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Evening all, Started to hear a high pitch chirping from under the bonnet during the cold weather. Seems to ease off a bit once warmed up. I seem to remember past other posts mentioning this as a 300 tdi signature tune, but can't remember what causes it. My guess is that it is the water pump or alternator bearings but with all the clatter I cant locate it. Any ideas or is there anything on the way out? Thanks. (1995 300Tdi 74K miles)

Hi, You say that it couldn't be a bad connection because the ignition light and glow plug light came on. However, after disconnecting the battery and reconnecting , it started fine. A clicking solenoid is a classic symptom of current starvation to the starter motor caused either by a faulty/poorly charged battery or a poor earth or positive connection. A starter motor on a cold diesel engine draws a huge current, any high resistance connections will cause a large voltage drop which in turn drops the solenoid out allowing the battery voltage to come back up and the starter to engage again, and so on... hence the click click click. Lower current devices such as dash lights and relays will not generally be affected as they do not create enough voltage drop across the faulty connection. I suggest that assuming you have checked the battery charge condition and found it to be good, you did indeed have a bad connection onto the battery terminal which you rectified by disconnecting and reconnecting. Still it would be a good idea to check the other connections such as the chassis/gearbox earth and main starter solenoid positive feed just in case. If after all this you still have problems, get the battery checked properly using a battery analyser or drop tester (Quickfit will generally do this free of charge) or any auto electrical place, and make sure the alternator is charging the battery correctly - winter is upon us!!! Hope this helps.

Thanks for all the advice. In the end I put in the one shot grease and as the weather was good for a change, I did the oil seals as well! Suppose I'd better keep an eye on things if this oil migration thing happens over time. Still a good job done.

Thought I'd try and resolve the weeping swivel seals on my 95MY Defender by replacing the swivel oil with one shot grease. Straight forward job, but the guy at the store asked me how many I wanted because some models take a pack and a half of the grease in each swivel. I bought the blue soft pack of Bearmach grease (not sure of the quantity) and put one in each housing. Does anyone know if this is the correct amount for my vehicle? Cheers.

Jim, I'm sorry I didn't get to read this sooner but I haven't been able to log on for a couple of days due to work commitments. I would have bitten your hand off for that offer, but I placed an order with local main stealer thinking that £17 + vat was a bargain. Thanks for taking the trouble to help out.

Thanks to everyone for the replies. It appears that there are a few different methods LR used for the dim-dip circuit. Mine apparently doesn't use a relay, but diverts the live light feed through a large 1 ohm resistor onto the dipped headlight feed when the sidelight position is selected. The reason I couldn't find the resistor is that it was tucked away between the inner and outer wing on the drivers side. I had to remove the blank wing top vent panel to get to the fixing which was an M6 nut, bend my arm around between the inner and outer wing and wthdraw the unit. Thanks to Ralph for pointing me in the right direction . The fault was obvious, one of the wires had become detached from the end of the resistor. This is non repairable because of fused ceramic end plugs, but a new LR part No. XBL10003 is about £20. I am going to attempt to post a couple of pics to show the item in question as it may be of use in the future. The view through the wingtop shows a couple of holes toward the back of the inner wing and behind this is where the unit was hidden.

Sorry to broach this subject again, but I am pulling my hair out due to lack of/incorrect information. My dim/dip facility has packed up! Headlights and sidelights still work fine. I have a N-reg 96 MY Defender TA chassis No. The Haynes manual says there is a voltage transformer/control unit behind the dash, so today out came the dash.....no control unit! Can't find anything in the LR workshop manual relating to the dim/dip feature. Have tried looking for anything that is controlled by the sidelight operation and goes onto the headlights, but the cables just disappear down the main loom. Can anyone shed any light on this problem. I need to know where the voltage drop device is. Please help only a few strands of hair left!!!!!!

I think there was a thread similar to this a couple of weeks ago. So, just to add my two-penneth again, I have had the Bearmach item fitted to my 95 year Defender for about three years. It's the one with the grease nipples and has proven to be very robust. The rear door mounting plate is showing signs of peeling as mentioned earlier, but this is pretty minor. Apart from that there are no issues. FYI the Paddock part PM976 is the Bearmach item BA132 and its only £110.64 for the 2002 on model. Even cheaper for the pre 2002 item. Personally I am very pleased with it, a very solid item.

Evening all, Just noticed today that my dim dipped feature has failed. Normal dipped beam still works in the headlight switch position but the sidelight switch position only brings on the two small sidelights not the dim headlights. I have looked in the Haynes manual which describes a resistor limiting the headlights to sixth power when in sidelight mode. Could it be this that has failed and if so where is it? Any ideas much appreciated. 1995 300Tdi.

Cheers Mo, I had thought of that briefly. I know my td5 has this lube in the swivels. What are the pros and cons of using the grease as opposed to oil?

Cheers Ralph. I new you were going to say that Still I'm going to have to wait till it stops raining.... Could be a while yet!

HI, I have a very slight oil leak from my driver side swivel seal (drip down the tyre inner sidewall). There is no pitting on the surface of the ball, and no play in the associated bearings so I assume it is just the seal itself. I have checked out the tech archive and seen the thread on fitting a complete new swivel assembly (one of the messiest jobs you'll ever do, apparently). Have I got to go through all that just to replace the seal? Or....is there a cheaty way!

Hello all, just got the underside of my 2004 110 ready for Waxoiling but have discovered that the areas around the rear wheel arches are only sealed on one side. It looks like the passenger side panels have all been sealed from the factory with a thick automotive mastic/goop to stop water ingress. The drivers side however (in true Land Rover style) has been overlooked. Can anyone tell me what this product is. It looks like it is applied with a brush and just wiped around the areas where underside panels meet.

