Thread: Money no problem - best preventative maintenance advice TD5 Defender

From my experience with my td5 defender with 393000kms:

Engine:
Get a nanocom
Fit a low coolant alarm
Replace all radiator hoses (including the little one under the turbo). Be especially mindful of the two hoses that rub against the driver's side engine mount. When i replaced these I wrapped the new ones with lots of gorilla tape to protect them, and cable tied them out of the way
Replace the injector loom and check for oil at the edu
Replace any leaking seals/gaskets as soon as they start to leak
Replace turbo hoses with silicon



Drivetrain:
Replace oils
Fit an aschcroft atb when you need to rebuild the tc (I haven't done this yet but i will)
Again address oil leaks as soon as they arise

Also look after/replace wheel and swivel bearings regularly.

Spray the chassis, axles and any other steel parts regularly with lanolin spray to keep rust away

Originally Posted by djam1

If you are relatively serious with the no budget comments this is what I would do....
.... That should keep you busy

That is just what I wanted, great info! Much more than what I imagined, but that's fine. I can probably do a fair bit of it myself.

Thank you so much everyone, much appreciated.

I'll post some pics soon.

Clip

It's also really reassuring to hear much bigger k's than mine. The whole car is really tight, no rattles, no abnormal noises, seems to perform well and a pleasure to drive around town. So fingers crossed - but I'm quietly confident that it has been looked after.

I think I will do the oil pump bolt check though, and I wish I could determine if the head has been done. That's the thing that worries me most.

If you are looking for a good service centre near you it would be hard to go past British Off Road, just down the highway from you.

check out their website.

Originally Posted by timax

If it has done those ks then i would assume the oil pump bolt is fine.

Going by other threads on here, I don't think that is a safe assumption. It costs very little to check, but it costs an enormous amount to be wrong.

Originally Posted by Clip

I wish I could determine if the head has been done. That's the thing that worries me most.

That is the one I'd be more confident about using the Ks as a guide. Not definitive of course, but the year of build would seem to suggest the plastic dowels, and, when mine went at 240,000, I was told by the LR 'specialist' that did the job that I was lucky it had got that far. Not sure if this really means anything, but keep an eye on things. No sense trying to overthink it. All cars will do a HG at some point.

Just an update. Have had coolant system pressure tested to see if any head leak -all good. Oil is still clean and not gaining after 2000k's since change, hasn't really used any either - should it? So I'm sort of hoping that the head has been done.

Although I know the injector harness was done a couple of years ago, I'm doing that again too.

I'm also going to drop the sump and do the oil pump bolt just for peace of mind too. Be interesting to see if it's been done. I guess I'll know straight away. Can I ask what Loctite product is recommended for this job please?

The chassis is clean as a whistle, but will hit it with something to keep it that way. I've noticed in a few places that there is some really thick yellow coloured wax type product that has been used. I'm guessing that's some sort of lanolin product? I've used Tectyl in the past, but don't think that's a lanolin product?

Pics still to come.

Thanks again - Clip.

PS. British Off Road have been great (thanks for the recommendation). Really knowledgeable and always happy to have a chat and listen. Makes a difference for sure!

Be very selective about what air cleaner you run.

That is far, far more important than oil brand or change intervals.

Genuine, Mann and, umm ???

Most after market ones don't fit snuggly in the air box and leak.
Dust will kill an engine far faster than anything.