sparg

No, that's more of a creaking noise

You know, I've a sneaking suspicion that TD5 performance varies quite a lot from car to car, and (in this case) even for one car. I hear some folks say they can come near to V8s for performance, then others say they're ok, but nothing to write home about. I've noticed some days it pulls like a train, and I almost seem to be having to hold back, and other days, it just seems harder to get up to speed. At these times, I also notice that it's not really pulling away well at low revs - there's that irritating little pause as you let the clutch in ad it feels as though you're going to stall - in every gear. I wondered if it was partly an accelerate--by-wire problem, and the ecu actually changes the responsiveness of the pedal (bearing in mind that it actually does do this when in low ratio, I think) - but even if I really stamp on the throttle to make up for this, it still seems to strain a little, all the way up the rev range I've been wondering how to try to collect enough evidence on what seems to be a rather vague and intermittent problem. First thing would be to try to exclude subjective factors - am I subconsciously exaggerating. Here, some kind of inexpensive accelerometer combined with a laptop might be able to pinpoint the practical differences. But I hear one or two of you mention a nanocom thingy; as i don't know what these do (apart from reading digital data from sensors and ecu, I suppose) - apart from giving error codes (aagh) do they actually give anythin meaningfully related to power output? ( I know it's not a rolling road, but...)

ah! - thanks - didn't know there was a breather there

yes, wondered about that. odd thing: it sighs when i put key in, before I've even turned the cap...

no. - can't hear any fuel pump struggling noise

I've mentioned this before, but not really got anywhere. My 2001 Td5, 87K on clock, had it for about 8Kmiles, has a slightly incongruous habit. When cold, it takes off like a rocket - I don't mean to, but it still suprises me. Once warm and esp. after about 30 miles, it seems not quite so willing. If I stop for a while - say, just long enough for a leisurely half of hand-pulled ale, then jump in and set of, the vim and vigour has (often) returned (the car, not me). In an exaggerated version of this, yesterday I found that it was (whilst cruising at about 40mph, country roads) exceedingly reluctant to accelerate much. This lasted for a couple of miles - just feeling generally sluggish. It cleared gradually, rather than all at once. In a related vein, I've also noticed that the turbo whistle from the exhaust (it's got a straight thru pipe) is quite prominent when cold, but fades and is harder to hear when warm (unless my ears have adjusted to the standard LR racket) I've been thinking about the various symptoms, which are not really, really pronounced, and come up with various hypotheses: 1) fuel tank breathing - or rather, not. - I've also noticed on filling up that the tank 'sighs' when the key is inserted into filler cap - but here, one would think the pump would get noisy 2) hoses to/from turbo - I notice people sell replacements - must be for a reason 3) ecu is doing something funny - but what? 4) a fuel filter somewhere 5) air into fuel line? 6) wife has a hidden remote control - but in which case, I wouldn't be able to stop off at pub. anything else, and, further, how to go about testing some of the more likely ones? (which are..?) Finally, anyone else had any similar symptoms?

many years ago I had a 1956 swb motor, and the (pathetic) wipers had the virtue that they had a little manual tab on the back of the exposed motor with which you could apply extra pressure and help the weedy motor along... now those were proper landrovers

They do seem to have had a long history of battling with aesthetic issues, and the further away they get from LR lookaliekes, the more this is so

Nice, but does the back have internal verticals down to the chassis, or simply mount to the roof? where's that from?

wider back axle for Td5 defender?

I've suggested that an external cage AND an internal rollbar might be what one should have (though I'm not entirely clear about the mountings' strength) in addition, I'm not so sue about the sideways facing seats - with lapbelts only. I know some people carriers (and I think some discos?) have a forward facing seat right at the back, but which folds out of the way for access. Has head/arm rests. anyone know what I'm talking about? I rather think an ongoing thread about defender safety and safety improvements might be an idea?

I'm seriously thinking in terms of an external cage AND an internal hoop - the point is that high vehicles like these turn over more easily and should be correspondingly stronger to cope with that fact. In respect of how the roll protection is fastened to the chassis - clearly, the mountings will deform on impact; is the chasis area strengthened to cope? - anyone rolled with a cage? - how did things deform? is some diagonal bracing needed? (it's not really there with an external cage unless you have a truck cab)

I go round the houses with this one - some imply that adding spaceers potentially adds a weak point at a really crucial place...

hmm several things to think about here. A blowout on a straight road making the vehicle unsteerable - that's alarming. I know vehicles used to be like that (I once rolled an MG metro at 70 this way) - but most are much better behaved now. why should defenders be worse in this respect? - big tyres? The crushability of the roof - we've seen that a couple of times these last two weeks. The defender is heavy, and when it lands the wrong way up, that bolt-together aluminium structure deforms rather readily. Do the usual external cages quite provide the protection you'd expect? - it seems to me that with that sort of weight, one would need a stronger cage/rollbar than in an ordinary car. Given that the front pillars/screen don't really offer that much protection, external caging here seems to be the way to go. But behind the driver's head - would an internal bar be stronger than an external one, and should it ideally be diagonally braced? I must admit, I've come to realise that the heritage of these vehicles is really that of a low-speed farm vehicle, and now they are much faster onroad, they haven't been designed to safety standards remotely like modern ones. The question is whether aftermarket modifications do really make up for some of this shortfall I find myself driving a bit slower each week! glad to hear you were OK

Bless! - "..a very long time..." - to us old people, 2001 was yesterday - for the majority of our living memory, diesel was cheaper. We still keep thinking it'll go back to 'normal'

Erm,, how much? This isn't Doctor Who speaking, is it? - can I come and buy mine there, instead of paying 1.04/litre, up here in the future

p.s - mains cable makes excellent speaker wire!

