The DiscoDavis Discovery 3 Build Thread

[DiscoDavis]

The landy's second tow truck ride

NCLR had a nice little off road saturday down near Patterson, California. It involved a bit of wading and a few pretty deep puddles, so naturally some trucks had to get dirty. Besides dirty, we killed alternators on three trucks... Volkov's radio went low-power about a minute before mine did, fortunately on the way out of the no-service zone. Managed to limp (well mine limped) back to the interstate where I called for a very shameful tow truck ride. The driver was a very nice Afghan dude. Good guy. :ylsmoke:

As it stands I spent the morning at the dealer, where they fitted another alternator. They then washed the truck, but nobody told the wash guy not to touch the engine bay where all the electronics covers were removed... So guess who lost a transfer case module... bingo

They gave me a disco sport and are fixing the truck at their expense.

As it stands, the truck will get another oil change in a week or so, new spark plugs, new brake pads/rotors, a EPB adjust, and hopefully time to dry out.

 

[leadoverdistance]

Great to see the trucks getting used, but a tad disconcerting that alternators were committed to memory after what seems to be a little wading and water. Hmmm. Does anyone have experience with this, and is there an antidote? Is there a good link somewhere for waterproofing LR3 electrics?

 

[Victory_Overland]

The landy's second tow truck ride


NCLR had a nice little off road saturday down near Patterson, California. It involved a bit of wading and a few pretty deep puddles, so naturally some trucks had to get dirty. Besides dirty, we killed alternators on three trucks... Volkov's radio went low-power about a minute before mine did, fortunately on the way out of the no-service zone. Managed to limp (well mine limped) back to the interstate where I called for a very shameful tow truck ride. The driver was a very nice Afghan dude. Good guy. :ylsmoke:

Connor,

Can you provide specifics on the type of fording you were doing? Was it forced water under high speed into the engine bay? slow wading through water with a bow wave? just trying to see what conditions might have led to this on two Discos.

Of course we want to see the trail pics now too in order to make up for our depression of seeing her on the flatbed! sucks, but hope the weekend was good regardless.

 

[A.J.M]

The alternator can be a weak point due to its location lower down in the engine bay.

The other thing is that an alternator is a known wear point and they have a habit of limping on for a while before dying randomly.
My own cars had one changed before I bought it at 8 years old.
My mates car was running fine, went to shop to get some things. Car was totally dead when he walked back to it. No dash love gets or anything.

It's one reason I try and avoid deep mud, also because it would clog my inter cooler and it's a pain to clean out.

 

[ColoDisco]

Looks like it was a fun day other than the alternator issues. The only LR3 alternator repair I have had that left the owner stranded, the alternator was thick with mud. Usually when you hear the whine it is time to replace.

 

[DiscoDavis]

All,

The wading in I didn't believe to be the sole culprit. We crossed a few low and short stretches of creeks, pretty clean water, not more than a foot or two at most. What we did have was a few mud puddles that ended up being fairly deep and comprised of thick, duck-snot sort of mud. One puddle (maybe up to the bottom of headlights) was at the foot of a short hill so two of the three trucks that lost alternators went through slow, no bow wave at all. My alternator definitely was saturated by this. I want to think that instance in particular could have been the death blow for mine. Those two trucks in question were both 06's. There was a third truck, a 2012 D4 that lost an alternator too but strangely did not cross the mud puddle I suspect. All 3 were racing through a short ditch with some very fine red mud that must have gotten everywhere. Thats most of what you see coating the trucks in the photos.

Coincidence, maybe not. Bad timing, yeah

The alternator I believe (will have to check my records), was original to the truck. It did serve a few hard winters on the east coast where I had a few low voltage issues in the cold those months. It also had a pronounced whine. Nowhere near a "new" alternator. I have heard anecdotally that it might be worth it to try and clean an alternator and check the fuse (which number it is I have somewhere). Mine was stone-dead though. For what its worth with a charged battery the mud didn't hurt anything else, and she drove herself to the dealer Monday morning.

