Defender Utility

Evening all, my first post as I feel a defender purchase is imminent.

I currently work as a mobile mechanic and have been on the look of for a van for the last couple of months.

I have spotted today a 110 defender which seems to have been ex EON energy it has the hydraulic winch, roller sides lights and 240v/110v inverter still fitted along with a working air compressor. it seems to be a HD chassis with a roll bar on the front and double springs on the rear.

its done 129,000 and its a 56 plate TD5, the oil filter seems to be reasonably new, but there is no service history for it. it has been away from EON for the last 3 years, and I guess any history has been misplaced since then, its located at a dealer. its looks ok underneath and the engine suits sweet enough, coolant is clean and started first crank.

hes looking for 6100+vat I'm vat registered so can reclaim the vat but my question is, is this a reasonable price as I'm struggling to find anything to compare it to online?

any and all comments appreciated.


John

Hello and Welcome,

Only thing is how many hours has the engine been running. I would guess it has been running a lot whilst no driving was happening. Does it have an hours meter?

Regarding price. I would guess you are going to have to try and cost it up against a normal 110 Van with added extras.

Cheers

There is one here.

http://www.lro.com/search/type-motors/subtype-4x4s/make-land+rover/model-defender+110

ive seen others for more money, and other for less but in less resonable condition. would the lack of history concern you guys? or just buy it and start with a fresh slate?

You pays your money and takes your chances IME... I've recently bought three D1's - the only one with a service history, and an exceptionally complete and comprehensive history I bought to scrap, as the engine was blown ( and I do mean BLOWN ), and the body was rotten as a pear.

I thus infer that service history isn't everything, and just because it gets serviced to within an inch of its life, doesn't mean the PO didn't drive it like a complete and utter t**t - blowing the engine in the process - even tho the oil is clean, and the genuine LR filters only came out the box a week or so beforehand !!

If it was with eon it was probably regularly serviced during that period. So, the last three years are possibly the ones you need to question more.
Sounds like a reasonable price to me, if it's as solid as you described.

Condition is gonna be key. An engine that has been serviced can still be goosed.

When they belong to companies like that, the in-house technicians tend to do the servicing rather than the main dealers so it might be that it's had some attention. Having said that, I'm pretty sure that the stamps in a service book don't necessarily mean the work has been done. I've serviced cars with a 'full service history' only to discover water in the gearbox, filter canisters with a lot more rust on than could possibly build up in a few thousand miles, loose breather tubes and various other stuff that you'd think they would have done, or at least noticed. So it's a bit of a gamble either way. The main thing with TD5s is to keep the oil clean - regular changes and regular filter replacement. - to maintain the mechanical condition of the engine. Now that most TD5 engines are 10-17 years old, there are a lot of very high mileage ones about, so clearly they can last well.

make sure it runs really well and smooth when warm (important they are a bit rough cold), and it should be OK, failure points are

Injector harness (quite cheap)
Injector washers (OK job, not overly expensive)
Too new for oil pump bolt and head dowel issues.
Final issue is possible head cracking, AMC head is permanent fix.

Should be good for 300,000 miles