Thread: 6 years of Puma Ownership

I fitted Ashcroft 1/2 shafts front and rear along with their drive flanges. Very slight improvement on back lash.

Fitted the new Ashcroft HDP38 centre....back lash gone

90% of back lash is down to the rear diff.

Originally Posted by PAT303

On the backlash issue,you must remember the drive goes through two gearbox's and three diffs,all with backlash.

Does it not do this on other makes of 4WD as well?

Originally Posted by Drover

I fitted Ashcroft 1/2 shafts front and rear along with their drive flanges. Very slight improvement on back lash.

Fitted the new Ashcroft HDP38 centre....back lash gone

90% of back lash is down to the rear diff.

Mine sounds like rear diff area... but then what would i know. LR say not

Originally Posted by Samblers

Does it not do this on other makes of 4WD as well?

Other makes don't run the same drivetrain,remember your defenders dates back to 1970.My TDCi had bad clunk and it was the clutch,a new one was fitted and it has a small amount now. Pat

Originally Posted by Samblers

Mine sounds like rear diff area... but then what would i know. LR say not

Drove my kids to school this morning and nary a clunk,mine originaly felt like it came from the diff but after a new clutch it's all good. Pat

Mines currently at LR. The backlash issue they are re-shimming the transfer case (so centre diff), replaced splined output shaft thingo and also replaced rear drive flanges.

Also taking my dash apart looking for a water leak - surprised at this as they had previously dismissed this issue.

I have to say, dealer have been impressive. They get a bagging by some but (reading the above) they have been good to many of us and must be experts in Defender rectification work

Well, another year gone, my Defender is now 7 years old, so time for an update.....122,000km.

Another year with zero major issues. Had three minor issues.....

1) Headlight switch burnt out. The switch has been replaced, and Tim's Traxide headlight loom fitted to prevent problem reoccurring. I now have brighter headlights. BTW - a symptom of this about to happen was my ABS pump going nuts cutting in and out as I drove around a paddock but without any loss of traction. I couldn't understand why the ABS pump was activating, but next morning I noticed that I had no headlights - only parkers.

2) Bonnet cable broke. I now have a repaired cable which operates from the lever under the dash, but also, a second cable that is tucked behind the LHS of the grill - you'd need to know it was there, but if the cabin accessed cable ever breaks again, I can still open my bonnet by retrieving the secondary cable and pulling on it with a pair of pliers. MR Auto fitted this at my request.

3) My vehicle started to run extremely roughly at idle. In heavy traffic, it would occasionally stall. The injectors made a very distinctive clatter at around 2000rpm in 4th (60km/h)......had the car with MR auto and they were thinking injector issue, but insisted on adding a bottle of Wurth Biocide and Heptane improver before condeming the injectors and to quote them, "it transformed the vehicle". They claim they have seen this on a few vehicles - bad fuel was the diagnosis. They also did a "relearn"on the injectors. The engine is again purring as a Puma should, and has not once returned to it's rough idle state after a winter and several thousand km following MR's work. The additive cost $18.00.

So to summarise - my 7 year old Puma Defender 110 continues to be a solid and reliable vehicle that doesn't even leak oil (or water - just charm)! Still loving it.

Great to hear mate. I'm 2 years in, 38000kms and no issues (MY12 90).

As you mentioned it, I am in the middle of a headlight combo loom upgrade from Tim (Traxide) very impressive results which I will post when complete.

Mick