I have to laugh -- Stranded in week one!!!
Posted: Sat May 18, 2013 8:32 pm
Many of you know me from the 4WDABC and, since I received my welcome package from Pamela yesterday, I thought I'd reintroduce myself and share a story!
In general, I've always been a fan of British autos although I suffer from no delusions about the level of care and attention that they require. For reliability, I tend to look at German brands and actually just recently bought my wife a new (to her) BMW E90 to replace her ageing E32.
I got into offroading about 10 years ago as a way to spend time outdoors with my kids and over that time have had a couple of Ford Rangers (they had the Cologne V-6 engines, so I could sort of play mind games that they were sort of German) but then the kids outgrew them and started making noise about getting one of those short wheelbase, open top, floppy over Jeep things. So five years ago I got a TJ and added a few mods. Well, the kids got older and they both got quite tired of the open air, noisy, wet, dusty, climb over seats experience so I decided it was time for a change.
I started to look for a replacement, but absolutely didn't want something that was 'run-of-the-mill' and, in the 4x4 world, that seems to limit choices. Land Cruisers were an option, but I'd have wanted an FJ55, ad non-rusted examples are extremely scarce. Defenders exceed my "toy" budget and I considering skipping the offroad thing for a while and started looking at V-12 BMWs as a new toy. But then I saw a Discovery 2 being driven by one of the parents in my son's scout group.
As I said, I understand that Discos have specific "issues" and British cars in general present their own special breed of challenges, but I figured that I am up for it. Every one of my previous British cars has left me stranded on the highway at one time or another, but each time it has been the result of either delayed maintenance or poor quality aftermarket parts. In general, I kind of enjoy wrenching on cars and am fairly adept and improvising "trail repairs" to get me home. My most unique failure was having a clutch disc disintegrate on my '68 Mk 3 Spitfire in Seattle rush hour traffic. Fortunately, a nearby parts store had a clutch in stock and the transmission of that car can be removed between the seats....three hours of effort on the I5 center median and I continued my way home.
Anyway, after having co-workers and family tell me that I was crazy, last week I found and bought my fourth British vehicle....an original owner '99 Disco 2 with a whole series of letters in the option list. Of course they are the undesireable options for offroad reliability, but this is a toy for me and so I familiarizing myself with 18" rims (those HAVE to GO!), ACE, SLS...the heated windshield is VERY cool and the kids quite enjoy the jump seats.
On Wednesday I took it on a road trip and the new truck lived up to my every expectation! It was very comfortable, it got lousy mileage and, at 5pm on Wednesday night as I was heading home through Princeton, it left me stranded due to a seriously failed water pump. Being very aware of the risk of overheating and not having a high level of comfort in the new truck yet, I noticed the failure before the temperature gauge climbed. I turned around and coasted back into Princeton and started phoning parts stores. Of course, there was no pump available so I left the truck and had my wife drive up and fetch me (and let me tell you how enthusiastic she was about that!!!!!)
Today I went back up and changed out the water pump with one I picked up from Rovalutions on Thursday. The failed pump was an aftermarket unit with a stamped steel impeller. The bearings were simply destroyed and there was evidence of excessive endfloat prior to failure as the impeller had contacted the housing. Since the pump only had 8,000kms on it, it was clearly defective from the manufacturer. In my opinion, this wasn't a maintenance issue...it was a poor quality replacement part installed a little over a year ago. It's now fixed and all is good.
I have a relatively short list of items that need to be addressed and then I can start preparing the truck to be on trails, although it does seem much more capable in stock form than I originally thought. I'm sure I'll see many of you on runs and at events in the future.
In general, I've always been a fan of British autos although I suffer from no delusions about the level of care and attention that they require. For reliability, I tend to look at German brands and actually just recently bought my wife a new (to her) BMW E90 to replace her ageing E32.
I got into offroading about 10 years ago as a way to spend time outdoors with my kids and over that time have had a couple of Ford Rangers (they had the Cologne V-6 engines, so I could sort of play mind games that they were sort of German) but then the kids outgrew them and started making noise about getting one of those short wheelbase, open top, floppy over Jeep things. So five years ago I got a TJ and added a few mods. Well, the kids got older and they both got quite tired of the open air, noisy, wet, dusty, climb over seats experience so I decided it was time for a change.
I started to look for a replacement, but absolutely didn't want something that was 'run-of-the-mill' and, in the 4x4 world, that seems to limit choices. Land Cruisers were an option, but I'd have wanted an FJ55, ad non-rusted examples are extremely scarce. Defenders exceed my "toy" budget and I considering skipping the offroad thing for a while and started looking at V-12 BMWs as a new toy. But then I saw a Discovery 2 being driven by one of the parents in my son's scout group.
As I said, I understand that Discos have specific "issues" and British cars in general present their own special breed of challenges, but I figured that I am up for it. Every one of my previous British cars has left me stranded on the highway at one time or another, but each time it has been the result of either delayed maintenance or poor quality aftermarket parts. In general, I kind of enjoy wrenching on cars and am fairly adept and improvising "trail repairs" to get me home. My most unique failure was having a clutch disc disintegrate on my '68 Mk 3 Spitfire in Seattle rush hour traffic. Fortunately, a nearby parts store had a clutch in stock and the transmission of that car can be removed between the seats....three hours of effort on the I5 center median and I continued my way home.
Anyway, after having co-workers and family tell me that I was crazy, last week I found and bought my fourth British vehicle....an original owner '99 Disco 2 with a whole series of letters in the option list. Of course they are the undesireable options for offroad reliability, but this is a toy for me and so I familiarizing myself with 18" rims (those HAVE to GO!), ACE, SLS...the heated windshield is VERY cool and the kids quite enjoy the jump seats.
On Wednesday I took it on a road trip and the new truck lived up to my every expectation! It was very comfortable, it got lousy mileage and, at 5pm on Wednesday night as I was heading home through Princeton, it left me stranded due to a seriously failed water pump. Being very aware of the risk of overheating and not having a high level of comfort in the new truck yet, I noticed the failure before the temperature gauge climbed. I turned around and coasted back into Princeton and started phoning parts stores. Of course, there was no pump available so I left the truck and had my wife drive up and fetch me (and let me tell you how enthusiastic she was about that!!!!!)
Today I went back up and changed out the water pump with one I picked up from Rovalutions on Thursday. The failed pump was an aftermarket unit with a stamped steel impeller. The bearings were simply destroyed and there was evidence of excessive endfloat prior to failure as the impeller had contacted the housing. Since the pump only had 8,000kms on it, it was clearly defective from the manufacturer. In my opinion, this wasn't a maintenance issue...it was a poor quality replacement part installed a little over a year ago. It's now fixed and all is good.
I have a relatively short list of items that need to be addressed and then I can start preparing the truck to be on trails, although it does seem much more capable in stock form than I originally thought. I'm sure I'll see many of you on runs and at events in the future.