I am currently in Eastern Turkey 4000km into a journey from Dubai to Spain.

My LRDefender Puma is 12 mths old a so far this trip the:

a)Passenger door handle has come off.

b)The rrear door lock is jammed and operates on manual key only

c)In temperatures of -23C night and -6C day it will not start before 11am in direct sunlight(don't blame it for this one to much!).

d)Gaps in door panels on passengers side have my navvo(wife)constantly sitting in a draft.

I love LRs and have owned Disco's and driven Defenders for years. When I bought this 'bells and whistles'one in Dubai I thought the build quality may have improved but if anything it's worse.

On the plus side we have now been on some icy tracks in the mountains that I would only have ttrusted in a Def.

On a lighter note I am getting 8.4 k er l at 2400m altitude and approx 9.5 k per l below 1300m so this is good.

I am very sad that LR cannot improve the build quality on this otherwise superb machine. I can only put this down to ongoing lack of respect for their customers.

Without wanting to to be flamed by the LR-mafia, you're surprised by the poor build quality by the Pride of Longbridge (or is it Cowley?)?

Have you checked your glow plugs (I presume it's a diesel)? Maybe try replacing them. Talking of flaming, have you tried preheating your motorblock by lighting your camping stove underneath? I used an electric blower heater on my diesel VW van engine outside my house and this worked.

Also did this on my m/c in the snowy Moroccan Atlas:




Bike started first time. Matey next door in his 4x4 took an hour.

cheers Chris

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Summer 2012 RR: http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/ride-tales/adventures-between-cliff-wet-place-66414

well.. yeah Land Rover... trusty old bugger.. can't help you with the drafty doors.. it's a Land Rover, that wants to breath...

being a petrol head my self, used to drive a ex-MoD LR101 3.5Lt V8 petrol Soft-top from 1975 for 15 years on SU-carps... never encountered starting problems like you described, not even in Scandinavian winter, unless the battery was flat... sound's like you are pushing a diesel... hopefully not a TDI...

one tip.. if you want to hit the snow covered roads before 11am, even witout waiting for the sun to come up...well do what the local HGV driver do... make a fire in a bucket and push it under the engine sump to pre heat the engine.. sound's like you got non-winter diesel in your tank, where the diesel starting to get stiff and sluggish under constant sub-zero conditions.. you may mix some small amount of petrol or clean petroleum (but not the nice smelling flavoured one) in to the tank too..

about the rear door... grease in the door lock went stiff regarding the low temperature, which is normal in winter... don't worry about that...

hope that helps..
take care on the icy roads...

ps...
can't help my self, but have to declare the following:
Petrol is good for driving vehicles, may else...
Diesel is good for heating houses, may for ships as well...
LPG is good for cooking only (but not outdoors in winter), may useful for nice blow-up cine explosions effects as well..

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The trouble is that he was talking in philosophy, but they were listening in gibberish.
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landrovers need leaky doorseals, to let the water back out, or else they would fill up in a rainstorm. A petrol stove well below the sump for an hour before starting would help it, also keep the battery warm, they hate the cold.
At -35c oil starts turning to rubber, don't attempt to cold start an engine then. Landrovers have their place...... but I wouldn't have one with any electronics, especially lucas.

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The most effective way of turning petrol into noise without the side-effect of horsepower

a thermotop fuel heater would be the thing you should have fitted as they enable the engine to be heated without it running . can also heat inside of vehicle as well including battery compartment . Unfortunately as Landrover has become seduced by modern motoring bling requirements , they as well as other so called SUVs have lost the plot . My 85 110 handles extreme weather far better than the newer ones . If you want to know what to build a extreme vehicle look at Tatra and Zil for ideas. JMHO

From following threads on the Defender2 forum, it seems that the latest (past year or so) defenders seem to have increased in quality...slightly.... a little bit.


So there's hope yet!

When I saw the 'Crap Build Quality' title of this thread, I wondered momentarily if the whole Land Rover Overland Tech forum had been renamed to something more apt

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Crap build quality is always the reason whatever toyota, nissan land rover etc has let you down , its never the ones that do the job no probs which is the majority

-23 shouldn’t be such a big deal, sounds like you may not have winter diesel? You can get additives but I for one would be very wary of adding any significant amount of petrol. Common rail diesels (Puma engines) are very susceptible to injector pump and or injector damage if they have poor quality fuel or petrol in the mix. Big bucks to fix, in to the thousands.

For the door there are some seals that you can buy - good for dust, noise reduction etc. From a South African forum:

"I then found the part numbers (see below) got onto Britcar and ordered them.

1 x LR029307, LR029307 WEATHERSTRIP - DOOR – LOWER (Rear)
1 x LR029308, LR029308 WEATHERSTRIP - DOOR - LOWER (Rear)
2 x LR029309, LR029309 WEATHERSTRIP - DOOR – LOWER (front)

The front doors are interchangeable. The rear doors have to be ordered as a right and a left."

Too late now I guess - but it's common in colder countries like Russia to heat up your fuel tank and maybe sump in cold conditions before starting. Your oil (from Dubai?) and remains of diesel might not be for colder climates. Also check your water/coolant balance is the maximum for coolant (in my older model it's 50% according to the book).