Should I take it off the road?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ม.ค. 2024
- My Defender is getting to an age where it's been hard to keep it on the road. The solution is a rebuild..... once the garage is built.
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My Defender has never let me down and I've driven it nonstop to Italy and Slovakia multiple times. It's all about maintenance.
1. I really love your videos. 2. We all have bad land rover moments. 3. Keep going it should start behaving now
Daily driving a 1984 Ninety currently, Had it a few years. 160,000 on it currently.
I feel having a backup is a must. Some issues have taken a couple of days to sort. So just having something else to use, takes a lot of stress away.
Most vehicles quickly get scrapped with just a few of these wear/corrosion issues. A Defender is worth resurrecting. Fortunately there are parts available that can make it better than when it rolled off the Solihull line.
It’s now old enough to be imported into the U.S. You should put a shiny new paint job on it and ask six figures. Some sucker over here will buy it!
My 1991 110HT 200tdi has 354480km on the clock and is my only car (ok - besides my 86 VW Vanagon🙄) and it didn't let me down since I bought it in 2002 with 107k! I spent a whole lot of money on it, mostly for common maintenance because of its age (forgot the new gearboxes😬😂) and it is in need of a new bulkhead but yet there is no other car around which I would want to have! I'll try to keep it on the road as long as I am allowed by regulations! Best regards from Austria! I enjoy your content very much👍👍👍
Its easy decision, when the new workshop is finished, take the car off the road and use it as a shake down to see what you need to change in your shop set up.
My defender is 3 years older than yours and spent 22 years in england on a farm and doesnt have a quarter that much corrosion.
I have 300tdi Defender with 430000KM on it. I bought it because Body and chasis are good. Of course previous owner had put rubber mat on the footwell so underneath are rusted . I replace one side with dodgy welding and body sealer stuff and the other side I used rivets and body sealer. Here in Australia, We have no MOT every year but only once. I think car is easy to work on but there are luck of interest and no mechanic want to touch it. I have not yet replaced or inspected tiiming belt as previous owner had replaced few years ago and going by KM , I still have a long way to go. ....But yep it is time consuming to do service if you dont have dedicated workshop..., Thanks for the video!
98 300tdi with 272704 miles. Absolutely love the machine
* Not particular well maintained old cars are a pain! all of them!
In this condition, I knocked your Defendr 300 Tdi at a junkyard. Yours is even more beautiful. I'm a carpenter and after 5 years of restoration I'm a car mechanic and Land Rover specialist. 😭A terrible car I must say. I completely understand what you're going through. It cost me 20,000 Euro just for the material and I did 90% of the work. Now it's a member of our family and we will never sell it. I love this car even if I had to do it over again. You can certainly sell the technical license and someone will build it. Also an idea how to get the money back. Good luck and don't be sad. Women are worth a lot more money.🤣
280k and several big repairs and I but the built and rebuilt. You will love it when it is done.
Where is the original title of the video? "A Defender is a PAIN" something like that?
Landrovers are a labour of love, my current defender td5, I've owned for 23 years, and has cost an arm and a leg to keep roadworthy, as my daily driver, trying to keep the rust worm, at bay being an on going challenge, along with mechanical issues, 2022 saw a half galv chassis installed, along with lof clutch, flywheel, etc, terrafirma suspension all round brakes, brake,lines the list goes on, tune of 7k, but the time has come, for a change so going up forsale shortly. It's a special vehicles defender too. From Steve near Chester England 🏴 where the Roman's once lived
I have a 1997 Defender and it's great. Very reliable and nice to drive.
130 tdi 1996.198k miles absolutely no problems except the front doors need replacing and front seat covers. Owner maintained. Mechanicly perfect. Must be Barbados 🇧🇧 weather.
In Barbados you'll have that salty sea breeze corroding wherever bare steel touches bare aluminium.
Any old car, especially in salt country, is a pain.
love living in a country that doesn't put salt on there roads
Pull off the road next year save for a chassis get all the niggles done and itll be fine running it into the ground gets you this sorta condition
I'm pretty sure after removing sills that chris's battery shut off switch does more than just stop the car from starting, the whole thing starts to act like a giant battery cell. Also battery boxes, US regulation requires batteries to be housed in plastic on boats, batteries leak small amounts so battery acid probably sloshing around in battery boxes. I think the circuit accelerates corrosion in uk climate, I pulled the engine bay harness, the temperature sensor to cylinder head isn't connected off a factory harness where egr has been pulled. "DC will find you". Demister took around 10kg of crushed glass to blast, took days to sand by hand and shotblast, heater matrix similar, cost to replace not worth thinking about.
when you get ya new garage done you need to do a full nut and bolt restoration on it thats what i would do i did my 1998 7 years ago and it still spot on on original chassis not a bit of welding in sight had the original galved
There are only so many hrs in the day, work/family/everything else. Its how you want to value your time in the end....
