james6546

Well-Known Member
As some of you know I am currently supposed to be on an expedition to Portugal, it didn't quite go as planned...

Day 1- Drive to Le Mans and camp by a lake with some really loud frogs and cat fish that eat the ducks. Had some vibrations on the way that was a bit worrying

Day 2- Notice that there is a small amount of play in the rear drive shaft, take it off and change UJ. Still some vibration at certain speeds. Drive to Contis Plage which is south of Bordeaux

Day 3- Notice that one of the swivels has leaked out a hell of a lot of grease everywhere underneath...call breakdown cover who can't get us into a garage until Mon (it is currently Friday). Reception at the camp site finds us an LR dealer so we drive 65 miles south to it. LR have a look and decide it needs new seals and confusingly a half shaft seal. They say it will take 2 days to order the parts and it should be done by the end of the week. I call breakdown cover and they arrange for us to have a hire car for a few days. We get a nice Opel Zafira. So as to not completely ruin the holiday we decide that we will head down to Portugal anyway and meet up with Vince and Belinda at their place in Coja. We then buy a tent (which turns out to be too short) and mattress in decathlon and drive to San Sebastien and have a nice night

Day 4- 4 Hour drive to Tordesillas. Nice camp site ruined slightly by the fact that I reversed the hire car into a tree...

Day 5- Drive and meet Jamie, Lou, Vince and Belinda in Coja, have a great night

Day 6- Sadly watch the others leave for the expedition segment and decide to visit Porto. Book into an expensive but basic hotel and have a wander around Porto. Have some amazing Tapas

Day 7- Speak to the breakdown cover who inform us that LR should be looking at the car the next day and to call back at 4 the next day, so decide to head partly back. Have a tour of the Taylor's port factory and head to a scabby campsite in the middle of Spain, can't remember what it was called.

Day 8- LR tell the breakdown cover that they haven't had time to sort the car yet, but to call back at 4 tomorrow. We head back to Contis Plage as it is a nice campsite, set up in our old spot

Day 9- Hang around waiting for Breakdown to ring. When they ring they say that they haven't looked yet, etc. etc. Sarah gets annoyed and calls and gets them to promise to ring LR first thing next day

Day 10- Breakdown call to say that the Defender is fixed and we can collect it. We celebrate, but ask the guy to call and double check. He calls back and says that actually LR have just done the estimate and that it will be 2-3 days to order the parts we thought they had already ordered and that the Defender will be fixed by the end of next week. Oh, and that LR had emailed me a quote for the work:

LR1_zps0jliakzs.png


Comes to £1484...

Seems quite excessive when all it needs are the seals around the swivels and everything on them is essentially new.

So I tell the breakdown that I can't even nearly afford that and that we had changed our return date to the 30th so it wouldn't be fixed in time. The breakdown company refused to compromise and wouldn't ship it back to the UK. So we decided to go and get the Defender. We handed the Zafira back, bought a couple of one shot greases, swapped back to the defender and headed back to the camp site. Going from 47mpg to sub 20 was not at all nice! I tried to put some grease in the swivel, but for some reason it would hardly accept any. The other side one however was completely empty! Smash one week old phone screen...decide that this holiday is over and change the channel tunnel to 8pm the next day.

Day 11- Try to squeeze some more grease in the swivels and then set off on a 11.5 hour journey to the UK, getting stuck in traffic and underestimating how long it will take by an hour

Day 12- Arrive home at 3am. The defender made it back, but now makes an ominous creaking when you turn left. No idea what it is.

So at the end of it we have decided that we want to give expeditioning another try, but at the same time that a Defender 90 is probably not the right vehicle for it. I have lost faith in my mechanical skills slightly and it is just too tiring and slow to do long distances in. Plus if we had something with aircon we could take the dog.
 
****, James what a drama, the creaking might be the top bearing in the swivel housing.

Wanna buy my truck?
 
****, James what a drama, the creaking might be the top bearing in the swivel housing.

Wanna buy my truck?

Sarah says yes!

Yeah it was, I still had a good time though, just wish I had done some expeditioning!

