land rover 90 springs

hi chaps,
iv recently bought a 2011 defender 90 and im noticing that when driving over anything less than a flat road that the rear end seems to be rock hard and bounces about all over the shop, its all the original suspension,
i was wondering if there was anything i could do to make it all a bit softer, it doesnt really go off road, i do a bit of clay and game shooting so go across a few fields and thats it, went across a stubble field a few days ago at about 5mph and it was bouncing me off the roof,

thanks.

lee

burleyviking said:

hi chaps,
iv recently bought a 2011 defender 90 and im noticing that when driving over anything less than a flat road that the rear end seems to be rock hard and bounces about all over the shop, its all the original suspension,
i was wondering if there was anything i could do to make it all a bit softer, it doesnt really go off road, i do a bit of clay and game shooting so go across a few fields and thats it, went across a stubble field a few days ago at about 5mph and it was bouncing me off the roof,

thanks.

lee

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Your shock absorbers are carped.

does that mean knackered

burleyviking said:

does that mean knackered

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Yes.
That would be my first line of investigation anyway. The springs allow your suspension to articulate, the shocks keep it under control. If the bouncing is out of control I would suspect the shock absorbers.
EDIT
Unless you were driving faster than you think.

that makes sense mate, did a google search yesterday and spent about 3 hours reading on a few land rover forums and some were saying springs and some were saying shocks, as its doing my head in i think i will just change them all for what it will cost, as it it its not making me enjoy my new land rover as i should be doing.
thanks for your help

lee

burleyviking said:

that makes sense mate, did a google search yesterday and spent about 3 hours reading on a few land rover forums and some were saying springs and some were saying shocks, as its doing my head in i think i will just change them all for what it will cost, as it it its not making me enjoy my new land rover as i should be doing.
thanks for your help

lee

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Take them off and try push pulling them back and forth to see what the resistance is like.
How's it handling on the road?
While your Landy is designed to go off road, it can only do it slowly over something like a rutted field. The vehicle has a very large mass, so increasing your speed slightly will magnify the force created, over a rut, by a large amount. The shocks can only resists a certain amount of force in a controlled way, exceed that and you'll turn in to Tigger quite quickly.

If they're original shocks they're almost certainly shot. New ones are cheap and a doddle to fit, you'll probably need to cut the nuts off the old ones as they'll be rusty as fook .

And when you have done the repairs, it will still be rock hard and pitchy. 110 is better but 90 will need softer springs on the back or carry some weight to lose the rock hard feel on the back.

The springs will be OK. You need to fit adjustable shocks, l fitted some to our 90 and it made quite a difference.

You don't say which Defender version you have, l assume SW (four seats)

Try the Terrafirma 4 way adjustable shocks, and fit them to the front as well. Set them to the softest setting. On my 2005 110 it was a lot smoother on rough roads, on the missus's 2003 90 it was also noticeably less bouncy "like having a mattress between you and the bumps" my missus says.

Also l have found it's less bouncy if you set the tyres to the correct pressures (not softer in an attempt to get a better ride!) and also if you run it with half a tank or more of fuel.
lt all helps a little.

its a 90 hard top, im more than willing to fit whatever it needs, just been looking at the terrafirma shocks and they all seem to have a 2" lift on them, dont want that,
think there the original shocks and its done 70k, and when iv been in the farmers fields iv gone as slow as poss, maybe im just used to my disco 2, but im sure my last defender 300tdi csw wasnt this bad at all,

No, they do standard as well as 2" lift, l just bought two sets

The fronts are Terrafirma part no. TF172 and the rears TF173

Do what l suggested above and it will be a fair bit better.

Before the TD5 90 SW we had a 300tdi SW and that was a harder ride than our TD5, in fact l bought new shocks for it but never fitted them as we part exchanged it for the TD5.

With the adjustable shocks fitted my 110 can be driven on rough tracks without my head hitting the roof, it really is that much better.

that sound just the job mate, think i will have some fitted, its handy as i live across the road from an land rover garage.
thanks.

lee

They retail at around £310 per set, but my LR lndy did them for £240.
I fitted them myself.

burleyviking said:

that sound just the job mate, think i will have some fitted, its handy as i live across the road from an land rover garage.
thanks.

lee

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Unless you use £20 notes as kitchen roll and £50 notes as firelighters don't pay a garage to replace your shocks. It's a very easy job.

The rears were very easy, except the Terrafirma bushes wouldn't fit in the cups on the axle and l had to use the original ones.
The fronts were a bit of a swine, as the Terrafirma shocks a/are fractionally longer and b/ have a negative bias so they keep slowly extending as you try to get them over the mountings in the wheelarches (after fitting them to the turrets)
l was literally crying with frustration by the time l finally got them fitted.

iv recently finished a full restoration of a series 3 CSW with a mate, so i will give it a go doing it myself, obviously on the series 3 it was as simply as it gets,a 10 minute job, after that taking up all my time for the last 2 years i find it easier to take it over the road nowadays,

new shocks fitter, just normal land rover ones, now its fine, turns out both top bushes were knackered too, all is good.
cheers chaps.

lee