 | Home > My Defender > Review, summary and conclusion after 2,5 years of ownership |
 
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| Kraut Member Since: 28 Dec 2011 Location: Westphalia Posts: 336   
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Review, summary and conclusion after 2,5 years of ownership
Defender 2,4 TDCI 110 SW Black Pearl, bought in December 2010 Came factory fitted with Scheelmann full leather seats, leather door cards, leather dashboard and charcoal alcantara headliner two and a half years old, now 67.000 km on the clock She visited Germany almost completely, made vacation on the NorthSea isles several times, went to Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Austria and Great Britain (naturally including Solihull) Improvements, she got so far: Engage4x4 large intercooler (no remap till end of warranty) Matzker speed unlimiter Matzker suspension lowering kit (to be able to use carparks) Matzker handling kit (with the above massive handling improvement) Matzker wheel spacers 60mm SVX headlamp kit changed from silver to black Webasto ThermoTop E heating with remote KIWI snow cover JVC Touchscreen Moniceiver Focals speakers PC 100 rear and 1000VRS front Rainbow Subwoofer Zenec cam rear VDO classic temperature gauge instead of genuine watch on upper dash Underbody protection and waxoiling LR rearstep bumper with tow hitch LR dog guard Changed from DualFinish rims to classic Boosts with 265/75 Conti CrossContact tires Nakatanenga rear door strut Illnesses, she already got  :
rattling gearbox, unit replaced broken spare wheel carrier, replaced water ingress on the rear slide windows several times, water still coming in even dealer tried to fix it several unfunctional and lose door seals including water ingress, replaced and/or glued bottom seals of back doors still having a leak or just don`t fit, you can see the daylight from the inside howling turbo, still not fixed, at 120 kmh you can vary the music depending on your acceleration, no solution found yet, I just turn up the volume of the HU Corrosion on mirror arms/wings and hinges of sliding windows Congestive condensate pipes from the AC, footwell soaking wet several times led to corroding floor panels clutch replaced NAS rear step rusting severely, was sandblasted and powdercoated rear upper brake light failed, replaced including rearwindow windscreen frame corroding, frame was repainted position lights and indicators replaced, water..... almost every visible screw on the frame is corroding even the metal bezels of the leather loops on the door cards corode due to the humidity in the car! Conclusion: I LOVER HER I LOVER HER I LOVE HER but why can't they just invest a little bit for better parts and better building quality. I would have spent more for better quality. I'm fed up going to the dealer and complaining about those things that shouldn't happen. Dealer service is always exceptional, always trying hard to fix those weird faults. Never had this with any other car fom LR Disco3, BMW, VW, Peugeot, Mercedes, even my Fiat Barchetta had a much better quality. Everybody who had an italian car knows what that means. The only car coming close to the Defender was my 93 RRC LSE, must have been the same God of Rust inventing both (unfortunately I loved her too, very strange). Besides that I would like to keep her forever, never had so much fun in any ride! The day I bought her: 
The day I picked her up after the first improvements: lowered supsension, spacers, sprayed svx kit, still with 235 tires  Click image to enlarge changed to 265  Click image to enlarge changed to Boosts and 265  Click image to enlarge powdercoated the Boosts  Click image to enlarge and a few pics when she was on vacation  Click image to enlarge  Click image to enlarge  Click image to enlarge  Click image to enlarge |
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28th May 2013 4:19pm |
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| VeeTee Member Since: 06 Mar 2011 Location: Somewhere Posts: 1512 
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Nice car! Good decision, the black wheel and black head lamp surroundings!
 Cheers, Vincent
1959 Polynorm 1/4 Ton Trailer, Olive Drab Green (sold) 1970 M416 Military Trailer (Camping Trailer Conversion), Epsom Green (sold) 1975 Series III 88 V6, Light Green (sadly sold) 1996 Defender 110 CSW 300 Tdi, Epsom Green (sold) 2000 Freelander 1 TD4 3-drs, Silver (sold) 2006 Freelander 1 TD4 5-drs Facelift Automatic, Tonga Green (sold) MySite |
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28th May 2013 4:47pm |
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| d j hutton Member Since: 30 Jul 2009 Location: Dorset Posts: 1044  
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Looks nice in black, good choice.
I like the rear door stay in picture three
Is that Sylt by any chance? looks familiar from a visit a few years ago. Dj 1989 200tdi 90 csw 2011 110 usw Orkney grey Buy British 🇬🇧 Defender Clothing Designs available at http://www.rangesports.com/acatalog/Defender-Stuff.html |
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28th May 2013 9:33pm |
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| K9F Member Since: 12 Nov 2009 Location: Bournemouth Posts: 9610  
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 I flew there year before last. Lovely place.....It's the 'Sanbanks' of Germany. If you go through life with your head in the sand....all people will see is an ar5e!!
Treat every day as if it is your last....one day you will be right!! |
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28th May 2013 10:08pm |
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| Kraut Member Since: 28 Dec 2011 Location: Westphalia Posts: 336
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In fact it's Sylt! We are going there for decades now and it's really a very lovely place, besides of that the picture on the beach is the right next island called Romo in Denmark, you can go there by ferry within half an hour directly from Sylt. Great fun because you are allowed to take your car to the beach, isn't allowed in Germany though.
