dave1607

I have been buying quite a lot from Island 4x4 lately as their prices are good, they normally have an OEM option for most parts and everything always seems to get to me on a before 12:45 next day UPS delivery. I also like LR Direct as there are always lots of options of manufacturers, but they tend to be a bit more expensive. I was actually thinking about starting a thread saying how impressed I'd been with Island 4x4, but I've never had any problems so I guess you don't know until it goes wrong. I did have to return something to paddocks once and it took 6 weeks for the refund to be issued and there was a lack of communication. I did eventually get the refund and an apology by email though. Dave

HI All I was replacing coolant hoses and changing coolant recently on my Defender TD5 and couldn't find a "how to" for flushing out the old coolant, so I decided to do a quick write up of how I did it in case it is of help to someone else. Before you start, make sure your engine is cold as being covered in hot coolant is no fun. First open the bonnet and remove the engine cover, then remove the top fan cowl and then remove the fan to give yourself some extra space to work. Grab a bucket and put it under the bottom radiator hose on the off side, at this point you might want to turn the steering fully to the left to get the drop arm and drag link as far out of the way a possible. Now I drained the coolant from the plug in the bottom radiator hose, it is plastic and can be difficult to shift so you might just want to remove the bottom radiator hose, this will make a bit more of a mess and you might want a bigger container to collect all the old coolant in. Once you've drained out all of the old coolant put the drain plug back in, if you removed it, if you disconnected the bottom hose form the rad leave it off for now. Next you need to flush all of the old coolant out of the engine, empty your bucket into another container ready to be disposed of (not down the drain) and put your bucket under the near side front. disconnect the top radiator hose from the top of the engine (the bigger of the two pipes) and disconnect the water pump to thermostat hose from the thermostat end (This is the pipe that exits the thermostat at an angle), you should then be able to point this pipe down towards your bucket. Now you need to grab your hose and flush water in through the top of the engine where you removed the top hose and it will come out of the pipe connected to the water pump and into your bucket, you are aiming to get a decent volume of water through there rather than alot of pressure, so just a hose with no special attachment should do the job. Once you have just clear water coming out you can turn your attention to flushing the heater. Disconnect the smaller of the two hoses connected to the top of the engine and now stick your hose into this pipe which connectts to the heater, this will flush the coolant through the heater, round the back of the engine, back into the water pump to thermostat hose and out into your bucket. Again once the water runs clear your done. Now you will want to flush the radiator, empty your bucket and position it under the off side front. The easiaest way I found was to remove the bottom hose from the radiator, if not already done, and remove the top hose from the radiator, now put your hose in the top of the rad and turn it on. As the bottom outlet isn't right at the bottom of the radiator I found the best way was to cover the bottom outlet with your hand and let the rad fill up, then remove your hand and let it empty into the bucket. Repeat this a few times untill only clear water comes out. Now you can re-connect all your hoses and fill / bleed your system using the correct coolant. This is just how I did it and there may be better / easier ways. If anyone notices any glaring omisions feel free to correct me. Thanks Dave

I did measure the voltage at various points but this was a long time ago (it's taken me a while to get round to actually doing the job) so I can't remember the figures. The main area of concern was the switch, the column switch if I remember correctly, as the voltage drop across the switch when under load was significant. I don't doubt that you could achieve a marginally higher voltage at the lights by running a dedicated supply from the battery and putting the relays under the bonnet, as you would end up with a shorter cable run and fewer connections, however one of the criteria for me was to keep everything as original as possible. The improvement in the light output is like night and day so I'm happy with the small compromise. I've taken the supply from the input to the headlight switch which Is fed from the under seat fuse box. Dave

