Hello

I was wondering if any kind soul would answer a couple of technical questions - I've had a couple of defenders before so they are not a surprise, but my mechanical skills are completely missing. I'm looking at a 2007 defender 110 puma which looks in very good condition, but reading through the paperwork the last time it went for a service a few points were noted by the garage and I have no idea what the implications are. All I really wanted to know were if any of these could be indications of a future large problem or if they are just run of the mill for the year and model. MOT is clean.

• rear main oil seal leaking
• slight weep front diff pinion seal
• slight play in front drive flanges
• play in rear drive flanges and halfshaft
• clutch slipping under load on road test and bite very high

Any thoughts gratefully received!

Hi Yokel, I have a little knowledge, but my thoughts are:

• rear main oil seal leaking - I don't recognsie the terminology used here, but assuming engine?
• slight weep front diff pinion seal - Could be over filling with oil (unlikely if done by a garage), could mean pinion seal needs changing. Which takes a bit of doing / setting up.
• slight play in front drive flanges - Worn shafts / members or spacers to half shaft over worn - depends what direction the movement is that's being noted.
• play in rear drive flanges and halfshaft - as above
• clutch slipping under load on road test and bite very high - Could be springs, but if you are working on the clutch you may as well replace the whole unit.

The above wouldn't bother me too much, but I'd do it myself. Would assume that would cost a few quid at a garage.
But depending how bad the oil leaks are, I'd live with them, mine had about nearly 10 separate leaks at one point, fairly common on the older Defenders.
New shafts and flanges is an easy swap. But new genuine items are expensive.
Not done a clutch as yet, but would think you need the gear box or engine off / lose to get at it.

Would be worth checking this out yourself, as garages tend to lean on the side of caution, so these works might not be needed straight away.

I would agree with what @benpalmer has said. None of that would put me off but they are all things I would carefully inspect when viewing the vehicle. The biggest job there will be the clutch replacement. Especially if it is already slipping this will need doing fairly soon.

If the rear main oil seal is referring to the engine rear crank seal (guess) this could be done when the clutch is replaced as part of the job same job to save labour costs. Similar to the above though I would be doing all of the work myself. That list would cost a very pretty penny if you paid a garage to carry out all of the work.

Even if you mechanical skills are completely missing, replacing the front drive flanges is an incredibly easy job requiring very minimal and basic hand tools so would be a good one to try yourself as an initial introduction to working on the vehicle. If you managed that ok you could then do the rear flanges and half shafts as it is basically the same job. Although I would expect it does not need halfshafts and replacing the flange will solve the problem.

Thank you both very much for the replies. I've gone ahead and bought it, now need to decide what to do with it!

Yokel said:

Thank you both very much for the replies. I've gone ahead and bought it, now need to decide what to do with it!

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Start spending a lot of money on it! Hope you asked for money off due to the problems it's got.

Nice, good luck!

Yokel said:

Thank you both very much for the replies. I've gone ahead and bought it, now need to decide what to do with it!

Click to expand...

First:
Give it a through service and replace all the fluids and filters. Unless you know the I would not trust this to have been definitely done or done properly previously.

Second:
Go and buy:
one of these: link
one of these: link
4 of these: link1, link2 (You will need to double check they are the correct ones for your vehicle)
and follow this: link
It is a very straight forward, cheap, and easy job to ease you into things and solves two of the problems on your initial list.

Third:
Check to see if the clutch is actually slipping, because it is that will need replacing sooner rather than later.

Then go and enjoy driving it, fixing, and generally being smug over other road users in their inferior choice of vehicles.

P.S before anything put up some pictures!

@Yokel............ Get the vin numbers and go to a dealer and make sure ALL the recalls have been done. there are several. Some are rather expensive if you do them yourself