Filbee

I've already got some Lockheed/AP seal kits so hopefully they will go in without the Britpart tool. I would normally buy the right tool for the job, but £70 for a piston spreader and a bit of turned metal seems a bit steep!

There's no great rush. I will probably rebuild my calipers with stainless pistons at some point. I'm just not sure I want to have the truck laid up for the couple of weeks it would take me to strip, paint and rebuild the calipers 🤔 How do people get on with fitting the dust seals without the special tool to press them in? I've rebuilt plenty of calipers over the years from Brembo F40s to 6 piston bike calipers, but none of them needed any special tools to fit the seals!

Thought I'd take the wheels off and give the calipers a service after a few of you suggested I do that before buying new calipers. I think it's fair to say the pistons are Donald Ducked... The dust seals on the upper, inner pistons on both calipers had come adrift and the pistons were stuck. I managed the free them off and stick it all back together but I shall be ordering some new AP calipers as soon as I can work out the part numbers!

Thanks Mo, that definitely seems like the most straightforward option! Shame you can't separate the buckle "stalk" from the mounting bracket. The slot you would need to cut would be smaller and neater...

My Wright Off Road matting kit arrived from Drew earlier in the week and I can't wait to get it fitted at the weekend (hopefully). I've been doing a bit of mental preparation and it all looks reasonably straight forward. My seat rails have little spacers where the bolts go through so that should help them sit above the matting without having stick a load of washers under them. The only issue I can see is the seatbelt buckle receivers inboard of the seats. I have a 2006 Td5 110 hardtop, which has the seatbelt receivers bolted to the top of the seatbox with two bolts, right next to the inner seatrails, so it will sit either directly over or under the mat when fitted, whereas I think earlier Defenders have the seatbelt receivers bolted to the flat section behind the seats, and therefore they don't interfere with the top section of the matting. My question is, to anyone who has fitted WOR matting to a late model Td5, how did you tackle fitting the seatbelt receivers? Did you leave them bolted in place and cut a slot for the buckle receiver to pass through, or did you remove the receivers and space them upwards to stand clear of the matting? Any thoughts, advice and/or pictures will be gratefully received!

Thanks for the replies so far. I might at some point rebuild my original calipers with stainless pistons as I mentioned in the first post, but right now I'd rather spend the time doing something else, which is why I want to get some new/refurbed calipers I can just bolt on. I'm thinking the AP/Lockheed OEM option is top of the list, and the prices aren't too bad from LR Direct, if I can ever work out which part number I need! But for balance, has anyone had any experience with some of the cheaper options?

Has anyone got any recommendations for new front calipers for a Td5? What brands and/or suppliers would you suggest from your own experience? At the last MOT the tester said that one of the front calipers was sticking a bit, so I'd originally intended to rebuild them both with nice new stainless pistons. But looking at the prices of new/recon calipers, I'm thinking I may as well save myself some hassle and just stick some new ones on...

I fitted a new pump, filter head and regulator to my Td5 when I first got it, and it wouldn't start after I'd fitted everything. It turned out that the non-return valve in the filter head was fitted to the wrong outlet on the filter head! And that was on a brand new, genuine LR filter head... I'm sure if you've had the filter head apart you'll have put it back together correctly, but could be worth a check.

I've been using Dynax S50 on my vehicles for a number of years and found it to be pretty good. On my Defender I sprayed it inside and outside the chassis and inside the bulkhead after I'd given everything a good clean, and then used some Dynax UC (clear waxy coating) on the underside of the tub, up in the wheelboxes etc. The S50 seems to run into small gaps and panel overlaps etc very well. I'll give it all another dose this summer, which will be two years on from the original coat I did in 2020. I'm not sure it needs it really, I just thought it can't hurt to have a bit more 😁

I'm not going start giving advice on what you should or shouldn't do, I was just picking up on your comment about them being cagey with the specs for their logos, and what happened with friend was confirmation of how protective they are of the brand.. I don't know where using the word "Defender" sits in the scheme of things!

You're not wrong there! I know an automotive artist who sells some of his work through Etsy. He got a legal letter off Jaguar-Landrover because he did a nice piece of a Series landrover that had been parked 0in a barn for many years. If memory serves correctly the letter told him he couldn't use the Landrover name or logo in the picture, nor refer to it being a Landrover in the sales description/advert...

