I got a Defender a couple of months ago with the intention of driving it to Central Asia with my girlfriend. We just went on a test trip up to Scotland to iron out any problems and, well, we certainly found the problems.
On the way back, the front propshaft disintegrated spectacularly at 50mph on the A1. I aimed it for a lay-by, but just stopped short. A few minutes later, another Defender stopped to see how we were. “That’s not a good place to be stopped!” Of course, being a good Defender owner, he had a tow rope and pulled us safely into the lay-by.
We got a tow to a nearby service station from the RAC. Turns out he was a Defender owner too, and just told me to take off the prop shaft, engage diff lock, and it’ll be fine to get us home.
He was absolutely right, and we were off again. We stayed the night at a pub, only to find in the morning that when the propshaft went, it thwacked the footwell, destroying the lock mechanism in my pedal lock. (Along with an enormous dent.) I was locked out of my damn car!
We called up the RAC to get a tow again, our tails between our legs. This was snowpocalyse day, so they weren’t going to arrive for hours. (Ironically this all had nothing to do with the snow.) After spending a few hours in the pub, we met yet another friendly Defender owner at the bar. And, of course, he had an angle grinder in his car!
I spent the next hour angle grinding in the snow to get the pedal lock off. The RAC tow beat me to it in the end, but we got home.
The point of this story is we were just so overwhelmed with the friendliness of all the Defender owners we met. Genuinely looking out for us, helping us twice to get back on the road (and off a dangerous road!). Perhaps some of you are on here.
Anyway, the reason I am here: I just got a health check done, which uncovered some worrying rust on the chassis. It’d be great to get some second opinions on that, which I’ll file in the correct place.
I’m sure I’ll be around with endless other problems, and stories from the trip. Hopefully I can return some of the goodwill given to us, too!
On the way back, the front propshaft disintegrated spectacularly at 50mph on the A1. I aimed it for a lay-by, but just stopped short. A few minutes later, another Defender stopped to see how we were. “That’s not a good place to be stopped!” Of course, being a good Defender owner, he had a tow rope and pulled us safely into the lay-by.
We got a tow to a nearby service station from the RAC. Turns out he was a Defender owner too, and just told me to take off the prop shaft, engage diff lock, and it’ll be fine to get us home.
He was absolutely right, and we were off again. We stayed the night at a pub, only to find in the morning that when the propshaft went, it thwacked the footwell, destroying the lock mechanism in my pedal lock. (Along with an enormous dent.) I was locked out of my damn car!
We called up the RAC to get a tow again, our tails between our legs. This was snowpocalyse day, so they weren’t going to arrive for hours. (Ironically this all had nothing to do with the snow.) After spending a few hours in the pub, we met yet another friendly Defender owner at the bar. And, of course, he had an angle grinder in his car!
I spent the next hour angle grinding in the snow to get the pedal lock off. The RAC tow beat me to it in the end, but we got home.
The point of this story is we were just so overwhelmed with the friendliness of all the Defender owners we met. Genuinely looking out for us, helping us twice to get back on the road (and off a dangerous road!). Perhaps some of you are on here.
Anyway, the reason I am here: I just got a health check done, which uncovered some worrying rust on the chassis. It’d be great to get some second opinions on that, which I’ll file in the correct place.
I’m sure I’ll be around with endless other problems, and stories from the trip. Hopefully I can return some of the goodwill given to us, too!
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