Just some personal opinion here, but, I have a swingaway wheel carrier fitted to my 300tdi 90 from Paddocks. I took a chance with it as I didn't know anyone else who had one. It has been fitted for nearly 3 years now and is still in top condition, the powder coating has not come off anywhere and it is really well made IMHO. I paid £110 for it and I dont think it is much more expensive now. The only slightly bad point is that all the pivot points have grease nipples so you have to wipe it off every so often to avoid grease getting on the wife, lover, kids, dog etc. I came off the phone to Mantec yesterday as I want to fit what is apparently the best wheel carrier to my 2004 110. Just a word of possible use is that it appears to be best to go direct to Mantec - £235 inclusive of VAT plus £7-50 pp for all models. I priced it at a local distributor and it was £20 more expensive.

Great stuff as usual. Thanks chaps.

Hi everyone, I've had an oil drip form on the outside of the transmission brake drum of my 1995 Defender for quite a while now. Normally it does not cause a problem but after a long fast run it gets worse and does affect the brake holding performance - lots of hills in Plymouth!!! (and sprays a bit of oil around). I assume that this is making its way into the drum via the rear transfer/gearbox shaft seal. Does this sound like it might be right and how easy is it to resolve? Thanks for any advice. Bryan

I have to say that I looked with interest at this post. My replacement drop-arm complete with ball joint is still sitting on the shelf after the old one ate a 4 ton and 6 ton hydraulic puller. I had exactly the same symptoms, the rubber boot would not stay clipped to the bottom lip of the ball joint housing, but would it come off?....would it f@#%. If you are going to have a go, access is greatly improved if you take the driver side wheel off...and don't be tempted to put a gas torch on it to help matters as the oil seals inside the steering box dont like it much . I was informed the old one may require carefull cutting off (grinder/chisel etc.) and was directed to a great story on the LRO site of a chap who handed the complete steering box to a local engineering company. Anyway long story short they broke their only 16 ton press trying to get the arm off Good luck!

Sorry, think I may have missunderstood. Most thermo-electric coolers (Peltier as previously mentioned) are quite ineficient, typically 40 - 60% and tend to run constantly. They can generally only cause a fixed reduction in temperature between ambient and product (typ 15-20 deg) so would put constant drain on the battery. Traditional compressor based refrigerators are a lot more efficient (1 watt of electrical power = 2-3 watts cooling capacity) and as previously stated have a low duty cycle at normal ambient temp so would not be a constant drain. The down side is the pukker ones are a lot more expensive .

Hi Richard, Basic calculations for I=P/V are good but remember as the battery terminal voltage decreases with use, so the available power to the cooler decreases and so it becomes less efficient (sees the cooler as a resistive load). For a standard lead acid battery (not deep cycle) regular deep discharging below about 10.5 volts can seriously affect the long term recharging characteristics and general condition. 65 Ah is quite a small capacity battery, if you plan on using the cooler often it would be better to get a larger capacity battery and recharge it before the terminal voltage drops too much. Bryan.

Fantastic! What a mind of information you chaps are. Thanks Bryan.

Hello everyone, I have a 1995 90 Defender and the headlights come on at reduced brightness with the sidelights. In the book it says that this function is to comply with the specification of some countries. I also have a new (to me) 2004 110 csw and this function is not apparent. They are both UK registered vehicles, does anyone know why the spec is different?

Sorry a bit late replying to this one, Ive only just arrived on this forum but think this one is worth a reply. One of the first jobs I did when I got my Defender was to fit Paddocks performance disks to the rear axle. These were the drilled and slotted type and I tried two sets of different manufacturers pads with them but could not stop them squeeling, especially when warm and in the last stages of braking. I took them out, refitted them, applied copper grease sparingly all to no avail. As I was told at the time, manufacturers spend a lot of time and money getting brakes right, so I bought a set of Delphi/AP disks, fitted them and hey presto, all was silent. I didn't bother fitting any of that type on the front either! P.S. Anyone want to buy a complete set of performance disks for a Defender 90!

Sorry, can't help with the engine knock . I have the same year and same model Defender and my rear screen heater didn't work when I bought it. Check one side of the heater foil is connected to earth, usually a short lead and screw connection into the door surround. If you can get hold of a multimeter, check for voltage at the other positive terminal comming up on a wire through the door. Mine had a broken connection on the +ve lead inside the rubber gaiter where the cables pass from the vehicle into the door. I used sharp test prods and pushed them through the insulation until I found the break. Also you could check the resistance across the heater. It should be around 1 ohm. ( well mine is anyway). If there is no resistance no current will flow and your screen heater is damaged! Hope this helps.

No Les, not LRE. I started buying LROI a few months before deciding what to buy and what was available. I still get it delivered and although I know its "The same old, same old", I do like looking at the new toys that become available and seeing what others do with their toys. Thanks for the welcome. Cheers Western - yer tis! Proper.

Hi All, Just thought I'd introduce myself. I am afraid to say I have been checking out this forum for information for a while now, usually as a link posted on another (magazine) forum, so thought it was about time I registered and became official. I have two Defenders, a 1996 300 Tdi 90 and a 2004 110 Td5 CSW. Plenty of maintenance and dont know how long I can afford to keep them both! I must say I am generally impressed by the quality of information here and hope that I may be able to contribute to the forum. I have only been into Land Rovers for about four years and realise that there are much more experienced and long serving members out there. I am a hospital engineer with a background in electrical controls and air-conditioning based in SW England. There you have it, Thats me . Thanks for letting me in. Bryan