UK Car Repair: Land Rover Starting, oem oil filter, land rover discovery

Question
Hi Christian,
First off, thanks for looking at this! I'm looking into buying a 2004 Land Rover Discovery and took one for a test drive yesterday. One thing that concerns me; it started ok but sounded really loud for about 30 seconds at startup. After that the engine came down to a somewhat normal level. Not sure what this could be, but the vehicle did have the 4.6L V8 engine. Do you think this is a problem with the engine? During the test drive the engine performed and sounded fine.

Thank you,
Jon

Answer
is it anything like this sound? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JmUKOzlLnI

if its just for 30 seconds it could be:

old oil,
wrong oil filter,
wrong grade of oil,
clogged oilways.

if the car has just been serviced and has clean oil and oil filter, thats bad. worn valve gear - walk away.

if it has old, black cruddy oil -->

   a small service:

engine flush,
air filter,
oil filter,
fully synthetic oil for high performance engines,

this will sort it out - make sure its an OEM oil filter and good quality name-brand air filter- also wynns engine flush will clear any deposits from the oilways..

if the rest of the car is in good order i'd hazard a guess that this car has missed a setvice and is crying out for one.

beware though, these cars are very expensive to fix and they go wrong often.