demonwolf444

I think realistically I'll keep it, finances are irretrievable reality is it's known and it's been a bloody good truck, will tow anything I am attached to it; I grew up helping dad on his series landys, the defender was always the dark side the problem I have is that I may have to do more of a commute to work in the future (currently work from home) and it would cost me 1/3rd what I earn In a week to run it. Currently I go nowhere and generally put £30 a week in, I can easily see that tripling. Tax and insurance is £1000 a year essentially. Looking at running on veg oil...which I'm not a huge fan of but it is cheap? I live in the middle of nowhere, no fuel stations close by, thinking of getting a big tank and at least being able to fuel it with something from home. Major fears of gummed up injectors fuel pumps and such Or just buying a cheap run around, but paying tax and insurance on a cheap little car as well as the defender makes my motoring only more expensive, maybe I'll sorn it turn a shed into a spray booth and repaint panel by panel. i don't know, the fact is running the Landy costs me around 3k a year before I start buying radiators and water pumps and doors which adds up to quite a lot of cheap bangers. Before the Landy I had what amounts to a fleet of fiat puntos and a Renault Clio, they would go forever on no fuel and all the cars I have had combined don't add up to the cost of running the Landy for 1 year.

Thanks for your thoughts keep them coming! I put it at 6-8 realistically on a good day it's worth more to me because it's "known" when bought I paid 3k near enough, rotten chassis, door pillar, foot well, tyres near enough bald. Having never seen it accepting that anything in that price range would have been junk. Put a new rear x member on and out rigger, foot wells, made some bulkhead repairs, door pillar, new back door (2nd hand but a good one - no rust) repaired every kind of fault electrical fault, reinforced the doors, new loom for the rear end, Led's all round, then had a wicked blow out on the old tyres, so replaced them all round sudsequently failed it's MOT, had it rebuilt on a new chassis, basically everything underneath that counts is new other than the axles which are fine but the rear needs doing in time which I have, creature comforts, heated seats, electric windows, recovered the headliner with black anthracite, sound proofing all over carpeted back out and fitted the stainless front and rear door step trim bits new seals all round. In some ways it's a really good thing because t hasn't been messed about with irretrievably. The downside is I think if you wanted to make it A1 perfect you would want 5k to throw at it (as said doors, bulkhead renewed or repaired and galv dipped) its been quite an adventure getting it to the stage it's in and generally the spending behind has been "if it looks 26 years old and knackered (e.g. Radiator ) then it gets replaced. the bare bones of it are quite good, the doors annoy me but it's just not worth replacing them it now has a summer MOT date which is a bit more friendly than the January one (who wants to be under a car in snow - not me I did it; not fun) and when it was rebuilt it passed MOT with no advisories, I can't see why the next one won't be the same save possibly seat belts wear. Since then it has been serviced regularly and runs as good as anyone could want. When buying it my thought were if it's not been messed with and I can see what's wrong at least I can put it right. At the time I looked at many which were stitched together with body filler and weld and drippings oil while they sat for 5-7k which is why I thought I would rather have something genuine if a bit knackered than a pig in lipstick By the 2k remark I mean I could buy one in a similar state to this was when I bought it for that money now; admitting it would still need lots of work to get it to this point! After having to pay someone 8k for the rebuild ( agreed 4... verbally but then nearly everything had to be cut off hence new suspension and trailing arms and such) I already had a month off work to tinker with it and couldn't afford to take any more time off ) I saw one on a galv chassis being sold for 6k and realised I was a long way off recovering my costs in any way! Thanks for your advice one and all keep it coming; I will do more reasearch im continually undecided on whether or not to sell.

Two years ago I bought my defender 90, i had always wanted one. At the time (the height of the price silliness) I paid 3K for a bit of a rust bucket; to put in perspective a similar vehicle could probably be picked up for a bit less than 2k now. I chose this particular rust bucket because it was the most honest I could afford; no body filler hiding holes. The joke is after everything I have done it doesn't look that much different, it's quite a different machine to what it was Technical specs are - 1991 200tdi with around 190k on the clock. Full service history from day dot think I'm the fourth owner ? The only faults with it that I can think of is; county back windows are siliconed up. Doors realistically need replacing though for me I'll get another 5 years out of them, rear axle needs replacing (have a good replacement to fit this summer ) and it could do with a paint job. Engine and gearboxes sound good and pull well. Don't think it really needs it but have a set of new injector nozzles to put in it drives really well, will do indicated 80 on the motorway flat out (just!) but will power up to 70 nicely and sit there The whole rebuilt on to a galv chassis, with new dampers suspension, second hand radius arms and new trailing arms. New calipers and discs fitted on the front. Has a disco rear axle I'll fit this summer, from axle is in really good nick. Slick shift fitted to gear stick. electic windows fitted alarm locks and unlock some on the button spare wheel carrier fitted mud dash fitted with double din, reverse camera, rear wash wipe, and switch's for heated seats and electic windows rock slider type side steps fitted. LED's all round (wipac) Heated seats fitted home made dog guard fitted, back fully soundproofed (front to be done) covered with sound deadening material with black anthracite carpet over the top. Wheel bearings recently checked and replaced all round, with all the seals two fold and tilt forward facing seats and belts inclusive for the rear (not fitted ) 4 all terrrain tyres that have seen little use. Spare wheel is a different tread but on the same rims. Low box working - video here of her running With the diff locked pulling a fallen tree off the lane up a 1 in 5 hill (sorry for the shrieking I've never asked my girlfriend to film anything again ) IMG_0699.mov Minor bodywork repairs made (bulk head and door pillars. You could do further work to make it perfect but it's perfectly serviceable and motable now but would benefit from paint. Everything works that should work, from the heaters to the courtesy lights. cooling system recently flushed through new water pump fitted, new radiator, and new intercooler. I've got well over 15k ( original purchase 3k, first load of parts £1k rebuild on galv chassis 8k plus extra parts easily another 2k ) tied up in this unfortunately I probably have the reciepts to prove it I'd love someone to give me for it but I don't think they will, I was done over a little bit on the chassis rebuild ) I think if you wanted to make it A1 perfect then you would want to get a galv bulkhead and some nice doors; everything else would probably paint / polish/ repair up anyway it's a 26 year old Landy... it's not the finest example but I would rather have mine than an unknown vehicle... . what's it worth? Truth be told the damn thing nearly bankrupt me and my business, i spent my life savings bringing it back from the scrap heap and now I just don't have the last bit it would need to make it perfect. Everyone told me it would be a disaster and a bad idea; on the contrary it's been so much fun; I just could save a huge amount by not having it. Second from that my income Is not large and such a fuel thirsty car, with expensive insurance (age 23) and tax just isn't smart thinking. As much as I love it we have other Landy's at home to play with and I suppose my options are to sorn it and buy a cheap run around. or sell it and buy a cheap run around. Being a fool I'm tempted to do the former. It really just depends how much it's worth, you just cant tell some stupid kids and I've full well been a stupid kid. So what's my folly worth? Owt? Or just a lesson well learned? your thoughts and abuse appreciated gentlemen James

