Snagger

Classic policy is the kicker there, Mark. You can't get such policies for 3 year old cars, though.

I use Flux for the other vehicles and they were the cheapest of those who'd accept the snorkel at £505. All the others suggested above were dearer, with NFU asking a bit over £660. I'd understand if it was an engine, suspension or structural change, but a little plastic air pipe? So, the snorkel can't be fitted - it's just not worth another £160 a year on insurance, unless someone offers me £150 for it (a little less than the new price, but would allow me to get the heated screen for the 109 which Flux let me do anything with with no further premium increases). We'll keep it in its box in the garage rafters and if we get a reasonable quote come renewal time from someone who'll accept it, then it can be fitted at that point. It is frustrating, though - Helena really likes the looks with a Safari snorkel, and I bought it for her for Christmas...I like Nige's comment, but you know how humourless these companies are - they'd probably void my policy if I took the pee out of them like that!

Told them that, and even stressed that it's for cosmetic purposes and that the 90 would not be used off road anyway - still not interested!

Sorry, somehow I got mixed up and thought you had the Audi engine and a Rover V8 too - don't know why. As far as the Audi engine goes, I'd get rid: too difficult and too expensive - the insurance alone would be a nightmare. But a good 4.2 Rover V8....

Series wiring would really make them sluggish. Parallel wiring should make them vastly more effective.

EJ, I'm not trying to taunt you, I'm just getting bored of clearing the screen manually, then having it freeze up in fog within 30 seconds! The heated mirrors work a treat, and ironically my wife's new 90 has a wonderful heated screen but not the mirrors, so will be getting the mod soon. Does anyone have an contacts so we could organise a forum group buy?

I'd settle for something built to last a decade...

You have adopted the logical stance, but as a toy, logic doesn't need to prevail. A v8 probably won't give any better performance than the TD5 unless highly tuned and tweaked, but somehow is a more joyous engine, while the TD5, as well as it pulls, is always going to feel tractor-like. There's no right or wrong answer, and a TD5 will be better financially if the vehicle does end up getting used often, but if you do just use it for small journeys for fun, a V8 will put a bigger smile on your face, and that is the while point of toys. If it's going to be for fun, fit what you feel most excited by, not what your head tells you to fit!

I phoned Tesco insurance today to find out if our 90's premium would be affected by fitting a snorkel. They said they would not cover the vehicle at all, even when I explained that it has absolutely no effect on performance, handling, visibility or safety, and that LR fit them in the factory on new vehicles if you tick the box on the options list, making it not a modification. They seem to assume that fitting a snorkel means that you intended to do beach landings every weekend. Only specialist insurers were interested, but because the car is only three years old, it can't go on a classic policy. SO, the cheapest quote I could get was Flux, who already cover my 109 and RRC, who wanted £505. The Tesco premium is only £337, and there were a few cheaper than that, though I was too wary to use the unknown brands. It's incredibly frustrating that the main insurers can't see the logic that a snorkel does not constitute a mod because it's a factory option, and that it should have no effect on the policy because it has no affect on vehicle risk. Morons! I'm hoping that NFU come back with something sensible tomorrow, otherwise I'll have to sell the snorkel we bought on unused. At least I hadn't started fitting it.

I just got our 2009 90 waxed at Rustmaster yesterday. I had though the underside looked pretty reasonable for a Defender until the steam clean was complete - half the rear axle and about 20% of the rear chassis brackets were paint-free and surface rusted, and of course I have had to do something about the corrosion on the lower grille and windscreen brackets, which are only part painted by LR. LR's attitude to the Defender and their owners is dire. They don't have to redesign the vehicle or replace it to have a real seller - Defender sales are low because they have a dreadful reputation for quality, and at well over £30k for a new 90, and the thick end of £40k to a 110 station wagon XS, there is no excuse for corrosion appearing on show room examples. I have just had to realign the front wings and trims because LR can't build them straight and also had a game of hunt the loose bolt when a nut fell of from behind the interior trim - it turned out to be from the bracket which secures the hard top to the tub capping, and the corresponding nut on the other side was loose too. Most of us don't want DC100s or other more complex replacements, we just want Defenders to be built correctly, and that includes a proper paint and corrosion resistance scheme. It's interesting to read that the performance differences seem small. LR claim the exact same torque and BHP from both versions, but that doesn't seem credible. It's also nice to know what that little noise on shut-down is!

Never mind - 18A, £200 from Devon 4x4 and £154 incl from here: http://www.heatedwindscreen.com/acatalog/land-rover-heated-windscreens.html (doesn't mention delivery, which is free with Devon).

