Hey all,

I looked at a D1 today and tried posting my questions over at DWeb but barely got a response. So maybe you can help me out.

Here's the deal:

PS Box is leaky.

The motor looked very clean, no head seapege (sp?) and only minor leaking around the oil pan gasket.

Its a '94 w/ 117k asking $5995. Its fully loaded and looks well maintained.

The motor was knock / tick free and the compression test passed the test. The TCase shifted in and out of Lo and Hi just fine.

The problems I found was a squeaking when rolling down the road. It could be a break wear indicator or wheel bearings (provided they have wheel bearings?). The SRS Airbag light is on, and the service engine soon light as well.

All electrical was fine, windows worked, sunroofs too. No signs of rust or leaks.

Once I get it checked out, I thought $5k or $4800 for a reasonable offer?

Sorry for the cross post, but I'd like to get this if it proves to be a good rig.

Thanks

Justin

Hey Justin,

The SRS light would concern me a bit. That is your airbag light and you will want to figue out what that is. Your pricing sounds about right.

PS box leak: typical. probably hoses with that mileage.

Oil pan leak: typical. take it off, reseal with 'Right Stuff', never leak again.

Squeaking: probably a caliper that's not releasing the pad off of the rotor. Easy to fix actually with some basic tools and a buddy to help you re-bleed the brakes.

Service engine light: ignore and/or unplug (make sure you actually DO service the engine though).

Airbag light: dunno (can you unplug the things???)

Seems like an awfully low price though, maybe I don't know something about the Disco pricing lately, but a '94 LWB on LRX is going for around 10-14K, so the Disco to me seems underpriced.

Who did the service on it? Is it a Cali. car? Don't buy anything from Utah, the western states 'rust belt'. It'll be murder on a LR if you end up going to school in Logan. :(

Color??? Tires???

Good luck!

Thanks Michael,

The Disco's seem to go for $6-8k around here so I wasn't too suprised to find one for that price.

The disco is a Cali car and has Pirelli scorpions on it, along with running boards. So it was obviously a grocery getter that was taken care of.

I called a indpendent mechanic to take a look at it. The SRS light is my biggest worry. Speaking of, anyone know a really good rover mechanic in the Portland area? The guy I called was a Euro. Import mechanic.

I hadn't even thought of all the salt in Utah...I suppose I should undercoat the hell out of whatever I end up with and hope that 3 years in Logan won't kill it.

Justin


Originally posted by Serious One
PS box leak: typical. probably hoses with that mileage.

Oil pan leak: typical. take it off, reseal with 'Right Stuff', never leak again.

Squeaking: probably a caliper that's not releasing the pad off of the rotor. Easy to fix actually with some basic tools and a buddy to help you re-bleed the brakes.

Service engine light: ignore and/or unplug (make sure you actually DO service the engine though).

Airbag light: dunno (can you unplug the things???)

Seems like an awfully low price though, maybe I don't know something about the Disco pricing lately, but a '94 LWB on LRX is going for around 10-14K, so the Disco to me seems underpriced.

Who did the service on it? Is it a Cali. car? Don't buy anything from Utah, the western states 'rust belt'. It'll be murder on a LR if you end up going to school in Logan. :(

Color??? Tires???

Good luck!

Dont worry about the SRS light. Stick a peice of tape over it or something. The D1 had SRS faults all the time. It generally costs a fourtune to fix. Maybe your air bags wont fire, but who wants them to anyway. The price sounds about right. Its slightly on the low side, but still in regular disco pricing. MAke sure to check the head liner for separation, that could give you a bargaining point, Check for paint marks on the head bolts, so you know if the engine has been apart for valve job or head gaskets etc. If there are little white yellow or other marks on teh heads of the bolts, that means it has been removed. Also give the truck full throttle in park a few times untill it hits the rev limiter. (you can hold the truck at the rev limiter for a short period) Note how smooth the engine is from idle to rev limit. Apply the parking break, as well as the foot break, and floor it. The engine should rev up and stall out at a constant RPM somewhere above 2k, but no more than 3k.
Oh, and also look at all the shock bushings. the rover bushings tend to turn to mush, this is also a small bargaining point.

If it passes all the test you had done before, and these, its probably a decent truck.

HAve fun

The SRS alarm can be triggered by simply a low voltage condition - like when you 'almost' run the battery down but not quite - and once it's tripped, it stays tripped until reset. It's a real pain-in-the-ass as I've only been able to get the dealer's TestBook computer to actually reset it..

unless of course, you decide you want them off! like i eventually did, in which case I now have a shiny red SRS light to go with my shiny yellow ABS light.. lol


- not saying that is definately what it is, but if that's it, you should be able to get it reset easily enough and it wouldn't recode again unless there was definately a problem.

Thanks for the info, it helps alot.

I'm going to go and look over everything again with all the new info I've gathered.

Justin