new ride

[paul]

just got this to run around in while my bus gets the once over,it's a 98 2.0 td......£400 bargain

[VWVanRed]

Petrol or diesel?
We've had an S Reg for years. L Series 2.0di engine has been dead reliable but to be honest, the rest of the car is a right pain in the neck. That's what ours is like anyway........

You'll be ok if it's just a short term runabout, but any length of time and it'll be little jobs regularly, interspersed with bigger ones



Hers has just been off the road for a couple of months and we've just fired it up again. I'd got her a runabout while we had some stuff done to it/got some bits for it.
She loves the car now - (Hated it when I first bought it), and they are versatile if you're carrying stuff and people about.
Regular oil changes and like I say, the diesel engine has been problem free - although I do still have to jump it on most cold mornings.

400 quid is cheap as chips though, in my opinion, for a 5 door too. And it looks quite a tidy specimen, with a decent spec.

[VWVanRed]

Ignore the first line of my post.
Just seen it's the same diesel as hers.

[paul]

i know what you mean the only faults i can find at the moment are a knock on the suspension the sunroof won't work and the tailgate is a bit of a pain to shut....other than that it's not bad...

[VWVanRed]

All that aside though not a spec of rust ever on ours and has never missed a beat with basic maintenance. Just about to get a set of filters for it and do the glow plugs now.
Hers gets used for gardening and running the kids about. Bikes go in the back, small trees, plants, kids, junk, bags of compost - all sorts. We just go the scrappies when things go underneath it.

Things we've had, so may be worth keeping an eye on:
(Not sure if you already know the cars but here goes anyway - might be helpful for future reference)

Make sure the Viscous Couplings are in good order and the ends of the front and rear prop shaft are in good nick, or the IRD can get damaged and then it's massive money. (Common faults). Any knocks and bangs on the shaft or problems at either end are worth sorting soner rather than later, and there's stuff always knocking around the breakers if you stay on top of it all and leave yourself time to look around for parts. (For example, I just happened on a basically new, full prop shaft for ours for 50 quid - because the breaker couldn't be bothered to take it all apart).
If the prop is not right, just whip it off and run it on 2WD until you find a cheap replacement, because the IRDs etc cost lots and lots. I ran ours on 2WD for six months and they drive fine.
(If you ever whip the shaft off, mark up the orientation of it with a file so that it goes back on the same way or they can become unbalanced in some cases)

Tendency to wear tyres, especially on the front on ours. Keep on top of the suspension components.

They sometimes suffer from moisture and water ingress in the little compartment in the bottom of the boot - loads of people drill a couple of drain holes in there.

Keep the window runners/seals cleaned out and free from sap/moss etc, and it prolongs the window motors that tend to wear out otherwise.

EGR valves can have gasket failure and cause fumes in the engine bay. Some blank them off. (That was a recall I think, so a lot have been done). You'll know if one of these goes, because you either can't see out the front or you pass out from the fumes

Fuel lines can get air ingress and impede cold starting. (Worth checking the filter regularly, and making sure all lines are in good nick and that theres a decent seal on the bleeder screw on top of the filter housing)
Glow plug relays prone to going.

Glow plug change tends to be just the three accessible ones and leave the one thats hard to get at alone - starts fine on three good ones.

Usual diesel/4WD stuff mostly.

There's always the odd oil leak or oil knocking around the engine somewhere - just Land Rovers....
Like I say, ours has been bullet proof under the bonnet.
About 170k on it now too.
Not bad on diesel either.

http://forums.mg-rover.org/showthread.php?t=337676
This is a helpful post from a Rover forum for new L Series owners ^

You can't really go wrong at that money, in my opinion. Ours is a three door one with the removable roof thing, and it's had use, but I'd want more than that if we sold it. Even if you do a few little jobs on that you'll be up I reckon.
There's always cheap wheels and tyres around on ebay, and because they get broken up a lot, there's a decent amount of spares about all the time.
They always seem to sell reasonably well too, so it's a decent car to be using short term, in my opinion.

With the back door window, you can get cheap kits on ebay if it's a snapped wire but I'd avoid them. With ours, I've manually lowered it enough so that the door just about opens and closes and I'll leave it like that until just before it gets sold, and then get the innards out of a scrapyard door and fit them.
Most of the time, it's not the motor, it's just the overly complicated mechanism of wires and runners. I did ours once, and it went again, so now it's a job for another time.....

