Outer Limits 4x4 Board

hey guys. looking at anew car soon and the sereis 2 disco td5's have cought my eye. what r the inherant problems with this later model 2003. apart from the usual rover oil leaks. what life expectancy do td5's and the auto's have?.
also how strong is this motor cos i here 180kw is achievable by remapping the ecu.

They are good vehicles and provided (like all diesels) they have been serviced regularly they can make very high milage and economically too. Oil leaks, should not be any!!

The TD5 has had a few issues but nothing that cant be addressed by proper maintenance, the early models had a problem with a bolt in the oil pump that wasnt loctited in causing early engine failure, there is the oil in the injector loom where oil works its way along the loom into the ecu causing bad contacts. Apart from the odd horror story they seem to be a robust and powerful motor especially after an ecu and intercooler upgrade.

known 2 wrote:hey guys. looking at anew car soon and the sereis 2 disco td5's have cought my eye. what r the inherant problems with this later model 2003. apart from the usual rover oil leaks. what life expectancy do td5's and the auto's have?.
also how strong is this motor cos i here 180kw is achievable by remapping the ecu.

I just bought that exact model. 2003 is the best year of the TD5 Disco, 04 and on they started using up the parts bin, Pre 03 had no CDL or it wasn't activated.

I have only had mine for 2000km and put a tank in it when I bought it, and have filled it once since.

Bit slow off the mark but once under boost it goes well for a Diesel.

i would plann on getting the most out of the engine, wich is the better gearbox for handling the td5's full potential?

I have had once since new diesel auto. Generally a very good vehicle apart what has already been listed I would also check out the serviceing history, Southside (Brisbane) are hopeless. The other large issue we have is the back to back seal between the gearbox and transfer case. These seem to wear very quickly (every 50,000 kms) and cost $900 a hit to fix. The long term fix is to machine out where the seal sits in the aluminimum housing and put a steel sleave in it. The other thing to look out for is the front drive shaft they have non greasable uni and the A\C condensor drains dirrectly above it.

The best people I have found to date with knowledge on landies in Brissy is M&R Automotive at Redcliff. They had our computer remapped and we are now getting 140kw out of the motor with no effect on fuel economy.... Much easier to drive.

thanx guys.
wich is the stronger gearbox?

The gearboxs are as weak as each other after you get into chipping/intercooling them. Manuals do 5th gear bearings etc, the autos will do friction material etc and come out of adjustment. Its important to upgrade the coolers on them, and make sure it is a a high pressure (115psi!) for the ATF.

Both the R380 and ZF 4HP22EH are rated at 380Nm, and even a chip on a TD5 will go beyond this.

well that sucks. can anything be done to increase gearbox life in the auto's apart from the cooler.

that coment has made me swing back twards buying a 100 series.

i like the disco and i liked the idea of a worked td5. but that just sucks.

This is probably more along Ashcrofts area of expertise, amongst others that don't include me..

I'm not sure if there is anything you can do with the R380 except just run it and put a bigger cooler on it. There are a lot of people running more than 380Nm without drama through the gearbox, and there are others that cant.

I run a chip/intercooler into ZF 22 and just run it with a bigger high pressure cooler. You really need a bigger cooler on it otherwise you will fry it. The auto doesn't break as such, it just frys. Also, ATF changes every 20,000km to keep the fluid sweet. The ZF from what I understand, but have never done can be upgraded to specs of the ZF 24 which I understand is good for 500Nm, and also has bigger dia hoses. I don't know of anybody in Aus that has done this.

The transfer case has no problems with whatever you give it.

I guess just be aware that irrespective of whatever motor you hot up, there is going to be a toll taken somewhere, and you could probably run a stock TD5 flat stick everywhere, I would not do with a chipped up version which may have higher peak EGT's also, as with any other chipped motor. Making power is easy, sustaining power is the hard bit.

very interesting.
is what your saying in that last part, by all meens get more power out of it, but learn to drive it easyer?

Sort of.

The problem that I've had is the MAF sensor fuse blew, unknown to me, and that adds more fuel to the system which makes it run hot in the EGT (though not the coolant). When you chip it up the the EGT's also run hotter. If you drive around as per normal etc then there is no problems, but if you've got a good trailer on the back or you're driving at 160km/h (which it will do) then the EGT's will get hot enough to warp the exhaust manifold.

This said.....

I'm not sure how much of this has had to do with the chip, and how much has had to do with the blown MAF sensor fuse... but just so you're aware that the upgrades are excellent but not a carefree modification. Every motor is the same though.

BTW, I'm not saying that you need to drive it like a girl if you upgrade the motor. Make good use of the power, but don't flog it mercilessly.

thanx for the info slunnie.

i've been looking into egr bypass valves on td5alive.com. they seem to improve torque and engine life have u had anything to do with them?

I guess you could do it that way. I just unplugged it. The gains I have found to be more when light throttle and low/mid revs. I'm not sure what difference the full kits make though... sorry.