The umbrella stay was perfect for sand ground, but for usual grounds it was a little more practical to install the Nakatanenga stay. Forgot to mention two more illnesses: flaking paint. She suffers in the rainwater gutter and on the rear panels. Right now she is in at the dealer for service and warranty works to get repainted. Another thing they'll fix is a permanently blinking handbrake light. Wondering what's coming next?!  Click image to enlarge  Click image to enlarge |
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29th May 2013 6:10am |
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| mk1collector Member Since: 17 Sep 2009 Location: West Yorkshire Posts: 6769 
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I've just seen why its rusting. You took it near sea water!!! That's it your warranty is void now
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29th May 2013 8:50am |
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| Pickles Member Since: 26 May 2013 Location: Melbourne Posts: 3784  
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There is a lot of what appears to be extreme corrosion/deterioration to the external surfaces of your Defender, suggesting you may have experienced some "extreme" conditions?
Cheers, Pickles. |
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29th May 2013 9:19am |
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| Kraut Member Since: 28 Dec 2011 Location: Westphalia Posts: 336
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Besides having her on the beach once and going to the carwash right afterwards including under body cleaning there are no extreme conditons. She's in the car park half of the day, gets washing every week including under body clean in the wintertime, no offroading. In addition she was waxoiled und got under body protection at the dealer before picking her up when new. Sounds like common conditions to me, especially all the former rides got the same treatment with a lack of those rusty problems
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29th May 2013 10:18am |
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| Kraut Member Since: 28 Dec 2011 Location: Westphalia Posts: 336
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Update, just got her back from the dealer, very good service as always, they fixed the items mentioned above, they gave me courtesy car and my Defender was cleaned inside and outside when I picked her up.
As I have her back now I was able to make one more pic of the doorhandles that shows the problem with the water ingress and humidity inside; I don't think it's normal even in Defenders that metal parts start corroding inside the cabin  Click image to enlarge |
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29th May 2013 1:42pm |
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| Retroanaconda Member Since: 04 Jan 2012 Location: Scotland Posts: 2647 
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Quite normal! I've got a piece of un-painted steel as a mount for some switches etc. in my dash and that's nice and rusty after a winter in the car. |
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29th May 2013 5:24pm |
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| Kraut Member Since: 28 Dec 2011 Location: Westphalia Posts: 336
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There have been so many areas where the water came in: loose doorseals led to wet seats, soaked floor and corroding floor panels (no, no open doors or windows, despite that the amount of water suggests that), rear sliding windows leaking, even behind the trims of one of both small rear windows above the rear speakers it is wet.
She' s a daily driver and is going frequently on long journeys for business and vacation with me, therefore she might be used more often than a 'normal' Defender, but I don't think that explains so many problems especially with rust; she's serviced quiet well at the dealer and is always treated well with cleaning .... And I failed to remeber all of the subjects on my illness-list: Rear door had to be repainted because it scrubbed over the metalrail of the floor whenever opening or closing it, so that started rusting too Mudguards front and rear replaced because of rusting, did not put the new ones on  Click image to enlarge  Click image to enlarge  Click image to enlarge  Click image to enlarge  Click image to enlarge  Click image to enlarge  Click image to enlarge |
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31st May 2013 2:22pm |
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| ericvv Member Since: 02 Jun 2011 Location: Near the Jet d'Eau Posts: 5816  
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Kraut, pretty shocking to see all that. I have 5k less on the odometer, and have none of your mentioned problems. Especially the moisture ingress all over seems odd to me. Wonder if there is any relationship with the truck having been half rebuilt by Startech after the initial assembly.
One question, how are your Scheelman seats holding up? Is the leather getting marked on the sides, especially on the side of the drivers seat which gets used the most? Is the padding of the seats and of the leather covered cubby box lid holding up well? Asking this, because I see very frequently a Black Pearl parked here in Geneva, and I have the impression that the general condition of its interior has suffered quite a bit. Must admit though that this one seems a truck which does not get pampered very much.... Hope you can get it back in shape somehow You never actually own a Defender. You merely look after it for the next generation.
http://youtu.be/yVRlSsJwD0o https://youtu.be/vmPr3oTHndg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GtzTT9Pdl0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABqKPz28e6A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLZ49Jce_n0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvAsz_ilQYU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8tMHiX9lSw https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dxwjPuHIV7I https://vimeo.com/201482507 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSixqL0iyHw |
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31st May 2013 2:52pm |
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| Kraut Member Since: 28 Dec 2011 Location: Westphalia Posts: 336
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Thanks for your empathy!
Maybe the truck stood in Cuxhaven after the import to germany for several weeks in salty winds before being shipped by LR to Startech for the uppgrades of the edition. The Scheelmanns are still in good shape. The areas you mentioned are a little bit more shiny than the less used parts and the drivers seat got a little more shaped by my rear end, but there's no heavy visible wearing especially on the left side of the drivers seat where you scrubb over when entering the car. Plan to give all leather parts an intensive care with a connolly kit I bought at Limora  Click image to enlarge  |
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1st Jun 2013 7:54am |
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| familymad Member Since: 13 Dec 2011 Location: Bucks Posts: 3481  
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Mine going in this week for screen to be re fitted. Same leak from windscreen as yours. 1951 80" S1 2.0
1995 110 300TDI 1995 90 300TDI |
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1st Jun 2013 8:28am |
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