I just bought LR Disco II with 94 k on it. Everything seems ok on it except one. When I start it there is a whine in the area of the transmission that I can hear in the cab but not on the outside of vehicle when it is running. The sound disspates once in gear and going down the road. The transmission seems to shift ok.
Any ideas?
Did you have a mechanic of your own choosing give this vehicle a thorough checking prior to buying it?
Have you checked the level, color, and odor of the transmission fluid?
Do you have the maintenance records from the previous owner(s)?
Personally, I would be worried about a vehicle that has been driven–on average–only about 6,000 miles per year for 15 years, as that could represent purely local driving patterns…which are far harder on a vehicle than highway driving is. In a situation of purely local driving patterns, the previous owner(s) should have been using the Severe Service maintenance schedule, rather than the “regular” maintenance schedule. Can you verify that this was done?
Please go outside, check the Owner’s Manual for the correct procedure to use when checking the trans fluid, and then report back to us on the color, level, and odor of the fluid. Also, please answer the questions that I posed, above.
Did you have a mechanic of your own choosing give this vehicle a thorough checking prior to buying it?
No
Have you checked the level, color, and odor of the transmission fluid?
No I have not. I will check it out.
Do you have the maintenance records from the previous owner(s)?
Yes
I have a 1994 Ford F 250 with 99 k on it. It is in perfect mechanical condition.
@Tatonka82–I’m very glad to hear that your '94 F-250 is in perfect mechanical condition, but a few thoughts come to mind:
This is a case of “comparing apples to oranges”, as the reliability of Ford trucks is FAR superior to that of Land Rover vehicles which are consistently rated as the least reliable vehicles sold in The US.
Have you compared those maintenance records to Land Rover’s Severe Service maintenance schedule?
How many transmission fluid changes do those maintenance records show? Over the past 15 years, the fluid (& filter) should have been changed 5 times, at a minimum.
After you have checked the transmission fluid and reported back to us on the findings, I strongly suggest that you take the vehicle to a local independent Land Rover specialist for a thorough check.
You’ll want to get this vehicle carefully checked out as soon as possible, and then decide if it’s worth keeping. As @VDCdriver said, this is one of the least reliable vehicles out there, that could be a reason for the low miles.