Like I say, it's generally little things and not many major dramas. I know lots of people that have had these cars for years and a lot of it is down to luck and basic maintenance/keeping an ear and an eye open for problems (run of the mill 2nd hand car stuff). Yours doesn't sound or look like a rough one, looks far better looked after than ours.
Well worth a home service at that money
Best of luck with it, mate.

[paul]

many thanks buddy for the info,i've just had a bit of a shocker looked underneath for the banging noise and noticed the propshaft is missing so only have two wheel drive.... rang the previous owner who said the garage that did some work on it this month said it was foobard and took it off........will be ringing them in the morning I WANT IT BACK..........there's only a viscous coupling and a few uj's so what's so hard to repair...

[VWVanRed]

Unbelievable.
Cheeky bar stewards. What's the odds they'll be refurbing that and selling it?

When ours went, she'd been running it with a dodgy viscous coupling I reckon for ages. She started getting a knocking which was basically the front UJ coming out of the coupling for the IRD. So we whipped it off.
I've got it out the back of the house somewhere, but the front joint and the VC are completely knackered. The rest of it and the back joint is fine though, so if you're stuck and you can't get the old one back, let me know and you're welcome to it. I was going to get around to getting rid of it, but I wasn't going to try to sell it, so it's free of charge if it's needed.

With ours, I couldn't work out how to replace the front joint without replacing the whole front shaft, but it might be possible. But even if not, and if you want the back part, it's there. See how you get on with the garage.
We were dead lucky to get a decent complete shaft from the scrappies for little money, but they tend to go for fairly big bucks, so just let me know if the bits I've got are any help.

I reckon loads of the older ones run on 2WD to be honest. That's still a lot of car for the money you paid but I reckon it's the principle, and the seller should have said. They drive different when the drive goes to all wheels, the front is very light and it's dead easy to spin the front wheels on 2WD with all the weight of the diff etc in the back. But then you won't have noticed that on a test drive unless you're driving the car all the time.

I'll have a scout for the shaft I've got tomorrow and retrieve it from the elements, just in case. It's onlyt been out there a couple of weeks so it'll make a decent base if it turns out you need to make up a shaft yourself and you can' get one at a reasonable price locally. Was throwing it out anyway.
Ours is the SWB 3 door, butI've never seen any mention of the longer wheelbase making use of a longer shaft. I think they're all the same.

Good luck with the garage but let me know if you get stuck.

[JefeDeMaquinas]

Happy Rovering Buddy
As with any other descently mainatned car, U will find ther is a lot of life left in it
No need to be put off
I hope U get the 4x4 sorted

[paul]

Originally Posted by VWVanRed

Unbelievable.
Cheeky bar stewards. What's the odds they'll be refurbing that and selling it?

When ours went, she'd been running it with a dodgy viscous coupling I reckon for ages. She started getting a knocking which was basically the front UJ coming out of the coupling for the IRD. So we whipped it off.
I've got it out the back of the house somewhere, but the front joint and the VC are completely knackered. The rest of it and the back joint is fine though, so if you're stuck and you can't get the old one back, let me know and you're welcome to it. I was going to get around to getting rid of it, but I wasn't going to try to sell it, so it's free of charge if it's needed.

With ours, I couldn't work out how to replace the front joint without replacing the whole front shaft, but it might be possible. But even if not, and if you want the back part, it's there. See how you get on with the garage.
We were dead lucky to get a decent complete shaft from the scrappies for little money, but they tend to go for fairly big bucks, so just let me know if the bits I've got are any help.

I reckon loads of the older ones run on 2WD to be honest. That's still a lot of car for the money you paid but I reckon it's the principle, and the seller should have said. They drive different when the drive goes to all wheels, the front is very light and it's dead easy to spin the front wheels on 2WD with all the weight of the diff etc in the back. But then you won't have noticed that on a test drive unless you're driving the car all the time.

I'll have a scout for the shaft I've got tomorrow and retrieve it from the elements, just in case. It's onlyt been out there a couple of weeks so it'll make a decent base if it turns out you need to make up a shaft yourself and you can' get one at a reasonable price locally. Was throwing it out anyway.
Ours is the SWB 3 door, butI've never seen any mention of the longer wheelbase making use of a longer shaft. I think they're all the same.

Good luck with the garage but let me know if you get stuck.

cheers mate an m o t tester pal of mine is a mate of the guy who did the work and is ringing him in the morning so with a bit of luck he's still got it.....we'll see...

[paul]

Originally Posted by JefeDeMaquinas

Happy Rovering Buddy
As with any other descently mainatned car, U will find ther is a lot of life left in it
No need to be put off
I hope U get the 4x4 sorted

thanks ....