deep

I had something similar after my rebuild. Could be air in the system. I believe the solution is to jack up both front wheels, make sure centre diff is open and rear wheels chocked. Start the engine. Then, at a fast idle, work the steering lock to lock about six times. Worked for me. Another possibility is a slightly loose or worn belt, which slips a little under load. Worth re-checking?

That torque at low revs is wonderful. You have to love how those petrol fours just hang on!

Yes and no. Whenever you are in a situation where the revs drop, you drop off the torque curve more suddenly in the Tdi. Because you have more grunt at higher revs, it's likely you were in a higher gear, so you absolutely feel it. I learnt how this works one day when I led a trip through some dune country. At one stage, there was a soft climb with a short approach. I popped up easily in my old Series 3 petrol but the bloke behind me tried and tried and tried with his 200Tdi. The problem was, if he got speed up in a higher gear, the engine died half way up as the torque vanished. If he held a lower gear, he didn't have enough speed. An auto might have helped, of course! But the petrol Land Rovers had no problem, rev the heart out at the bottom and just let the revs drop as you climb. No problem. And I'm very sure my 18J is doing much better at a few hundred r.p.m. too, though you will struggle to build up speed to start with...

The graphs suggest the 12J produces more torque under 1,400 r.p.m. than all the other Land Rover diesels.

And yet, when the Tdi loses revs and goes off steam, the engine goes clunk, while the 18J (presumably 12J is the same) goes chug chug chuuuug....

I'm often baffled when people talk about TDis having low rev torque. My experience is that they just die if revs drop too low, unlike the V8s, four cylinder diesels and even normally aspirated 2.5 diesels. Don't they need at least 1,900 r.p.m. to pull strongly and at least 1,400 r.p.m. to pull at all? I'm not against them as they were very special in their day. I just find them terrible off road, in situations where the revs can drop off.

I agree 100% with your sentiments but considerably less with your mathematics! What's a decade between friends? Having had numerous Rovers, Land Rovers and Range Rovers, I find myself happiest with the 18J in my 110. That motor would rarely make a list because it's only a military modified normally aspirated 2.5. It makes me smile every time I use it. Part of that is because it is NOT designed for high speed road use, so it keeps the chassis well inside its comfort zone. It's a happy driving experience and cheap too.

Definitely looks like the diff is pressurising. I'll second the suggestion to check the breather.

Well, if it's real, the design not too bad and could have been much worse. It does at least pretend to be neat and simple. That will, however, be the problem with the whole vehicle. It will pretend to be basic and utilitarian but, under the skin, two miles of wiring will connect every possible gimmick that nobody needs but which the folk with bulging wallets demand anyway. The steering wheel isn't so flash. It's a bit like my Mercedes - fine if you want your hands high and hopeless if you don't.

I've had a few of those Rover sixes in various saloons. They really are my favourite motors but must make that Series 2 nose heavy! The only Land Rover version I had sat on my shed floor for years, then got buried there when I moved house. Sacrilege.

I read recently that an early Toyota (cough) Prius is now typically good for around one mile on its old battery! Last year I had a drive in my friend's Nissan Leaf, his daily commuter. It's his third one and he pointed out that battery life does significantly drop over time, so useful life is not high. This leads to massive depreciation, making electric cars the preserve of the rich (yet, here in NZ, those rich people don't have to pay road tax on their electric playthings, while us poor mortals pay plenty to subsidise them, grr). He also said Nissan take part worn batteries and use them in solar "farms", where lowered storage capacity is less of an issue. For all that, something like a Rivian or Bollinger would work well for a work vehicle for what I do - provided I could charge it at the office on the very rare occasions that I go there (150 mile round trip). The maths is different for a business.

Dreamers often spend their lives aiming to purchase the impossible. If a vehicle provides enough inspiration, some of those dreamers eventually buy it. I'd guess that plenty of people here would still be saving for a new "old" Defender if the goalposts hadn't got shifted. If the new car appeals in the same way, the same people will buy it. If not, other people will be the purchasers. Or nobody. So, of course, it does matter. (I'm super-unlikely to buy it myself. I despise electronic "aids" and it will bristle with them.) Anyhow, interesting article which picked out things many of us could have already surmised. One thing it looks like they missed is that the size of the brake discs IS visible in one of their pictures and it looks very much like the car will accept more reasonable rim sizes. On the downside, that stud pattern is tight and little! I think, at this stage, there is so much information out there that the only surprises are likely to be the smaller design details - and how much ability there will be to customise.

Right here is the problem: apart from the inappropriateness of a Ford Ranger for the sort of driving I sometimes do, my 110 is a hardtop, set up as a camper van. As far as I know, you can only get a Ford Ranger in NZ as a crewcab. Same for a heap of other brands, though some do a flat deck. The little Suzukis are too little (and too low) for a lot of work. That really only leaves one model of Toyota that could fulfil that function but, frankly, yuk! It may well be that the new "Defender" will actually come in some useful body shapes and they may well be able to undertake a lot of the tasks of a working vehicle but I, for one, would take a LOT of convincing that they would do that without costing an arm and a leg to keep fettled and reliable in a hard working situation. Still, by the time I could afford one, they might have ironed out the bumps... Nah, I'll stick with my agricultural 110 until one of us dies or the law locks one of us away (they already hate older Land Rovers here)!

That's actually the most promising pic I've seen yet. This is fun!

I'm genuinely amazed! That's so much worse than my 18J that I'm glad my spare 19J motor stays in the back of the shed as a parts donor. Even less incentive to fit it now.