i must be stopped

Published: 12 oct 2026

(cross-posted from my now page, with small updates from recent events)

I’ve updated my 2000 Land Rover Discovery to a 2004 Land Rover Discovery due to it being available at a “price too low for me to resist”. However, out of sheer laziness, I decided that I did not actually want to do the rehabilitation work to actually fix the fucking thing, so I dropped just over 3 times the cost of the vehicle to get it partly reconditioned at my local restoration shop. Surprisingly, their rates are lower than the general-purpose Land Rover indy shop near my office. And they’re a lot happier taking in old Land Rovers.

laundry list of garbage

Downpipe leak. Downstream effect of issues, but I didn’t want to sound like I was firing a submachine gun every time I started the car. Unfortunately, it’s held in by a couple studs that are keen to break, and thus I decided to take it to a shop.
Horrible steering. Previous owner didn’t even bother with the multiple cheaper solutions (tie rod ends) and went straight to the radius arms as the first solution. It was the tie rod ends. But while they were in there, the ball joints were also gone so I had the shop do everything.
Low power. The ignition coil was loose and hood interference meant that the two rear-most spark plug wires were being rubbed down until they would short. Unrelated, there was also a horrific vacuum leak due to a dog-eared valley pan gasket. Both of these also caused the cats to clog, causing the first & most pressing problem. I should have probably been able to DIY this shit but It was already in their custody at this time so I was inclined to just have them solve the problem.

There are a couple of issues that I didn’t have them look at yet, but if I can’t get to them by 19 October I will go and have the shop deal with them because I have to go wheeling before the snow comes.

3 amigos (ABS, traction control, hill descent). Issue didn’t really get resolved while in their care, but it seems that there are a couple sensors that aren’t working. I replaced the entire sensor due to the risk that a bad windshield cowl could’ve caused water ingress into the ABS unit. I’m a bit confused though, because it seems to have been working before but now it’s definitely triggering traction control way too soon etc.
In a similar vein, the windshield cowl was destroyed. A new one is pending install, but I’m probably gonna want to realign the hood at the same time.
Rear diff seal leak. I have been meaning to fix this since I bought the car but I just haven’t really had the time. The shop offered to fix this but I thought it’d be a little less involved so I thought I’d be able to do it myself. Might also need a pad slap.

actually in fairness really cool shit

The sunroofs work. The front one is a little questionable, but it works! That’s a silver lining despite everything else
The radiator is zip-tied, but it’s actually a properly fitting radiator and the previous owner just lost all of the mounting brackets for it so that should be a quick fix.
On a similar note, the cooling system actually performs really well. In all loads of driving, I have yet to see the temps crawl past 200 Fahrenheit, which is really good and definitely performs a lot better than the other Rover.
The suspension is actually properly bolted in, which cannot be said about the other Rover. It’s also got a lift kit and a lot of heavy duty steering components, both of which I was intending on adding.

what happened to the other rover?

I crushed it. Not before salvaging most of the parts I wanted to keep. But it was not worth continuing work on b/c the issues that plagued that one were generally fixed on this one.