I know this comes up a load; I have a defender 90 1991 200tdi when I bought it, it always ran a little hot, it always stayed scarily close to but below the red section on the temperature gauge but never went into it. From memory when it was like this the heater worked but with the usual feebleness that you expect from a neglected old landy. Anyway I had a galv chassis put on and told the fellas that did it that it always ran a little hot; when I got the landy back this was completely solved; don't know how but the temperature gauge never gets over 1/3 of the way through the white area, I often do little short trips so figured I wasn't going far enough but i've done 150+ miles today with no issues and again despite 150 plus miles at 70mph the temps only reading 1/3rd the way through the white area on the gauge. I have been speaking to my mate and he said the two things might be linked, if I were to have an air lock in the system this might prevent coolant either A, reaching the point where the temperature sensor is and B flowing into the heater matrix - explaining the lack of hot air. What do our resident experts think? What should I try? what should I test? If I want to flush and refill the system what do I need and how to I go about it to ensure no air locks? Help appreciated as I'm all at sea. Just niggling me! James

Mine were worn out completely, can't remember what I bought but despite priming and painting with several coats of each they have rusted with undue haste. If you look at the cheapest ones on eBay, they are probably the ones I bought. That being said I used cheap paint too, and they open and close fine and have no slop in them, but compared to the worn out ones I had anything was better!

There are heated front screens for about £115 on eBay IIRC and wiring harness to go wth it I think is another hundred or odd quid I want to do this to my 90 as I also have a cracked windscreen. sadly the car owes me too much as this point, so much needs sorting out that takes priority over frivolities like heated windscreens ( err you know like a chassis ) I'm going to be in a right hole when it's all sorted but hey ho that's landrovers.

I replaced my hazard switch two days before my MOT, with an eBay article, looked and felt great far better than the original which had felt very worn out ( which maybe says something about the vehicle 😂 should I be worried if my Hazard switch feels worn out?!??) cost was a few quid. Fitted, it was exceptionally tight into the surround. Anyway MOT Garage was about four miles from home and after the single use to test the switch it failed en route to my MOT. Garage told me that your always better off getting a known working one from a breaker or a genuine part. They gave me a new one for nowt of another defender so happy days but I think I'll just cough up for switches now, not worth the hassle of replacing with cheap only to have them break right after james

Hi Simon, thanks for having a dig through the empire of dirt for me! ill happily give you what you are looking for for the switch, I'll have to see if I can find where my button went, but I know new bottoms are available. Thankyou ou western for the wiring diagram!

Hi guys, looking for a rear wash wipe switch I errr disassembled mine beyond the point of reassembly, not bothered with it as I stuck a different rear door on that wasn't fitted for a wiper but finally got round to doing it all and was surprised to not find them listed on eBay, anyone know who has them? There is one on eBay but it's in with a dash and fag lighter and I don't need all that, just hoping someone either has one sat or can point me in the right direction

Mine does this when I have been working on it and forget to tighten up the leads to the battery terminals, click and it just doesn't start, sound like a bad connection to me somewhere.

Well after my first round of work I my 200 tdi, I messed up reassembly of my wiper motor and burnt it out, every part has since been replaced and yet I have been left with two issues, my "flash wipe" doesn't work and my wipers don't park correctly. The he first issue I know is that the spring on contacts in the wiper switch is in the wrong position. But despite head scratching and googling and new park switches and wiper switches and relays and earths and contact cleaners I couldn't get my wipers to park properly anyway I've finally solved my wiper parking issue, and thought I would share it in case anyone else has suffered this head scratcher. every part had been replaced which made the non parking issue more of a head scratcher. In the end I looked at the wiper motor I had bought more closely, and double checked the wiper motor listing, it stated in small print that the gears must be transferred from the old motor to the new one. On face value they looked identical but the button that engages the park switch are 90 degrees off on the new one to the old, resulting in my wipers parking in the upright position. Dug through three bags of rubbish awaiting a tip run and in the third one found my old wiper motor, swapped the gears, and problem solved. My my wheelboxes are a bit worn out ( hate removing all the dash !! ) but other than that wiper woes are at an end!