The day-to-day consequences of landy ownership?

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aye its true re landys owners. one of the last marques, where most fellow owners will stop and ask if you require any help?
(if u were parked up with the bonnet up).
 
Wesley Pegden said:
Me Landys over the years (5 of em) have all been similar to my women of the past, they've all performed differently and some have been dirtier than others.

Regards WP.
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the one i have now is the filthiest one ive ever had.
 
thank god for that. mines the same too!
thought it was aol playing up again, but the bbc site is just fine.
 
8{|> said:
And just like motor cycling you'll be dressed in strange clothes, potentially cold - possibly wet, will have travelled miles to get to your favourite bit of road [or lack of in this case] and the rest of society will treat you as a pariah and think of reasons to ban such criminal activity.:D

:) dabac have you purchased your landy yet?:) :p
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Be warned, you're speaking to someone who's in the Scouts, does sailing and mountainbiking and owns a Volvo 480. Dressing in strange clothing, getting cold, wet and muddy, and having my choice of vehicle questioned on a daily basis comes quite naturally to me:p Oh, and travelling to my favourite piece of missing road seems hauntingly familiar too...

But once again, I'm not really after the go-anywhere aspect of the vehicle. (well, maybe 2-10 days of the year...) What really draws me in is the apparent accessibility of the design, a car that can actually be repaired without having to undergo a massive disassembly to reach the broken pieces. If the choice was available to me I'd have the mechanical injection system AND manually operated windows.

And no, I haven't bought one yet. I had found one not too far from where I'm at, with an acceptable price, age and distance on the clock. Then I got called away on an out of town work for a week and when I got back it was gone.:(

There IS another one that I'm looking at, but it's some distance away. That purchase really has to look good before I can go and look at it.

Some specific questions: Winters in Sweden being a bit more harsh than in the UK means that a fuel-powered car heater (like webasto or eberspächer) looks like a really neat idea. They're a bit pricey though: 800£ for the bits and 400£ for installation. There's no avoiding the bits cost, but I'm thinking about tackling assembly myself. Has anybody tried it, and does anybody know if a >2001 Defender has a fuel pump in the tank or not? If they haven't I can get away with a T-fitting on the fuel line, if they have people say that the tank needs to be fitted with a new outlet.
And, speaking of the fuel system: I've had some prior experience with diesels, and they could be quite troublesome to bleed if you'd gotten air into the fuel line. Is this a concern for a Td5 as well?
 
I have had my td5 90 since new three years back and have spent that time bashing her into as many trees as possible and scraping her against as many rocks as I can in order that the blokes at the Land Rover club talk to me They all seem to have beards and seem to be like some kind of 'A' team who can fix a cracked drive shaft with some cotton buds and a rubber band- far too technical-i just want to cover my landy in as much sh1t as possible get as close to getting stuck as I can. I am too scared too admit to them my missus drives a Range Rover...I will be ex-communictaed
 
dabac said:
Some specific questions: Winters in Sweden being a bit more harsh than in the UK means that a fuel-powered car heater (like webasto or eberspächer) looks like a really neat idea. They're a bit pricey though: 800£ for the bits and 400£ for installation. There's no avoiding the bits cost, but I'm thinking about tackling assembly myself. Has anybody tried it, and does anybody know if a >2001 Defender has a fuel pump in the tank or not? If they haven't I can get away with a T-fitting on the fuel line, if they have people say that the tank needs to be fitted with a new outlet.
And, speaking of the fuel system: I've had some prior experience with diesels, and they could be quite troublesome to bleed if you'd gotten air into the fuel line. Is this a concern for a Td5 as well?
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:D You haven't experienced cold & harsh until you've married a British Woman :D

If you buy a Td5 there is a fuel take off fitted to the tank mounted pump. I'm told that it's a simple case of removing the blanking cap and fitting the heater fuel pipe - however you have to lower the fuel tank to access it which is simple but awkward as you need to be cautious of not overstressing the fuel lines.

