Thread: Newbie

G'day mate, welcome,

I guess the Defender Extreme you're looking at would be an 02-04 model?

From '99 to '06 Defenders had the Td5 engine (often associated with BMW, although I have a sneaking suspicion that it should be 'mis-associated').
From the '07 model (current) they've got the Puma engine (adapted from Ford Transit). Land Rover call it the Td4, which is rather confusing given that the Freelander's diesel goes by the same name, yet they are different engines.

As for the differences between them, those who've gone from Td5 to the Puma don't seem to regret it at all. That said, I'm perfectly happy with the Td5 I drive, but I don't usually drive it anywhere near to what it can give. The Puma is mated to a 6-speed box, which I'm told makes highway cruising more relaxing.

I don't know that any major problems have been found with the Puma engine yet; I know of things like there being a new sump pan as the original one could get damaged in extreme cases, but those with the new ones would know more than I.
The Td5 is notorious for getting "Oil in the Harness" - the design of the wiring loom to the injectors allows oil to seep into the wiring harnesses over time, which then travels by capillary action back down toward the ECU. The effect of this is that the oil interferes with the signals from the ECU to the injectors, causing things like rough running (sounding like it's only got 4 cylinders, not 5), amongst other things.
Checking is reasonably straightforward: there are 2 plugs to look at, the first is where the injector harness joins the main loom, at the left-hand front of the engine, and the other is at the main loom plug to the ECU which is found in the box underneath the driver's seat. If you can see oil in the first, then you're going to be up for (sometime down the track) a new injector harness. Some on the forum have had some rather ingenious methods of fixing this - these should come up on a search for "Oil in the Harness", or probably also in "The Good Oil" section of the forum. A lot of the vehicles have already had this problem, it may be that the one you're looking at has already been treated (and hopefully cured!).

I guess buying second hand you'd want it checked over by someone who knows Land Rovers, but that's pretty much par for the course anyway.

I don't have the slightest idea about the gearbox noise, so I'll stand down and let someone with a better idea answer that one.

Geoff