No its not broken its just an ongoing resoration project )

[Zedman]

Appreciate the offer Kingson, but every vehicle i have EVER had, the exhaust rust through in 1 to 3 years so i would like to take the plunge and go stainless since i am planning on keeping this defender till they stop selling diesel or I win the lottery )

The trade off between cheap and more grovelling under the vehicle v lifetime warranty "at a price" and never have to do it again widens as you get older )

The thing that still shocks me is on the price of any new vehicle I cant understand why they dont fit stainless as standard

[Matthews]

If they made everything properly and to last they'd go out of business as very few people would replace there cars, commonly known as built in obsolecense to keep the company afloat.
Cynical but true as once it's out of warranty they couldn't give a ****
Matthew

[nicks90]

absolutely!

most car manufacturers still build vehicles with the fleet market in mind. They make them as cheaply as possibly with the minimum service schedule that they can get away with to last 3 years / 60k miles and with the smallest warrant outlay. That means they are super competitive to fleet buyers.
Once they hit that 3 year and 60k limit - if the manufacturer designed it right - the vehicle will literally fall to pieces.

Its the old Lotus moto - Colin Chapman was quoted as saying if any part of his race cars lasted more than one race, the part was too heavy and over engineered.

[Bo]

Gents, can I please borrow your rose tinted glasses?
I have had in excess of 40 cars over the years since 1981, most of them up until the last few years were crap.
Cars built in the 70's usually needed welding for their first MOT, you were lucky if the engine lasted 60,000 miles, clutches needed changing every 30,000 and most used to get you high on fuel vapour or exhaust fumes. Diffs whined and the new fangled front wheel drive cars front wheels used to fall off when the lower ball joint went. If you made the mistake of turning on the optional heated rear window at the same as your home fit AM radio, the battery went flat. I has a Celica that went like stink due to its 2.0lt engine but wouldn't stop as they forgot to fit any brakes. It was the lightweight bodied version as the middles of the panels and floor had rotted out.
In the 80,s wheel arches and battery trays needed repairing for every MOT, cam belts used to let go on a regular basis even if you did change them and the cam used to wear out every six months. Track control arms gave up the ghost on a regular basis meaning tyres only lasted about 12,000 miles. Electronic ignition was introduced but was about as reliable as the 9:15 from Peterborough. Front wheel drive cars used to munch their way through engine mounts and then snap the exhaust.
By the 90's things were getting better (honest) Vauxhall invented something called a cam position sensor which periodically and for no good reason put a red light on the dash and set the engine to limp home mode. Fords were still rotting faster than an over ripe banana the French were building cars that wouldn't go through puddles without taking a drink and locking the engine. For those that way inclined and there seamed to bee thousands of them, you could nick the average car with a spoon and half a tennis ball.
Moving in to the 2000's I now keep my cars for 3 years, they do around 130,000 miles in that time and other than routine servicing, the only fault I had that stopped me driving home was a faulty EGR valve on a Saab.
To quote Harold Macmillan, "you've never had it so good".

[Rod]

Bo

My Mondeo 54 plate must have been a one of then
Rebilt engine at 15000 miles
The engine sounded like they had left all there spanners in there
Then AA recovery on any trip over 100 miles (but one good point was I only had to pay for fuel in one direction )
Even the fleet company did not like to admit it was one of there,s

Rod

[Zedman]

My previos Ford ka bought from new was a big mistake, list of failures over the neext 3 years (which magicaly happened after the 1 year warranty)

1. Exhasust
2. Another bit of the Exhasust
3. Heater solenoid, it failed 3 times in the 7 years I had it.
4. Widescren wiper mechanism
5. Front suspension bushes twice

I am hoping that the Defender with some TLC can provide some relibility with some sensible greaseing etc, to be fair once a bit is replaced I will be interested to see if it lasts longer than the 1 - 3 years a new car is built to last


So far end of 20010 / 2011 includes:
Rear discs and pads
Front discs and pads (fitting sunday if weather is good)
Clutch and Gearbox (thankyou Mathew ) + some welding on the chassis
Fan belt
Rear wheel bearings
Timing belt
Steering UJ's, + drop arm + all the other streeing bushes

[Matthews]

I tend to keep cars for about 8 > 10 years, the comp motor gets worked very hard and is constantly been tinkered with to keep it going reliably but I do tend to be very rough with them (that's what it's there for) and spend all my spare (and unspare ) cash on them. Kathryn's car by a few year old Subaru and service it regularly and it just works (will have to replace the original 12 year old exhaust in the near future though as I've welded it back together twice). My main car well I used to run old bangers as a runabout and use Kathryns for anything important but now I've got a poshish (but still 10 year old) Disco so I have to fix it now and again but even that has to work for a living towing trailers and transporting engines/gearboxes around so I put up with it's foibles, but compared to a lot of other modern cars it's reasonably cheap to keep on the road.
Matthew

[Zedman]

Following Mathews discovery that my battery wasn't fastened down please see the pictures below showing it is now anchored securley )

[tecnick]

Shiney shiney

[nicks90]

how many wires off that battery!!!


never had a new car and never intend to either - not unless i win the lottery. I think i'll stick with nearly new and run it for 10 years until its properly dead.
I'll leave the 'must have a new car' syndrome to Sara's dad. His last two bmw's spent more time at the garage than on his drive. He even ended up having to sue BMW about his X5 when its engine blew up in the first couple of months. Funny actually - as they said the on board computer showed he was doing in excess of 165mph when the engine siezed, therefore they wouldnt cover a new engine. His counter claim was it should have been restricted to 155mph as per bmw's policy and therefore it was a vehicle fault allowing him to do 165mph and cuasing the engine to seize.
Guess what? He won!!!! AND got a new bmw 535 - which was an unreliable bag of shit as well. lol

Nick

[varleym]

Richard

I guess you've got an extra set (+ve & -ve) of leads direct to your winch, but what are the others for?

Cheers

Mark

[Zedman]

The third pair is to a Durite connector on the outside of the battery box so I can plug in charging / jump leads without having to unbolt the bucket seat every time.

NB my jump leads have a matching connector on one end and standard clips on the other similar to the pic below

[Zedman]

I finaly got around to fitting the arch flares that Rod kindly donated to me ages ago, one minor problem, seems I picked up 2 x Rear drivers side arches instead of one of each side, I don't suppose anyone has a spare rear passenger side wheel arch flare they would be willing to sell me please ?

Defender 90, not fussed about color or condition as long as its servicable.

[davew]

I don't think they are sided...

[Rod]

I still have the rest of the arches the other Guy change his mind so you can come and have another look if you want
Rod