Evening boys and girls, I finally had a chance to look at my interior light again today. I'm pleased to say I now have a nice bright interior light that works off both door switches, switches off after about half a minute after the doors are closed, and when manually switched to "on". The solution was to bypass the dodgy connector by simply cutting the male and female connector blocks off the ends of the loom and soldering the wires directly to each other. Thanks all for the input and help 👍 Job done 😊

Thank you squire! I can see what you mean about the direct connection. I'll start with finding a new connector and replacing that to see if it makes any difference 👌

If we put the connector issues to one side, do we think the fault if likely to be with the green alarm box? If so, is it worth having it repaired or should I just bypass the alarm box and wire the interior light directly to a live feed and the door switches?

Right chaps, I've been doing a bit of testing on the interior light issues today. Firstly, regarding the "has it got an alarm" conundrum... My truck is an ex Utilities hard top TD5 but it does seem to have an alarm system of sorts. It has a blipper thing on the key ring, and an ultrasonic sensor to the right of the driver's head. However, none of it works. I don't know if it's been disabled (it that's possible) or if it's buggered. It doesn't work anyway... Is the alarm unit a green box about the size of a pack of cigarettes screwed to the bulkhead behind the clocks? Anyway, on to the testing... I ran a lead directly from the earth on my Mud LED light to an earth on the bulkhead. No difference. I detached the headlining and A pillar trim and wiggled the cables and the light came on. But it was very dim. Really dim! It worked in both the "on" and "door" positions. On "door" the light stays on for about 5 seconds after the door is closed. This presumably means it's connected to some sort of delay timer. The wiggling of the cables revealed that the connector on the body side is dodgy. When I disconnected the cables a sliver of metal fell out, so I need to get a new one (from where I don't know!). So in conclusion: I need a new connector for the body side of the interior light loom. There is power to the interior light. The door switches and delay work. The light is still way too dim! Where to go next???

That's going on my Christmas list 😊. Multimeters are very versatile I like the simplicity of the Sealey probe 👍

Good shout, I'll try that after work 👍

Yep, I took the original light fitting out completely, then I put the multimeter across the lamp earth female connectors and purple wire female connector, then across the lamp earth and purple/white wire female connector. The readings I got are the ones in my original post.

Measured at the female connectors with the light until removed completely.

Nope, not a glimmer! The red LED was the only thing that showed any signs of life 😟

I searched and found quite few threads about interior lights not working, but nothing quite like the issue I seem to have. I have an ex-utilities 110 TD5 hardtop and the interior light doesn't work. It doesn't work if you switch it to "on" and it doesn't work on the door switches. The bulb is good and I'm getting voltage to the light unit. I get 10.7v at the purple/white wire and 12.4 at the purple wire. I've just bought a Mud white and red LED interior light to replace the original unit, thinking there must be a problem with the original one. When I connected it up I get nothing from the white light, and a very, very faint glimmer from the red. I've tested the Mud unit on a spare battery and it works perfectly. It's as if there's voltage but not enough current to power the lights. Anyone got any thoughts on what's going on and how I can fix it?

Very useful review 👍 I have been thinking about getting one of the Optimill reversing cameras for a while as it looks to be a very neat (but pricey) solution. I think I'll have another look at the alternatives before taking the plunge 🤔

I checked my original radius arms in the daylight today and they do have a small radius where the pin meets the shoulder as you described. It's only a couple of mm tall but it's definitely there. This matches the chamfer on the factory bushes. I guess it maybe to ensure the pin stays centred on the bush?

Here's an alternative, or at least partially: https://gwynlewis4x4.co.uk/product-category/mud-shields-flaps/ I have some fitted front and back on my 110 hardtop mainly to stop water, salt and crud getting flung into the rear cross member, outriggers etc. They are pretty effective at doing that, but they also cut down the noise of things hitting the wheel boxes, apart from the 12 inches at the top of the wheel box. You could fairly easily fabricate a section of plastic (or maybe even that stuff the make lorry mudflaps out of?) to bridge the gap between the two mud shields though.

They are exactly the same length as the LR ones. I put them side by side to check. The only difference visually between them is the welding. That's it. Same length, same diameter tubes, same diameter pin and shank.