BogMonster

I got these washable tailor made ones for the Discovery 2 so good that they look like the original seats From Oxted Trimming Co Ltd about 3 years ago, don't know if they are still going or not, but I guess they would do Defender ones as well (I am not sure as I was only looking for Disco ones) and there were waterproof fabrics among the fabric samples they sent me so there is no problem getting waterproof ones, they do (did) a couple of sorts of waterproof fabric including one extra heavy duty one that was almost like canvas, IIRC. If they do Defender ones and they are anything like as good as Discovery ones then I can vouch for the quality - mine are superb. No significant signs of wear after about 3 years and about 25000 miles. A pair of fronts was a bit under £100 IIRC, expensive but you get what you pay for

OK well I can get that info for you tomorrow & will find one to measure the drive shaft on, sorry, thought it was a trick question Drive shafts are a F sight bigger than 20mm though I think!

Anorak hunting Les? The kerb weight is Lots, not sure about the others

By eck I wouldn't like to meet that pigeon down a dark alley.... "Well Doctor, what happened, there was this giant pigeon and..." From "Excuses to give when presenting yourself at hospital with a bottle lodged up your...."

You must be if you don't know whether you name is Steve or Les [duck]

How did you seal around the edges Nige, or didn't you bother...? maybe thought that as a LR will leak anyway, you might as well know where it is leaking? Nice job Next time I smack a side window on a tree I'll get right on to doing that P.S. did you consider getting some of that 1 inch thick stuff like they make Space Shuttle windows out of

According to my RAVE the wiring on a post 2002 Td5 to the clock goes: Battery > underseat fuse box link 1 100A > underseat fuse box link 2 60A > satellite fuse box fuse 30 5A > header 0287 > clock Satellite fuse box is connectors C0595-1 and 0595-6 and these are in the fuse box in front of the transfer gear lever, it is in the bottom left hand block of fuses which is (right to left) fuses 28 to 36 so 3rd one in from the right. But elsewhere in the manual it says that fuse 30 is a 10A so not sure if it is 10A or 5A What I do in such cases is just go through all the fuses in turn and make sure none of them is blown, it doesn't take that long and is often quicker than trying to fathom out a book which doesn't agree with itself! Edited to add a screen grab as I decided my description sounded a bit like Greek If you need anything else bung me your email address and I'll send some more screen grabs of the main wiring diagram through, it's easier than posting them on here! Edited again to add that the radio permanent feed, clock and interior light all go through that fuse 30 according to the various wiring diagrams so that is probably the culprit - maybe you shorted something out when you took the cab off and blew the fuse?

I bunged him an electronic pigeon earlier today, but no reply yet. I thought they only did the one mobile petrol engined thingy but will see what he comes back with. ta

LR90, just take an industrial strength bleeper and you'll be fine The reversing alarm off a 250 ton Cat dump truck ought to be man enough for the job

I reckon somebody is trying to bribe you to give the forum keys back Trev I'm definitely not still getting a free one

It certainly isn't - mine caused me to have chickens on several occasions as I came up to a T junction with traffic going backwards and forwards, and the electrickery decided that I might have wanted to stop but it had better ideas After I disabled mine I always found the front wheels would lock very easily but you couldn't get the rears to lock at all, must have been a really odd setup in the brake pressures somehow, it wasn't that nice with the ABS disabled.

Does anybody know of an off the shelf capstan winch currently available, to fit the front of a 300Tdi Defender? There used to be a Superwinch type a few years back but AFAIK that is now out of production.... it was good though, operated off a PTO drive from the back of the transfer box. PG Winches previously advised that most capstan winches sold are only suitable for vehicles up to 200Tdis, something to do with the drive arrangement. Ta Stephen

It's quite a pleasant holiday, as long as the weather is good Lara, if you can be here by 5.00 you can drink as much tea as you like Didn't take that long, about half an hour to upload and post I suppose? Part of my ongoing campaign to disprove the media image that this place is an icy rock 8 feet across with half a dozen penguins clinging to it, sometimes the weather is less than kind as it can be in any temperate country, but it does have plenty of redeeming features

ABS faults are usually sensor related - but easiest to diagnose with a computer! I had to disable mine on my old Discovery after a similar problem, while waiting for spares. I pulled all three fuses, for the ECU, pump and modulator.

