Coventrykid

I had a lot of vibration transferring through the steering wheel at 50 - 55 mph which ended up being three different problems. The first was the loss of a lead weight from front nearside wheel after I had a new tyre valve fitted. The second was a completely knackered UJ on the rear propshaft and the third cause was excessive wear on nearside track rod end. All these problems were addressed and it now drives perfectly. I could not describe it as wheel wobble however, more like juddering through the steering wheel. I hope you get to the bottom of it quickly......

Si, Halfords sold the Autoleads DAB antenna for £19.99 which seems about the price for one of these everywhere but you could try Fleabay. I routed the cable through the dashboard at the side, fortunately there was a 'Defender gap' to squeeze it through, popped out the plastic grille and fished it through to the centre console with a piece of stiff wire taped to the lead and plugged it into the back of the radio. The antenna has a peel off back to it and sticks solidly to the inside of your windscreen, I sited mine in the top corner of the passenger side. There is another peelable back from the 'ground' of the antenna amplifier which just about stretches over the windscreen seal and sticks to the painted metal of the window frame. (You do not need bare metal for the ground!) The cables leading from the antenna to where they disappear under the dashboard then tuck behind the plastic interior trim at the side of the window which is screwed back with two self tappers. I love Planetrock and really miss it when I'm driving so I'm a happy bunny now! The DAB radio has lots of features and you can even change the colour of the display to exactly match that of your gauges and dashboard lights. I'm not big on I.C.E, it took me years to upgrade from a cassette player but having DAB radio come through the speakers so clearly is a big bonus.....

I've never been much of an audiophile and even less so now I drive a Defender but thought I'd make a contribution on here about in car entertainment. Ive just managed to bag a Pure Highway H260dbi DAB radio and CD Player from Halfords for £40 cos it was a refurb and missing a lead (which I had at home anyway). These are normally £129 but I did see that Halfords had new ones for £89. I had to buy a DAB aerial seperately for £19.99 but the whole process was an easy swap over from the old antique in my Landy and the sound is amazing (even through some inferior 4 inch speakers) The DAB has absolutely no hiss and locks onto dozens of channels easily. The head unit is also Bluetooth enabled and so I can stream music from my phone too. This head unit had some great reviews when I did a bit of research and was even top rated at its original price. Before you all scream spam, I am not and never have been connected with Halfords or Pure but thought I'd give you the heads up just in case you are on the forum looking to upgrade your I.C.E.

SteveG I'm not in the market for another Defender at the moment so it's easy to ignore them but I really do feel for those very few people who do actually part with their hard earned. These scumbags are also nicking genuine Landy sales photographs for their adverts and hacking eBay accounts. I think I'm more frustrated with eBay who make it so easy for em....

Every day there are up to four or five defenders on eBay advertised by the same lowlife scammers. They are always priced between £5000 and £7000 approximately and advertised at about a third to a quarter of their market value. The advert states it's 'Classified' and the item description normally has an email addtress for enquiries. If you check the sellers other items there are a number of motor homes and other cars for sale. I am reporting these people daily to eBay and when I was initially looking to buy I actually entered into correspondence with the seller. He/She stated that they were out if the office and currently in Northern Ireland so couldn't show me around the vehicle. They said that they would deliver the vehicle to my home address when I had paid by PayPal and if I didn't like the vehicle they would refund me......Yeah right! I know that 99% of the people on here would spot a fraudulent Landy in a heartbeat but just in case you're looking on here prior to buying please take note. It would also help if any of the members on here reported these scammers along with me, hopefully they may stop after a while.....probably not though. These adverts are placed on hacked accounts, have no previous seller feedback for vehicle sales and use other genuine buyers Landrover photographs.

It's taken a bit of effort snagger, I reckon if the company who sold it me had spent a few hours cleaning and tidying they could have got another grand, but their loss is my gain I guess. I need to sort the drivers door, there's a gap between the seal and the window frame at the top, I'm not too sure how to pull the door in closer to the seal so any tips would be most welcome mate.

