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spudfan

Member Since: 10 Sep 2007
Location: Co Donegal
Posts: 4761

Japanese reliabilty? Yeah right...read on

Have a scroll down through this and you will realise just how good your Defender is. The Japanese seem to have cornered the market in hood winking consumers over "reliability".
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=97780430 1982 88" 2.25 diesel
1992 110 200tdi csw -Zikali
2008 110 2.4 tdci csw-Zulu
2011 110 2.4 tdci csw-Masai

29th Jul 2016 5:25pm

Fatboy Slim

Member Since: 04 Feb 2008
Location: Bridgend
Posts: 1006

I've said for years that it's all about perceived reliability and clever marketing. For example, my mate got shot of his defender that has never put a foot wring to buy a land cruiser as he was worried about long term reliability. He's now facing a 3k bill for a new engine even though it's a common fault. I e never had a jap demo vehicle last more than 5 weeks on an opencast without breaking, and when they break they're normally carted off never to be seen again because the parts aren't available for a few weeks.........

Ford Ranger is the way forward if you don't want LR

29th Jul 2016 10:38pm

lambert.the.farmer

Member Since: 11 Apr 2012
Location: harrogate
Posts: 2006

And yet by turns my Jimny has been very good beyond the aftermath of poorly executed accident repairs needing additional rectifying it has only ever needed servicing. Ok its not a valid comparison to put a now 5 year old car against an 18 year old car in terms of reliability but the defender was definitely a member in good standing of the bonnets up club. I guess time will tell if the Jimny ever lasts as long but certainly there are Jimny on the roads that are as old and they don't seem to have many issues that aren't caused by being modified. Rhubarb and custard let fly with their secret weapon.

30th Jul 2016 7:22am

Thon

Member Since: 22 Nov 2015
Location: Salisbury Plain
Posts: 696

My diesel Subaru suffered from crank failure / seizure, which was subsequently repeated after it was repaired incorrectly. It seems the first generation of this particular engine was not developed sufficiently and had a marginal oil supply to the rear main crank bearing, which eventually fails. This failure either seizes the shells to the journal, and then the crank snaps, or the shells turn inside the cases and/or the crank breaks. Neither of these failures is easily recoverable.There are no second hand engines available and a new engine from Subaru is around £7000.

All in all I managed about 10 weeks of use and lost £7500 when I had to scrap the remains and wasted a year on a flaky dealer and frankly criminally-negligent repairer. I then bit the bullet and bought a Freelander 2, which has been and continues to be, excellent.

Jap stuff is not always all it is cracked up to be, but I think this is an isolated engine problem corrected in the second generation. I'd be very nervous of a D3/4 due to their reputation for reliability so I relied on my Indy to steer me towards the more reliable models.

Subaru have this reputation for bullet-proof build but I think it only applies to petrol engines. Personally i'm happy with my Ford-era FL2 and Defender and won't be changing either for some time. I also love the fact that I can pick up a 2nd hand 2.4 TDCI engine for a couple of grand on ebay and there's looooooads of choice

30th Jul 2016 2:12pm

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