Hi all. Does anyone know how many amps these screens pull as a pair, please? And does anyone know a relatively cheap source? Nick.

Buy TRW cylinders. Britpart cylinders have a bad reputation for leaks from poor seals, poor machining and swarf.

I've had pumps and injectors rebuilt by "dieselbob". The results were good and the prices reasonable.

Make sure the vehicle nose is well up - use axle stands or ramps to elevate the front (if you have to, then park on a moderate slope, but make sure the wheels are clocked and the gearbox selected to 1st before you get underneath). This makes sure the trapped air is the the nipple, not the piston. It'll be fine after that.

Try phoning any breakers yard near you - any 300Tdi DI, DII or P38 should have what you're after, and they usually let you have stuff like that cheaply if you remove it yourself.

When my cassette failed, a multimeter read no contact between the two wires (ie no short) and virtually no resistance along both wires. I think there might be a scheduled resistance within the cassette, because as soon as I replaced it, the fault cleared with the ECU diagnostic tool.

If the pedal is that light, it could just be a broken spring. The pedals aren't meant to be heavy, but they shouldn't be like those on a Micra or other such small cars designed to be driven by frail, old dears.

The Discovery sender is different because the Discovery gauge is also different, just like SII and SIII gauges and senders are different and incompatible. In your case, you need to fit the Defender sender to get your gauge to read correctly. Electric fans are way over-rated. They are only advisable where you do a lot of deep wading and need to switch the fan off or where an engine retrofit prevents the fitting of the viscous fan. I have a Discovery 200Tdi in my 109 and wasn't able to retain its original fan, forcing me to fit an electric unit. I suspect you had the same problem - the water pump is in a different place to the Defender version and so displaces the fan, in my case to foul the chassis and brake lines. Don't block the rad with anything if the gauge is reaching 1/3 of the way up the normal arc - that is standard temperature for a Tdi and raising it higher could lead to heat damage. If it isn't reaching that temperature (and the gauge is reading correctly), then replace the thermostat - that is a safe fix that controls the engine temperature to the optimum, but blocking rads is not normal except in Arctic conditions; the thermostat should do the job well enough by itself in the UK climate.

We have no trouble on road with our 2009 90, and the time I used a TDCI off road at the LR Experience showed no over-sensitivity. Unless you have very heavy boots, it could be a faulty pedal.

Assuming the engine had enough rpm to excite the alternator coils (my 300Tdi is fine off the bat, but my 200 needs a small blip on the throttle to excite the coils before the alternator will work at idle), then it sounds like you have a bad alternator - only a depleted battery should suffer a voltage drop like that with the alterator producing a charge, but you don't report starting difficulties, so I have no reason to suspect battery issues.

Ah, properly brewed biodiesel shouldn't cause coking, though it can cause problems with seals and o-rings ( I think it might be the ethanol that attacks them) - it's un modified vegoil, whether new (SVO) or used (WVO) . Some oils are wose than others, the worst being palm oil (the cheapest), followed by soya, while the best is rape seed oil. But all of those should only be used pre-heated to 80oC into a warm engine; even pre-heated, if injected into a cold engine the mist condenses onto the bores and rings as well as forming a nasty thick sticky black sludge that builds up in the head, exhaust manifold and turbo. Heating the vegoil helps produce a finer mist to match the diesel injection pattern, while ensuring the engine is warmed up prevents the condensation of the fuel. Of course, the injection system needs to be purged with pure diesel a little while before shutting down so that you don't cause the coking on the next cold start... Basically, you have the choice of modifying the fuel to match diesel's viscosity, creating biodiesel, or modifiying the vehicle to run on plain vegoil. But one or the other must be modified.

Since he has one, then yes, use the multimeter rather than the voltmeter (I already said that above). I originally suggested the direct bypass because I didn't know he had the tool and because others may have a similar issue and not own a multimeter. Regardless, while the voltmeter may be inaccurate, it's unlikely to be showing different readings based on lighting selections because it is faulty itself. If it is readinga voltage drop within the ignition circuits, then it's likely to be corroded terminals in the fuse box or on the ignition switch.

Virtually nothing, but when chasing voltage drops, it seems a good idea to make sure that the voltmeter itself is getting a good feed with as little resistance as possible. It's only a temporary wire for the test, after all.

Leave the wiring as it is for the test - just move the voltmeter connection directly to the battery instead of (and not in addition to) the existing connection to the fuse box or ignition circuits, or leave that too and just use your multimeter since you have one and try the lights with the engine running. If the battery voltage drps, it's an alternator problem, but if the voltage at the battery stays steady, only then do you need to start poking around the dash wiring.