Thread: Did I pay tooo much for my defender?

Yeah I guess I should of known some thing of this age would need work.... But it is the nowest one I have ever owned and I could not affoard any thing any later! Cheers Ben

Yes, theres always the 'grass is greener' thing going, that is until you see the problems other makes have as well. Also, it is 16 years old as mentioned, and with that history you dont know how it was maintained/treated over that time.

Im no Defender expert, so cant comment on the price, but I have seen plenty of 96-97 300tdi fenders going for over 16k....

Mate you would be supprised how easy they are to fix,they are cheap also.Have you checked that it has oil into the drivetrain,pop the rubber gromets off the axle flanges and look for wear,check the A frame ball joint,really it isn't hard or costly.As mentioned above if you didn't want to work on a car why buy an old one?.Give it a check over and post what you find. Pat

Originally Posted by Xavie

I hear ya Ben!





Yes, I found syntrans very good. Takes a while to bed in though if that makes sense?

Pretty normal for it to take a little bit of time for the new friction modifiers to 'lift' the old ones off the synchro hub faces and embed themselves.
This will happen with any dedicated manual trans fluid and can can take up to 800km or so.

Syntrans, Redline MTL, Neo MTF would all work in the LT77.

Originally Posted by Mrlandyman100

G'day every one again!

I was just wondering if you guys think I might of paid too much for my defender ute... I bought it for $8000 last month.

Not bad actually.

Originally Posted by Mrlandyman100

Last week I got the timing belt changed (cost $676) and that same week the steering box went and that will be over $700, I havent got the bill for it yet.

Learn to work on it yourself. The timing belt is a easy job - get a manual/RAVE CD for it.

Also second hand items are sometimes the best way to go with these vehicles.

Originally Posted by Mrlandyman100

Second synchro is not very good at all... There is a lot of slack in the drive-train... Not sure what it is yet but it's not good. Since I have had it it has not wanted to sit at 100km/h very comfortably at all. It smokes a bit on start up (more then it should I think). Probably for a few seconds.

That's normal. Try the different oils that have been mentioned, but even if it doesn't work - the transmission will keep going for a lot of km's yet.

200tDi always sends a bit of black smoke on start up.

Originally Posted by Mrlandyman100

It has a nice big bull bar and side steps but that's the only extra it has and it has no radio etc... The seat bases are all torn...

Seat bases are easily fixed. Go second hand or retrim them with Exmour gear.

Radio - crap they are $80 new for a decent CD player now. And 30 mins to fit them.

Originally Posted by Mrlandyman100

Maybe I paid too much!?

I don't think so. I think you got what you paid for it honestly.

Originally Posted by Mrlandyman100

I am a bit dissapointed in the car seeings this is the most I have ever spent on a car and I am already looking at the problems it has and I havent had it very long.

Older vehicles are like this. It's a bit jack on your mate for not letting you know. If it had been me that sold the vehicle, I would've helped with the mechanical side at least!

Cheers
Chris

Thanks for your advice every one! I think I will stick at it and get thing sorted out over time... I will just look forward to being able to sit at 100km/h some what comfortably in it one day!

Thanks again every one...

Cheers
Ben

Ps: does any one have a snorkel for a 200tdi they want to sell!?

p.s - I second the vote on the axle flanges causing drive train slack - I've had to change mine every 60,000k's - IT's almost like a new car after that. The original flanges seem to wear quite quickly. I bought a set of aftermarket ones from Paddocks in the UK that are much longer lasting - at least that's what they reckon.....

I feel your pain but all cars need things done to them it is a sad reality I'm slowly learning to accept.
I have a Toyota hilux dsl dual cab and I had a lot of work on it when I first bought it and mine was in excellent condition well cared for etc. I know a guy who paid $12500 for a Toyota only to have the entire engine blow up after a week. So they aren’t necessarily any better.
Maybe a brand new one might be? But I know someone with a brand new very pricey Audi that spends more time in the workshop then on the road.

Originally Posted by Mrlandyman100

Yeah it is a 1993 200tdi with the LT77 gear box in it I thinks. It has 224000kms on the clock now it has had stuff like king pins etc... done to it recently. Yeah I just would of thought there would of been a bit less slack in the drive-train... When i drove series land rovers they did not have this much!

Any one want to buy it? Dare I say I might buy a toyota next! I will see if I can get this thing running well I guess first... I am just over having cars that need things done to them!

Thanks for your advice!

Cheers
Ben