Living with a Cheapo defender,

As we get lots of peeps asking whether to buy a cheap 110/90 or save up and buy a better one. I thought I'd post my experiences, trials and nervous breakdowns, As a result of buying a cheap?? P reg 110 300TDi defender.

Firstly I bought it in September with 50weeks MOT left on it. Off a Farmer. :doh: bought unseen on Ebay,

So 1st lessons learnt. NEVER assume that an MOT is worth the paper it's printed on. IT IS NOT!

2nd Lesson never ever ever buy a landy unseen. Obvious I know but it's easy to think oh it's got full MOT it can't be that bad. Oh how wrong can you be...

Right back to Landy.

The chassis has had more patches welded on, than a hooker has had clients. When I got it, despite the "Full" MOT it had an Hole the size of a fist in the front chassis leg on drivers side. An hole behind the gearbox mount approx 12"x 6". And a gash in the N/S chassis rail that took a 17" x 2" strip of metal to cover.

No doubt Other holes will appear in the near future

Front bulkhead needed patching behind both hinges and there is an hole on it in engine bay that is going to need doing before the next MOT.

Then there was the front axle. It required.
New Shocks
New Springs as the old ones had collapsed. (due to sitting for a long time with an heavy winch fitted.)
new drive shafts and drive members. (salvaged from my old disco)
new swivels, hub bearings seals etc.
New CV's (Also salvaged from my Old disco)
New Calipers
New Discs
New Brake pads
New Ball joints.

I have also replaced
Clutch, clutch fork, flywheel, and spigot bush.
Clutch slave cylinder
Rear wheel bearings
Rear Brake pads.
Rear prop UJ's

Jobs still to do are
Replace rear diff seal
Replace rear drive members as Mine are fubar.
replace rear shocks and springs.
replace rear crank seal As it's started leaking.
Replace both rear calipers or fit new pistons and seals.
probably going to need to replace the rear diff (Not an easy job in a Salisbury axle.

Longer term plans are
Transfer box has lots of backlash in it and will need a rebuild.
I have sourced a cheap replacement chassis so chassis swap is in the pipeline.
I have also sourced replacement Bulkhead and new front door frames as mine are rotten. will be fitting Galvanised door skins instead of Ally ones.

Rear door frame isn't too bad but the door skin is completely rotten.

I will update as other jobs arise or get sorted.

Cost so far.

Not including the Labour to sort out the front chassis leg and rebuild the front Axle. service items. Or money spent on extras/toys. I reckon I've spent. Approx £900 so far.

Add that to the £2000 it cost me to buy it and it owes me £2900. not a bad price I suppose and at least when it's done I'll know everything has been replaced with decent parts.

Labour costs so far have been £500. due to my been to busy to do the initial front end rebuild. Generally I try to avoid Garages and do all my own repairs.

Fair amount of work needing done there . But that price isn't actually too bad at all, especially when you know that its got so many new parts and its been done properly. Not ideal like when all you want is a cheap landy but as you say you don't get cheap and good at the same time

Cheap and good usually never match up. On the up side if you are keeping yours long term then it gives you a great motor that should be reliable after all the work is done

chezvegas said:

Cheap and good usually never match up. On the up side if you are keeping yours long term then it gives you a great motor that should be reliable after all the work is done

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That's the plan none of ny other landies have lasted more than 18months or so. This one the plan is a longterm investment. and hopefully get on an expedition to Morroco or Scandinavia & northern europe or even both.

Some pics should be included I suppose.

The first day I got it



Rotten body capping (Oh yes got noo ones of those to replace as well. )



it was been used as a working van doing Agricultural welding and wrought ironwork.



Rotten Bulkhead





Repaired Bulkhead



As said I have got a better one to swap it over with. which I'll probably get galvanised.

One of the front half shafts



Front chassis bear in mind it had an MOT issued 2 weeks earlier.



Clutch had obviously had an hard life



As had Flywheel


And the spigot bush


This was behind the gearbox cross member



and this was on the other side.



As was this



Patched up






And Painted

For a comparison, mines also a 96, bought in august last year, a 110 CSW, I paid £4500 for mine.
Chassis solid, around 5 patches, and has had a new rear Xmember and a rear shock mount last just as I bought it.
work done by me that isnt general maintenance.

New rear prop UJs.
New rear N/S bearing.
Clutch and associated gubbins
rear drive flanges
Both clutch cyls

Needing attention that I know of.
fuel tank seal (bits on their way)
a clunk on the suspension that I cant find but is starting to annoy me.
front drive flanges.
Front diff has plenty of backlash, some may be sorted by the flanges, but not sure how much.
transfer box output bearing both, but rear is slightly worse than front.
bulkhead around the vents, corners are ok, have treated it all to prevent it getting worse, but still needs properly fixing.
rad is starting to look worse for wear.
viscous coupling knackered.

Ill repost tomorrow eve when I find out what the MOT has in store, have done the obvious, but theres bound to be summat

I'd report the MOT inspector for fecking negligence. Someone with less knowledge could have been killed in that.

Some pics of replacement of front disks and calipers.











Oooh shiney..

