How reliable/unreliable has your defender been?

I'm just verifying a few things before I set out to buy one...
I know it's pretty hit and miss with landies, everyone says the freelanders are the worse things ever in terms of reliability, but my dad had one for 6 years and the only problem he ever had was a blown head gasket (once). Like, I said I just want a general figure before I go and buy one, I don't mind a bit of work but I don't want to be doing that on the roadside...
Thanks for your help

Depends wot your gonna do with it. ive had a few problems with mine over the last couple of years but it gets offroaded a lot and anything thats broken has been from offroading.

A blown head gasket in 6 years?

Say no more

PaulWilde said:

A blown head gasket in 6 years?

Say no more

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But most people report blown head gaskets in something more like 6 MONTHS. Besides, I only suspect it was a head gasket, all I know is the thing was overheating and land rover had the head off it for some reason, but I suspect it was a head gasket, being a 1.8 (with loads of miles on it). Anyway, it was more reliable than our supposedly "ultra reliable" subaru...

mine has been great. bit of TLC and it runs perfectly but I did spend a long time looking before buying - hopefully my patience will pay off.

had mine for 4 years and up until 6 months ago it only needed a speedo cable and we drove overland across russia and the middle east, needs a new tranny box now as a grub screw came of and chipped a few teeth.

depends on how old it is as well if you buy any 20 year old car your gonna have problems!

I Agree, as long as you keep on top of things they will run forever. mine has never let me down or failed to start, minor things like propshaft uj's giving up the ghost etc. you see 2010 reg cars parked at the side of the road broken down, like when we drove to petrbrough show the other week it was a 85mile trip there, i was in a convoy of landrover and we must have passed 4 broken down cars, some not even 2 year old!! and there was some landrovers goin past them that were 30years old!! need i say more?

Mine was reliable up until the gear box went last year, since then if I get 3weeks driving without goin back to the garage I'm happy, know I should probably get rid of it, but the bad luck has to run out soon,,,,,, there is not much else to go wrong now

90TD has been 100% 18 mths 11000 miles but its always looked after best oils regularly chaanged and Im always playing with it,wire brushing and painting parts.Regular weekend sessions for bigger jobs too.this weekend was repair,paint and sound proof the bonnet and fit steering guard.last biggie aug install and weld in a door pillar.Running aLR is like painting the forth bridge but the older ones are simple tech that runs forever if you keep changing the parts

mechanical = fantastic. electrical = problematic... left it sat in the garden for three years, put the key in the ignition one day, turned key and landy started straight away - but none of the lights worked. Spent some time tidying things up and passed MOT no advisories. best vehicle I ever had. not comfortable but I'm confident that I can get in it and it'll take me wherever I need to go regardless of any environmental factors.

i would never leave my landy sat in garden for 3 years. surely thats called neglect lol

The trick is to change things BEFORE they break. Saves a lot of trouble.

thats the method i use, just changed all track rod ends, and doing all bushes, propshaft uj's, wear and tear bits. Theres nothing seriously wrong with them but shes 17 years old now so theres gunna be "play" in all of them

Our TD5 bought new (ex-demonstrator) in 2006 has been reliable, in fact the most reliable vehicle we've owned, only needing a new handbrake cable plus the normal annual service in 27,000 miles.
It's never leaked either!

Problems with the engine management when we first got it turned out to be due to the dealer messing with the wastegate adjustment as a cheap way to try and improve the performance. Once reset to factory settings it was OK.

my 1985 ex mod landy hasnt let me down, touch wood! and it gets very used

disco2shaun said:

thats the method i use, just changed all track rod ends, and doing all bushes, propshaft uj's, wear and tear bits. Theres nothing seriously wrong with them but shes 17 years old now so theres gunna be "play" in all of them

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What he said - my Ninety is 22 years old and I haven't a clue when a lot of the parts were replaced (if they ever have been). So I've got a great long list of things to replace - but I'm not doing it all at once (can't afford to). I just pick something off the list (this month it's the track rod ends and panhard bushes) as and when I can afford to.
Obviously if something goes wrong or breaks, it gets immediate attention - but so far those occurrences have been few and far between.

My opinion is and im sure a majority of everybody elses on here is " best things since sliced bread". I love my defender and wouldnt change her for the world. What other vehicles between age of 15-50 year old are still on the roads today, harldy any is the answer apart from the good old landrover! they say 70-80% of all landrovers ever made are still on the road today!

It is impossible to say how reliable a 5, 10, 20 year old vehicle will be. ANY part could break at ANY moment.

However what I will say, is that with a Defender you know if something goes wrong then it won't be a very difficult job to put it right again. This, to me, is WAY more valuable than having a more complicated vehicle (which may or may not be more reliable) which is harder and more expensive to fix when things DO go wrong.

i knew i shouldn't have said my landy doesnt go wrong!!! my rear lights have stopped working