Buying a defender, some questions

On or around 2 May 2007 21:12:21 -0700, Maarten van Tilburg enlightened us thusly:

don't know much about Brazilian defenders, I have to say. You'll definitely want power steering, but most defenders have that anyway. I daresay the engine is a variant of the TDi motor, which is a sound unit, if it's a land-rover based one. If not it could be anything. Iveco engines are good, as are Isuzu mostly. It'd help if you can find which engine they're using.

CSW is mostly just better trim. ABS is useful occasionally if fitted but is something else to go wrong. The only thing of mine with ABS has a non-functional system and I've never thought it worth repairing, although admittedly it's not in use at the moment anyway.

and as you say, get a good one and maintain it well. My personal recommendation is to avoid newish ones with lots of electronics, although to be fair, it's rarely the actual electronic bits that give trouble, mostly it's cables and connectors.

You should ok there, power steering has been standard for many years - it's possible the Brazilian assembled ones don't have it, but unlikely I'd have thought. You'll notice if it hasn't! When working Defender power steeing is pretty light.

It has to be said that LR aren't the most reliable vehicles in the world, but this is mitgated by parts being very cheap compared to other marques and readily availale (in the UK anyway), and generally extremely easy to fit (on Defenders). They also can keep going ,when necessary, even if pretty badly broken. I've no idea what the spares position in Brazil is, but the average workshop time here for an LR is under a day, whereas for Jap motors its about three weeks waiting for parts.

Well that's no different to your avarage Defender owner! When it actualy won't move any more it's time to fix it.... Defender is an old design (and long may it continue so), so yes, regualar maintainance should be a must.

This may help on the engine front:

thers a bit a Brazilian production in there somewhere.

As ever, local variants may be different, but for the UK a Station Wagon had vinyl seats and basic trim, whereas the County Station Wagon has cloth seats, fully trimmed rear and better sound insulation on the bulkhead, and proper carpets.

Unless you have a particular reason for wanting ABS then I'd say avoid it - if you intend using the vehicle for what Our Lord Wilkes intended then the ABS will be a pain in the bum.

Since most of the problems too look for in the UK are related to salt induced corrosion in the chassis and swivel balls (I'm operating on the assumption that there isn't a lot of call for salting icy roads in Brazil) then other that usual car things the gearbox is probably your biggest worry - look for clunking in the transmission when moving off and/or going to over-run from drive. There's plenty of minor things (like worn bushes etc) that can clunk too so it may be best to ask the seller to inspect the transfer box input gear/main gearbox output shaft for worn splines - an easy enough task.

It sounds like Landroveritis has already set it....

Richard

built by International Motors of Brazil (but terminated by end of

2006, due to new environment rules). Power steering seems to be standard, probably after a certain production date. But what about the clutch and breaks ?

I don't think ABS is of any use in this country, as we won't ever have slippery roads due to ice and snow. That is why I wondered why it was added in some cases.

I was demonstrated a Discovery II, 2002 at a seemingly low price. Relative that is, about half of a new one. The defenders seem to be valued at about 80% or even more, after 5 years. This made me think, and after some research I found that the problems reported (and very serious ones) must be electrical indeed. Or perhaps software of the on- board computer. This is what you get, if everything (including the hand-break ?) is electronically controlled. Well, to be honest, I already decided against automatic gear, warmed seats (in Brazil ??) that make you fall asleep, a rain detector to turn on the wipers (I can do that myself) and a coffe-cup holder, amongst other superfluous gadgets.

A Defender may be unconfortable, but I like to have control over things. And once again, I like the looks. Disco and Freelander are to much like their Japanese counterparts, IMHO, 20 in a dozen.

Maarten van Tilburg wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@q75g2000hsh.googlegroups.com:

Hoi Maarten,

You might also have a go at a (very nice) dutch board at

Groetjes, Martin. (Living in Germany..)