 | Home > My Defender > My Red 300tdi |
 
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| Teario Member Since: 04 Aug 2015 Location: Merseyside Posts: 153  
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Just thought I'd post up a bit about my 300tdi. I've had it about 6-7 months so far and really enjoying it.
This is only the 4th car I've owned - first 2 cars were Fiestas and 3rd is a VW Squareback which has not seen the road since long before I acquired it. Anyway my ol' Fiesta went to the big car park in the sky and I started looking at what I wanted to replace it with. For a while I had been toying with the idea of a Defender but wasn't sure having never driven or been inside one. A couple of weeks later I got to drive one for the first time as I made my way home in the new red beast.  Click image to enlarge Having very little mechanical experience or knowledge, I want to fix as many things on the defender as I can do by myself. So far there have only been 2 real issues - first the alternator gave up, so I replaced that. Second, it's always felt like the clutch was slipping. I didn't really feel like I was going to be able to tackle the clutch alone so it went to a friend with a garage. Although it was replaced, he told me the existing one was actually fine. The clutch issue has persisted as well - after about the first 10 miles in it everything is okay, but then the problem starts - pressing the accelerator causes the revs to spike higher than before but gain in speed seems to be slower. For a while I wasn't sure if that's just how these vehicles drive. Being the only defender I've driven, I haven't really got anything to compare it against. The fact that it only starts to happen after a few miles tells me it's a problem though and the longer it's driven the worse it gets. Anyway despite the issues we took it on a wandering holiday to Scotland for a couple of weeks which was really good fun. I wrote more about it here if you'd like like to know more, but here are some pictures. Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge It was on this trip we came up with the name "Big Oscar" for the car. I'm not really sure how or why any more. We have a cat called Oscar but he is not red and does not resemble a defender very much... Since the trip the only change I've made has been to replace the black light surrounds and grille with a silver set. I think it looks much better. The new light surrounds have vents in and obviously all you can see through them is the red wing. It's not that noticeable though and I prefer the look of the vented surrounds. Before: Click image to enlarge After: Click image to enlarge At some point I will probably also remove the spotlights and A bar. The look of the front is one of the parts of Defenders that I like the most so it seems a shame to obscure it. I'd mostly decided to go for a red and white theme - painting the mirror backs white and getting a set of sawtooths coated white. Now that the front is silver I'm tempted to go with that combo for the rest instead. I seem to be changing my mind on a daily basis about which to do really. It'll be a while until I have to make a proper decision as I'm just doing bits when funds allow. The next two things I want to take care of are having the clutch/revs issue looked at again and replace the p-clips on the snorkel as they are almost completely rusted away. Last edited by Teario on 17th Aug 2020 2:07pm. Edited 1 time in total |
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13th Dec 2015 6:32pm |
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| GREENI Member Since: 22 Aug 2010 Location: staffs Posts: 10383 
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One of the best colours, with arguably the best engine.....
I'd be interested to see the squareback too. (I'm an ex v-dubber!).  |
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13th Dec 2015 7:33pm |
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| Oldyellar Member Since: 04 Sep 2015 Location: Central Posts: 391  
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Lovely truck
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13th Dec 2015 8:13pm |
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| L110CDL Member Since: 31 Oct 2015 Location: Devon Posts: 10782 
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nice looking landy, would agree with the best engine IMHO, enjoy your landy
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13th Dec 2015 8:16pm |
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| Teario Member Since: 04 Aug 2015 Location: Merseyside Posts: 153
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Wow, thanks for all the great comments. I've been out enjoying it every day since I picked it up, the whole time looking like this:
mikeh - I'd planned for the rear chequer plate to come off at some point as I'm not a huge fan of it. Didn't really consider it might be hiding something nasty though. Good bit of advice. The previous owner wasn't the one who fitted the plate so I'll bet it's been on there a good few years, possibly trapping water behind it. GREENI, you might be disappointed with the Squareback. Here's a picture of it a couple of weeks before I picked it up: Click image to enlarge 2 years on and it hasn't changed very much. I did mention it hasn't seen the road for some time 
