defender advice

[p1doc]

i am thinking of replacing my alfa for a defender as living in rural scotland so 5 miles from nearest town and need wife's forester if snow ice etc any good buyer's guides out there torn between getting cheap tdi/td5 or buy newer transit engined one-really fancy a v8 but look rare as hen's teeth?
ideally looking for defender 90 sw
thanks
martin

[tuscanchris]

I have had defenders since 95 stay away from the Td5 they are putting it simply, crap. Too many electrics that do go wrong eventually. 300TDI is absolutely bomb proof and can be nicely tweaked. I have a new 2010 transit powered 90 at present and can not fault it. It is in full fighting livery now and tweaked to run at 210bhp no throttle limitter and straight through de-cat exhaust. Go for a 300 or if budget not an issue splash out on a tdci puma, you really won't be disappointed.

[Steve UK]

tuscanchris said:

I have had defenders since 95 stay away from the Td5 they are putting it simply, crap. Too many electrics that do go wrong eventually. 300TDI is absolutely bomb proof and can be nicely tweaked. I have a new 2010 transit powered 90 at present and can not fault it. It is in full fighting livery now and tweaked to run at 210bhp no throttle limitter and straight through de-cat exhaust. Go for a 300 or if budget not an issue splash out on a tdci puma, you really won't be disappointed.

do yourself a favour and don't listen to this.

Your budget is what will determine what you look at and the condition will be second, a good condition 300tdi will be better than a poor condition TD5. But a poor condition 300tdi will not be better than a good condition TD5. Service history/usage etc.

All engines have problems some worse than others, but generally they are very good.

Tuscanchris's sweeping statement about the TD5 is down to ignorance. The TD5 has more electronics than the 300tdi but is a very simple engine compared to the Puma tdci. You can service it yourself in your garage. Get a problem with the tdci and there is no way you can touch it.

my summary

The 200 and 300 tdi are getting a bit old now.
The TD5 are more refined, newer, easy to work on and tune if thats your thing.
The tdci puma even more refined but difficult to work on at home.
V8 will live forever

I have a TD5 my budget was £8000, I would have liked a tdci but very happy with my TD5. Last week I replaced the injector loom in 30 mins as a precaution. Oil may get into the wires ( this maybe what chris is on about ) Actually now thinking... the TD5 is perfect for me as its fairly modern but can still be worked on without special tools. Yea it has electronically controlled injectors but each injector has a mechanical pump off the cam. So you have the simples of the 300 tdi but the refinement of adjustable injector timing AND you can still work on it at home. Very nice engine, and I have worked on some nice engines in my time.

I think with defenders, to have a reliable one you always have to be thinking ahead to maintain them, read up and you won't have problems.

Best of luck with your choice

[macar]

Had several Defenders, 2x300's, 2xTd5and now a Puma. I've had problems with them all, but overall the Puma has been in the dealers workshop the most. Overall the enjoyment far outweighs the niggles. As the previous chap said, buy the best you can for your budget- personally I would go for a good Td5.

[p1doc]

td5 it looks like but still so tempted by v8 lol
martin

[anonymous-user]

Steve UK said:

tuscanchris said:

I have had defenders since 95 stay away from the Td5 they are putting it simply, crap. Too many electrics that do go wrong eventually. 300TDI is absolutely bomb proof and can be nicely tweaked. I have a new 2010 transit powered 90 at present and can not fault it. It is in full fighting livery now and tweaked to run at 210bhp no throttle limitter and straight through de-cat exhaust. Go for a 300 or if budget not an issue splash out on a tdci puma, you really won't be disappointed.

do yourself a favour and don't listen to this.

Your budget is what will determine what you look at and the condition will be second, a good condition 300tdi will be better than a poor condition TD5. But a poor condition 300tdi will not be better than a good condition TD5. Service history/usage etc.

All engines have problems some worse than others, but generally they are very good.

Tuscanchris's sweeping statement about the TD5 is down to ignorance. The TD5 has more electronics than the 300tdi but is a very simple engine compared to the Puma tdci. You can service it yourself in your garage. Get a problem with the tdci and there is no way you can touch it.

my summary

The 200 and 300 tdi are getting a bit old now.
The TD5 are more refined, newer, easy to work on and tune if thats your thing.
The tdci puma even more refined but difficult to work on at home.
V8 will live forever

I have a TD5 my budget was £8000, I would have liked a tdci but very happy with my TD5. Last week I replaced the injector loom in 30 mins as a precaution. Oil may get into the wires ( this maybe what chris is on about ) Actually now thinking... the TD5 is perfect for me as its fairly modern but can still be worked on without special tools. Yea it has electronically controlled injectors but each injector has a mechanical pump off the cam. So you have the simples of the 300 tdi but the refinement of adjustable injector timing AND you can still work on it at home. Very nice engine, and I have worked on some nice engines in my time.

I think with defenders, to have a reliable one you always have to be thinking ahead to maintain them, read up and you won't have problems.

Best of luck with your choice

Wise words. I had a 300TDi, and now have a TD5.
The 300 was easy to diagnose but was time-consuming, whereas the TD5 takes little longer to figure out (currently chasing a speedo earth fault) but is generally quicker to fix.
As said, either engine is good if looked after.