I think to be honest apart from the early R380s which suffered mainshafts snapping (any should long since have failed and been replaced by the new type shafts by now) and spline wear, the R380s seem to wear out pretty evenly so once one bit is knackered it's probably all fairly knackered. The failed ones I have seen, apart from the above faults, have all been high mileage ones which have had a hard time and were pretty comprehensively worn out! Also IMHO unless you really know what you are doing, it is a job better left to experts to judge what needs replacing, otherwise you could end up with half a job, I wouldn't tackle a full rebuild myself I don't think, though it would be an interesting exercise. Mainly though, I wouldn't do it for 2 reasons which really apply to any gearbox.... 1) because it involves taking the vehicle off the road for the whole time you are doing it instead of just stuffing an exchange unit in 2) because you never know what you need and if it turns into a big job needing lots of bits you could end up spending as much as the cost of a recon unit, plus all your time and all the hassle of the vehicle being off the road

And your title...

Could be, though I have never seen a blown heater matrix - but it seems the likely culprit. Airbags: easy enough Disconnect the battery and leave the vehicle for a while, I think the book says 10 min but I usually give it 30, this allows the capacitors in the airbag ECU to discharge. Make sure you are not wearing any static clothing e.g. nylon, cotton is a good thing to wear, synthetic fleeces are a very bad thing to wear. I also usually wash my hands/arms so everything is slightly damp, removes any static before starting. This is probably overkill but I do it anyway. Unscrew the two bolts on the back of the steering wheel bag (torx bits IIRC) and take the bag out, store it somewhere out of the way with the connector side facing down, this means if it does go off (v unlikely) it won't go flying up in the air! Passenger bag is a pig to get at, I think from memory you have to take the glovebox out and get at the bolts from underneath but it's a long time since I did one. Same precautions apply on storage. Do NOT switch the ignition on or reconnect the battery while the bags are out or you will get a load of warning lights which will need Testbook to reset. Refit - just reconnect the bags, make sure they are securely bolted in, connect battery, then ignition on. I usually stand outside the vehicle when I switch it on the first time .... but never had any problems! The only other thing to mention is don't turn the rotary coupler under the steering wheel because if it gets out of sync then you will rip its guts out the first time you go to full lock on the steering. A bit of sellotape will stop it from turning while everything is out.

We're gonna fix you and teach you to stop whinging, this is the sensory deprivation stage The heavies in the black Zil will be round at about 0400.... Enjoy Stephen

Thought I would post a few pics from my 10 days away at Christmas: A beautiful morning to catch the ferry to West Falkland Up and on Black & white escort Christmas Eve on my bit of river Christmas Day BBQ - 100% Land Rover & 100% whole fresh lamb for the eating hate to think how much that lot would cost in Sainsburys Boxing Day BBQ - a procession trails across the empty landscape to meet up A few non Green Ovals I am afraid but a good do! Bit of an expedition on 27th, up this: Harold's 110 is somewhat dwarfed by the view Looking out across the islands, not a bad view And looking the other way Stop for yet another BBQ A bit further on Shogun looking a bit tiny on the track in the foreground Bit of a "Camel Trophy" moment with the tail enders kicking up dust on a clay track General bit of scenery, thought it was a nice shot Mountain climbing; Mount Philomel You know you are high when the local air service flies past below you Good view from the top Yes you can fit 33x12.50R15 and no they don't break the wheelarches A couple of days of P'ing rain on 30/31 Dec and the rivers and streams were going a bit ape - this is normally less than a foot deep.... I went through it one way, just about had kittens and decided to take some pics with the camera on multi mode as I had to go back through later to get home bit deeper now though!!! and this was tackled very slowly in 1st low to try not to empty the stream into the heater intake.... That bit of weed in the middle of the bonnet is evidence from the first crossing.... the main river was also going a bit quick but not as deep thankfully enough to give me a soggy fuse box though plus the usual amount of water inside that you'd expect with Defender door seals being what they are by 2 Jan the weather had improved again, off to another bit of our farm to knock off some wild goslings for the freezer and another bit of our river which produces some nice fish The Letterbox Stream was a bit lively after all the rain another part of the Chartres River The morning I left, up at 3.45am to catch the ferry, a bit early but a lovely early morning mist over the settlement This is the view from my father's front gate Back on the ferry and home Not a bad Christmas though - but I now have some waterproofing to do