Most people after they have spent a fortune, say, that is it, I am selling it or moth balling it.
When actually the vehicle is in it's best shape for years because of all the work done to it.
Yes the chassis isn't great, wax treatment would extend it for enough time until a rebuild.
Half of the problem is cheap parts that don't last, don't get me started on Chinesium parts.
I know most viewers boo'd when you showed a line of Land Cruisers but as your resident Land Cruiser viewer, I for one appreciated it!
I do sympathize, the 70 series is at 186'000 and scraped through a retest this morning.
Everything you are doing now will make the rebuild so much easier. Copper Slip is a must for every job.
Don't get disheartened, it will probable not miss a beat for the next 12 months.
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I've a 97 300tdi honest farmy 90 pick-up. I did inspect under when I bought her in Oct, and later while descaling the rust on the chassis with my needle descaler, found lots of issues in the rear chassis. Also while pressure washing about two black wheelie bins worth of mud out, managed to expose multiple joins in the rear wiring loom, so the brake lights stayed on 😬😬😬.
But 27yer old wire gets brittle, and Sparks, a company in England makes a replacement harness for £115, which I modified with extra wire for the later fitting of a 13 pin towing socket. I mounted the new loom with extra loom wrap and in corrugated conduit to the top of chassis, and replaced all the lights with new ones. All the lights cost less than an new lense cover for a modern car! They're not a brilliant design for the bulb connection, so will be prone to failure, but some silicon grease sprayed in may help extend their life.
I have a plasma cutter, and decent welding equipment, plus lots of 1.9, 2.5, 3, 4.7, and 5mm steel. So I replaced all the rotten metal with new metal. Much if this completed in nasty wet weather, and all had to be done outside.
I've fitted new standard springs from Flat Dog, and protected the outer if the restored chassis with rust converter, then etch primer, then 2k eurethanol epoxy based black paint. Lastly I have Waxoyl with a flexible wand to spray inside the box sections and hopefully these multiple repairs will last a few years.
I did use a drain cleaning attachment on my karcher pressure washer to clean inside the chassis, which was very good.
It is undoubtedly where mud has sat, that tin worm has prevailed.
I have the MOT on Monday, and hope Peggy the farmy girl will pass.
This time spent, is just catching up on failed maintenance, from years of use.
I just love driving her. The previous owner did spend a fortune on maintenance, so she's well oiled, and I've just got to replace the rear diff front oil seal and grease the UJ's.
But she drives so much better than my 1975 S3 Station wagon, and hey, what's not to like about not needing to plug a computer in every time you do anything. Because that's just like being married to a Teacher, and most every part is available and repairable. Which is more than can be said about currently mass produced short run vehicles.
Its a question i ask myself regularly. I have 2 110 td5 each on 250000 miles. One is my daily. Mrs h uses the other as her daily. I have to pay to get the work done, spanners are not my thing. You have some years when things go well and others like this last year when repairs cost many thousands. But then i look at other cars and i still would always choose my defender
Mate, I feel your pain. Lara just got her MoT yesterday. Day before it went various lights decided not to work. And I found one rear bump stop pad on the axle had rusted off and was mostly mud... Should not have washed it for MOT man...
Spent much of last summer in bits as bulkhead got 22 patches. Chassis a few years ago after the old one collapsed above the tubular outriggers (90).
177k miles, built 1985.
You made me laugh (Mrs sighed) when it wasn't you were selling it just complaining about having to rebuild it 😂
Good luck with planners on the garage - game changer. My Mrs said "no" many times over many years as to a big garage in the garden.
Mine is a 200tdi 90 at 300,000 plus and is 33 years old. It’s also my daily driver! I’m almost tempted to put the reg details so you can check my MOT history I’ve had with it in the 22 years of my ownership… it’s failed once!
That’s because I only use good quality parts, it gets cleaned underneath regular and treated with a marine primer before being undersealed.. in all that time it’s let me down one when the clutch exploded and that was partly my fault as when I opened up the box after I’d taken my engine out it was Britpart and I didn’t have a choice at that point.. it’s also worth noting I work in a marine environment and I probably do around 10,0000 to 12,0000 miles per year.
It leaks, rattles and smells and has faded body panels with dents and dings all over it but if you put it on a ramp and looked underneath it’s solid.
Anyone who lets a Land Rover rot out from under them has only got themselves to blame I’m afraid mate.. rusting chassis, bulkheads and doors can be avoided if looked after.. I also have 3 other defender which we use on our company pulling ships mooring ropes and wires.. 2 td5s and one puma and they’ve all given great service with one only needed some serious welding.. that is an ex Falklands army Land Rover which gets used in horrendous conditions on a scrap berth and only ever leaves the berth for its MOT once a year…
I want to add my landy has 325.000 kilometers and runs super.