Birdbrain said:

I'd report the MOT inspector for fecking negligence. Someone with less knowledge could have been killed in that.

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What MOT inspector this one is definately a Mail order MOT..
Thinking of taking it back to same test station for next MOT Armed with piccies. and dare him to fail it.

Blimey:jaw:, makes me ill just looking at all the work to be done !! That farmer must have been owed a MASSIVE favour by the MOT garage !!!

All credit to you !

Another comparison,
Mine is a 96 110 CSW. I paid £5400 for it in August 2011 so just under 2 years that I have had it. 2 previous owners from new. I have done 16k miles in it.

Only had 1 patch welded on to an outrigger rest of the chassis is solid but continuously in need of sanding and rustproofing.

So far I have replaced
All 4 tyres
Brake discs & pads all round
Steering damper
All brake pipes
Bonnet release cable
Rear wiper motor
Rear wheel bearings
Rear indicators
Mid body x member
Bonnet release cable
Wiper boxes, arms and drive cable
Extra earths and general electrical clean up
servicing every 5k

It needs :
a timing belt as it was last changed 70 k ago
All of the door frames are corroded and holed in places so could really do with replacing them all.
Spare tyre only has 2-3mm tread left.
Bulkhead has light corrosion at the windscreen joints just needs cleaned and sealed.
Click noise from the clutch which i suspect is the fork starting to hole.
Clutch slave is leaking very slightly but can get away with a top up every month, will replace it when the clutch / fork goes.
Rear x member is going , noticed it slightly buckled when using a high lift .

When they get to 17 years old then they will always need a bit of tlc

My ex-mod truck on a H plate (2.5NA) had never been welded and just needed 1 x 2inch square plate on the rear x-member. It's done around 70k

Had new engine and gearbox in 2008
New transfer box in 2003 and steering box
Loads of new bushes and shocks underneath
Everything works

All I have done is tidy it up and fix a leaky diff and advice parts.

Spent £4000 on it and have spent a further £300 ish on service stuff and tarting it up, work done myself apart from the patch.

A lot to spend but it's a solid truck.

ex utilities 300tdi 110,£4.5k, 140,000 mls 1996 N reg,chassis and bulkhead solid though passengers floor is fecked,new crossmember fitted before i got it
so far spent on it
new front uj,s £68 inc parts
rear wheel bearing£88 inc parts
new door locks ....thinking on it with the various bits i have bought its cost me about 400 quid

D reg 1986 90 with 200TDI, £2600, 136 thousand miles on the clock
Never been welded and solid through out on the chassis, solid but tatty body and very knackered doors, rusty tub cappings.
Just spent a couple of hundred quid on 4 new prop shaft UJ's (local indie garage)
so far all I've done is remove shimms from the swivel pins to kill the wheel wobble and change the fan heater box and fit a new fan switch.
Needs new A frame ball joint and drop arm ball joint as well as swivel pin rebuild soon but other wise I think I've found a fairly goodun

well if nothing else you make me feel better

i paid half sensible money for my 1989 defender because it was grot free on the chassis. I knew i needed to fit a new heater as the old one had been removed as he said it broke. only to find the previous owner has ripped all the cables out for it all so i now have it on a switch as hot or off! and also found the reason they took it out was to put the snorkal in which was bloody stupid because it was meant to go out the other side! so thats held up by duck tape atm!

After a month i decided to take the door cards of because my window had stopped goin up and down only to find a bloody mess behind there full of rot. The otherside was the same aswell so thats a job i will need to sort one day.

So i was annoyed bout that but just before i was gunna give it a service like i do on all my new cars the cambelt snapped bending the push rods and snapping the rockershaft in half! got that fixed to find the garage nackered the rocker seal so oil covered my newly cleaned and freshly undercoated chassis! the next day after that was fixed the wheel bearing totally collapsed, the speedo cable has snapped,i greased the ujs for one to completly full apart, rear diff seal had to be fitted coz that gave up an oil span over the whole rear of the underside and now got the suspision the other wheel bearing is on its way out. but all in all im having a great time o and the wife moans about it everytime it breaks! but i will bring it back to glory one day :tea:

Blimey Red, I've bought most of mine unseen off ebay and thats the worst i've ever seen!

I picked a 1959 series 2 up from Essex once and the seller had forgot to mention it had no doors...a 5 hour journey to Warwick in February was ahead, this was 5 years ago and im still cold and will have no more children.

Fair play, looking good now.

Get a Series Pikey, then ya can pretend everything you've listed is just general maintenance

storm99 said:

Blimey Red, I've bought most of mine unseen off ebay and thats the worst i've ever seen!

I picked a 1959 series 2 up from Essex once and the seller had forgot to mention it had no doors...a 5 hour journey to Warwick in February was ahead, this was 5 years ago and im still cold and will have no more children.

Fair play, looking good now.

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You know me I couldn't pick a good un out if it ran me over in broad daylight.

But it is getting there slowly. have just bought these for it.




Not bad for a tenner.

op2:

Hippo said:

op2:

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No eating in me workshop. I'll have to confiscate the Popcorn, It is unsweetened int it???