spindle and was much easier to remove. Anyway, we got there in the end, so the Discovery is now ready for action again. Next? The Freelander in for MOT and service next week, then an MOT for the Discovery next month! Never stops! I always enjoy popping in to my local garage. He loves his Land Rovers, had a D3 in for timing belts! Oh, and a Ferrari Mondial with an oil issue as well as a large ride-on lawn mower! Plenty of choice in small market town garages!

[removeduser185]

OK! It's a long time since I posted on this thread and, generally speaking, no news is good news. But... yesterday it dumped all its engine oil. I did a 14-mile round trip and, on my way home (after 7 miles) I was wondering why I hadn't seen all the oil on the road when I was going the other way! It was raining hard so it had spread very noticeably across the lane. Of course, I followed the snail trail and it led... to my drive! Bugger! I thought it was the fuel as that had happened before, as you know, but, there is no smell to it like there is with diesel and, more significantly, there is no reading on the dipstick while the underside has plenty of lubrication... it's oil!

So, has anyone any ideas why this should happen suddenly? Until yesterday there were no real leaks to speak of. The engine sounds fine, starts, runs and stops with no apparent change in performance.

[AR4412]

Hiya Fred! ,

Sorry to hear you Disco is being sick and spewing out it's oil. A lot of Td5's like to leak here and there, (Mine included, from it's rear crank seal. ), but not normally enough to empty the sump on a short drive. The good thing is that with a large leak, it should be easier to find.

Usual suspects are crank seals, especially the rear. (Had a D2 come in and it had oil running out of the bell housing it was that worn.) There is a large plastic push fit camshaft plug in the front of the head which likes to pop out when the seal age hardens. (A new one is a bugger to push back in.). The oil feed/return pipes from the vacuum pump on the alternator can leak, but not common to do so. Again, not common, but the rotary filter drain pipe can leak at the sump. A loose main oil filter can make a mess fairly quickly, and there is crush gasket between the oil filter housing and the oil cooler housing that can leak. Not seen many turbo oil pipes leak on a Td5, but worth checking when looking at the filter area.

It may be worth your while to give it a wash down, a top up, and a saitic run up check for leaks.

Hopefully once the cause is found, it turns out to be an easy fix.

Regards,

[removeduser185]

Many thanks for that, Neil. It is odd. I had done the same 14-mile journey a couple of hours earlier (picking up Mother in law for Mothers' Day lunch. While it was parked up during lunch it must have had quite a leak, because, when the ground dried up this afternoon, there was a large black stain where the car had been parked. We've had so much rain here lately that, normally, the ground is so wet you wouldn't see it - which is probably why Pips didn't see it when she waved us off. The journey taking MiL home then finished the job and emptied the sump. Interestingly, the oil light didn't come on, nor did it fail to go off when I moved the car this afternoon onto a large tarpaulin to see whether I could trace the leak and to see what it was. So, that's positive, but I presume it wouldn't have enjoyed a longer journey - I was lucky.

I'll get it into the garage over the pit and have a good look at it from underneath. Again, many thanks for the advice.

[diffwhine]

Fred,
Picking up on your comment above about why LR use a T55 Torx on the filler bung... I've just found my original R380 training notes from 1993/94. When the R380 was released, we instructed dealers to replace that bung and the thread either had a locker compound on it or was a micro-encapsulated thread. There were some issues with the LT77S and filler bungs coming loose, so by making it obviously different, this was seen as the solution. Since 1994, I can count the number of times I've fitted a new filler bung on one hand, so the policy wasn't exactly successful!

Keep us posted on your oil loss on the Discovery. My wife's car is an 04 one as well. Minor oil leaks are common, but I've not had a catastrophic leak yet apart from the time when the cam carrier front plastic bung came out. That caused quite a spectacular oil leak. I have had the odd oil cooler pipe rub through though, so it hopefully its not a rear main seal or similar. If it is a rear main seal and you decide to pull the engine out to sort, one word of advice would be to remove the crankshaft sensor first. Its easily damaged when fitting or removing and engine or gearbox. Just don't forget to put it back in again, or it wont start!

[removeduser185]

Thanks for that. That's interesting what you say about the filler bung - I find that sort of detail fascinating - thanks for telling me.

It is raining again here at the moment and I have to go for my Covid jab this afternoon so my free time has been nothing more exciting than doing my ironing! The front camshaft bung is fine, I replaced that soon after I bought the car last year and there is no oil spread around the upper part of the engine or sprayed around the engine bay, under the plastic cover or anywhere else. So the fault is likely to be lower down and further to the rear. It seems to be from the nearside if anywhere, but it's difficult to tell as I have to park on a slight slope towards that side. Intriguing, but, when I can, I'll get it into the garage, over the pit and see whether I can trace the issue. It's always tricky, though because the fan and the wind spreads oil around and this is relatively clean oil so even less easy to trace. As for lifting the engine, no, regrettably, I don't have the skills for that - it will have to go to a garage in town (ouch!)

[Landie68]

Not good news for you, just hope that you find the source of the leak easily Ian. As Neil suggested, clean off the oil, refill, and try a static engine warm up and see if you can find it that way.