Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2023 i Land Rover Monthly

I know what you’re thinking – I normally grace this Welcome page with a happy, smiling face, and this month I look a bit glum. Well, I don’t feel glum now, but I did the other day when I reluctantly let my Range Rover Classic go. After buying it with the very best of intentions, I assessed it again myself, and had two of my bodywork-savvy pals look over it, and the unfortunate reality is that I’d bitten off far more than I could chew. The Range Rover took up the only useable space in my rented workshop and, with all the other exciting Land Rover stuff I get up to, I just don’t have the time to make meaningful progress on such a massive undertaking. Thankfully it’s gone to…

In a nice reversal of the usual JLR blues, the latest JD Power survey for ownership satisfaction (as opposed to reliability) puts Land Rover (and Jaguar) at the top of the charts. New vehicles almost always come packed with more tech and comfort features than their predecessors, and for a lot of LRM readers it’s not always the best thing when they come to chopping in their car. However, in the JD Power 2023 US Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout (APEAL) Study, which surveyed 84,555 verified owners of new 2023 model-year vehicles after 90 days of ownership – measuring satisfaction on a 1000-point scale – Jaguar and Land Rover are top among premium brands, with Jaguar outscoring Porsche by four points (887) and Land Rover matching the German’s score (883).…

AS news of the electric Grenadier hits the headlines, JLR has confirmed it will invest more than £4billion building its new gigafatory in Somerset. The Tata Group has chosen Britain over Spain thanks to government funding with reports suggesting Tata had asked for up to £500million in support. It will be a huge boost to UK automotive manufacturing, creating thousands of jobs. Production is due to start in 2026 and will have an initial output of 40GWh, making it one of Europe’s largest battery cell manufacturing facilities. It’s estimated that it will provide nearly half of the battery production that the Faraday Institution estimates Britain will need by 2030, when the ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars is due to commence. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: “With…

SEAT BELT CLIPS PRICE: £35 CONTACT: optimill-uk.com THESE billet aluminium seat belt retainers add a splash of highly-polished brightness to your Defender’s seat box, and replace the brittle plastic originals. They come with countersunk stainless steel Allen screws, and are a straightforward fit. UNDERBODY PROTECTION PRICE: £380 CONTACT: muddymods.com THIS new sump guard from Muddymods is laser cut and CNC folded in 8mm aluminium, and promises to keep the front of your Freelander 1 well protected during off-road excursions. It’s a straightforward fit with the supplied fixings, and retains the original plastic side splash panels. SEAT BELT RAIL PRICE: £220.87 CONTACT: ribblevalley4x4.com TO suit Series II, IIA, III and Defender, and sold under part number DA3554, this bolt-on rail attaches to the top of your Land Rover’s body cappings and…

ON A daily basis I seem to have packages arriving from all over the world at the moment for the 80in restoration. It’s really exciting! Especially when new old stock (NOS) parcels arrive in their original date-stamped packaging. Before I started this project, I always thought early Land Rover parts were going to be an absolute nightmare to source. And yet, so far, there really haven’t been any major problems finding things. Take the speedometer for example; mine was substantially beyond repair (along with all the other gauges for that matter). A quick search online and several places seemed to sell replacement speedos, albeit new incarnations. They were somewhat pricey though and I felt if I was going to spend that sort of money, I would prefer to get hold…

“GOOD afternoon, just calling to let you know your Land Rover is ready to collect.” “That’s great. Any problems?” “No, all good. And I’ve found you another 40 horsepower…” A slightly shabby but much-loved Ninety came in for an MoT test and with a couple of faults needing to be fixed, in particular an issue with poor starting. The customer reported that the engine was sometimes very slow to turn over and that the starter did not always engage when the key was turned. My first thought was a bad connection, either the main battery cable or the earth. The positive feed from the battery proved to be fine, but the vehicle had the earlier type of earthing system, with the earth cable running from the battery to one of…

THIS might well be the coolest school project ever – the build of a motorsport-inspired Range Rover pick-up to truly exacting standards: school was never this interesting back in my day. This unusual project is the brainchild of Nick Cusack, a teacher at the Střední průmyslová škola Emila Kolbena (that’s the Emil Kolben Technical High School to you and me) in Rakovnik, a town of some 16,000 souls in the Czech Republic about 35 miles west of Prague. Nick hails from Henley-on-Thames but his wife, Kamila, is Czech, and they met and married in the UK before deciding around 19 years ago to return to Kamila’s homeland. Nick has worked at the Emil Kolben school since 2006, where he teaches Technical English in IT, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, as well…

