Ben Womersley

Your probably right, I dont fancy changing it twice for the sake of saving a few quid. New Bosch motor in my hand now and a lighter wallet. To be fair to it, its a 1986 90 with a 300Tdi, Iv done very little major (by major I mean expensive!) work to it for the first 4 years. Iv just treated it to a new lift pump, bosch injectors and 2 24 spline axles (the originals have a worryingly large amount of play in them) and I fancied some disks on the back. It has recently just melted piston 3 so I seem to have spent a lot of money on it in the last few months. Hopefully it will work for a bit once Iv fitted this now. Thanks for the advise anyway. I will try to motivate myself to fit it tonight before I get used to the speed, comfort and warmth of my old Audi Coupe!

Does anybody have for sale a 300Tdi starter motor prefeferably Bosch in decent condition? I just get a lovely click from mine (I have tried a second battery before anybody asks) How come every time I mend one minor fault a totally unrelated major thing breaks?

It was making a lot more noise than usual but Im fairly sure it was top end, it sounded like like it was 'chuffing' (probably as it fired on the buggered cylinder) I will drop the sump (again... last time I changed the oil a few thou ago the drain plug sheared!) pull out the pistons and crank. If it needs a rebore I might be looking at a new engine, anybody have one for sale?!. Dont think the head is damaged somehow, I will put it on a steel table and make sure there is no distortion. Ben

I will have a look for a 'step' in the morning

Thats what I was hoping... I was thinking it could be something to do with the timing on the fuel pump providing fuel at the wrong point causing the damage to the piston, but again could be totally wrong. Il take the pistons out in the morning and see if there is any damage to the rings on the others, if not then it looks likely that the bearings on 3 are buggered. Thats the only thing I can think of which could cause the oil pressure drop (assuming pump and reg valve are working correctly!). Just taken a better look at the pictures, the silver inprint on the piston looks very much like a reverse image of the inprint on the head so yes the piston has hit the head. What is involved in changing the big / little end bearings / bushes? Can it be done with the engine in? I will check the oil jets while I am in there, something has to have caused the damage... This is really not my area of expertise! Thanks guys, Ben

I noticed lots of smoke and a loss of power while on the motorway followed closely by high coolant temperature and low oil pressure (1.6 bar rather than its usual 3.2 bar). I limped the car home and had a play the next morning. Long story short, I cracked the injectors and found injector 3 wasnt doing anything. Swapped 2 injectors round and found cylinder 3 still wasnt doing anything. I have taken off the head expecting a head gasket failure and found the piston in cylinder 3 is bug**red . Would this explain all of these symptoms? The other pistons look fine, the head looks fine (slightly more carbon build up around valves on cylinder 3) The liner in this cylinder has slight damage so this would also need replacing. Would I be advised to replace all of the pistons or would i get away with this one? Also I have no idea what causes piston damage like this... If anybody could shed any light for me that would be great! The engine has about 100k miles on it and has always been well serviced and totally reliable up to now so im reluctant to fit a different 300Tdi. Thanks, Ben

Thanks Western, Iv just had the little issue of declaring the list of mods to the insurance company, a whole page of them, so Im sure 1 more won't hurt! I thought the RR rear needed the suspension mounts welding in a different place?...

Morning guys, My 1986 90 currently has a seized rear wheel and lots of vibration under engine load. I am assuming it will be the bearing, but will take it to bits in a bit. My car has a 300tdi, and original 10 spline axles front and rear. I have been wanting to swap the rear for disc braked axle for a while now and was wondering is there a difference in diff ratio between the early 90 and Defender or Disco axles? and also, will a Disco rear axle fit a 90 without modification? Thanks, Ben

Iv just insured my 90 with mods through Lancaster, im 23 with no NCB, without the mods it was £295, with the mods including a totally different engine, its £299. Took a while on the phone, but they seem really good.

Thanks for the response, your 90 looks great by the way reads90. Just to throw a spanner in the works, my 90 has S3 doors, will this make a difference to the door top pieces? They look different on All Wheel Trim....

