1996 Land Rover Discovery problems
NHTSA has received 111 complaints about the 1996 Land Rover Discovery, and 21% of them involve brakes. After that come body & structure (12%) and fuel system (9%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 111 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Brakes 21% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 5 and 0
- Injuries and deaths
- 5 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 140,000 miles 18 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 6 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 0 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 0 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 1 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 0 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 1 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 0 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 10 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 0 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 0 |
| 200k+ miles | 0 |
What the data shows
Among the 18 complaints that report mileage, the typical (median) problem appeared at about 140,000 miles.
Safety-related details: 5 complaints mention a crash; 5 injuries reported.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 1996 ranks 2nd most-complained-about out of 11 model years of the Land Rover Discovery with enough data (39 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 2 safety recall campaigns.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
Very poor emergency braking at low speeds 30MPH and slower. When emergency braking is required like in a left turn land and the preceding car decides to stop instead of completing the left turn, you cannot stop quickly. At higher speeds up to 25-30 MPH the same situation arises but you generally have more time and distance to recover.ehicle has been looked at by independend garages and most recently, again, gone over by the landrover dealer in scottsdale az.
Consumers 6 year old son was discovered partially suspended by the neck at the rear sunroof opening. The sunroof was partially closed. Consumer says the rear sunroof control was in a locked-out position. Consumers son suffered swelling of the neck and head and was unconsious. The vehicle was towed for inspection of any possible malfunctions of the rear sunroof. The cut off switch was in the activated position and the rear sunroof switch was non functional.
During a rear impact at 70 to 80 MPH, the driver's and passenger's side seats fell backwards onto the rear seat.
At higher speeds, above 55 MPH, engine would intermittently misfire and return to normal in unpredictable sequences. Loss of power and inability to accelerate, especially on hills, the worst consequence. Charlotte dealer said it could be a sticky exhaust valve, offered $2900 to perform an exhaust valve job. I declined and decided to take the cylinder heads off myself and take them to a machine shop were they could clean out and re-grind the valves for about $500.
Gas tank recall done in san francisco but they failed to check the fuel filler neck problem. I have had multiple mystery issues ever since, ruling out the fuel tank and pump as they were both new. I have since tracked the problem to the fuel filler neck that the dealer failed to fix. I believe my vehicle to have been manufactured incorrectly and repaired in the same manner. My vehicle does not come up in a recall search for the filler neck and I believe the recall should be amended to include mine.