On my way to work one day a Type 3 Fastback passed me and I thought it was stunning. Made a mental note of the reg so I could look up what it was later and that's how I discovered them. Picked this one up from a guy in Leeds and it was meant to be a project for me and my father to work on over time but, as it inevitably does, life has got in the way a bit and we haven't made the progress we wanted to. When I settled on buying a Defender I wanted to find a stornoway hard top. I couldn't pass this one up once I saw it though and just love the colour of it. I also don't tend to see as many in the same colour when I'm out and about, I think I've only seen one other so far. Last edited by Teario on 14th Dec 2015 8:54am. Edited 1 time in total |
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14th Dec 2015 12:21am |
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| miker Member Since: 13 Sep 2015 Location: Surrey Posts: 1763 
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Definitely the best colour! Not quite the best engine though, that would be a TD5
On the clutch issue, is your clutch pedal returning all the way to the top? My clutch pedal spring ran out of oomph recently, coupled with the pedal pivot seizing up. This gave the same effect of clutch slip, as it was always on the biting point. Way to test is to see if you can pull it up with your foot. The fix is to replace the pedal spring (look up td5 pedal spring mod) and grease the pivot! Hassle to get the plate off that covers the pedal box, but well worth it. My pedal actuation takes about half as much effort as it used to. |
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14th Dec 2015 12:57am |
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| g-mack Member Since: 07 Jan 2014 Location: northumberland Posts: 1967
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looks like its in great shape
My 109 thread
my youtube channel |
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14th Dec 2015 8:43am |
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| Teario Member Since: 04 Aug 2015 Location: Merseyside Posts: 153
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g-mack - thanks. I've actually been following your build thread and getting a few ideas from it
miker - following your advice I tried to lift up the pedal today after driving to work. I got a little bit of movement once I pushed the pedal up, but not really anything significant. It mostly just seemed like it was flexing a bit under the pressure, moving up a few mm and then back to its usual resting position once I let it go. After a few tries of this I pushed the pedal down again and it felt completely different. Usually there is quite a bit of resistance all the way from top to bottom of the pedal movement. Now the pedal is really light and there is no resistance at all for about the top 3/4. It feels like driving a completely different vehicle and there were no issues on the drive back home. I was even pushing it a bit harder than I usually would to see if I could cause the slip to happen but it all seemed perfectly fine. I've got a long drive coming up this weekend so it will be interesting to see what happens then. |
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14th Dec 2015 11:43pm |
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| Teario Member Since: 04 Aug 2015 Location: Merseyside Posts: 153
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I got around to a few small jobs at the weekend.
The drivers side vent seal was coming away so I replaced that. Passenger side seems fine. The battery has let me down a few times lately and it seemed to be getting worse. So next job, swap the Halfords special with a new Optima. By far the easiest job of the day... a little one that SWMBO's dad gave me for Christmas
Click image to enlarge Next up was taking off the RAI as I've not been able to decide whether I like it or not. Click image to enlarge This is as far as I got when SWMBO came and commented that she much prefers it with the RAI on. I'm more used to comments like "Why is it raining through the sunroof?" so I decided to put it back
With all the rain over the last few weeks I've had a pretty soggy carpet in the back. I checked the headlining and the sides, especially around the windows but that was all dry. The carpet itself was completely saturated though. Once I pulled it up, I found a hole just in front of the door. Click image to enlarge Pulled the side carpet up and there's another, larger hole there too. Just before where the seatbelt has fallen down in this pic, but it's covered by the carpet. Click image to enlarge I pulled all the carpet up front and back to check but thankfully nothing else to worry about at the minute. Most of the carpet went straight in the bin, then I covered the holes with duct tape to stop the water coming in until I get time to fix them properly. I did have a new set of door strikers to fit as the plastic has gone on both sides and the doors take a few goes until they close properly. By this time it was already long dark and my fingers were frozen solid so I'll have to sort the doors out next time. |
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18th Jan 2016 2:01pm |
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| Supacat Member Since: 16 Oct 2012 Location: West Yorkshire Posts: 11018 
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I do wonder at those that spend all that time and effort putting in sound deadening and carpets and whether a few years down the line it will also look like this:
Click image to enlarge |
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20th Jan 2016 2:14pm |
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| Teario Member Since: 04 Aug 2015 Location: Merseyside Posts: 153
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My aim for today was replacing the strikers on both front doors.
