Dan D90

Thanks Arjan, I think you have answered my question. Thanks for your help. Back ground is that a friend has a series 2 roof and I was thinking of buying it to put it on my 90 pickup to turn it into a van back. Seems like it is a nonstarter. Thanks again. Dan

Hi, Just a quick one I hope! will a Series 2 90 roof on 91 defender without any adaption or are the a different length? Thanks Dan

Thumbs up for Mike at Dynachip, he chiped & mapped my ECU today. Top bloke, did a great job can, not recomend him enough. Thanks Dan

Have you checked if the fuel filter is tight enough, maybe the air is getting in there since it has been recnetly channged?

Does it do the same with a full tank? I remember reading that for some reason similar starting problems can occur when the fuel gets low, something about the pump sucking air out of the tank? Might be worth filling it up just to check. Dose it start better when facing up or down hill, when I had my issue it was a lot harder to start when facing up hill !?? Have you checked for fuel in the oil as I believe this will occur if you have a cracked head? Maybe bypass the fuel filter with some long pipe to rule out any issues there or add some clear pipe in the system to see where the air is coming from? Sorry for the non-technical advice, maybe it will help find the problem without spending money, I wish I had taken mine to a defender expert rather than my local mechanic, as lot of money was wasted changing parts that were not causing the issue.

Thanks, I will try them both. ALl the best

I’m pretty sure my Frankenstein defender td5 is running a discovery fuel map, temp gauge works backwards and its very jerky at low speed. It’s a 10p engine with a non-flash ECU. 90% of my driving is around 10-30mph so I’m getting tired of the poor performance and have decided to take a punt on a replacement ECU. I know that my current ECU can be chipped but i would prefer to keep it as a backup just encase things do not go to plan! I’m looking to buy a NNN000120. Most of the ones for sale are from the discovery 15p engine so I will need to get it remapped. Does anyone on here offer a remapping service or can recommend anyone in the Warwickshire region? Thanks Dan

Did you make sure the non return value is in the correct place when you changed your fule filter head? There is conflicting infomation on the net IMO as to where the air blead value and non return valve should go, some say the non return is not needed at all. I had a very similar issue to you, air blead value was blocked and someone had put the non return value in the wrong pipe, this mean that air in the system could not get out thus the pump working overtime and a lot of cranking to get it started. Once the non return value was move to the correct pipe she started fine. Like you i change the pump, injector seals, loom etc etc I hope you have the same problem as its an 5 mins fix!

Air bleed value in the filter head? might be shot or in the wrong place. This cuased simialr issues for me, might be worth changing it for the sake of £10 !

It's defo creeping between the glass and the seal, I can see the seepage through the glass, its also dripping around the middle of the door. I have already sealed the corners with DumDum so no problem there. I will wait for it to rain and takes some pictures...

It has taken a while but I have finally tracked down and fixed every leak in the defender except one! When it rains quite heavily, I get quite a lot of water running in between the door window glass and the outer seal: The seals look to be in good order, however still leak, I swapped them out for news one hoping to cure the issue, however if anything it seems to have gotten worse. It’s the same for both doors. Have I just purchased carp seals or aim I missing something? The water is definitely creeping between the glass and the seal as I can see it, has anyone else had this issue, perhaps this is one of these cases where only a genuine part will do? Thx Dan

If this is really for your lad then have you checked the insurance? Insurance quotes were around £3k for my 18 y/o! Like you i am new to defenders, however I think getting something that needs a lot of work to get it on the road for your first defender is a bad idea. if you do all the work yourself then you might break even cost wise by the time it is finished, if you/ your lad do not lose interest by then. Maybe have a think about how much you want to spend in total, as Fridge said that £1500 could turn into £5k+ very quickly. Better to get one with a MOT, something like this would be better IMO: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Land-Rover-Defender-90-200-TDI/233218954441?hash=item364ceed4c9:g:GrMAAOSwktJc0E9I At least you can enjoy it while you are spending money on it! I have easily spent over £2k on my just fixing lots of small things and if your lad is going to be driving it you will want to make sure everything is working perfectly or you wont sleep at night.

Update ! Fitted the air bleed vale and non return as Sleaze stated above and the issue is now reoslved ! Im also shoocked at what a diffrence it has made to the drive . She is now a much smother drive at low speed / revs. Thanks for all the help

I’m defo going to put the air new air bleed valve into the connection highlighted by the red arrow. I believe its purpose is to let air out of the system and back to the tank, logically it would not do that anywhere else. However, where to refit the orange non return valve? I’m guessing in either positions 2 (blue) or 3 (orange) below, it would not interfere with the travel of fuel in either of these places:

I had a couple of minutes today so I decided to take the pipes of the filter housing to see what we have. Not quite what I expected! The pipe closest to the chassis has nothing it in & the pipe closest to the road had a none return rubber nipple: I was expecting to see the air bleed valve where the rubber non-return is. Are these the wrong way around and I am missing the air bleed valve? The workshop manual does not seem to mention the rubber non-return nipple. Does anyone know for 100% which pipe the rubber nipple should go in? I would swap it around and test but I'm worried I might do some major damage! Please help!

