I’ve got my eye on an ex utility company 110 tdi Land Rover to use as a runabout workhorse.

I have owned a couple of tdi Discoverys and a SWB Series IIA, but I’ve never tried a coil sprung 90 or 110. I’d really only use it for trailer duties and a bit of off road work around home, in fields mostly.

What are the running costs, reliability, durability compared to a Disco?

What should I look out for on a test drive?

I’ve had various landrovers over the years including 90/110/disco/etc. My forum name that I use almost everywhere came from owning a 200 tdi 90.

Mechanically there is little between a tdi 110 and a tdi disco. Few obvious differences like salisbury axle on the 110 (of tdi age), but on the whole pretty similar and interchnagable parts. Most mechanicals are relatively cheap and simple to sort if you don’t mind getting your hands dirty.

Rust the the big killer. On a 110 check chassis everyhwere, but especially rear crossmember and outriggers. Bulkheads are steel and prone to rust also, especially top corners and around the vents, oh and footwells. Also the steel door frames tend to go and also the ally door skin where it’s in contact with the steel frames. Rear doors in particular crack to due rust and rear wheel mounting.

Running costs won’t be much different between 110 and disco if they are both on tdi’s, maybe a little less mpg out of the 110 but depends on use. I’ve had tdi’s in 90, 110 and disco as daily drivers and within a few mpg always got about the same.

The ex-utility company ones I’ve seen tend to have higher miles, but are generally well looked after. If you have had tdi Discovery’s then you will already know about the main areas to check.

If it’s ex SSE then apart from the lovely silver colour, check the usable space in the rear as you may need to alter the cubbys and racking that they get built into the rear.

I believe from previous posts that you are in Scotland, so may be worth a call to Raads as they buy up a lot of the ex utility 110’s are are good guys to call for a chat. They will point out any common issues.

A friend of a friend just bought an ex-SSE 110 and has just had to replace the fuel pump and injectors on a TD5 engine (2003 150k). The tdi’s are easy to work on and parts are freely available.

Depending on your budget, I’ve seen 2002 ex-SSE TD5 110’s going for £2.5k, so it’s worth looking around especially as we head into what we call summer as prices will only fall (unless we get more blinkin snow!)

EDIT – Raads are now trading under Perth Commercials – website

Big issue for me was space in the drivers seat. Nowhere near as much room as a disco and a more upright driving position – similar to your series motors I guess.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/290702424027?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

Here is the Land Rover in question. I’ve found the tdi engine easy enough to work on, and I have had some experience of bulkhead and footwell repairs on my IIA.

I’ll go and check it out at the weekend. The mileage seems suspiciously low. The hydraulic winch and outlets are a plus. My annual mileage wouldnt be that high, so the driving position shouldnt be too much of an issue. Rearwards visibilty for reversing with the trailer might be a challenge.

Nah, that looks awful! I definitely wouldn’t bother going to look at it.

*googles location and hatches plot to sneak it past Mrs J

Mobile hydraulic log splitter anyone?

Nah, that looks awful! I definitely wouldn’t bother going to look at it.

I keep trying to tell myself the same thing. It’s not working!

Clunk worth checking out – dismissing it as all 300tdis do it is just crap because its the drive train , likely just the drive shafts but check it aint the diffs although not hugely expensive on utility vehicles they can be salisburys pending what it was used for.

Do you know where the vehicle was in service ?

Seen one local that the bulkhead was like swiss cheese – looked up its history and it had served on shetland !

Driving as a daily runner is fine i ran a 19j td 90 for 6 months over winter doing 70 mile round trip last year . Loved it.

I dont recognise the livery.

My IIA was an Orkney civil defence vehicle. It originally had a canvas tilt, but I found a yellow painted double skinned hard top with alpine and sliding rear windows. It had been on the Westray airport runway Land Rover.

Rust up there is biblical.

As said above worth checking out the clunk. I could just be a combination of a bit of play right through the drive train – drive flanges, cv’s, shafts, diffs, props (uj’s), transfer box, gearbox – that is a lof of interfaces for a bit of play to build up. Equally out could be a significant amount of play/wear in any one of those, or even engine or gearbox mounts. 200 tdi’s with the LT77 gearbox suffered wear on the gearbox output splines where it mates with the transferbox input gear which gave a definite clunk on power take up. But an N plate should be a 300 tdi with an R380 gearbox and a transferbox fitted with the cross drilled input gear which allowed better oil flow lubricating the splines and reducing wear, they do still wear though. You can check for this by removing the cover plate on the back of the transfer box next to the handbrake drum.

