New Landy Owner Needs Advice...

Hi

I've just picked up a 1992 Defender 110 2.5 200TDi - it's tatty and mileage a bit high but then I only paid £2000 for it so I wasn't expecting perfection.

During the test drive it was all fine, but driving home (about 70 miles on a lot of Motorway) I found a noise at higher speeds (45mph+).

It's fine accelerating and braking in gear, but if you coast in gear you have quite a loud noise - a bit like grinding. If you pop it in neutral it gets worse, but as soon as you brake, it goes away again. It goes into gears nicely except 3rd which needs a slight kick, and it stays in gear and doesn't jump out. Diff lock and hi/lo works fine.

Also (to my peril) I found the fuel gauge is stuck pretty much around the half way mark regardless of how much fuel, and the fuel warning light doesn't come on either when you run out of fuel and conk out on the Motorway! :-( I'm guessing sender unit fault?

I appriciate that Defenders are rough and ready machines, and I have no point of reference but should they feel smooth? Mine feels like your driving over small cobble stones all the time - is that ok? If it's right, then that's fine - I just don't want to be overlooking a sign of trouble.

I'm working on using it as my business vehicle - I'm a self employed Heating Engineer and visit quite a few farms, etc as I cover oil fired boilers as well as gas and my van is taking a hell of a beating on the tracks, so I need to get it into some reasonable shape until I can afford a newer one (or maybe even a brand new one!! That'd be nice!!!)

Anyway, any advice would be very much appriciated!

Thanks,

DC

The cobble stones effect is probably the propshaft, and most likely problems with the UJs. Either get new props (at £55 a pop) and bolt on or get UJs at about a tenner a go (needing 2 per prop) and refit em.. you can tell by seing if there's any play in em (park on the flat, wheels chocked, handbrake off, and hold the prop either side of the UJ and see if there's movement) - although the prop itself could have play.

Fuel is probably the sender unit which is a cheapish 5 min change job, but test it with a multi meter first.

Good luck!
OD

Thanks - I'm going to get out there today and start cleaning her up and having a real good look over her. I got a Haynes manual last night which should be helpful too.

Any ideas on the noise? That's the biggest concern for me at the moment as it could be the deciding factor on whether I continue down the route of trying to use it as my works vehicle.

Oh, and I did a quick spot of green laning last night - found a suitably muddy track and.....GREAT FUN!!!

DC

If the noise is like a kind of grinding noise then it's probably the UJs as well - they have a lot to answer for!

That's great, thanks - will get her up on the stands and have a good play.....so to speak! ;-)

To check the back prop it is best to have the handbrake off - not that it'll make any difference if the wheels are off the ground anyway - but make sure you chock the ground wheels properly!!!

I have had my landy 2.5 td csw for only two weeks.
When I first took it for a test drive it scared the living daylights out of me.
It makes all sorts of funny noises, does not handle like a new car, shakes and rattles like Elvis and smokes like a trooper.
Now I have serviced it and checked it out.
I now love it and am having great fun.
I bought it to tow a hot air balloon during the summer months.
I will stick with it this year then may trade in my VW transporter and then buy a newer on for my business. I am also a heating engineer.
As long as you check out all the basics for your personal safety, Wheels,brakes,tyres, chassis etc. Don't worry have fun and enjoy the expierience of being a Landy owner.

But particularly the chassis - everything else just bolts off and you can fix with a big hammer, the chassis is the important bit (as discovered to my pain at MOT time!) - there's loads of freds on chassis checking here, but it is the one thing that really matters and is not (really) DIY fixable.

and the bulkhead.

and the injin

ow tre, just looking down the LZ live and there is a fresh post on which winch poll, but when you click on it, its a reply by widjet from oct 07! said it was 8.00 this morn. how wierd.

it's just cos somebody voted but didn't make a comment - that brings the fred back to the top.

arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr i see, bit late to poll now aint it!

oh - anuvva vote.

it's a pain when peeps don't specify an expiry date when setting up their polls.