As per the title...if so, any tips? I've been doing a fair bit of digging, but any additional advice would be great

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From what I understand every owner rebuilds their Defender...

... on a monthly basis. Probably.

 

Fantastic off road vehicles , always off road in the garage !

Luckily they are fairly easy to repair

I had one four 4 years once, at a time when manufacturers warrenties were 1 year LR had to keep increasing mine and we landed up with 4 years. But they gave up then and bought it back at full book value, a complete pile of useless junk !

 

Which one did you have Chippo?

I'm deliberating over a 300tdi (probably transplanted from a Disco), or whether to 'make do' with the slightly more reliable 200tdi.

It'll be a full strip down and rebuild with a galvanised chassis, so any common issues, most notably rust, will be dealt with from the outset.

 

Mine was the original TDI . The basic engine was the only bit that didn't fall off or fail. 110 county

Rust , laugh , within 6 months the wheels were replaced , the doors replaced all 5 , steel frame ali skin and poor separation . Plus all the welds on the frames started to rot.

If you had a bar of soap when it rained you could have a shower in the car the roof was so poorly fitted

1 alternator

4 starter motors

3 power steering boxes

4 steering rod ball joints

front hub seals , cost them new pads as well

3 sets of diesal spill rail pipes , last set replaced by a dealer in wales when on hols, he fitted non OEM as he stated the RR ones were useless and always failed. The 2 nd set failed on the drive, the wife was driving and just wondered what the fuel smell was, pumped about 2 gallons of fuel every where , they had to jet wash our drive and fit a new bonnet liner

Pulled a trailer once , gear selector snapped drove home in 4 th new box

New radio

New engine fan , fell of went through rad

Oh and the turbo heat shield what a laugh, every 3 months , dealer showed me the 2 foundry crate's in the stores one with new, one with warranty failures. LAst one fell off in France , worked out why the Asbestos type cement material was held on to a couple of 10m dia pillars, the pillars worked their way into the material, bolts loosen and fall out. Cure , penny washers either side of the shied never fell of again, I wrote to LR with that one never got a response I think we had 6 in total

Luckily Ford stepped in and aledgedly things improved. Certainly then it was the old "thats the way we have always done it so why change", acceptable failure rate 50% or such like and hence the failure of the indigenous UK car industry. Brilliant concept let down my poor design and manufacture. Never again thanks. I used to get hold of a motor industry trade magazine for some years and they had an article about the LR and ford relationship when the Disco 3 was being designed , Ford told LR they had 6 months to design the drive train and chassis , and not to use the old stuff but basically buy the drive train in which is why they have Dana stuff and ZF box not LR, the other option was the up and running new Ford Explorer chassis , that finally focused their minds

I understand they are a bit better now , although did the 5 pot TDI suffer with some premature engine failures dues to a bolt in the engine snapping ? or some such

I also remember all the comments in the mags that the TDI was good for 100k , well big deal not earth shattering for a truck engine is it !

 

 

I actually used that phrase when i wrote to the CEO of LR to complain !!!, that when I was offered lots of optional extras for ZIP

 

That's about the only bit of off-road they're good for

 

There's a good reason you see a load of old Toyota 4x4 out in deserts ......

 

Yes...

As you well know, I have kinda been rebuilding mine for the last 7 yrs or so...

And your inbox is full, you lazy git!

Do some inbox weeding and/or look me up at work on the magic box - Ian King.

Muppet.

Oh, and my V8 110 is for sale, I make you special price!