IT is far too early for a Saturday morning. The morning after a monsoon downpour, thankfully now crawling across France, replaced by the first rays of yellowed sunlight. The tranquility of everyone’s lazy lie-in is broken by the squeak of a garage door, then the chatter of a cold engine as the starter catches, the engine fires and out of the garage my Series I splutters, eager for the trip ahead. I’m heading to LRM’s Malvern event; one of my sons beside me, the car loaded with camping kit and food. Full of excitement and anticipation of a lad-and-dad road trip, we were on our way, eager for a long cruise in the old Land Rover. We both love a road trip, and with the engine running really well, the…

THE Freelander Owners Club has been attending the Gaydon Land Rover Show for seven years now. We usually hold our annual get together there, and the weekend helps to raise money for the charity the club is supporting. The club is lucky enough to be allowed to bring as many Freelanders onto the stand as we can fit, which, if you’ve visited the show before, is the whole end section of the show area. This year it was an early start on the Sunday, but it was a lovely sunny day and there were lots of new and old members in attendance. We weren’t expecting huge numbers of members as the show clashed with the King’s Coronation; also, it was just the one night of camping rather than the whole…

Utility Land Rover models (Ninety, One Ten and Defender) are unusual vehicles in the modern age because almost everything is bolted together and can therefore be unbolted. This is a boon where a body part needs to be replaced, especially when that part is the main bulkhead. This early Ninety is 38-years old and suffering major rust issues in the chassis and bulkhead. The bulkhead has serious corrosion in the footwells and the bulkhead feet (where it is bolted to the chassis), rendering the Land Rover structurally unsound. There are also signs of ugly rust damage around the top corners of the bulkhead, below the windscreen where rust is eating its way out from the inside. Replacement bulkheads are available from Richards Chassis and others, whereas just five years ago…

WE’RE all familiar with the black plastic covers that hide the engines on the Td5 and everything that came later. They form a thermal and acoustic barrier, keeping heat away from the bonnet and noise away from the cabin. But underneath is a layer of foam that eventually falls apart and disintegrates into a fine dust that collects all over the top of the engine. It’s not just an aesthetic problem. The engine cover needs to be removed for servicing and in some cases, such as this 2.7 V6 diesel, the oil filler cap has to be removed before lifting the engine cover. That means when the cover is lifted, debris and dust falls into the oil filler tube – we might be careful doing this, but will the garage…

My Defender 300Tdi seems to be using a lot of oil. This has become progressively worse over the last year or so. Before this, it’s always gone between services without any need for topping up. There is no oil mist blowing from the top of the engine, even when I remove the oil filler cap, and the engine is nice and clean, so I guess it’s not down to engine wear, but more like some developing internal defect. It starts and drives perfectly normally and there are no engine noises, but it has become a bit smoky, especially blue smoke on first starting up in the morning when the engine is cold. ED EVANS REPLIES: You don’t say how many miles the engine has covered, though it’s not unusual for a…

Fri 18 – Sun 20 August THE WELSH, THE WELSH TORR WINCHING AND TACTICS EVENT Presteigne, Radnor, Powys, Wales thewelsh.co.uk LANCASHIRE LAND ROVER CLUB, STRICTLY COME CAMPING CLUB EVENT TBC llrc.org.uk Sat 19 August SCOTTISH LAND ROVER OWNERS CLUB, RTV TRIAL Humbie, Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland slroc.co.uk Sat 19 – Sun 20 August SOLENT & DISTRICT LAND ROVER CLUB, PLAY WEEKEND SEVEN SISTERS IN WALES Seven Sisters, Glenneith, South Wales sadlrc.com AYLESBURY LAND ROVER FANATICS, PROMOTIONAL EVENT AND JUNIOR TRIAL Grange Farm, Nottinghamshire muddyduck.org.uk SUFFOLK FOUR-WHEEL DRIVE CLUB, PROMOTIONAL EVENT Badwell Ash, Bury Saint Edmunds, Suffolk suffolk4x4club.com Sat 19 – Mon 21 August UK LAND ROVER EVENTS, TYNEDALE LAND ROVER TOUR Alston, Cumbria uklandroverevents.com Sun 20 August YORK LAND ROVER SHOW Forest Business Park, Crockey Hill, York yorklandrovershow.co.uk CHELTENHAM &…

