Lightning

You are best contacting Mike at Dynachip. He knows pretty much everything about Defender ECU’s and will be able to sort you out. Also he will call out to you anywhere in the UK and is a fair bit cheaper than most others.

Ours did this, and l tried all sorts of solutions ln the end it turned out to be the rubber seals on the small roof windows, although they looked alright. Replacing the seals cured the leak.

I fitted the adjustable shocks and tbh never touch them, l did try them on the firm setting once, but just ended up at the softest setting. In that position the ride quality is better than standard and it’s great on the road unless you are driving flat out round corners on bad roads, which l never do anyway.

If you want OE you can get a set of new take-off for around £60 You can’t go wrong at that price.

What about the Terrafirma adjustable ones that l recommended? You can alter them according to the type of terrain and they do work very well (on my 2005 110 CSW)

Why not fit OE for £120 all in...they are good springs. Make sure you tell them what model you have (Utility, SW, etc) as they are different rated. For dampers you could go brand new OE take-off from LR Surplus for about £60 all in lf not l recommend the Terrafirma ones as they are adjustable for the type of ride quality that you want. And fit some Disco 2 front spring isolators....every little helps.

I just called Twisted and their “take off” section is run by “LR Surplus Parts” on 07533 377974 They have in stock 100 BRAND NEW DELIVERY MILES DEFENDERS ready for Twisted customers to buy and have blinged up. So plenty of springs (100 sets!) wheels, engines etc (currently 30 delivery mileage 2.2 TDCi take-off engines on the shelf) No body panels etc, only the kind of parts that people would want upgrading such as wheels, seats, suspension, transmission

The springs were brand new take-off, but these will be getting scarce as new Defenders are no longer being made of course.But l only got them in September 2018 (from Twisted Automotive LTD) The Terrafirma shocks have been fine, 30,000 miles and still working. l have them on the softest of the 4 settings and the ride is better. The second setting is supposed to be standard LR OE. so you have one softer setting and two firmer ones. l tried it on the firmest and it was a pretty hard ride.

I fitted a set of TDCi 110 SW springs to my 110 TD5 SW. They were new “take off” from one of the companies who bling up Defenders and cost £100 for 4. l also fitted Terrafirma 4 way adjustable shocks all round and Discovery spring isolators to the front. Shocks were £260 for the set and isolators about £30 After this the ride quality was noticeably better. l posted this at the time on a couple of forums but it was pretty much ignored, a surprise when l described how it made the 110 so much better to drive.

Silly question but.....can’t you just fit a new dash top?

If you remove the front prop shaft, you will get no drive to the rear one As drive will all be diverted to the output with least resistance

Running costs decrease over time, as the main jobs get done and your spending becomes routine maintenance and repairs. lt will never be as cheap to run as a VW Polo (although if you factor in depreciation, it can actually be cheaper over a longer period of time) When l got my 2005 110 l was initially spending well over £2,000 a year, not including fuel/tax/insurance. But now after four years it’s gone down to £500-1,000. But my Landy is worth about £2,000 more than l paid for it, and if l had bought a new van instead (it was a choice between new VW Caddy or a 8-10 year old Defender) l would be around £10,000 worse off!!

As above, don’t sell unless you absolutely have to. Think about it, say you sold it for £7,000 and bought a used car. After five years the car would be practically worthless, unless you are lucky and buy something collectible. Where your Landy after five years will likely be worth.....£7,000, more if you’ve improved it. A galvanised chassis always adds a fair bit to the value as it addresses the major worry on old Land Rovers, chassis corrosion. l think the silly prices being paid (or asked) for newer ones will come back down to earth , but you’ll always get over £5,000 for a nice Defender TDi/TD5.

Keep it. You won’t get another like that for the money it will likely sell for. The thing is, you fixed the major issues and you know the Landy so are aware of what else is needed. At the moment you won’t get back what you have paid out. But if you keep it, and sort the bodywork, it will only go up in value.

£2,000.....seriously? You say it’s on a galvanised chassis? I would put the value at £6,000, more on a good day. You can’t get one with an MOT for under £5,000 round here. Show me the “similar ones at £2,000” and l’ll hire a flatbed and buy them all.