Mmm having driven James' 110 on a winding bit of road in Wales I can vouch for the noise... and to be honest I thought the steering felt pretty horrid with them on too, I guess it is down to sidewall flex but you seemed to turn the steering wheel about half a turn and then wait for something to happen.... prob true of any 35" tyres though! I have to say I think BFGs are excellent on road for a MT tread, General SAG xplys are terrible on road and no comparison at all, SAGs are some of the noisiest tyres I have driven on road and any other conventional radial MT is much better, the only things I have encountered that are as noisy as a SAG are the old Goodyear Xtragrips or tractor tyres! Based on a fairly short drive I don't think I could live with the Simexes all the time, I run BFG MTs all the time on the 90 and they don't annoy me at all - it's just a background noise which is not at all out of place in a Tdi Defender. I have also run General Grabber MT's and Kimho 834 MT's in the past and while there is not a lot of difference between them in road manners, the BFGs are definitely the best of the bunch.

Of course I don't get it dirty - one has a 90 for that Tsk tsk they let anybody post in the Discovery forum these days even people with dirty fingernails I hope you were wearing a tie when you posted that Henson or we'll send the boys round Anyway you really are an amateur at this bling lark - anybody knows that the two bits you don't polish are the brake pedal and the steering wheel - so you would never polish EVERYTHING

30m? Are you wading across the North Sea? Which breather are we talking about, the one that goes into the back of the diaphragm to vent the air on the bottom side of that as the diaphragm is pushed down by turbo boost pressure? I wondered about that too, especially the other day in about 3 1/2 foot of water

what have you got now then?

A couple of other thoughts.... 1) if you have a longer arm on the axle end, won't it seriously affect the amount of steering lock you can get with that combination of stg box and axle? The voices in my head had a bit of an argument about it and eventually suggested that if you double the distance from the track rod end to the pivot point (king pins) at the axle end, you would roughly halve the amount of lock produced for the same steering box movement ... ? i.e. you would need to increase the length of the droparm by the same proportion to keep the same lock. 2) Some later boxes e.g. Discovery Series 2 operate at a higher pressure so you might get more oomph out of a box/pump from one of those - I know that my D2 is far more effortless if you have to wind it lock to lock on a grippy surface, than the old Disco was. The ram idea sounds like a good one to me - or maybe something like the idea used on ZF front axles as fitted to some Case IH tractors etc, where the steering is hydrostatic and a ram is fitted to the axle to do steering and power assistance in one, seems pretty reliable on our two tractors and is well up behind the axle out of the way from damage etc. Can't remember if you could take it off the axle or if it is part of the casing though. Downside is that if you blow a hose you lose all steering and I am not sure whether hydrostatic steering with no mechanical link is road legal on anything apart from tractors ML is looking darned good though

James Are you sure it actually posted, as I have put things up in the past and not bothered waiting for the post to appear but hit the "back" button a few times to get out to a forum screen, then found the post has disappeared when I went back later to see if there were any replies Not guilty here BTW as I don't have mod privileges for that forum cheers Stephen