Hi Freak, I have read this in my search for a cure, it seems logical to me also, I think I will just buy one and change it given the cost. Thanks, Dan

I have an annoying problem with my TD5 defender. It has developed a starting issue after changing the injector loom, fuel filter and fuel filter housing (broken bold bracket). The loom was changed due to the usual oil contamination to the ECU. Prior to the change it started first time every time. After the change it would start fine cold but after 20 mins of driving it would randomly cut out or fail to start after the engine was turned off. Every time this occurred it would start again normally if I left it overnight. My garage was convinced it was a bad fuel pump so it was changed along with the injector seals. It now no longer cuts out while driving, however the problem when restarting still persists!. I can start it in the morning first time, after driving around 10 miles, turning the engine off for 10 minutes and starting it again it will take a lot of turning over before it still slowly fires back up again, when it dose judger back to life quite a bit of white smoke is produced. Sometimes it will restart and run for a couple of seconds before cutting out, then I’m back to cranking it again with the accelerator to the floor. Once its running again all seems normal. If I stop and start the engine after short runs this issue occurs 80% of the time. Since the defender is a bit of a Frankenstein (disco td5 and ECU) my mechanic does not seem to think the readings from the ECU can be trusted. It is going back to them next week but it is starting to feel like I’m just changing parts and not fixing the issue. Why would it start first time cold then struggle to restart? Any advice on what might be causing the issue or a recommendation of a defender specialist on the Warwickshire area would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Dan

Hey Steve, They did not get much use, the truck is used off road 95% of the time and hardly ever at night. when they were on I was happy with the output, nice and bright good coverage. They were fitted when i purchased it, Given their price tag I will be replacing them with something cheaper due to the lack of use and how easy they are to remove! In fact i am now reluctant to add anything to the truck that cannot be wielded on!

Thanks for the replies, all advice is much apricated. Since the main suspect is a local defender owner I'm not going to report back with what I plan to do. I naively thought my location would make this kind of thing very unlikely, however, it seems there are scrots lurking everywhere! Thanks again

I woke this morning to find some B*startds has stolen all the lights off my defender (WIPAC LEDS). My dog must have spooked them as they left one of the headlights hangning! I live it a sleeply village so i am abit shocked this has happened, although given how easy the lights are to remove i should have expected them to disapear. I have a suspect who i will bee keeping an eye on ! I would be intrested to know what people do to secure thier lights? I was planning on just drilling out the end of the screws to slow them down long enought for me to open the door ans set the dog on them fllowed up by and introduction to MR Baseball bat. Any better ideas?

Unless you are going to do the work yourself, (which I guess you’re not otherwise you would be able to answer this question yourself) surely it would make more sense just to find one that was in good shape? Or is the truck yours and you are trying to work out its value? Personally I would not even entertain buying it as I would have to pay someone to replace the bulkhead. There is probably also lots more rust that you have not seen yet, rotten doors and corrosion on the body mountings etc. I would guess a bulkhead would cost in the region of £1,000.00?. Finger in the air with regards to fitting! Probably another £1000 if you are paying someone. Lets imagine the truck with no rust is worth £4500?? To entertain buying it you would want to get it for less than £2000 IMO, even then you would have to be looking for a project! I would guess most people looking for a defender would not be interested in this at all. But that’s just my opinion. If you are looking to buy it and this is your first defender i would advise you not to bother, look for someting with no rot and an MOT, rotten bulkhead and chassis are the ones you want to walk away from. Dan

not sure if this is correct,just grabed it via google !

Are all the indicators working OK? I had a similar problem recently, it turned out to be a bad indicator connection (rear). After swapping the indicator and rewiring with the OEM plug all worked normally. Before discovering this I replaced the flasher relay and hazard switch, neither resolved the issue thus why i checked the wiring, strange that is caused the hazard switch not work work but it did.

Local windscreen fitter quoted me £90 to refit with a new seal + additional sealant, he says he has done a few defenders and if you don’t bother sealing them they very often leak! Tempted to swap the screen for a heated one while it is out!

Mine leaks mainly via the windscreen too and finds its way into the footwell. Even thou the seal looks as good as new, sealant during installation seems to be the best option. It looks like it gets in anywhere/everywhere and then just runs to the lowest point, I have checked all around the seal on mine and I can see water all in every place I looked, just peel back the seal and take a look, if you see water then it's getting in: My door seal also used to leak, like V8 Freak said, its a bad fit around the kink, in my case the rubber seal was not a very tight fit, probably due to being removed and put back on a few times. A new seal plus a bit of dumdum fixed this issue: On the picture below the red lines indicate where the water comes from on mine, there is a channel the length of the dashboard which the windscreen seal sits above, water collects in here and builds up until it runs out of one end into the footwell, also under this there is another channel where it runs to from a leaking vent (i have this too a small degree also). I hope to be leak free one day