If you want really simple then you can run the heater from a 5l fuel tank placed in the seat box and run the fuel line from that - the heaters are supplied through their own dosing pump and dont use a huge ammount of fuel.

Bleeding the Td5 is simple, turn the ignition on and hold the accelerator down for 2 minutes, the electric pump & electronic control purges the system for you.

I await delivery of a Webasto thermotop C, I bought it for less than your estimated installation cost through E Bay. Perhaps this will be a more cost effective route for you too. Another option is to get a second hand unit from a breakers yard, [thermotop V] Rover 75 diesel, Landrover Td4, and some diesel mercedes & VW's have them fitted - however to convert to systems independent of the engine you'll also need a controller & water pump.

Alternatively you could fit an air heater model, these are usually a slightly lower cost. They are also simpler install as you wont be touching the engine cooling circuit, but they take up additional cab space and won't preheat the engine.
 
8{|> said:
:D You haven't experienced cold & harsh until you've married a British Woman :D
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Ouch!:) At least I reckon on being clothed when entering the car...

If you buy a Td5 there is a fuel take off fitted to the tank mounted pump.
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That IS good news, I don't fancy draining and working with tanks much.

If you want really simple then you can run the heater from a 5l fuel tank placed in the seat box and run the fuel line from that
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For ease of installation that sounds fine, but for having the heater operational when needed I see a problem. There's someone around who'll also use the car who's very reluctant to do ANYTHING except the absolute necessities to keep the car running...
Bleeding the Td5 is simple, turn the ignition on and hold the accelerator down for 2 minutes, the electric pump & electronic control purges the system for you.
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Sweet! I certainly wish some of the boats I've come across would have had that feature.

I await delivery of a Webasto thermotop C, I bought it for less than your estimated installation cost through E Bay. Perhaps this will be a more cost effective route for you too. Another option is to get a second hand unit from a breakers yard,
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I'm a bit wary of that. I bought a cruise control for another car from a breaker's once, and had all kinds of troubles locating and manufacturing all the bits and pieces that had gone missing somehow.

Alternatively you could fit an air heater model,
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Thanks, but no thanks. Quite a lot of the winter journeys are likely to be fairly short, a so there's a lot of engine wear to be saved by an engine heater.
 
About 3 years ago my brother and i bought an old run down 1984 90, it was in need of some serious attention and a lot of the stuff had been replaced with non-land rover parts by the previous owner. over the years we have been slowly getting it back to peak condition and replacing all the alien parts with proper landrover parts. my friends refuse to get in it because every time they see me something else has fallen off. when we fix something, another thing immediatly breaks, it has caused many tears and arguements and today the brakes appeared to have fallen of and one of the front wheels seems to be coming loose but for some reason as soon as the brake stopped working the engine started working more sweetly than it ever has. (my theory is that the weel had partly siezed and so was putting excess strain on the engine and when it finnally loosened it took the brakes with it but that is probably pure fantasy as i know nothing about engines and mechanics)

Despite all of that, when my friends crash (which they do remarkably often) im the first person they call so that i can tow them home, if they need something shifted again im the first person they call. there is a lot of single track roads on my island and a lot of hippys who keep going past the passing places and when the person behind you wont reverse back, i just go off-road and around them. No matter how much many more tears it makes me cry or how many more pairs of jeans i ruin due to greasy roadside repairs, i wouldn't get rid of it. I will eventually get another car cos its hard going sharing with my brother but i know that it is there for me to go for a thrash around when i want to. It is definatly a lifestyle choice not just a car. You probably have to be a wee bit mental to pour as much money into it cos with any other car, i would have gotten rid of it years ago. i love my landrover and my brother would probably want to get buried in it if he could.
 
yella disco said:
... just buy one, come in and enjoy yerself.
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I'm sorry to report that things are looking a bit bleak at the moment, there's a planned re-write of the car tax laws coming up this autumn, with some diesels due to receive considerable tax cuts and others to remain at the current higher level. Can't really buy before that has gotten sorted.

Then there is the question of the extra £40 each month in fuel cost as compared to a more average car....:(
 
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