The craziness of modern motors

My mk4 tdi had 250k on the clock, original turbo, no rattles or smoke, pulled like a train until some *******ed up ***** drove into the back of it and wrote it off....the thing was indestructible! the mk5 that replaced it needed a new turbo at 140k.... and at least one repair a month ever since lol

 

My petrol Mk 4 did 200k before I got rid of it. Nice cars (but suspension was fairly awful). Cheap buy second-hand.

 

Talking of Mk4’s I’m on about 380k (1.9 130bhp) but just doing a head rebuild now, (Its been sitting 10 months) my own fault as forgot to tighten the cam pulley bolts after doing the timing belt (excuse was- I was really tired, as i’d just done my Xmas works, 11 x 12 shifts on the bounce)

Original turbo gave up last year at about 365k - so fitted an uprated hybrid, hard pipes, and bigger intercooler, so spent a bit of money on it now, but owned it 12 years, and it’s done me really well, only the last year it’s become triggers broom!

 

Did you have the mandatory leaky rear washer pipe and the collapsing front window lifters?

 

Amazingly...not yet! But think it’s had every other common Mk4 problem, drivers door lock mechanism x 2, front door seal water leaks, glovebox lid, broken armrest lid, too many brake/tail light bulbs to remember, drivebelt tensioner, alternator pulley clutch, rear axle bushes, a fair few front suspension arms/bushes, - there’s more - but I’ve done 250k since I’ve had it, it’s been reliable, cheap to run and quick - it’s been an excellent car.

 

Aah, I’d forgotten about Barmy Door Lock Syndrome. My locking controller just gave up trying to understand what was going on...

I found most things that packed up were sensors, not really anything mechanical.

 

Agree with the above, have always had plenty of warning when things would need attention, mechanically though the only time it’s let me down was when the timing belt went, but that was down to me, I managed about 6 miles before the finger tight/nipped cam pulley bolts let go!

 

Engine temp sensor’s a good one for expiring. And speedo drive/sensor from the gearbox. Hours of fun!

 

Oh yes. The metal pipe in the rear washer has gone south and the plastic bits in the windows have all been replaced now.
I think we have replaced all the springs now too.

I put them down to service items and dont mind spending now and again knowing how much a new car would be costing us.

Our eco warrior kids won't let us get a new one so while she keeps going happy days.

 

The washer pipe on mine used to pop off of the rear wiper motor and fill the tailgate with water. If it froze overnight, it would set the alarm off. Most amusing at 2am.

 

Buy a life-sized inflatable dolphin, stuff it under the front of the car, then run into the house shouting “He...he...just ran out in front of me”...

 

JLR dropped the defender as it was too easy to fix?

That’s an urban myth.

It was dropped as it couldn’t meet crash regs, couldn’t be easily modified to take newer power plants and couldn’t be modified to compete with rivals that had gone up market with extravagances such as electric windows and A/C.

The main killer was it had to have a dedicated production line whereas other JLR cars can be built on any of their lines....something with its own chassis and bulk head literally didn’t fit the track.

Does anyone use main dealer servicing for cars over 5 years old?

 

The crash safety rating bit might be true. But newer Defenders had both AC and electric windows.

 

Yes our 19 and 16 year old Peugeot 307s still go to the dealer for servicing. I cant be bothered to mess with that. Just replace bits that wear out with scrapper parts off eBay myself.

 

I was being flippant....my point was JLR had a vehicle produced in relatively low numbers that had to have its own production line, and one that couldn’t inherit parts that had been used on other cars in the range - only bespoke companies charging a lot of money do this, not volume producers such as JLR.

They want to move production to Slovakia, the old Defender literally couldn’t be made there, that is what killed it off along with crash regs, power plants and pedestrian safety compliance.


Play the scenario out...for new Euro compliant power plants it would need canbus...that would kill off half of its simplicity. For crash test and pedestrian safety it would need a redesign, killing off many fans.

They bit the bullet, just as Merc did when they made the G Wagen monocoque to fix all the above and give flexibility on manufacture.

Solihull plant sits on Birmingham’s most desirable postcode....I imagine that will get sold for housing.

All of these things killed off the old Defender.

 

I have 2 Audis under 5 years old and don't use a main dealer. I did once and the two lane glass tunnel with Audi hosts welcoming you in (and the £400 bill for a basic service) put me off.
Autohaus Dolby do them now for 1/3 of the price .

 

I’m not surprised with that, many aftermarket companies, including my own at the time wouldn’t work on 307’s as they had electrical glitches only main dealers had the tech to trace and fix.


I wonder if they keep those diagnostic tools just for you?

 

My 4 year old merc goes main dealer and will do for at least another 2 years.

My 12 yo fiesta gets done every other year at local garage and I change the oil and filter on the off years. Any parts comes from the scrappies.

 

Get the impression this was the main reason: low volume and (out of necessity) an old, dedicated production line. The things had to be virtually hand-built.