Hi All I've been meaning to sort the headlight wiring on my Defender for quite a while now and I finally got round to it last weekend. I didn't really like the idea of the off the shelf wiring kits like the Boomslang one etc. as I wanted everything to be as original as possible so didn't like the idea of running an extra power supply to the battery, as there is nothing wrong with the original supply. In the end I decided to do it as described below. If you decide to follow the steps below you do so at your own risk blah blah blah and if you set something on fire or your wife leaves you don't blame me. I was doing this on a 2003 Defender 90 TD5 but you could adapt it for your model. I used 1 mm2 thin wall cable for the low current connections to the relay coils and 3 mm2 thin wall cable for the high current side. I've used three relays as the original setup uses a separate power supply for main beam flash, and this setup is as close as possible to keeping the same functionality as original. For the dip beam I have connected into the dim dip relay as I had this bypassed anyway. Once you have made up your relay holders following the diagram above, the first thing to do is to remove the cowl under the steering column, the instrument cluster and the drivers side speaker. You will see three relays behind the instruments, unclip the dim dip relay holder (I decided to remove the holder to make room for the new relays) and move the right hand relay to the left, you should now have room to screw in the three new relays on the right hand side. Now if you unclip the two original relays you should have enough slack on the cabling to pull the dim dip relay holder out through the speaker hole to make access easier. now you need to figure out which of the two Blue / Red wires goes to the switch and which one goes to the lights, so grab a multi meter / test light and switch the lights on and see which one has 12 volts on it, this is the switch side. Connect the switch side and headlight side Blue / Red wires to the relays as per the diagram, I decided to remove the pins from the holder and cut and solder the connections, but you could just push some male pins into the holder if you like. At this point I also used the earth connection in the dim dip relay holder to earth my relays. Put the two original relays back on their mounting tabs and find a secure place for the dim dip relay holder up behind the dash. Next unplug the headlight switch and the column switch (the one that does dim and main beam) and with a bit of fiddling you should be able to pull them across to the right hand side and through the speaker hole. once you've done this you need to splice into the brown / blue that goes to the headlight switch and the brown / purple that goes to the column switch. You now need to cut the blue / white that goes to the column switch and connect it up as per the diagram. Now tape everything up neatly, connect the headlight and column switch back up and switch the lights on to give it a test. Thanks Dave

Looks like mkperformancehose only do the complete kit for the 10p TD5 (mine is 15p), and it's £500 which is a bit much for me at the moment. I did find Roose Motorsport who do the silicone hoses in smaller sets (e.g. not the whole engine bay set) but probably work out more expensive in the long run, they do offer the hoses in an OE matt black finish and unbranded at extra cost. Think I'm just going to stick to rubber hoses for the moment. Dave

Yeh, I found the top hose in silicone, they also seem to do the heater hoses but I can't find the bottom hose or the one that goes from the water pump to the thermostat and round to the expansion tank. Some of the smaller hoses to the offside of the engine have rubbed a bit on the block, before I spotted it and cable tied them out of the way, so need replacing. Guess I will just have to use rubber hoses. Dave

Thanks, Will probably just go with the Bearmach ones then and see how I get on. I can only find the top hose and heater hoses for the TD5 anyway, the 300TDI is available as a whole set in silicone but not the TD5 for some reason. Dave

HI All I need to change the coolant in my Defender TD5 so thought I would swap out some of the hoses that are looking a bit old. Can anyone recommend which make of hoses to go for, I would go genuine but they are quite a bit more expensive. I would usually go to LRDirect as they have options of different manufacturers and they seem to have the Bearmach one listed as "workshop approved". It looks like the bearmach top hose has a plastic T piece rather than a join, any opinions on this? Thanks Dave

Just what I wanted to hear, thanks Dave

If you're buying a later style shaft I would get an oem one. I bought a pattern part (can't remember which make) and the UJs had a tiny bit of play but was very noticeable through the steering wheel, got an oem one and it was spot on Dave

Hi All I've got some all steel front doors from a TDCI to go on my TD5 90 (Nothing wrong with the old ones but these came up at a good price so why not), I've got electric windows and central locking at the moment (I know, fancey!!) and obvoiusly don't want to loose either. My question is, has anyone swapped the electric windows and central locking from the old style defender door into the new style and if so are there any issues. I assume the internals are the same but want to check before I start taking things apart. Thanks Dave

Another vote for David @ Llama4X4, had 2 sets off him now.