Hi guys, I am looking at converting my 1986 90 SW hardtop into a softtop for 'summer'. I know I will need some sort of seat belt rail which I will weld up, but was wondering, will the hood sticks from a Series 3 fit the defender without modification? Also, what about the windscreen top mount from a S3? Will this work with a new defender canvas top? Thanks.

I have just put a multimeter over the flame sensor, internal temp sensor, overheat switch and glow plug. They all have a correct resistance according to the manual. I can only assume that the problem is something to do with the control box as all other components seem to work.

Fridge, have you still got those 2 eberspacher D1LC's? If I cant get any where with this 1, I might have to resort to buying another.

Sorry, I dont think I made that very clear... I have left it with the glow plug on for over 5 mins, but there is nothing from the pump. The starting process is: Turn on: Fan and LED's come on, few seconds later glow plug comes on and stays on permenantly (for over 5 mins) I have printed and read the manuals from espar.com, The wiring matches the diagram for the D1LC 24V universal model

Hi guys, After buying 2 24aH lead acid batteries to power my 24V Eberspacher D1LC (I think; the part no has worn off the unit), I have put the eber on my bench to test it before installing in the 90. It is the type with an external control unit, external glow plug relay, a thermostat control with switch and 2 LED's (red and green). When I switch the unit on, the red and green LED come on, the fan powers up using just under 1A, a few seconds later the glow plug turns on using 11A. The fuel pump makes no attempt to do anything, so the glow plug stays on. The voltage from the batteries is 24.6V with the glow plug on, so it is not the usual voltage problem. I have disconnected the pump, and there seems to be a constant 20V over the pump terminals (yellow and green wires), when the pump is connected, there is only 0.2V across the terminals. I have tested the pump without tapping the wires onto the battery terminals, and it works fine. I cant think of a way of testing if the pump is being 'pulsed', but it does not seem to be receiving enough power to actuate the pump at all. Also, sometimes when the unit is connected to the power, even with the on/off switch in the off position, then heater box makes a whining noise, as though there is a buzzer in it? I have no idea what this is! Can anybody shed any light on this? Im out of ideas Thanks, Ben

When you put it like that... Everything I seem to do starts out being the cheap option and in the end costs more than if I had done it properly in the 1st place. To be fair to my bodging side though, im watching numerous 12V heaters on the E jumble sale and they are all on the wrong side of £200.

I think I might run the heater separately to the cars electronics, they are temperamental enough without me messing with them. 2 UPS batteries and a voltage doubler to charge them should do it. I should be able to find some used batteries for £30 and a kemo M029 voltage doubler is about £20. Its more money, but it will be able to charge when the engine is running, not drain the main battery and with 20 ish amp hour batteries have enough power to run for a few nights while 'comfort' camping.

Hi Guys, I have just purchased a 24V diesel heater for my 12V Defender (it only cost £60 rather than hundreds for a 12V), I was wondering if anybody knows how I would be best going about wiring it (cost effectively!)? Its a Eberspacher D1LC, and I know they are difficult to convert to 12V. They require 10A for the 1st minute then 1A afterwards. I have come up with a few options: 1) I have a mains 700W Inverter in the car, so I know its not the most efficient method but I could convert to 240V, then tr1)ansform to 24V, but finding a transformer with a 10A 24V DC output would be quite hard. 2) Could I put a small (7aH) 12V lead acid in series with the main car battery, running the heater over the 2 batteries, then use a split charge system to keep the small battery topped up? I have been advised not to put 2 non similar batteries in series and I dont want to risk damage to the alternator. 3) Other option would be to buy 2 12V lead acid batteries for the heater, but then I would need to either: 1) charge them seperately at 12V with a 3 way split charger, 2) charge at 24V using either a cheap DC to DC voltage doubler for £20 (max 2A current) or 3) get a mains 24V battery charge and run it from the inverter. other options are welcomed, im fed up of having a freezing car! Thanks, Ben