It could be the top bearing which I guess would make sense if it was starved of grease. I'm going to take it all apart as I want to make sure it is all 100%.

I'm currently thinking either Nissan Pathfinder, Landcruiser or Shogun at the moment...
 
Sarah says yes!

Yeah it was, I still had a good time though, just wish I had done some expeditioning!

It could be the top bearing which I guess would make sense if it was starved of grease. I'm going to take it all apart as I want to make sure it is all 100%.

I'm currently thinking either Nissan Pathfinder, Landcruiser or Shogun at the moment...
Go for the Land cruiser!
 
**** happens unfortunately, at least you didn't have to cough up to the greedy garage.

bet the taylors tour was good, did they have samples to taste at the end
 
Go for the Land cruiser!

I would, though they are expensive for what you get and a bit dated looking compared to the others.

**** happens unfortunately, at least you didn't have to cough up to the greedy garage.

bet the taylors tour was good, did they have samples to taste at the end

Yup, I liked the tawny port. I was expecting it to be all industrial but it was just loads of barrels that were hundreds of years old. Porto is interesting, posh shops stand next to abandoned ruins
 
I would, though they are expensive for what you get and a bit dated looking compared to the others.

The Toyota is a very good truck, but can be very heavy on fuel. After our experience with a foreign POS, and before our return to the LR fold, we looked at them. You have PM (!). No experience of the shogun.

I dare not comment on the N*****.

Glad you made it back in one piece - I would doubt anything of modern design would do that - and whilst the 90 may be too small, a 110, or a disco might not be... and don't beat yourself up on the mechanical stuff - your 90 got you back, and if it needs the swivels rebuilding, that is hardly the end of the world!!

Great advantage of the older designs is that they can usually be fixed quite cheaply - granted not by a main stealer, but usually.
 
The 2.8 Shoguns are ok, older Nissan Patrols have stronger running gear than that of even the Land Cruiser VX.
 
The Toyota is a very good truck, but can be very heavy on fuel. After our experience with a foreign POS, and before our return to the LR fold, we looked at them. You have PM (!). No experience of the shogun.

I dare not comment on the N*****.

Glad you made it back in one piece - I would doubt anything of modern design would do that - and whilst the 90 may be too small, a 110, or a disco might not be... and don't beat yourself up on the mechanical stuff - your 90 got you back, and if it needs the swivels rebuilding, that is hardly the end of the world!!

Great advantage of the older designs is that they can usually be fixed quite cheaply - granted not by a main stealer, but usually.

I will take the Nissan off the list then!

I think I know what I did wrong. The seals had initially sealed badly with the housing, so I took them off, cleaned it and put them back in. What I should have done was to change the seals rather than reusing them. I still have another week off, so will try to rebuild them.

It would probably be the 3.0 diesel landcruiser which I think is better on fuel. I know the 4.2s are pretty bad.

I do see what you mean about being able to fix stuff, but the problem is the more agricultural design also means that a drive to somewhere like the south of france is a massive chore. Something more modern would be able to cruise up to 80mph without me ending up knackered for a couple of days...

The 2.8 Shoguns are ok, older Nissan Patrols have stronger running gear than that of even the Land Cruiser VX.

I was looking at something a bit newer, so it would be a post 2007 Shogun with is the 3.2 with common rail. I want some modern comforts for the next trip!
 
There's some fantastic language in that invoice. Roulement a rouleaux coniques is presumably a tapered roller bearing and Graise pour temperatures elevees is high temperature grease. Looking at the number of parts identified it seems like they were intending to replace the wheel bearings and the swivel bearings and ball joints (possibly but my French isn't that good). And a couple of chapeaus too. Hats? End caps for the hubs, perhaps? It's great, isn't it? Makes me want to conduct all my future repairs in the medium of French from now on. There's almost a complete axle and steering gear overhaul there.

Good job they took their time over getting started or you'd have a huge bill for loads of stuff you probably don't need. I'm not sure there'd be an advantage to going abroad in Jap crap in future, as their parts may well be even more expensive.
 
