jimconline

Attached the wires, reconnected the batteries, fired her up, and all was Defender quiet. After connecting the batteries, I had tested them and the voltage was 12+. Once running I checked the voltage again and it was 14+. All seemed just fine. And then after a few minutes of running, in true Defender fashion of not wishing to admit total compliance in the maintenance you do, I hear a faint intermittent chirp—not the same noise as the alternator and indeed hardly audible, coming from the same area. I smiled. After twenty years of serving me well we've both agreed on give and take. Will see if it develops into anything. I do wish to thank this forum for all your help; most appreciated.

The new alternator arrived and I have removed the old one and installed the new except for the wiring. I believe I understand where to connect the two wires from the bundle that heads to the battery. I would appreciate some insight into a third connector (circled in attached photo) that was on the old alternator but not the new. Should I take it off the old one and put it on the new? I also ordered a tensioner, Snagger, in case my theory about the alternator is wrong. The water pump is fairly new so I'm hoping it's not that.

After focusing in on the tensioner pulley I don't think this is where the noise is originating. My hunch is the problem lies with the alternator. Since the alternator is rather dated I have ordered a replacement (rather than try to replace the pulley). It will take a week or two to get as receiving parts in Canada can be a bit of a wait. We shall see. In the meantime, the Defender keeps happily driving along with a new instrument added to its orchestra.

Thanks, Steve. Will have a look.

Any thoughts about the source from where this noise is coming? As you will hear in the video is does stop periodically. I did replace the water pump about 6,000 km ago and all has been quiet up until recently. IMG_0841.mp4

Agreed Western; packing it was not a good choice of verbs. Will use the 370mls if I go with 1-shot. I am reconsidering, however, after mmgemini's suggestion to use EP 140. Sounds like a wise alternative.

Thank you all for your input. I do appreciate that I can't let this leak go on forever and, since I have a long overland project planned in the new year, I may take advantage of some quiet time this winter and do an overhaul. For now, I think I shall just leave the EP90 to do its job. I find it interesting that there are such mixed feelings about oil versus grease. When I do the overhaul I shall pack it with one shot and hope that I can forget about it for years to come.

I can't remember when the right swivel pin housing started leaking on my 1996 Defender 110, but it has been years. The left one has remained dry; no leaks. Every time I service it I top it up with anywhere between 60mls and 80mls of EP90. The swivel itself is clean and smooth, no corrosion nor pitting. It does leave its drippings if it's been parked for awhile, but other than that I have no complaints. I do have all the parts for replacement but have not felt a need to do so. My question is whether I might be able to replace the EP90 with one shot grease, thinking that the grease, being thicker, may not leak out. Thoughts?

Thanks for the insight; that makes sense. Since I filled with a 50/50 mixture—and what was in the block would be 50/50—I shall leave as is.

Looks like it was the water pump: when I put my hand on it I could feel it vibrate as the noise grew louder. Put a new one in yesterday—the old one was pretty rough—and ran the engine for several minutes with no noise. Will take it for a longer run today to confirm. One note of confusion changing out the water pump. I drained the radiator as per steps in the Defender Workshop Manual section entitled Drain and Refill Cooling System. I was only able to refill with about 8 liters of coolant/water; manual says 11 liter capacity. Where were the other 3 liters hiding?

I did a 1000kms run without issue and when I got back I drained the oil. Not a sign of any metal. Will check this one off as unknown.

A noise has developed that sounds like it's coming from the radiator/viscous fan on my 300tdi. Interestingly, the noise starts only after a couple of minutes idle indicating to me it has something to do with warming up. The engine runs fine: I had to drive it with the noise for about the last 50kms of my 1000kms jaunt. I have attached an audio file in the hope that it may help someone identify the cause. Noise Up Front.mp3

Just a note of thanks, Andy, for your excellent article on repairing a vacuum pump oil leak. All done as you explained and not a drop after 1000kms. Brake pedal responsive. Appreciate it. P.S. I did learn, however, that I would be a hungry mechanic. Took me a tad over four hours to complete.

Since I don't know much about body work, I contacted a fellow here on the island who does. Was happy with his work. I don't believe I shall have to worry about rust here again for quite some time. Interestingly the other side (passenger) shows virtually no rust. Odd.

Yes I have removed the floor pan. All looks fine. I should mention that the photo does not show the full extent of the rust as there is more hidden behind the footwell. Not a lot, but more than is apparent in the photo.

After finding the surface rust on my 1996 Defender 110 discussed in an earlier topic, I decided to do a thorough inspection to see what else might be lurking. All looks in good shape except for a rust hole in the bottom of the bulkhead on the driver's side. The metal around the hole seems fine so I am thinking of cleaning this up and welding a patch over the hole after which I shall apply some rust prevention. Any thoughts?

Yes, dry climates are definitely a benefit. I did check the areas you recommended as well as the areas that correspond to where the rust appears on the outside. Am happy to say that all areas were rust free.

Curiosity, getting the better of me, found me filtering the old oil through some cheesecloth this morning. Was a bit of a lengthy process (fine mesh would have been better but I didn't have any). Did not find any more metal. Yes, I did even inspect the bottom of the original waste oil container. Decided it might be rather excessive to cut open the oil filter, so I left it at that. All is running Defender smooth, though I haven't put many kilometers on it. Unless I have some problems, I shall do an early oil change next and see if anything other than oil appears. Though I didn't notice it at the time, perhaps, Steve, it was the oil seal spring.

Thank you for this suggestion. There is no sign of rust where you recommended I look. I was also able to inspect the inside of the pillar that would correspond with the rust on the outside and all was clean. This vehicle spent a good chunk of its life in South Africa/Botswana under arid conditions. The minimal rust that has appeared has, no doubt, been mainly caused by its new home for the past several years on the west coast of Canada. Having never done body work, I will attempt to remove the rust, smooth with body filler if needed, and repaint. New paint will be cleaner/brighter than the old surrounding it.

Any suggestions for a simple way to address the rust issue on the door pillars of my 1996 110? Have looked at a number of related topics but the corrosion seems more acute than what I have found. Perhaps I am fooling myself but the rust on the door pillars seems superficial—have given it a good look with prodding on the inside. The rust colour is about the same on the left hand side.

It's a 300Tdi. I didn't take any photos; though I could filter them out of the waste container and take some. Before doing that, I could better describe them not as shavings but rather strands of steel wool. The amount that I saw gathered in the funnel could be held loosely in a thimble. One piece I did extract was maybe 3cm long.

Did my first oil change today after having the timing belt replaced by a local independent Land Rover shop. They also replaced the push rods, rocker arms, tappet adjusters,... as some of the rods were bent. I noticed some thin metal shavings, enough to just clog the funnel I was using to pour the old oil from tray into a storage can. All is running fine but this is a first for me. Thoughts?

Thank you, western.

I am having trouble finding a part: the housing for the locking button on the door. The part is seen in the image. The two screws fit it to the door and the button slides in. In the parts manual it seems to be BRC8965PMA. Doesn't turn up anywhere and when I check the suppliers all I see is the button itself (JRC1775). Any ideas?

Problem was the harness connector at the blower motor. I had suspected this early on, tested it, cleaned it, and all was working until recently. Finally decided to recheck and was able to get the high speed fan to stop and start by wiggling the connector. Obviously only the pin for the high speed line was compromised since the low speed fan never failed. Will replace plug.