I had the same problem with a NAS tow step, the powder coaters advised chucking it in a fire as he wouldn't be able to blast it off. I had some Paint Panther paint stripper from Toolstation lying around so gave that a go and it worked ok, took ages as you have to do it a layer at a time (e.g. it wont do the full thickness in one go) and it's very awkward in fiddly areas but it got most of it off. Did the rest with a wire brush in a grinder. Dave

We fitted a terrafirma pipe yesterday and it fitted perfectly, so the double s one is going back. Dave

Funny you should mention Double S as that is what the sticker on this downpipe says. Dave

If you have a Euro car parts near you it's worth keeping an eye on the clearance section on their website, after a tip on here I picked up 20l of Valvoline fully synthetic for about £30. Dave

Good point, I guess this would be WCD000960. All of the standard non-cat downpipes for the early TD5 from the likes of Bosal seem to be mild steel and I think we would preffer some sort of stainless (I believe the standard exhaust is 409 but am happy to be corrected). Most stainless items seem to be marketed as de-cat pipes and attract a premium as a performance product, I think as long as it's made from staniless and fits properly I'll be happy. Thanks Dave

Hello All I helped a mate fit a decat downpipe to his TD5 90 at the weekend. When we came to fit it, It seemed that the pipe was too long and we had to push the rest of the exhaust system backwards to get the downpipe to line up at the front, but when you drive it the rear section of the exhaust knocks on the fuel tank bracket. Has anyone else had this problem, we are going to return the pipe for a refund and buy a different make, probably Allisport unless anyone can recommend something else. It's a massive pain as we will have to go through the fun of removeing the gearbox crossmember again. Thanks Dave

Some really good ideas. I like the idea of the security post but one that is perminantly fixed is going to one more thing for her to drive into, so would probably have to be either a chain or a removable / retractable post. Will definately look at some sort of distinguishing marks aswell. Dave

Thanks for all the replies. I think to start with we will go for the Stronghold hitch lock as you can use it when hitched up, so when she is parked up in the middle of nowhere and goes off for a ride she can put the hitch lock on (I don't think it would take much to get around the built in lock), and some sort of wheel clamp. The idea being that even if they are easy to get around it atleast adds a bit more time and they have to make a bit more noise. The wheel clamps seem to come in a couple of designs, either one that fits over the tyre with three hooks, or the type that fix to a wheel bolt and then have an arm which goes around the wheel. Not sure which is best (probably neither) but I think the second one would be easier for her to fit and will mean it actually gets used. Once we have sorted a perminant parking place I think I will look at a ground anchor (could make something like this) and a 19mm chain. It isn't parked at home, it will be at the yard so can only hope to make it as difficult as possible and hope someone in the surrounding houses notices. It will be parked next to a friends Ifor Williams flat bed trailer, so I only have to make it more difficult to nick that that. Dave

Hi All Not strictly Land Rover related but it will be towed with my 90, and I expect it's something alot of people on here have experience with so I hope this is ok. The wife is looking at buying a horse trailer (probably an Ifor Williams) and I want to sort some security for it. What do people use in the way of hitch locks and wheel clamps, at the moment I'm looking at the Stronghold hitch lock and possibly the Stronghold wheel clamp, or maybe the Bulldog QD. If she does go for the Ifor Williams I believe they have the Knott-Avonride coupling. What are your recomendations? I know that if they want to take it then they will, but the aim is to make it as difficult as possible. Thanks Dave

You could use some butyl tape to stick the moisture barrier on, it's what is used in a lot of cars and stays sticky so you can peel it off and stick it back again. Dave

Good point, we didn't check the crank signal but I believe a noisy crank signal should log a fault (but I might be wrong). The MAF was reading about 40 at idle but it is a brand new VDO so would expect it to be ok, we popped the lid off the air box but it still reads low. Toby, if you want to meet up again and check the crank signal let me know, did it drive any better with the MAF unplugged?

Haven't got your PM. I'm between Alphingtomn and St. Thomas but will be going to Whitestone tomorrow or Sunday so could easily pop out to Longdown. Dave

I'm in Exeter and have a Haykeye if you want to plug it in? Dave