just remembered something else: there's a potential space in the rear wheel arch, just aft of the driver/passenger, where the bench shape leaves a gap that the wheel never moves into it. This could house a water-proof (and stone-proof!) box/tube that is the speaker cabinet, where the driver is mounted firing into the rear footwell. anyone made one of these?

quite agree that the sound system in td5 defenders is primitive beyond belief. The standard speakers are in the wrong place, they seem to be special mid-range-only speakers, with no top and bottom. They're underpowered, and they distort quite easily. Putting the speakers there (under the dash) means you have to have a substantial grill to protect them, and this causes turbulence, resonance and distortion at high (ish) frequencies. All this is couple with the fact of the high noise-floor of the defender, meaning you can't really hear much (and if you turn it up enough to hear, it sounds unpleasant) Solutions: use plenty of amp power, plenty of speakers, each fed with the appropriate signal (that matches their capabilities) So, for instance, a speaker tha is competent at mid, but not high or low - should ideally receive just that kind of signal - i.e don't stick bass in it, then it won't struggle till much higher input levels high frequencies: ideally, forget about precision and stero imaging- you can't have that in a car anyway (you're not sitting int he sweet spot) - go for coverage. particularly nice would be a ribbon tweeter running right along the roof corner, with two on the dash.(even better, two on the dash and same signal fed to two in the headlining, directly above the dash pair - tends to make the images 'float' free of the speakers) Mid-range - again, ideally lots fairly modest mid units, so positioned behind the back passenger seats, from front to back, so that even if someone is sitting in front of some of them, there are still plenty to provide the sound field. Additionally, two mid-range in the housings provided at the front, and two right up in the back corners, out of head-impact way. LF I've not really investigated whether the under-seat boxes could be adapted to house subs - I know that the one with the battery must be a bit full - but if the could, this would be a cool place simply becaus ethe haptic cues (vibration 'cos you're sitting on them) would make the low frequency content much more believable. In fact, you'd probably end up turning them down a bit. Amps: you could go a long way with this. The best possible solution would be an amp-channel per driver - so no series or paralle wiring. This way, each amp has complete control of the driver. Ideally, each amp should be slightly overrated rather than under - simply to avoid clipping, which actually soon destroys speakers (especially HF ones) as the clipping looks like DC, and speaker signals should always be AC Oh, and by the way, great care should be taken to keep all the wiring in phase - basically, don't get the +ve and -ve (usually red and black, respectively) mixed up. put a bit simplistically, if you don't do this, then you find speakers can produce inconsistent imaging and tonal balance and, at Low F, they're kind of working against each other (one is putting out bass and the other is sucking it in at the same time, sort of) All this sounds a bit OTT, so I'm going to try a novel approach,- first of all, using 14v Dc computer speakers (the kind that have an external power supply, which you leave out). These have their own amp in each. Actually, some aren't so bad. Although they're not really, really loud - if you get a lot of them (in phase!) the result is additive (though 2 speakers aren't twice as loud as one, quite). I'll run these off the aux Land R outputs on the head unit. ideally, I'd like to filter out low frequencies before the speakers, but that's later. Then, I'd like to add at least one sub (2 would be better) with dedicated amp channel(s) and pref an internal filter to leave out the mid and high. I know car stuff is differnt from domestic, and suspect the filter frequency is higher - normally, I'd use full range spakers and subs cut off above 90Hz. Then tweeters; here, I could relax the 1-amp-per channel rule, and just have Left and right HF amps, and couple up in series. The Hf amps can get their signals from the L-R aux outs on the head unit. All these, running from the pre-amp L+r outs on the head unit would mean that the impedance is really poorly matched; ideall, some kind of distribution amp would be needed, to turn L and R into 10xL and 10xR, without adding noise. think there ay be such a thing in Maplins, but it would be nice if it was a 12-14v unit. sounds like a project coming on... regards ppl

brilliant, thanks results showed that I really can't use radically different tyres on a permanent 4wd! - nearest match was this: Specification Sidewall Radius Diameter Circumference Revs/Mile Difference 235/85-16 7.9in 15.9in 31.7in 99.7in 636 0.0% 265/75-16 7.8in 15.8in 31.6in 99.4in 637 -0.2% think I have to stay with the 235s

thanks - did wonder about them, as I do pass nearish wirksworth every day

Sorry, don't know where to post this - although i'd like to do some work myself, haven't space and facilities to do many jobs. A decent garage that knows about LRs and cares about their reputation would be a goldmine (well, you know what I mean) anyone have any opinions on servicing in may area?

right - the other thing is rolling radius (or circumference, rather) On these boost alloys I've got, I've a notion to keep the two 235x85s that are virtually new, and put them on the front, if I can get a wider tyre (but same circumference) on the back. Sorry, I don't know how to work out the overall circumference of different size tyres, to see if an alternative size will do this. anyone? regards ppl

keep these advice points coming! that point about how different a route can be according to the weather might seem obvious, but actually, us city folk really don't realise how lethal weather can be, we just think it's inconveniently wet, or cold. But just a few miles up the road, and suddenly it can be like a lunar landscape. as a relative novice myself, this point (and the point about not going out by yourself) was brought home to me recently as i travelled an old roman road that's 10 minutes from my house. Although it's very gentle, it suddenly ocurred to me, in the fould weather, that if I had a mechanical failure, I'd be really up the creek. I was wearing just ordinary shoes, jacket, - no sensible precautions at all - I just hadn't thought it through!

this positively horrendous! - Kafkaesque. I still can't figure possible causes for the battery to explode. Certainly makes you tempted to get a Toyota!