Lightning

Suzuki have now stated that they are pulling all their IC engined cars from the UK and are only going to sell hybrid models.

Can l assume that the transmission will carry on for years with this bearing spinning in the housing? Not that you’d put it back in like that, but there’s no need to dismantle the transmission just to check this bearing.

If you take out the interior light switch you can use a 60cm extension tube on an aerosol wax product through the hole. I managed to get the tube right up to the windscreen blocks as the spray grease could be seen to seep out of the seams. You can then just move the tube around while spraying the product.

Fair enough. A bit worrying that the floor can already rot out on a 2010 Defender, even one that’s been looked after.... Better get outside and check my TD5

Is this a private sale or are you buying from a dealer?

Just done this job on my 110. Those two bolts are just on the edge of the floor (after you’ve removed the main floor panel) and l drilled a couple of 16mm holes in the floor edge to get the bolts out. The holes are covered up when you refit the main floor panel, although l put grommets in them anyway. Also the body dropped very slightly when l removed the old crossmember, nobody said that would happen! It was only a few mm but, The rear doors were hitting the catches. It’s actually the front body that drops not the rear. I had to jack it up a little with my trolley jac

I fitted Discovery 2 spring isolators in the front of my Defender 110 TD5

Yeah short journeys can cause this. Not sure there’s much you can do about it, but at least it runs OK. lf you use flushing oil or any similar products it could make more problems for you.

I think it’s for a bilge pump when the Land Rover is sold in countries where it rains a lot.

I fitted Puma seats in my 2005 TD5 110 and they are really good, a worthwhile improvement over the TD5 ones. You can get new “take off” Puma “County” seats from Twisted Automotive and they are £700 for a pair. The material doesn’t match the County Cloth of the originals but it still looks fine and l don’t even notice the fact that they are black. l do 12,000 miles per year in the 110 so l really noticed the difference in comfort. Unfortunately you can’t fit Puma rear seats to a TD5 so if you don’t like the mismatch it would be no use to you.

Bilstein are highly regarded, they were fitted as standard equipment on my Ferrari.

Discovery transfer box is a good cheap option, however it does of course raise the overall gearing of the vehicle in every ratio, l had one in my previous 90 TD5 and found that first/second gears were a bit high. But at 1/4 the price of an overdrive it was the only real option. I believe Ashcroft do a 1.3 ratio transfer box internals which may be a good compromise as it’s between the standard Defender 1.4 and Discovery 1.2

That’s a fine job you have done there. Scary to see the corrosion behind those panels but l guess the vehicle is 33 years old. How many cars last 33 years with daily use and are still running? It’s going to be good for another thirty years when you have finished.

I think you can write to the DVLA and they will contact he current owner on your behalf, then it’s up to the owner whether they want to get in touch with you.