Twice now my Discovery has been lightly rear ended. The first by a mustang that destroyed the corner of the bumper and the reversing/rear fog light. The second time, in a bank parking lot when a lady backed into me as I was already backing out, destroyed that same light and misaligning the new bumper.

Replacement the first time was with a used Land Rover bumper, the second time, for not much more money, saw a welded steel expedition bumper replacing the damaged OE part. I feel sorry for the next person who rear ends my Disco.

Pardon the lack of Grill, I had it out to replace the headlights.

When I got my disco, it looked pretty good for a 10 year old truck. The paint shone, the lights were clear, and everything worked. It did not take long for the paint to get weird on the hood (it is aluminum) and the headlights to get cloudy. The kits to repolish the lights only prolonged the agony, so I found myself replacing them with a set from Europe.

While technically not legal here in the US due to clear parking light, the light out of these was an amazing upgrade. Where the old lights threw light everywhere, these lights put it all down on the road with a distinct cut off line much like the projector lamps on new cars today. They also look good being completely clear and without hazing. If you decide to get a set, remember that Discoverys are English and lights from there will be Right Hand Drive, you need to get Left Hand Drive lights from the rest of Europe. Mine came from Germany

Even with the new engine in place, along with an all new cooling system, I still had some issues and bugs to take care of. One of them was the builder of the engine never cleaned the sludge out of the cooling system from when the block was dunked and cleaned. This resulted in my brand new radiator getting clogged, my water pump getting ruined, and my having to install this, a filter for the cooling system.
To clean the system I took a five gallon bucket and put a sump pump in it, I then hooked it to the radiator hoses and "backflushed" the entire cooling system for 5 minutes. The gunk that came out turned the water in the bucket black. A cut up stocking was placed over the outflow from the engine and gobs of nasty gunk was caught. Now she runs like a top!

My Discovery was one of the last ones built with the Rover v8. The 4.6 litre engine is a decent size, makes good power and excellent torque, but is a time bomb. Due to engineering short comings, lack of money on Rover's part (they were about broke) and little care in assembly, ALL the 4.6s have short lives. Mine succumbed at 85,000 miles to a dropped liner, killing the engine in a rather dramatic display of steam out the tailpipe on a cold snowy day. It took 15 gallons of water to make it home the last 5 miles to park her till a replacement could be sourced and affixed.

The Pain did not end there. I bought a newly rebuilt engine from Atlantic British, this engine fixes all the problems the 4.6 is known for and is nearly bulletproof. It's a good engine. It was the rip off I was subjected to by the mechanic who did all the work. Book time to remove and replace the engine on my Disco is 15 hours. He charged me 40 and took THREE MONTHS to get the job done. This was not some fly by night guy either, he is a well established foreign car shop here in South Jersey. 

Aside from a brand new starter and Battery not a week after I brought the Disco home, upgrading the steering was the first things I did to my Rover. The Drag Link, Tie Rods, and Tie Rod ends were all done at the same time this was installed. Aside from being physically larger, the OME stabiliser replaced the completely worn out stock one, which was probably original at 80,000 miles