AFTER eight months in the interim role, Adrian Mardell is now officially CEO of Jaguar Land Rover, while Richard Molyneux has also had his acting CFO role made official. Mardell – previously chief financial officer and who has been with the manufacturer for more than three decades – was promoted to the post when Thierry Bolloré quit for personal reasons, having been a JLR board member for three years. It is hoped that the pair – with strong automotive and leadership experience – will ‘deliver JLR’s transformation to modern luxury’. Watch this space……

I’VE never met Mr Bean (or Captain Blackadder or Johnny English, since you ask) although I did watch benignly when my young daughter toddled up to Rowan Atkinson at the Goodwood Revival many years ago, and politely ambushed him for his autograph. Atkinson was racing that day, but for the life of me I cannot remember what he was driving. Probably his Jaguar Mk VII. He is, of course, a renowned petrolhead, and at one point he owned a 2015 Defender Heritage limited edition, although he sold it at auction in 2017, and for a handsome profit. I was rather pleased to read recently that he and I (and presumably Mr Bean, Captain Blackadder, and Johnny English) share similar views regarding EVs and reducing emissions. I’ve written on this page…

AMONG many car auctions’ mailing lists my email has somehow found its way onto the database for the DVLA’s monthly Personalised Registration sales. When the latest sale catalogue pops into my inbox I can’t resist a peek to see if there is anything Land Rover-related. I’m not interested in a number which will look a little bit like my name if I squish the letters together and add a few strategically-placed screwheads, but I do have a nod of respect for registrations which match the car or demonstrate a sense of humour. I also love to spot a battered Discovery or Defender at a county fair with a horse trailer attached wearing a number plate which has clearly been passed down through the generations. Google these registrations and you’ll usually…

THEY say that first impressions count for a lot, and I’m inclined to agree. My first impression of the Defender 130 has nothing to do with the firmness of the seat, the reassuringly solid ‘thunk’ when shutting the door or the colour definition on the 11.4 inch touchscreen. Nope, the first thing I raise an eyebrow to when clambering aboard the newest body-style L663 is how far away the back window is when looking in the rear-view mirror. It’s almost like it’s in another county. To put things in perspective, the 130’s just-over-five-metre length is a whole 34cm longer than the current 110 and 40cm longer than the Disco 5, placing it on par with the newest Range Rover, and slightly longer than the Sport. These are all big cars,…

‘DURING the mid-1960s, Land Rover owners across America sent hundreds of letters to the New York offices of the Rover Motor Company of North America,’ wrote Michael Green 20 years ago in an article that can still be found online. ‘The letters eventually reached the president of the company, J B McWilliams, and he noted that they all contained the same complaints about their 2.25-litre Land Rovers: ‘lack of road speed, not enough horsepower, towing capacity is great but it takes forever to get anywhere, it slows down too much while climbing a grade…’. The letters arrived in their droves as American drivers, traditionally cosseted in huge vehicles with massive engines, found the Land Rover’s motor just too small.’ Clearly, something had to be done about it. Michael’s father, Richard…

IN the UK, we’re blessed with a fair few motorsport venues considering the relatively small size of the lumps of rock in the sea we live on. Of course, some have fallen by the wayside over the years, but one that survives and continues to host some of the most exciting motorsport events in the country is the Shelsley Walsh hill climb. Despite its name, and perhaps disappointingly to some of us, the hill climb isn’t a steep muddy trail or massive sand dune. Instead, it’s a 1000-yard strip of tarmac that snakes up between the Worcestershire hills, elevating a whopping 328 feet in the process. At its narrowest point it’s only 12 feet wide, which makes the demanding course even more buttock-clenching for the drivers hell-bent on shaving off…

A paperless subscription allows you to enjoy the world’s BEST-SELLING Land Rover magazine wherever you may be, plus: • Instant access to a library of over 90 issues – including the latest issue • Easily search over 12,000 pages and find answers to anything Land Rover-related • Save on storage and be kinder to the environment Get your first 5 issues for £5, then pay just £2.99 a month by direct debit. Don’t miss out on this great offer Subscribe now – bit.ly/lrmdigi22…

