Territory marking and The Benefits Of Sticking To Land Rovers

[Tufty]

I recently bought myself a 1990 110 CSW TD. It was chosen as a result of my paranoia about little black boxes. Eight months earlier I'd let a perfectly good Discovery XS 300Tdi auto go because it was difficult to get three kiddie seats in. I'd fancied a 110 for the greater effective width of the second row seats but they seemed expensive. So I went and bought a Chrysler Voyager. Brilliant - immaculate, comfy, economical (CRD), not much below 1500rpm but bleedin' fast above it, and all the toys.

Then one day a couple of months after I bought it the immobiliser became a bit overzealous, did what immobilisers do, and immobilised it. Seems no-one had told it that it wasn't supposed to prevent the legitimate owner from driving... After a trip home on the back of a yellow beavertail (At the end of which I noted that the departure angle of the Voyager wasn't all that impressive - the towbar hit the ground on its way off), I hit the phone lines in search of help.

First - there aren't all that many independent Chrysler specialists. Second, the few that do exist are completely unable to plug in and diagnose an '02 Voyager LX 2.5 CRD. 'Main dealer only, mate, sorry'... One 'specialist' offered to buy it - for £800. 'Once that immobiliser goes mate, it's scrap, intit? Main dealer then. There follows a rough transscript of the phone call to my local Chrysler dealer.

'Hello - my '02 Voyager's immobiliser light's come on and it won't start.'

'Oh dear. If you can bring it down we'll plug it in and find out what's wrong, sir.'

'O - k... the immobiliser won't let me drive it...I should be able to get it to you somehow though. How much to plug it in and diagnose the problem?'

'A diagnostic check is £58 plus VAT, sir.'

'O - k. And based on previous experience, what is it likely to be?'

'In our experience it'll probably need a new steering column sir.'

'O - k. (Thinks; steering column? Weird...) And how much is that likely to cost?'

'Well, there's the column, that'll be about a thousand pounds, then we'll have to reprogramme the immobiliser ECU and reset it - in total it'll come to around £1500....'

'Click - brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...'

Fortunately, after removing the battery, fully charging same and reattaching it, the immobiliser decided to allow mobility to recommence. The light came on twice over the next couple of days, but the starting problem never resurfaced and all was normal thereafter. But the seeds of doubt had been sown. (Sowed?)

...And so ended my brief flirtation with swish, smooth, quick, quiet, oiltight modernity.

So, to the point.

What I Needed Was A Land Rover. A suitable 110 turned up locally, reasonable mileage, lovely and straight, great paint. All shiny and green it was. Still is. The Chrysler went on ebay and raised enough to buy the 110. Ahhhh. Like coming home, it was. I drove home with a huge grin on my face. But all is not rosy in Tufty Towers. There is something wrong - my 110 is shy. On the drive there is still a sizeable oil patch - deposited by my old territory-marking Discovery. Now, I park the 110 a few feet further back so as not to make it uncomfortable; so it doesn't feel as though it's invading another Landy's territory: you know how it is. Thing is, I expected Hermione (The 110's name - the Voyager never got one) to start marking it as her territory once she'd settled in but there's no new oil patch! No leaks at all! The bloke who bought the Disco is a mate, so we were able to introduce the two so mine would understand that the old oil patch is now out of date: the Disco now lives elsewhere, so the drive belongs to her, but still nothing. At this rate I'm going to have to perform an oil change - you know, take out the old oil and put a whole new lot in, rather than the more usual constant top-up-and-drip method. Even the swivels fail to contribute to my drive's waterproofing. I'm getting worried - It can't be good for the old girl to keep it all bottled up like this. Any Landy whisperers out there got any advice?

[Mo Murphy]

Yup, there's no oil left in it to leak out, Tufty

Mo

[Tufty]

Ah, I expected that assessment of the situation, but no, all levels are as specified in the handbook. So there.

[Tufty]

Actually, now I think about it, the engine oil level hasn't dropped at all, despite several longish motorway trips. I'm beginning to suspect that this 110 might not be a Land Rover at all, but a cleverly disguised spying machine from some distant planet. Oh dear, that'll mean even more computers, and I'm going to have real problems getting this to a main dealer to plug it in...

[Ed Poore]

Is your driveway on a slope? When I got my 110 she'd mark her territory once in a while, since fixing a few things which involved getting the oil cooler etc out it stopped. The oil cooler used to leak slowly and oil would pool in the tray below it. When parked on a slope this was used to mark the appropriate piece of floor. I've since put some o-rings in and that's stopped things, I think Kensington and Chelsea borough should thank me.

[Maverik]

Hehehe, this made me chuckle

[jeremy996]

I currently have an oil-tight 1989 110 CSW, but that is after a 3 1/2 year rebuild. A week after going back on the road one of the swivel seals failed and deposited most of the swivel grease on the block paving! My drive is clearly marked!

That said, my 1972 Morgan 4/4 and 1989 Eunos Roadster leave little messages of their own. The Eunos' message is change the diff as the input seal is dead; the Morgan's message is the rings and valve seals of the crossflow engine have been destroyed by 100,000+ miles, so the plastic oil separator has failed and leaking down the side of the block.

[Quagmire]

Great post

[ejparrott]

love it!

[inaine]

WTF

[JeffR]

Now my 110 has more oil leaks than the Exxon Vadez, but it also has a cunning ploy to lull me into a very false sense of security....

The dipstick tell fibs, not just itty biddy fibs, rather huge ffing Politician sized porkies. One day it will tell you that there is too much oil in the sump, the next day it tries to tell you that there EXACTLY the correct amount of oil, the follwing day there ain't enough.

It is driving me completely up the wall, do I add oil? The amount that has built up in the drives' gravel is now worthy of a Texas size nodding donkey. And I still have'nt got a bloody clue how much is in the sump. But as the idiot light stays out on the dash, guess I'll just have to wait for the expected bang.....