Issues while turning at low speed

Hi guys a girls, I’m new here and need some help before I pour money into a defender.

so to start I haven’t bought the defender yet but it’s an 06reg td5 defender 90. Seems to be in pretty good shape and it’s solid underneath as is the bulk head and all the usual rotty places, it’s covered 130k in it’s life and has been used by a company so service history is okay and it’s history checks out as do the MOT’s.

It’s up for 13k but I’ve managed to get 3200 for my current car in part ex and also managed to get 1000 knocked off the price as the interior is tatty and the speedo doesn’t work,

I can see everyone thinking now “so what’s the issue”
Well I took it for a decent test drive yesterday was driving it for about 20mins so not to bad!

the guy who took came with me from the garage was sound and did tell me that he thinks there’s an issue with the rear diff which I did notice as as I was driving, pulling away and changing gear a knocking/banging noice from the rear? Not sure what this could be so that’s my first question.

secondly while taking it out of the forecourt I noticed at low speed while turning left or right the vehicle struggled to move and sounded like it was locking at tyre up on the front? It was like in my current car a Nissan Navara when engaged in 4wd on a hard surface it struggles to turn, that’s the best way I can describe it!!
Any help and advice appreciated I just don’t want to buy it then it not be drivable if you know what I mean, it will be my daily driver as well as a little project/maintenance toy to tinker with on the weekend.
Thanks in advance.

Unless you are pretty confident with a set of spanners or dont mind spending money, I would avoid it

Col

Gingerkid93 said:

Hi guys a girls, I’m new here and need some help before I pour money into a defender.

so to start I haven’t bought the defender yet but it’s an 06reg td5 defender 90. Seems to be in pretty good shape and it’s solid underneath as is the bulk head and all the usual rotty places, it’s covered 130k in it’s life and has been used by a company so service history is okay and it’s history checks out as do the MOT’s.

It’s up for 13k but I’ve managed to get 3200 for my current car in part ex and also managed to get 1000 knocked off the price as the interior is tatty and the speedo doesn’t work,

I can see everyone thinking now “so what’s the issue”
Well I took it for a decent test drive yesterday was driving it for about 20mins so not to bad!

the guy who took came with me from the garage was sound and did tell me that he thinks there’s an issue with the rear diff which I did notice as as I was driving, pulling away and changing gear a knocking/banging noice from the rear? Not sure what this could be so that’s my first question.

secondly while taking it out of the forecourt I noticed at low speed while turning left or right the vehicle struggled to move and sounded like it was locking at tyre up on the front? It was like in my current car a Nissan Navara when engaged in 4wd on a hard surface it struggles to turn, that’s the best way I can describe it!!
Any help and advice appreciated I just don’t want to buy it then it not be drivable if you know what I mean, it will be my daily driver as well as a little project/maintenance toy to tinker with on the weekend.
Thanks in advance.

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Welcome to LZ!

When buying any Land Rover, always allow about the same again as what you are paying to sort out all the issues once you have bought it.

And don't buy a Land Rover as a daily drive unless you have done a lot of mileage in them, and have some level of competence to fix them yourself. Unless you have good public transport options, or another vehicle.

I’m pretty confident with a set of spanner’s that’s not the issue and spending a bit of money isn’t an issue either, my worry is I’ve never owned a Landy before but have always wanted to but I would need it for work, now I know on occasions it will need to be on the drive for maintenance ect but I don’t want to buy something that’s knackered before I even get going if you know what I mean.

Gingerkid93 said:

I’m pretty confident with a set of spanner’s that’s not the issue and spending a bit of money isn’t an issue either, my worry is I’ve never owned a Landy before but have always wanted to but I would need it for work, now I know on occasions it will need to be on the drive for maintenance ect but I don’t want to buy something that’s knackered before I even get going if you know what I mean.

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Bear in mind that they weren't great when they were new, so very unlikely to be any better now.

Cheers for the welcome
I mean they may not be great on reliability but god they’re cool, I’m pretty confident with spanners and I have access to another car if needed for work so that’s not a major issue, I’m just not 100% sure what the problem is with this one I’ve looked at that’s all, I’m 100% dead set on getting a defender, I’ve been putting it off for far to long

If the rear diff is knackered, its not the end of the world. It may keep going for thousands of miles or give up the ghost tommorow but it is relatively easy to replace. Id be a bit more worried about the fault at the front end. It may be just a simple problem or not, its impossible to say. Draining the oil may give more clues. As I said earlier, I would avoid it. Is the seller offering a warrenty?

Col

Yeah the rear isn’t really concerning me to much obviously it would need fixing but that’s not a massive job or a massive cost, it’s the turning issue, it’s only at low speed that it’s noticeable like when manoeuvring in car parks! Could it be that the diff is locked though?
Yeah they do offer warranty at an extra cost, it’s a local garage and I’ve used them before to be fair an not had any issues.

I dont know enough about defenders to give advice, you need to go over to the defender section of the site where all the guru's lurk. Good luck

Col

Hi there and welcome.
Not sure if this has a diff lock or viscous coupling? Viscous units can seize, diff lock levers can seize/break and bulbs can blow so you think it's not engaged

Colthebrummie said:

I dont know enough about defenders to give advice, you need to go over to the defender section of the site where all the guru's lurk. Good luck

Col

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Cheers matey, sorry to be a nightmare but how do I find the Defender section of the forum?

Erm I’m pretty sure it’s a diff lock

Hi and welcome!

My first thought was that the difflock was engaged. It would make it harder to turn on hard surfaces and would make the frontbwheels sound like they’re locking up.

The Defender section is here...

https://www.landyzone.co.uk/forum/defender-90-110-130.7/

Hello and welcome

Welcome to the forum