If you've got the parts rebuild it. I've only had one 300Tdi in my life bought eight years ago and it is our only family car don't use it very much at all right now between 500 and 1,000 miles per year, changed chassis, done lots of other work to it, engine has always been fine, if I was to buy another one I would spend more money to get one in better condition and avoid hopefully mechanic fees later since I am mechanically useless, definitely quality over quantity for me and keep things working and taking care of them, preventative maintenance.
Iv got 7 old cars and its 110 petrol that dont get used much but i have to have maint check on all to keep mots flowing its time mainly oiling up cleaning brakes
My defender failed its annual inspection (nothing changed for the last 3 years) but it appears the law in Spain changes and my front lights now need to be on the paperwork, not just E marked, so that means off the road for 1 month at least as the laboratory needs to confirm that E marked lights comply with Spanish law (yep spain still in the EU etc). You have it a lot easier in the UK when it comes to changing parts on cars.
Probably best just to pull it off ghe road, go through it front to back and sort it. Then keep on top of it, if something breaks, repair or replace it rather than it all stacking up.
This is why you have two.
I'm somewhat annoyed with this. Most of what I see here is an attitude of run to failure, known faults not being attended to, everything being left until all failures occur at once. If you are checking over your vehicle correctly at regular intervals you would not have accumulation failure. Also stop buying genuine parts just because they're genuine, fit the better part regardless of manufacturer, for example I fitted a stainless exhaust system 15 years ago and no holes! Unfortunately this is the attitude that gives people the idea that old defenders are unreliable and always breaking down. I could go on but my finger is getting sore. Rant over.
My finger has recovered a bit, a couple of pointers - next time you work on the electrical connectors go to your local electrical wholesalers and get a tube of dielectric grease, apply this to your connectors, it will help keep moisture out and slow down corrosion, if one is corroded they all need checked. Next time you pop a coolant hose try a Samco hose.
Absolutely agree. Exactly what I was thinking. 🤝
my dude calls this his daily driver and his front tires were 14 years old. this video in a nutshell.
I can sympathise with a lot of his issues, work / life / Landrover balance is difficult. But I agree with you on a few points, leaving a lot of things to failure. Also the obsession with genuine parts, and stockpiling genuine parts in the garage doesn't help.
25 year old Land Rover Defenders like my 1997 110 CSW by their design, use and manufacture require much more regular maintenance and attention to dricetrain, engine, body and electrics etc etc than a Honda civic or Toyota Corolla etc. how many 25 year Civics or Corollas with 200k + are still on the road .I now have mine on a new chassis, springs, shocks, lights (inc new connectors)steering box & pump, water pump, silicone coolant hoses (for the reason you have shown) viscous fan, re-cored original radiator steering & brakes etc etc of best quality I can find and afford( rarely genuine parts but often actually superior). that is imho simply the cost of keeping it on the road. Thankfully Mine passed the last 2 MOT’s with no advisories which delighted me after the considerable expense and effort I put into it. It does still require time, attention & £££ to run old land Rovers ( I have three and enthusiasm but insufficient of both time and ££)
Dielectric grease not only stops corrosion it also stops the flow of electricity lol.
After 18 years of running a Defender, (or 2), I have surrendered and bought a Grenadier. It's lovely but at £60k it bloody ought to be! My 1989 LR110CSW was bought in 2006 at 145k, rebuilt between 2008 and 2011, run hard to 375k and sold August 2022. My 1991 LR90 van with windows probably did less than 20k in my hands and was sold August 2023. My parts cost since April 2023 and the arrival of the Grenadier has been £Nil. I still have a massive oil stain on my drive - it was not the Grenadier, which is still oil tight after 15k miles.
Nurse it along until you have your new workshop...
Landys are fantastic little beasts but tend to like to throw spanners in the works...mine now needs a new chassis which is the maximum pain they can give you...bugger.
Salt on the roads is th🎉e carkiller in UK!
The best Defender I had was a 300tdi 1995 model.here in Auatralia.
LWB 2 door,brilliant. Toyota landcruiser owners hated it.
You come across lemons in all brands as has happened to me in the past including Toyota!I have been through what you going through but with Toyota.
How much km dos this landy have on?
don't mess about put a new chassis on it mines on 250000 my mates is on 470000 .
Strip and rebuild.
