150,000 mile Defender TD5

[lightning]

I've been offered a part exchange for our 300tdi, a 2004 Defender XS that's done 150,000 miles.
The TD5 is £12,500 with £8500 offered for our tdi.
The 300tdi is on 135,000 miles. Will the TD5 be alright at that mileage? It's in really nice condition and drives well. The interior looks mint with no evidence of the miles except a worn gear knob.
But if we put another 50,000 on it, will it be worthless?
TDCi's are toast at that mileage, or at least the ones fitted into the Transit Connect l owned.

 

[johnlad]

all depends on the history off the car, if its had work done properly there should be stacks of reciepts to varify it. The td5 is a good engine if looked after, but if your spending £12500, you should find one with a lot less miles

 

[ProcrastinatorFraser]

You see this is hard to tell. A 2.5 N/A, 2.5TD, 200TDI, 300TDI would all be fine at that mileage, probably about half way through it's life, but i have no experience with the newer defenders, (nor do i really want to have any ) but i would say that the TDCI would fall in the category of the engines I listed previously, so would be fine at that mileage. I just want to say, my fathers Disco 300TDI has done about 200,000 miles now and it really does not show. In my opinion it would easily make it to 300,000 miles maybe even 400,000. Very reliable engines. Personally, if I actually liked the newer defenders, i would go for it, but it's your call

 

[Brown]

yes, seems a bit dear for that mileage. See if they'll come down a bit.

It's not necessarily a deal breaker as you can find TD5s still going with a quarter of a million miles on them, especially in Discos. Machining isn't recommended on the TD5 engine, so reboring and regrinding isn't an option. They can be kept going by means of new bearing shells, piston rings and the like - there's a good picture write up by Bennehboy somewhere on here. Alternatively if the engine gives up the ghost there are a lot of second hand ones on Ebay, but you don't necessarily know that what you're buying is any better than what you've already got. If you really want to bend the plastic, there's Turner Engineering who have pretty much everything you could wish for
TD5 engine parts TD5 cylinder heads, pistons, bearings

 

[lightning]

The Defender is on the dear side, but they offered £1500 more than other dealers on the 300tdi.

They said l could borrow it to try out, so l might do that.

 

[v8landyman]

My 53,000 mile 2005 TD5 defender has just had a new Spanish head fitted and this is the 15p engine that was supposed to have improved heads. According to Cheviot 4x4 that fitted it, loads of them become porous between 50K - 60K miles. There were no cracks, just porosity causing dlesel to slowly leak into the sump. So if you have one that's survived to over 100K, it'll probably be OK, so far as the head is concerned.

 

[lightning]

Oh no.....my 110 TD5 is a 2005 and it's on 63,000 miles! I'd better keep an eye on the oil level.

 

[v8landyman]

Oh no.....my 110 TD5 is a 2005 and it's on 63,000 miles! I'd better keep an eye on the oil level.

Luckily it was caught fairly quickly, but I was never able to smell any diesel on the dipstick, just the oil level rising. The previous time I had checked the oil it needed topping up, then a couple of weeks later it was 1.5 litre too high. No apparent engine damage, all cam lobes were perfect and it is now running like a new engine.

 

[lightning]

Well in the end l bought a TD5 CSW they had in with "only" 112,000 miles

The 150,000 mile TD5 XS sold soon enough to somebody though

 

[Brown]

Yes, those late model TD5s are quite collectable for some reason. They're worth hanging on to.

 

[lightning]

Watch out for the road tax though! Any TD5 SW first registered after about March 2006 pays £500.
Before that it's £280.

 

[Brown]

As I found to my cost!

 

[lightning]

Me too! Bought new in 2006 then they spanked the tax up a year later.
One of the reasons we eventually sold it, l know £200 is not really that much, but it felt like l was being ripped off every year when my friend's identical Defender was £200 cheaper because it was six months older.
We've now got a 2005 and a 2003 CSW 110 and 90