 

[DiscoDavis]

Do you think it was the wading that contributed to the death of your alternator? I think you and I were both commenting earlier on how we had pronounced alternator whines and that they were probably on their way out. Perhaps it was just coincidental/bad timing?

I think it was just the straw-that-broke-the-camels-back sort of thing here, I do think it was on the way out. You may want to have a replacement alternator at the ready eh

 

[DiscoDavis]

I looked back at your rack photo. Looks like yours has no bottom and is bolted through the flooring. I like that better. I assume mine will hold water in rain. Probably end up drilling holes in them at some point, otherwise I think they will rust like mad.

Where did you cut in the flooring? can't even tell. I can see flooring in the middle of your jerry can holders.

I only cut maybe 1"x1" cross-shapes out, just enough so that I could line up the bolts for the mount. That is why you see flooring through, they're just small holes at each corner of the mount, under the steel edges.

 

[DiscoDavis]

All 3 lost alternators

Right after he calls over the radio: "front locker for the win" , he had to make a turn and unfortunately lost momentum unlocking his front diff.

He winched himself out in short order

 

[KMET]

Maybe a separate snorkel for alternators? :0

Is it just me, (bottom photo) your wipers look outta alignment. (Mine are parallel cowling)

 

[DiscoDavis]

Maybe a separate snorkel for alternators? :0

Is it just me, (bottom photo) your wipers look outta alignment. (Mine are parallel cowling)

No kidding, I am trying to think of a way to avoid this situation again... but honestly with the belt drive I can't see a way to keep it from getting submerged again. Wish it was at the top of the motor instead of the bottom!

Not my truck, thats the landy's sister-truck. We all had the autowipers on so I might have snapped the photo mid-wipe.

 

[JAK]

I lost my alternator the same way, wading through too much mud. It had perhaps 90k miles on it. I think that it got filled up with mud and overheated. Fortunately I was two miles from home when it finally gave out.

 

[zelatore]

As a participant in this little event who was also driving an LR3 and who did the deepest, sloppiest mud of the day, I might point out that my rig not only went home under it's own power but left the next day for a couple of nights in the Sierras.

What's the difference you ask?

I didn't participate in the 'how big a splash can you make' competition that was initiated by the LR4 driver. While that was more muddy water than outright mud, every time one of those guys blasted that pit I cringed a little. When asked if I was going to run it, I think my response was something like 'I don't trust the electronics on these trucks that much'.

So I'm going to say it was most likely the high-speed water attack that did in the alternators. Back down on the adrenaline and peer pressure and go with the slow and steady/bow wave approach and I'd expect better results.

 

[KMET]

As a participant in this little event who was also driving an LR3 and who did the deepest, sloppiest mud of the day, I might point out that my rig not only went home under it's own power but left the next day for a couple of nights in the Sierras.

What's the difference you ask?

I didn't participate in the 'how big a splash can you make' competition that was initiated by the LR4 driver. While that was more muddy water than outright mud, every time one of those guys blasted that pit I cringed a little. When asked if I was going to run it, I think my response was something like 'I don't trust the electronics on these trucks that much'.

So I'm going to say it was most likely the high-speed water attack that did in the alternators. Back down on the adrenaline and peer pressure and go with the slow and steady/bow wave approach and I'd expect better results.

Same logic I apply in Jeep...

I am looking into relocting solid state alternator regulator.

Here's a fun read.... http://www.landroverworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=23582

 

[Ray_G]

What's the difference you ask?

I didn't participate in the 'how big a splash can you make' competition that was initiated by the LR4 driver. While that was more muddy water than outright mud, every time one of those guys blasted that pit I cringed a little. When asked if I was going to run it, I think my response was something like 'I don't trust the electronics on these trucks that much'.

In my professional life we look at that as mechanical sympathy; the notion that drivers (and if I was talking across the Marine Air Ground Task Force, pilots) push their vehicles only as hard as necessary as much as feasible so when they need to flog it under true duress the vehicle hasn't been thrashed unnecessarily.

Don't get me wrong, everyone's done it but in truth I think the LR3/LR4 platform really isn't the right kind of vehicle to do that with given its complexity of systems and such. My old single cab toyota tacoma was perfect for it.
r-
Ray