Tackled the passenger side one first. I marked out where the original one was so I could put the new one in the same place. Click image to enlarge I got the x-trouser ones partly due to the non-plastic latch and partly because I read they can help stop the seatbelt from getting caught when closing the door. I find my passengers often have this problem. The drivers side seatbelt is also pretty chewed up presumably from years of being caught in the door, as you can see in this picture. Click image to enlarge Replacement in. I think it lined it up pretty well with the old one. Click image to enlarge The latch enters quite far up but it doesn't catch the door and it no longer takes 3-4 attempts before the door closes properly. Click image to enlarge Next up I tried the drivers side. Marked it out all out ready to change, but the bottom screw head is completely stripped. I couldn't seem to get any movement from it. I'll have to cut a notch in it and give it another go but I didn't have enough time today for that. While I was out there I took off the passenger door card to see what state the inside of the door was in. It all went relatively easily until I had to get the window winder off. That clip inside is really difficult to get out but I did it in the end with the help of some allen keys. Click image to enlarge There's some rot on the inside and I could see daylight through the bottom. Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge The worst part is the bottom edge, particularly the corner. Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge It looks like this pretty much all the way along though. This is the back of the door handle. Click image to enlarge From the other side, pulling the handle opens up a gap like this. Click image to enlarge I'll be doing the same on the drivers door but I'm sure it'll be in the same condition or worse. |
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23rd Jan 2016 9:02pm |
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| Teario Member Since: 04 Aug 2015 Location: Merseyside Posts: 153
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It seems the door situation is getting worse. While travelling on Sunday my passenger lowered their window. On putting it back up there was a clunk sound and then the window just refused to move up any further. After a lot of wiggling around, I managed to get it up most of the way with maybe about a 3 inch space left open. Once I got it to this point it wouldn't wind down either, it was just stuck.
This was helpfully at around 10pm at the start of a 2 hour journey home in the rain. My passenger was not pleased. Once we got home I took the door card off to see what had happened. Nothing looked particularly out of place. I struggled with it until about 1am before calling it a night. I wedged a bit of plastic in the gap to keep the creepers out, so I could put the alarm on. One time I got a moth stuck in the car which had a habit of setting the alarm off early hours of the morning. It took me about 3 weeks to hunt that thing down and I was not about to start that again
This evening I had another look. I stared at this for quite some time before I realised what had actually happened. Click image to enlarge That diagonal bar is not meant to be diagonal. It had somehow got caught as the window mechanism rose and got stuck at the top, preventing the window going up any further. I'm surprised it's the first time this has happened. The only bit of this bar which is still attached is here. Click image to enlarge On the opposite side to this it's obvious where the bar used to be attached, but it's rotted away. So has most of the bar itself. It only reaches about 3/4 of the way along the door now. Getting the mechanism attached back onto the plate that covers it was an absolute nightmare. I needed far more than 2 hands to hold the window up, the mechanism in place, the plate over it and the torch to see what I was doing. After much struggling I finally got it all back together though. I think it's time for a new door. I'll probably ask this in the technical forum too but am I right that the later type door, TD5 and on is a pressed steel frame with a steel skin? And are they a straight swap? Would I be able to take the parts from my current door over to the new one ie window mechanism, handles, lock/latch, door card etc Last edited by Teario on 9th Feb 2016 12:21am. Edited 1 time in total |
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8th Feb 2016 10:25pm |
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| miker Member Since: 13 Sep 2015 Location: Surrey Posts: 1763
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My, admittedly early, TD5 doors are all old style steel frames with Ally skins, and knackered!
I believe it is the pumas that have newer style doors. |
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8th Feb 2016 10:36pm |
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| shaggydog Member Since: 12 Aug 2012 Location: Kent Posts: 3347 
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Interesting diary I love a running restoration!
The Pressed steel doors are the same shape as the door hole but helpfully  the internals and door cards are different so it ends up costing you a fortune to get new ones.
I need to have a look at my doors (though middle doors admittedly but same issues) and think SP-4x4 seem to have the best cost vs quality from what I have seen and read. I haven't used them for a whole door yet but for other parts they have been very good- I would try them first. http://www.sp-4x4.com/LAND_ROVER_DEFENDER_...eel-lh.htm Otherwise you will need a complete post 06 door which will then need repainting. Looks like a good honest landy there but you need to get that aluminum chequer plate off your cross member today because it will be causing merry hell behind it. Running Restoration Thread http://www.defender2.net/forum/post323197.html#323197 Self confessed mileage hunter |
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9th Feb 2016 1:15pm |
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