Folks, heres the finished look after bolting down the cubby box to the new alloy plate with four rivnuts.....so much more use than the middle seat and I finally have somewhere to put phone, wallet, de-icer, loose change etc

I've managed to get a few jobs done on the old girl now. RDX lights all round, the others were well past their sell by date and a couple had water ingress. I decided to fit the cubby box I'd bought and took most of the morning getting the centre seat out. In the end I had to get the grinder underneath and cut off the nuts to the Torq screws at the back of the seat rails!!! The seat plate was particularly badly corroded and very dog eared around the edge so I've replaced it with a newly fabricated 2mm alloy one that a friendly factory knocked up for £20. As recommended I have tucked the OBD port plug underneath the cubby box and the cubby has been secured down to the new alloy plate with four M6 bolts into rivnuts. I'm still looking at Trackers but in the meantime I have applied tracking warning stickers to the windows just to sow some seeds of doubt and invested in a new disklok. I've reupholstered most of the two remaining seats, just got the seat back to do on the drivers side. I've also fitted an LED strip light in the load area as it was pitch black and the front interior light just wouldn't illuminate it. Below are some pictures of the new alloy seat plate, it's absolutely solid and a lot better than the flimsy mild steel one I replaced. I ran some double sided window foam around the edge to stick to the floor pan and give a good seal.

Snagger I spent a long time under the car before I bought it with a powerful torch and small hammer and didn't find any weak spots or serious pitting so fingers crossed. I've bought a disklok as my first step towards security but would welcome any further ideas in obstacles I can put in the way of the thieving gits out there. The Landy has a the fob immobiliser but I'm sure there are ways past this for the determined thief. I was thinking about a hidden device to stop the engine being started or any other method to thwart moving it. In respect of trackers has anyone got tips on the best one to install and what the fees per month are for monitoring etc.

Well Ive had the Landy for a few days now and had a good look over it, Waxoyl and Dinitrol can wait cos she's got a good coating of Waxoyl already which it seems I forgot about doh! There are lots of little tidying jobs to do and the door corner is also better than I remember it and can wait for a while. The only corrosion that may need attention appears to be on the internal seat belt floor plate and the alloy is actually degrading around it, the steel seat belt plate on the chassis will need changing too! (passenger side) Ive changed the steering damper with a new bog standard Armstrong one as the other looked like it was fitted when it was built and the casing was like a Swiss cheese. I've upgraded the lights to RDX ones as the others had also seen better days. i just need to fit the cubby box next as I didn't realise just how little storage there was, not even a door pocket for de-icer etc. The windscreen seal needs changing too as its started to crack.

Many thanks for your replies and advice, I'm sure I'll have plenty of other questions over the next few weeks and months. Good point about treating the chassis before the salted roads. I've been quoted £435 for the chassis treatment from a treatment specialist which seems quite expensive. I was going to have a go myself on a hired vehicle lift in the warmer weather but I understand that there's quite a lot preparation such as steam cleaning and wire brushing plus there would be better coverage with a professional air compressor rather than the aerosol option and there's drying out time too between cleaning and treating.

Folks, I retired this year and have just treated myself to a 2003 Defender 90 2.5Td hard top which I collect Saturday 5th November (tomorrow yay). She's not in bad condition and looks solid underneath and all the potential problem areas look sound with minimal surface rust. Obviously being a 13 year old car it has small issues such as some minor corrosion at the bottom of the doors (inside) and a few scuffs etc which I look forward to addressing over the following months. I have bought a cubby box from Paddock in readiness for its arrival as the middle seat will be of no use to me, my youngest child is 6' 4". There are no fitting instructions so I was wondering on the neatest way of fitting the box and any tips from members who have learnt by their own mistakes, I want to make a really tidy job of it! My defender has been given an MOT and a service by the seller (trader) but I would appreciate any advice on the first things to address as a new owner, she has 95,000 miles on the clock so I'm considering a tune up and timing overhaul but any tips on what to check and keep an eye on as a new owner would be greatly appreciated. Returning the doors, the skins seem fine but how easy and costly is it to have the steel frame replaced, particularly the lower rail. Finally I'm going to have the chassis treated when the weather warms up and I'm unsure whether to go down the Waxoyl route or Ditrinol Sorry to bombard you all with so many questions