I'd take reliability over fuel economy any day for expeditions. I've pretty much done all I want to my 110, so I'm looking for a new toy.

Short list is

G Wagon, but no gutless 4 cylinder ones
Dodge Ram double cab 4x4 cummins diesel or the 5.7/ 5.9 hemi
Hummer, even the H3 which is pretty good.

Basically something that will eat motorways and then be happy in the desert.
 
There's some fantastic language in that invoice. Roulement a rouleaux coniques is presumably a tapered roller bearing and Graise pour temperatures elevees is high temperature grease. Looking at the number of parts identified it seems like they were intending to replace the wheel bearings and the swivel bearings and ball joints (possibly but my French isn't that good). And a couple of chapeaus too. Hats? End caps for the hubs, perhaps? It's great, isn't it? Makes me want to conduct all my future repairs in the medium of French from now on. There's almost a complete axle and steering gear overhaul there.

Good job they took their time over getting started or you'd have a huge bill for loads of stuff you probably don't need. I'm not sure there'd be an advantage to going abroad in Jap crap in future, as their parts may well be even more expensive.

Yes, try to explain what is wrong to a garage where no one speaks any english! I know a few part numbers, so yeah it does look like they wanted to rebuild the whole thing. The worst bit is that most stuff got replaced less than 2k miles ago!

In terms of parts, its more a comfort thing rather than a parts availability thing. I want to use it a bit like a camper, so just drive to Scotland at the weekend or something. Currently doing that in the 90 would fill me with dread!

I'd take reliability over fuel economy any day for expeditions. I've pretty much done all I want to my 110, so I'm looking for a new toy.

Short list is

G Wagon, but no gutless 4 cylinder ones
Dodge Ram double cab 4x4 cummins diesel or the 5.7/ 5.9 hemi
Hummer, even the H3 which is pretty good.

Basically something that will eat motorways and then be happy in the desert.

That's kind of what I want mine for, but I would care about fuel economy! I do like g wagens, but they are a little out of my price range.

There are some nice modified hummers on the US forums
 
The 2.8 Shoguns are ok, older Nissan Patrols have stronger running gear than that of even the Land Cruiser VX.

I liked the patrol, friend of mine had one, it was massive.

plumped for a chevy suburban myself, despite its size, one of the most comfortable and easy to drive vehicles ever imho.

the none h1 hummers seem to be a hummer style body on a chevy Tahoe chassis, you may as well buy a Tahoe.
 
I'd take reliability over fuel economy any day for expeditions. I've pretty much done all I want to my 110, so I'm looking for a new toy.

Short list is

G Wagon, but no gutless 4 cylinder ones
Dodge Ram double cab 4x4 cummins diesel or the 5.7/ 5.9 hemi
Hummer, even the H3 which is pretty good.

Basically something that will eat motorways and then be happy in the desert.

Careful with the H-3 and there 5 cylinder inline. Pot number 5 like to over heat at slow speeds(off road) Has been there down fall from day 1. Has been discussed on different 4x4 mags in the US
 
I liked the patrol, friend of mine had one, it was massive.

plumped for a chevy suburban myself, despite its size, one of the most comfortable and easy to drive vehicles ever imho.

the none h1 hummers seem to be a hummer style body on a chevy Tahoe chassis, you may as well buy a Tahoe.

Yeah, I know, but the H2 body looks better, the wife has just chipped in suggesting a Porsche Cayenne turbo to go to Morocco in, had a quick look on You Tube and found that they are quite capable, better than what I initially thought.
 
The nissan patrols have good drivetrain , used to be better gearbox than LC , and definateley better box than Shogun (Pajero) . The downside on patrol; is single bearing rear axle ends , so when bearing goes needs big press to replace .
If your front end had been renewed recently , then changing vehicle is probably not going to solve problem . Cruising 3ltr toyotas at 80 is likely to give you another set of problems as well, especially in hot climates .
 
I don't rate the Toyota 3.0 diesel, too many head gasket failures, going all the way back to the Four Runner. The Toyota big sixes on the other hand, never seem to suffer
 

Similar threads