ONE of the biggest changes between the Series I (except for a few of the last built) and any later Series vehicles, was the move to a fully floating-type rear axle. What does this mean? On later Series vehicles, the front and rear hub units are identical. The hub itself is mounted via two bearings onto a large stub axle bolted to the axle case. This means that the entirety of the vehicle’s weight is being supported by two bearings per corner, and the axle shaft ‘floats’ in the axle case with no stress acting upon it besides the torque of the engine. Series I models (except some very late production vehicles) have a different back axle system. This is a semi-floating design, which means that the axle shaft also…

ED EVANS TECH EDITOR LRM technical lead. Drives 90 V8, RR Sport TREVOR CUTHBERT CONTRIBUTOR Pro re-chassis and total rebuild specialist DAVE BARKER CONTRIBUTOR Our man for later models. Drives Discovery 4 ALISDAIR CUSICK CONTRIBUTOR Patina expert. Drives Series I, Range Rover Classic STEVE MILLER CONTRIBUTOR DIY and resto man. Drives Td5 Defender 90 MARTIN DOMONEY REPLIES: One symptom of worn wheel box gears is lack of travel in the wiper arms, which also manifests in them parking too high on the windscreen. I wouldn’t change your current drive gear for a 140-degree version without first checking for excessive wear in the drive gears and cable. If you lift one wiper arm off the screen and check for slack in the other, it should be fairly obvious if the mechanism has…

I’ve just replaced the hub bearing on the rear axle of my Series III. I thought I’d do this because as far as I know, the original bearings were still in there after 80,000 miles and 47 years. Now the job is done, I don’t notice any difference in rear end noise, but I’m glad to know that part of the car is in good condition. There wasn’t any noise coming from the rear axle hub bearings, so how would I have tested the bearings to see if they actually needed replacement? We also have a Discovery 4 and a Freelander 2, neither of which has required wheel bearings – what is the best way to look after them?…

HAVE you heard the exciting news? Land Rover Monthly has a new sister magazine – Land Rover Life. The new quarterly title is edited by Neil Watterson, who you may recognise from Land Rover magazine circles, and there are some other familiar faces on board, as well as a few new ones. The physical magazine has glossy paper, high quality, vibrant print and a proper spine – but if you prefer to get your magazines in digital form, you can do that too. The launch issue is on sale now and is crammed full of great content, including a top-notch Defender 110 fitted with a late-model BMW engine and eight-speed automatic gearbox, retro rallying in the Santana Trophy, a carefully-improved Series III Carawagon, new Range Rover Sport test, Freelander 2…

Aiming too high? Your ‘JLR Aims Higher’ news piece in the August issue of LRM seems to me to be a strategy of sink or swim for Land Rover. Originally, Land Rover was a single model crossing all social divides: they were affordable. That has now changed through evolution to a very expensive product range which for so many are unaffordable. The original concept is history. The new Defender looks nice, though it is a very capable but extremely expensive fashion icon, many of which are only on the road through finance plans. Rather than splitting the company into fancy sales outlets with access to the wealthy only, concentrate on your loyal customer base, reliability and affordability. I recently purchased my second Discovery Sport which is one of many LR…

THE death of someone close is always tough but I have discovered, by the recent death of my wonderful mum, that losing one’s mother is a particularly unique and painful loss. My mum was familiar with Land Rovers, if not exactly a fan. She had gamely been in my Lightweight (she deemed it “rather smelly and noisy”) countless times, and a lifetime of driving old bangers meant she supported keeping “the old thing” on the road. When she met my father in the 1970s, he was the proud owner of one of the last Series IIAs made. She told me how once, waiting to be picked up outside London’s National Gallery for a date, she had spent half an hour embarrassedly watching his Land Rover’s slow and painful crawl around…

VISITORS to my workshop over the last year cannot fail to have noticed a very sorry-looking and incomplete Range Rover taking up far too much of my scarce and precious workshop space. The story behind this is a sad one. The owner bought the vehicle (a very late soft-dash Classic with the 3.9-litre V8 engine) at a classic car auction and brought it to me for a service and a few minor repairs to door locks, lights and so on. I drove the vehicle into the workshop, put it on axle stands, and two minutes later I was pulling out big chunks of structurally important bodywork with my bare hands. The inner wings (front and rear), front footwells and boot floor were as rotten as anything I have ever seen.…

WE’VE had the new Defender for a few years now, and sightings of the L663 out on the roads are now common. Buyers of the L663 tend to be consumers, where sales are won with marketing, brand awareness and model appeal. But what about the commercial customers of the model, who relied on the original Defender as a working tool? They chose the Defender by a totally different set of metrics: the vehicle was bought to perform a task, just like a hammer or screwdriver. So where does the latest Defender fit in with that traditional buyer? I’m barreling around the scenery of Exmoor in Devon to find out, with a user who needs a rugged 4x4 as a workhorse – the Exmoor Search and Rescue Team. Regular readers may…