Cheers Mark

The description says the half shafts and drive flanges have been replaced, which could have been an attempt to rectify the clunk. It should be easy enough to see if there is any play in the ujs or the prop splines.

I will check it out at the weekend.

It’ll do untold damage to the environment, how irresponsible 🙄

MC, what you really want is this:

linky

Quote from the ad:

“Clunk when taking up drive from drive train (Its not bothered me as all early 300TDI do it)”

UH OH! This could be the dreaded gearbox output shaft to transfer box input pinion wear. When we test drove our first ever land Rover, a worn out 2.25 petrol 90, I queried the clunk and the saleswoman replied “Oh they all do that!”

….which they do when they are knackered!

When you test drive it, the sound is like a dry metallic clack as you engage the clutch.

The thing with the gearbox spline wear is it could go on for another 50+k or it could strip the next time you pull away from the traffic lights leaving you with no go (and needing a new/replacement gearbox or a new main shaft and a rebuild). It depends how bad it is, how it’s driven, and a bit of luck. Most of the tdi’s I’ve owned/driven have had it to a greater or lesser extent. If the mainshaft splines aren’t too badly worn then the play can be halfed by replacing the transfer box input gear with a new one, about £50 from Ashcrofts.

You’ve obviously had a few land rovers but might still be worth taking someone along who knows them. I’d offer if it wasn’t so far away.

ex utility company

Lix Toll has a pile of ex SSE wagons in, and they are beat up badly. Offroad most days (properly, up proper mountains) and driven by the local lads who all want think they should be called Mikkala not NcNab…
Cheap, but for a reason…?
On the other hand one of our chaps bought North Yorks 110 Fire Engine. Superbly looked after and upgraded, basically pampered (and it has flashing headlights at the touch of a button 8) ) and seems a winner.
Meh, I am becoming a convert. I have two 110’s outside the house tonight, and am picking up a 130 tomorrow for the weekend 😛

Heavy duty suspension will be a real bonus. Use a lot of Land Rovers at work and the ones without the HD suspension are pigs with full trailers. PTO Winch would be useful for your tree felling adventures.

Had a 300Tdi in a 90 and never had any issue (apart from someone landing it on its side in a ditch and the front prop shaft being snapped when righted)

Disco 1, 2 and 3 I have had as tow vehicles too. 1 was just more comfy than a 90, 2 had even more comfort over a defender and amazed that we never blew the rear levelling suspension. 3 is a truly brilliant do it all.

Would probably say it would be on a par with a similar age disco for reliability and repairs, just more worthwhile fixing it.

It’ll do untold damage to the environment, how irresponsible

Bollox.
Keeping an old gas guzzler running as long as possible is far less damaging than building a new ‘fuel effecient’ car.
Even Friends of the Earth agree with that!
.
.
.
50% of all Land Rovers ever made are still on the road.
The other half got home OK 😀

On keeping old Landies on the road: Our ex-RAF 90 had 225,000 miles on it and we managed to get the service record off the MOD computer; it was 27 pages of detailed analysis (once you’d learned the codes) of all the services, repairs, two crash repairs and role conversions the vehicle had undergone in 10 years based mostly at Leeming. Only the chassis, engine and bulkhead were original, the rest had been changed several times. We upgraded it with more modern Defender bits I got cheap from a dismantler and it was quite civilised to drive. I can’t think of another vehicle that can undergo so much repair and modification yet still give useful service. We sold it for lack of space and because we needed to raise cash for a new boiler but we will have another one.

The state of the winch bar, bulkhead and body cappings would be warning me off it as it looks as though it’s had a hard life in a tough environment, and the clunk seems to back that up. An ex mod vehicle would be a better bet IMHO, as above, they tend to have a more thorough maintenance regime, and in some instances little or no heavy use.

My 110 clunked really badly when I bought it and was a real PITA unless you used the clutch really softly. Fortunately I managed to get it fixed under warranty. I think it was the ball joint A-Frame roll-over which seemed to be pretty tricky to fit unless you know what you’re doing!