It's MOT'd now so no worries for now, but I hear you. It gets a bit demoralising when it goes wrong, one thing after the other. But I think for now, it's better the devil you know than the devil you don't. You could get a good run out of it now it's fixed so don't feel too bad about it. I had an old $800 car for 15 years (no salt on the roads but its rust was repaired often enough for its 6 monthly inspection) and it was always cheaper to repair it than replace it so that's what I did until parts became too difficult to find and I eventually scrapped it due to no parts. Shame about the salt, mud and damp on the ol Land Rover really. Maybe (as this is something I would like to do) is somehow integrate high pressure water jets like a car wash that shoot upwards from the driveway and then you just drive your car backwards and forwards over it a few time to easily clean underneath the vehicle. Even using few garden sprinklers would help get the salt and mud off.
Sorn it build the garage by a very cheap Yaris / Micra cheap tax and to run so you can save for more parts when it is money dictates soon as the roof is on the garage hopefully warm weather start to strip it and place stuff carefully and don't rush as haste can be so stressful just enjoy doing it and videoing it for us it will be a super project prob something you have yearned to do for years and I am sure through the head scratching it won't take as long as you may think and you'll be so proud of yourself. now is the time to Prep, Plan and rebuild it you when your ready have the knowhow .
Landrovers were made for Africa. No corrosion here.
The landy saw your other landy, got upset and gave up.
Second hand landy's are a gamble.
You dont know what the maintance was before you had it.
It has done well considering landrover never galvernised chassis.
Most modern cars last 100, 000 miles.
It is time.
If you have time to rebuild, keep it.
If you dont have time, give it a chance of a new life by letting some else rebuild it.
Best of luck.
Funny enough, I had this discussion with a friend a few months ago. Although he doesn't have the time and space, he really wanted to have two Defenders (plus a daily car) but he condemns doing regular maintenance.
His car looks as battered as yours. Play both in the drag link and on the cardan shaft, wiper scratching his front window, calipers and pads looks like shit, the engine compartment was extremely rusty and dirty, old coolant everywhere after the radiator exploded and no engine was washed after the repair, the tub underside is white of corrosion, indicators don't work etc etc. In short, there has been a maintenance backlog for years. No TÜV/ MOT for this carbage this time.
Due to the poorer quality, the Defender needs more attention than other cars. You know that beforehand. Complaining afterwards won't help.
If you want to have a car like this, you have to take time and love. If you don't have that, you need also a little money to have it done.
He has now sold one and is willing starting to repair the other. I won't believe it until it has its MOT again😎
I started my '07 TD4 nuts & bolt renovation in 2021. The rust here is caused by the huge amounts of salt in Bavaria and the lack of regular treatment with underbody protection. Definitely my mistake. Hope to finish in the first half of 2024. The plan was for 2023😃
Keep your chin up😎, and think how easy it was to fix, compared to modern vehicles.
I think that as long as you work overseas you shouldn’t use your leave to flog a dead horse, you only live once.
The best thing I ever did was get rid of a pile of projects. No regrets at all and it allowed me to concentrate on the few I had left. You’d have no shortage of content to create without the RHD.
You might also seriously consider paying somewhere to swap the chassis over and let you deal with the inevitable fall out of things not working but get spared the donkey work.
The problem here is not the lovely defender but the owner who did not paid atention during a long time (many years) the good life of the car. I am the happy owner of a landrover defender 110 tdi 1997 which is perfect, I use it every day in south America with no problem,. The secret I take care of my lovely landy and also pass every exam like the english mot. Sorry you should have taken morecare of your land. Sorry saying this and for muy terrble english. Goodbye
Would that be warm and mostly dry south america?
Mate, it sounds like your defender is not maintained properly, all of the failures you mentioned should have been exposed on a regular inspection. I own a left hand 1997 tdi300 defender, used as a daily driver by my wife, left hand drive with 520000 km on the clock. In my country I do 2 MOTs a year as it is more than 20 years old, been passing them with no issues.
I think the question you should be asking yourself: is it worthwhile for you to clean your defender faults and invest in preventive maintenance.
*only changed it 5 years ago* id consider that more then fair use for 200k car be fucking have
Must love cats if you love a defender. Has a mind of it’s own, doesn’t care about you, but you love it to bits.
I came home after 4 months away. It was dead. Battery changed in the rain, and the engine purred to live. I fondled it.
Yes, i did think ‘should i let it go’? But then … sigh … how could you not love it to bits. The heart won out over the head.
Incidentally, your name is apt for a defender lover🤭.
7:04 but you used the last 25 years that car with no maintenance whatsoever...
You got to keep going with it now, it would be false economy if you started again on a younger one, and you would ultimately end up in the same place. Also if you get another, you will have to go through the relationship building process again, I bet you can name the source of every squeak, rattle, blemish, next job etc. better the devil you know. Flip the narrative, challenge yourself to see how long you can keep it on the road, and how many stats you break 😜
Just sell it 🤷🏻♂️