Early TD5 or later TD5?

[D110V8D]

Guys and gals.

I'm considering my options and I'm thinking about acquiring a TD5 Defender 110 Station wagon as a tourer/weekend camping trips with the family and general all rounder, mainly so I can take the County off the road for a while and do some major work to it to transform it into a weekend play toy mud run pig. It's my daily driver at the moment and I cant have it off the road for extended periods of time, which also stops me from throwing it around a bit on weekend mud runs.

Now I'm after peoples opinions on which year model would be best. I'll admit I haven't done alot of research on TD5's so far but I have read about oil pump bolts coming loose, plastic head locating dowels etc etc but I have no idea which year these problems were fixed/changed or whatever.

I would prefer an early model mainly for cosmetic reasons as well as avoiding much of the electronic gadgetry (pre "Extreme") like abs and traction control etc etc which I'm not interested in but I will live with if I have to.

So at the risk of covering a topic that may have already been done to death.......anyone care to enlighten me?

[discowhite]

yep! buy LRH's 110 hes done with it now.....

i think that only 130 came minus the abs/tc/power windows...

ide suggest anything after 2002.. touch wood i have not had any major or minor electrical problems at all...that i can remember?


anyway, i thought the 88 was your daily driver?

cheers phil

[spudboy]

If you are thinking of chipping it, go for a 2003+ model. The earlier ones had a non-flashable ECU.

That will also lessen the chances of the other ailments you mention, although the plastic head location dowels isn't really a problem (the head moving is the problem, not the dowels themselves).

[D110V8D]

yep! buy LRH's 110 hes done with it now.....

i think that only 130 came minus the abs/tc/power windows...

ide suggest anything after 2002.. touch wood i have not had any major or minor electrical problems at all...that i can remember?


anyway, i thought the 88 was your daily driver?

cheers phil

Yeah I know......now I've got it I'm being a little precious with it. It's "on display" in the shed only to be driven on sunny Sundays.

[discowhite]

Yeah I know......now I've got it I'm being a little precious with it. It's "on display" in the shed only to be driven on sunny Sundays.

bloody hell! you will want to paint it next

cheers phil

[D110V8D]

bloody hell! you will want to paint it next

cheers phil

No no no no no Phil.......that would destroy the "patina" that took years to acheive.

Besides Land Rovers dont look right all shiney an that.

[rick130]

No no no no no Phil.......that would destroy the "patina" that took years to acheive.

Besides Land Rovers dont look right all shiney an that.

Which is why mine only gets an annual bath, whether it needs it or not

(although some unkind people around here display mock surprise that it is actually white underneath the country hue )

[x-box]

Well i have a 99 model without all the electronics mentioned - open diffs so i could install manual locker in the rear, and have not needed abs yet (thank goodness)
No other problems so far - plastic locating dowels will only be a problem if you overheat the engine or similar (i think) and then you'll have problems anyway, including exhaust manifold, head, etc
As for the flashable chip - apparently you can change over to a later chip (which is what i will be doing soon - only because my "flash" went to c**p), and it is also a bit smoother at crawling speeds etc
So whether you get the earlier or later model - i personally don't think there's much in it, as long as it's been looked after well (like any vehicle should be). I'm still very happy with mine, very good service and 196k on the odo

[sashadidi]

Well i have a 99 model without all the electronics mentioned - open diffs so i could install manual locker in the rear, and have not needed abs yet (thank goodness)
No other problems so far - plastic locating dowels will only be a problem if you overheat the engine or similar (i think) and then you'll have problems anyway, including exhaust manifold, head, etc
As for the flashable chip - apparently you can change over to a later chip (which is what i will be doing soon - only because my "flash" went to c**p), and it is also a bit smoother at crawling speeds etc
So whether you get the earlier or later model - i personally don't think there's much in it, as long as it's been looked after well (like any vehicle should be). I'm still very happy with mine, very good service and 196k on the odo

Have year 2000 110 td5 with no ABS , traction control, no problems and upgraded to a new ECU(flashable) as other one was giving "terminal messges" (but just needed new earth connections!!!!) Cost me 250 british pounds plus freight and put a later map on, much smoother and more power and still have other as a backup, so you get a older cheaper car with new driveablitly