As a daily workhorse it is cold (non existent heating) in Winter, hot in Summer, rattles a lot and is uncomfortable.

Saying that, I still love it and wouldn’t be without it!!

Take the heater box out and give it a good clean up and new sponge seals, get your local radiator specialist to recondition the matrix then refit it wedged in with some chopped up mouse mat and you’ll be amazed at how good the heater can be!

As a daily workhorse it is cold (non existent heating) in Winter, hot in Summer, rattles a lot and is uncomfortable.

Saying that, I still love it and wouldn’t be without it!!

+1

( + An Eberspacher diesel heater 🙂 )

I spoke to the seller and he suspects the clunk is the input shaft between the gear and transfer boxes.

I’ve rebuilt engines before but never a gerbox. Is it a diy proposition? I’ve removed gearboxes frm series Land Rovers in the past.

If this is a clunk when engaging gear and most violent in 1st gear then it is the ball-joint A-Frame roll-over. When the ball-joint gets worn it causes the clunk.

( + An Eberspacher diesel heater )

Cranberry, where can I get one of these cheap as they seem to be pretty expensive and I don’t want to spend a fortune making my 110 comfortable just for my wife!

Changing a 110 gearbox isn’t much harder than doing a series one. Have done both on my drive with basic tools. Not rebuilt land rover gearbox but lead to believe they aren’t too tricky if you take time and follow rebuild manual, know a few people who have done it. Shouldn’t be beyond you if you can rebuild an engine. Land rover gearboxes aren’t exactly high tech. It may not come to it though, it could be other things A-frame ball joint as mentioned is often mistaked for this. And for a run around hack if it’s not terminaly bad and you can live with it then it may not need doing, especially if a new input gear is fitted to reduce the play. It all depends on just what the fault is and how bad it is.

TBH the dreaded gearbox clunk always seems to obsess owners more than it should. The Land Rover doctrine on transmission noise is “keep driving the vehicle until the noise becomes unbearable for the operator. At this point consider an overhaul.”

If you like the 110 I would buy it using the clunk as a big bargaining tool; you can reckon on £1000 to deal with it using Ashcroft Transmissions reconditioned boxes with an exchange. It might be cheaper using second-hand parts if you’re sure about what you’re getting: we had a failed output shaft bearing on our transfer box and I got an 11,000 mile box off an ex-water board Defender, which had been drowned, from a dismantler in Cleveland from whom I used to buy quite a few Defender bits to upgrade my 90. The box cost £300 and because I didn’t fancy doing the job lying on my back on the drive I paid Graham Crook at Crook Bros in Houghton near Preston another £300 to fit it. (Excellent bloke, BTW) These gearboxes are HEAVY and you need experience and proper lifting equipment.

One other point is that on newer Land Rovers they extended the splined area on the input pinion so as to give a better distribution of the output to input forces. If you fit a new pinion to an old transfer box it will be cross-drilled for lubrication and you might find that it engages with un-worn splines on the gearbox output shaft.

But before spending all that money fit a Steve Parker lubrication plate to the transfer box and keep driving the 110, you might get more mileage than you think before the splines let go. Just make sure you’ve got road rescue up to date.

Thanks guys.

I went to see the Land Rover on Saturday.

It was in great condition and I’d believe the mileage was genuine. The bulkhead was near perfect. It looks like the roof rack has caught something and popped a spotweld above the hinge. The chassis was good too.

I doubted if the clunk was in the gearbox, it was barely audible, I suspect it’s more likely the A frame ball joint.

The winch worked and all was in good order.

I’ve just been outbid on it. I’m not certain how much it is worth and I don’t want to get into a bidding war. Complicating my decision is the fact that I already have a very good Tdi Discovery. I doubt I could justify having two Land Rovers.

It also comes with a spare cross member and four standard 7.50 x 16 wheels and tyres

What’s it worth?

Those clunks are so often caused by a frame ball joint or bolts not being tightend enough.
As to what its worth its a case of whatever your willing to pay and hopefully you win or not 😀

Considering the prices some ex mods go for, it’s got to be worth 2.5-3k

Shakey – mine came with one, but I understand that there’s a link somewhere in the LRO forum to a bloke who sells 2nd hand/reconditioned units.

Edit – found it http://www.4x4play.net/contact.htm