THE northern peninsula of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is bounded to the west by the Persian Gulf and to the east by the Indian Ocean. The peninsula itself is little-developed, with no large cities like nearby Dubai. Instead, it has swathes of sand dunes forming sand seas pressing up against the Hajar mountains, forming a spine to the peninsula. I’ve lived on the peninsula for seven years, exploring the deserts and mountains of the UAE and Oman in my 1996 Camel Trophy Edition Discovery, and my friend Pieter and I recently crossed the peninsula off-road from west to east with his 1985 110 ‘Jangwa’ (Swahili for desert) and my Disco ‘Bumblebee’. There are few roads running east-west across the peninsula, and fewer tracks. We didn’t anticipate using any tracks…

ALL MY driving life, I have used a Land Rover as my daily driver, except for a brief period last year. Although this was fleeting before I returned to the green oval (can I still refer to the green oval with JLRs recent branding changes?), I did discover the advantages of having Apple CarPlay, for using Spotify, WhatsApp and various mapping apps whilst driving. I now run a 2015 Discovery Sport and was investigating my options to retrofit Apple CarPlay/Android Auto, as this didn’t become a factory fitment until the late 2019 facelift. A manufacturer called IDCore came to my rescue, with a unit it offers for earlier Discovery Sport and Range Rover Evoque models. This consists of a new module and harness that fits behind the dash. This plugs…

lrmtechnical@gmail.com ED EVANS TECH EDITOR LRM technical lead, drives 90 V8, RR Sport TREVOR CUTHBERT CONTRIBUTOR Pro re-chassis and total rebuild specialist MARTIN DOMONEY EDITOR Drives a 1975 Series III 109 ALISDAIR CUSICK CONTRIBUTOR Patina expert, drives Series I, Range Rover Classic JAKE SHOOLHEIFER  CONTRIBUTOR  Pro restorer, drives Minerva (SI) Thwart the thieves Arecent report suggested Land Rovers are the most stolen cars in the UK, with Mercedes in second place. That doesn’t necessarily imply a weakness in Land Rover security systems – the sheer desirability of the brand must be a factor, and hi-tech theft is a concern for all manufacturers of modern cars. We all know valuable classic Defenders are relatively easy to open and drive away, and any thief who’s not bright enough to do that can…

WE’VE all known the frustrations of needing extra lighting at the back of a Defender. Whether for manoeuvring, to light an area for work, tow connecting or camping, there are times when we need to fit additional light sources. Electrical work can appear daunting, so it can often be a job we simply don’t get around to, or worse, feel too intimidated to perform. But the job is actually a simple one, requiring only a little electrical know-how, plus the light units themselves. To simplify the job further, Mobile Centre has assembled a ready-to fit kit of everything you need to do the job, using quality components. We should note that by UK law, any extra rear-facing lighting is for off-road use only, or to use as work lighting, with…

I was hoping you may be able to help me with a wiper problem on my 1987 Defender. The wipers work normally, but are not sweeping the full screen. They need to come down another 10cm at the bottom of the sweep towards the bonnet. I saw your article where you replaced the cable and wheel boxes and I am keen to know if this is likely to fix my problem. I have changed the crank gear in the wiper motor and that hasn’t made any difference. It is 115-degree, but I see there is a 140-degree version for later models which looks like it will fit. Even if the issue is a worn wheel box, is this likely to provide a fix by just increasing the sweep of the…

He’s back Neil Watterson, formerly from Land Rover Owner International, is the editor of Land Rover Life. ISSUE 1 ON-SALE NOW Find us on landroverlifemag landroverlifemag LAND ROVER LIFE Written by Land Rover enthusiasts who live the Land Rover life Enjoy all this and more in every issue: ✔ Great Land Rover builds – from concours rebuilds to outrageously modified ✔ Classics – the backbone of the Land Rover brand ✔ New vehicle reviews – honest reviews of the latest Land Rovers and Range Rovers ✔ Workshop – helping you keep your Land Rover running smoothly ✔ Greenlaning – get away from it all by following our routes along roads less travelled ✔ Travel features – Land Rover adventures from around the world ✔ Market News – buying & selling…