[Closed] Land Rover Defender upgrade - help me

get your swivels done and get your bushes done for the steering wobble. its not always the obvious ones - but it is a little disconcerting - i had the same issue on my 90.

whats the chassis and bulkhead like on your 300tdi ?

what makes you want to go to the td5?

Td5 chassis are rumoured to be made of duckspit and toilet roll - and to be fair ive seen 20 year old rotbox landies with better chassis than some of the TD5s rolling around

my money would be on keeping the 300tdi - or selling the engine and mounting a nice wee international 2.8 VGT engine 😉 - if you have a spare 6-8 grand to play with and just want more power.

btw - your driving a 2 tonne brick on wheels and your worried about fuel economy ..... maybe a nice little aygo is more up your street - could park it in the back of the 110 😀

sell it and buy a Landcruiser!
Landrovers are constant money pits (friends own and work at a land rover specialists and i have had dealings with them too) whereas my dad has got the Landcruiser and its up to 190k miles with just routine servicing

wow that really didnt take long !!!

i think on the last thread there was a good teeshirt posted

"its a land rover thing"

Changing cars on a whim is an expensive hobby; as an amateur mechanic I'd be inclined to stick with the simpler, lower tech model.

I don't know how the timing worked but just looking at the rear crossmembers on recent Defenders, they look much thinner and less beefy than on older models.

Steering wobble is probably just the preload on the swivel bushes, you need to remove some shims.

Steering wobble could be wheel balancing, panhard rod bushes, swivel pre-load or steering damper (or combination of the above)

Wheel balancing a cheap fix (and worth checking anyway) the rest can be either checked or fixed by a confident DIYer..

If you change any bushes go for either proper OEM metalastic or good quality polyurethane, and change the bolts aswell. (don't buy cheap bushes from Ebay - they are crap)

As for the 300TDi vs Td5 debate - both have their pros and cons...

300TDi is easy to work on for the DIY mechanic, fairly tunable and strong/reliable if looked after.
It should be good for 250k + if well serviced (my last one died at 145k after a catastrophic head gasget failure - which lead to a cracked block)

Td5 is a good engine, electrics are fairly basic, and I belive the only thing that can completely kill it dead is failure of the crank position sensor.
However, they do drink a lot (even worse if you tune it) but can be tuned to 200bhp+ (they make a great noise)

I'd be looknig at the vehicle as a whole rather than just the engine if it were me....

aye ive got super pro bushes in mine after being telt to avoid the britpart ones like a plague and that OEMS are a mare to put in without a press

what stopped my steering wobble was my trailing arm bushes.

i had loads of movement in em causing the vehicle to go into a wobble over bumps and making the steering go mad.

- i only found this out after id done my swivels , my panhards and my steering bush.

he raises a good point about wheel balance - you dont have some of those big ass remoulded insa tires on do you ?

and I belive the only thing that can completely kill it dead is failure of the crank position sensor.

I beg to differ - running it with no coolant in it can knacker it quite well.

Ask me how I know 🙁

LandyZone is a good forum for finding stuff out like this.

As some folk on here know I have just bought one for my wife, Its a TD5.

I just dont get the whole Land Rover bit myself but wife loves them. I just cant understan how a car can drive so bad and make so much noise doing it. She says its a bit like me...
Old, Slow but kinda cute. (her words not mine).

Tell her that if you start to mis-fire she should check your injector harness plug for signs of oil in the loom.

Trail_rat - the bulkheads are all good so I will more than likely keep it. It has been with my mechanic all week and he has looked at the steering box, king pins, shims and has finally suggested going for a heavy duty steering damper with rtc spring!

The wheel balancing has been checked but not sure about the bushes or swivels!

Thanks everyone for your input - I need to fix this as it becoming a royal pain in the arse.

Oh and just bought a big intercooler so looking for a bit more power 😀

Jesus ..god no ...not a td5 .........stick with the tdi

No replacing the damper with anything other than oem will not resolve it .......

It might mask it but wont fix it

Bushes and swivels , your mechanic is just touching on the easy stuff by the looks of it !

So a Terrafirma RTC damper from ebay £58.50 plus £8.50 is not going to help! 😆

It might even make it worse.......

Looks good though

Yeah looks great and that is what has been suggested.

I will ask them to do the bushes and swivels before I try that!

No replacing the damper with anything other than oem will not resolve it .......

+ > 1

Trailrat and freeagent - just had dampers checked and they all look good. We did discuss changing them for polyurethane but apparently it is a 'pig of a job'!

i will concurr.

involved burning out the old ones with a plumbers torch.

fitting polyurethans were easy in comparison.

just cause its a pig doesnt mean it doesnt need done ! - mines hadnt been done in 110k !

Have you had your swivel preload checked ? my moneys on that !

If you mean king-pins and shims by swivel then yes this has been checked! It has improved but they say that the steering damper that was put on last year is not up to the jobs. If it was one of the £13.99 eBay dampers then I can't see the harm in changing it for one of a better quality!

well in that case probably cant hurt - didnt realise youd fitted a shonky one already.

trail_rat - installed steering damper and wobble has all but disappeared. I can feel it in the steering wheel but looks like the rtc spring is keeping it in check.

Also, had the uprated intercooler fitted and change in power is more than significant. Not towed yet but am certain it will make a difference.

Trailrat and freeagent - just had dampers checked and they all look good. We did discuss changing them for polyurethane but apparently it is a 'pig of a job'!

Its not that bad a job if you have a decent press - burning them out is a bit grim though (been there, done that)
I've put Superpro/Orange Polybushes on two Landrovers and the difference is quite noticeable - any proper garage who is shying away from doing it is just being lazy!

I'm sure someone else will be along in a minute to tell you that you have to use the OEM rubber/metal bushes or you'll die, however I do know a lot of people who've had great results with polyeurethane..

If changing your steering damper has improved the situation then good result, however ideally you should be able to remove the steering damper completely and not feel any vibration..

Buy mine - it's lovely...

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/fs-ot-land-rover-defender-90-tomb-raider

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When you say steering wobble do you mean it tries to wrench the wheel out of your hands at anything above 35 mph? If so, panhard rod bushes as mentioned above are where I would start. If your new steering damper is good it will mak this but will wear out quickly.