1998 300Tdi - What to watch for

[Gil_Dub]

Hi all,

I'm sick of looking at the defender and series outside the house in pieces. I need a landy I can drive.

I'm going out on Friday intent on coming home with a 300TDi Disco, around about 1998 vintage.

I've found one with 73k on the clock and looking like it's in great condition. It's a 3 door model (which I'll probably commercialise anyway) and looks to be base spec - No aircon, no roof rails etc.

Apart from needing a belt change and the usual servicing related bits, what should I be looking out for?

I know the boots can rot on them - Is it just a matter of tipping the seats, pulling the carpet out and having a good poke at it?

Anything else that would spell financial disaster that I should be watching out for?

Come on folks - Please answer if you have the time - I'll genuinely appreciate any suggestions you have for me.

Thanks,

Gil

[Gas Gas Ohlins]

Check oil cooler flexible pipes as they are crimped and can seep oil.
P gasket area for water coolant weeps...in behind the waterpump.
Window regulators break..check that the front windows work.





more later...

[Alyn]

On my 300 the clutch went at about 80K.

Look out for sunroof leaks, clunky window lifts, general loss of fluids, wet carpets. Door lock springs, Poke and sniff.

At least being a three door the rear wheel arches inside the rear door shuts aren't an issue. But check the inner wings carefully.

Search the site, there's lots of good stuff on here.

Alyn

[bilge rat]

inner and outer sills, round the body mount drivers and pass footwell area. boot floor as you have said, inner wings under the bonnet. check the engine wading hole check for debris (rubber). should be o.k being a late one . gearbox reasnobaly smooth .syncros on 2nd and 3rd. wheel wobble iff you hit a pot hole at about 50. just a few things to check .. 3 doors are pretty unusual on a later model . i have one on a n plate .dont seem to see many now..alan

[Gil_Dub]

Thanks for the pointers lads, keep 'em coming.

I'm making a list....and checking it twice....

Oh, right, too early for that I guess.

;-)

Gil

[maxtherotti]

check all electrics work as they should
check for smooth gear selection
with the bits listed above that should cover it for the most part
along with the usual used car checks

rob

[ComicalEngineer]

Rear body mounts - pig of a job if they're rusted out
Rear tubular crossmember - as above
Inner front wings rust - especially if within 30cm of the brake servo, potential MOT fail but cheap to fix

[Gil_Dub]

Much the same as an RRC then? I'll watch for all of the above - Thanks all.

Lucky for me this is an Irish motor so won't have suffered the British penchant for salting the roads. Hoping it's clean and solid enough underneath, but I'll bring my hammer and screwdriver anyway....

Read somewhere that any 300TDi's that had the cambelt fixed at factory should have a yellow square painted on the timing cover, about 1"x1" or thereabouts. Any truth in this?

Cheers,

Gil

[Swingletree]

Thats what it tells you to do on the Mod instruction:)

[Gil_Dub]

Spoke with the seller on the phone now to rough out a deal....he wants top price and he's not going to budge less than €3k with a new cambelt fitting I reckon. That's mad money in most peoples books but I'll go anyway and have a look.... As mentioned earlier, late 300 3 doors are like hens teeth.

If I'm to order a kit for the cambelt, is there anywhere in particular I should get it from? Is it worth paying LR, or can I go pattern and get as good/better quality?

Gil

[mab1967]

I have a 1998 300 tdi 3 door with 77k on the clock.Issues ive had are as follows:

Leaking sunroofs front and rear. Front window mechanism needed replacing. Rear mud flap mounting rotting away. Finally Last week lost 1st 3rd and 5th Gear while towing caravan. (Currently debating wether to attempt repair myself or have new unit fitted.)

[Sandy M.]

Spoke with the seller on the phone now to rough out a deal....he wants top price and he's not going to budge less than €3k with a new cambelt fitting I reckon.

:eek: Last September I paid a garage £3,200 for my, 1998 300Tdi ES, Vg condition with minimal rust, sunroofs, roof bars (and unused cross rails), alloys, towbar and aircon (and only 32,000miles :biggrin:). It had two owners from new, full service history and the cam belt had been changed in 2007.
Emphasise to the seller that there is a recession on and no one is buying 4 x 4s' these days. If he doesn't lower his price - walk away.

[Gil_Dub]

The problem for me is that I'm shopping in a smaller marketplace here in Ireland. If I went for one from the UK (incl. Northern Iron) I'd have to stump up something stupid like €1300 or so for VRT, on top of ferry/plane ticket, diesel etc. So, we just have to stump up a little more I guess...especially at the tail end of the market where I shop! :D Incidentally, road tax is about €935 a year on one of these, about £850 sterling. What are you folks paying?

I think I'll bring €2700 with me so I'll have to walk away if he doesn't meet me a bit closer to the €2400 book value.... If it's as clean as I think it is, I'll be happy enough at that price. Let's face it, on a Friday afternoon he'd be mad not to take the cash.

The one thing I'm actually pleased about is the fact it's base spec. I hate the niggly problems with brittle/busted switchgear, leaking aircon, faulty extras and the like - I usually end up hating what I've bought simply because the extras keep failing on it. If this is in any way reliable, hopefully I'll be happier with fewer things going wrong to ruin my day ;)

I'll grab a good few photos anyway so you folks can see what she's like. If it's a mess I'll be walking away. I've an offer on a 110k 300TDi 5 door XS with all the extras for €2500 too, but it's a few hours from home and a year older. Still, there are options I guess.

G'night,

Gil

[littlerangie]

about £850 sterling.


how much:eek:???

its only £185 for a 1997 reg 300 over here...

btw, spare wheel and carrier... check the spare wheel, bolts and mount...

the spare should be the rest (or very similar) to the other tyres...

nuts and bolts should be in good condition, everything should be there, check for locking wheel nuts on all wheels (indicated by a plastic cap with a dimple), they should be five or none at all, and the adaptor for it...

the mount should be in a good condition, check for rust and serious corrosion, my mount failed today, it is a bit of a pig to sort out...

also check you can get the spare wheel off the mount..

other than that (plus everything else), check for dropping doors, disintegrating radiators, service history etc

and see if the difflock is jammed in the high open position, if it is then the vehicle is more likey to have been a school run machine, as apposed to a serious offroader...

Hope this helps
Calum

[Gas Gas Ohlins]

I suppose you could check the current autotrader for a gauge on the market value. What could be a bargaining point is the fact that 3 doors are not usually in demand at all...therefore harder to sell. For that price I`d want to have a timing belt already in it. Normally this would helpto actually sell it if one could show the receipt to the prospective buyer. You`d be out o fpocket before you even want to drive it any distance,on top of the buying price.
If it were I,I`d let it sit and get beack to him when its another few months old and less price and see whether he`s sold it or not. At the end of the day you`ll always find another truck out there for the right and proper price. Shheeesss...you`d maybe even find a .....Toyota or something...
It still would`nt do any harm to research the prices in Norn Iron.

Anyway..I trust it pans out to your satisfaction...


:biggrin:

[Gil_Dub]

Yep, £820 at todays exchange rate for motor tax.
If I imported a 97/98 from the UK I'd pay £1140 registration tax on top of that.
Oh yeah, even if it had a new MOT in the UK, I'd also need to pay to have it tested here under our own scheme, the National Car Test....

What a racket.

Gil