17January2012
Posted by Modchop under: Discovery; Mods.
Over the last few years there has seemingly been a trend within the motor industry to use light clusters that do away with the traditional red and orange coloured lenses in the light cluster and replace them with a coloured bulb instead so that the light unit appears a uniform silver in colour only showing the relevant colour when the bulb is illuminated. This has lead to the availability of clear indicator and light clusters as both genuine and after-market ‘upgrades’, something which has never really caught my attention up until recently when I stumbled upon some genuine clear side repeaters for sale on one of the stalls at the Malvern 4×4 autojumble for less than half of the usual price, well it would be rude not to…
Removing the orange side repeater
Removing the side repeaters is very easy, you simply push the repeater over to one side and then ‘pop’ the other end out of it’s recess in the wing, squeeze the sides of the electrical plug to release the locking tab then pull on the plug (not the wires) to release the connector from the repeater. Simplicity itself!
Old & new
The electrical connector - 'Plug & Play'
The new clear side repeater in place
I must be honest, I’m not entirely sure that I like the new look at the moment, maybe it’ll grow on me in time. I’ll leave them in place for a while and see how I feel about them in a few weeks or so, I’m so glad I got them cheap!
Maybe Land Rover got it right in the first place, my discovery is coming up to being 8 years old so maybe this is a bit like trying to modernise something that doesn’t actually need modernising, why change something for the sake of it? I guess time will tell.
I wonder if they'll look better if i wash the Disco?
Most Related Posts
15January2012
Posted by Dubsta under: News; Technology.
On January 18 Green Land Rover will be going dark for a day to protest against the proposed introduction of the Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA) and its Senate counterpart, the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) in the USA.
SOPA will not just affect those in the USA, it’s every website on the internet. It basically means that it would be illegal for anyone to link to any website without checking that the site does not infringe copyright. This means constantly reviewing your website links to make sure the sites they are linked to do not add copyrighted content to the original linked material.
This puts a massive amount of responsibility on to all website owners as it means that if a site is prosecuted under this legislation the following would occur: -
- Domain name could be confiscated (US domains only I wonder?).
- IP address added to a blacklist .
- No legal process to carry out these actions.
This is a giant shift of responsibility and seems to be an excuse for wealthy companies to indiscriminately trample on smaller organisations who cannot afford to defend themselves. The US Government criticises other nations over suppressing free speech via the internet (China, Syria etc…) but they want to introduce a bill that will effectively do this!
We feel that this legislation is wrong and GLR will be protesting against it by ‘Going Dark’ on January 18th from 8am–8pm EST (1300–0100 UTC). Although GLR is a UK based site we have put the US time first as the campaign is about US law (albeit having global implications!)
Further information can be found here: -
Stop American Censorship Site
Reddit blog on SOPA
WordPress view on SOPA/PIPA
Most Related Posts
11January2012
Posted by Modchop under: Defender.
Do you want some high quality pictures of the 2012 Defender? If so why not check out Land Rover’s Facebook page here
2012 Land Rover Defender at 'Media Drive' in Scotland
Most Related Posts
11January2012
Posted by Dubsta under: Evoque; News.
The Land Rover Evoque has been voted ‘Truck of the Year’ by a panel of 50 US auto journalists.
Kim McCullough with Andy Goss accepting the North American Truck of the Year award for the Range Rover Evoque.
The panel based in Detroit has caused a stir due to the Evoque being more car-like than truck like. The New York Times ‘Wheels’ blog post reported – ‘The truck award particularly has engendered controversy, as nominees increasingly share more mechanical parts with passenger cars than with body-on-frame stump-pullers. Tony Swan, an automotive journalist and founder of the award committee, told the assembled journalists that a government agency ”classifies them as trucks, and we know the government is never wrong”.
With yet another award for the Evoque it seems as though the marque has been well received and will sell in vast numbers. This can only be a good thing for Land Rover and Tata and the world economy in general.
Most Related Posts
11January2012
Posted by Dubsta under: Shows.
GLR Staff will be off to the Land Rover Auto Jumble at the 3 Counties Showground on Sunday 15th January.
We have various bits and bobs we need for the GLR fleet so will be in full bargain hunt mode!
Details of the show can be found here. Anyone else going???
Most Related Posts
10January2012
Posted by Dubsta under: News; Range Rover.
Car Magazine has revealed its shots of the new Range Rover mules. From the limited view of the new model it seems as though the classic Range Rover lines have been retained: -
Range Rover Mule shots from Car Magazine
The emphasis seems to be on reducing weight and improving fuel economy as most models will have the V6 power plant. However petrol and diesel V8s will be offered in some markets. It is also reported that hybrid petrol and diesel units are in development. No news of when they will make their début though.
Mules have certainly come a long way in the past 15 years…
Most Related Posts
7January2012
Posted by Dubsta under: Maintenance.
Land Rovers are probably as popular as they are due to the fact that they are so easy to fix, modify etc. That’s certainly the case for the utility models and earlier marks of vehicles. However more modern vehicles are full of electronics and this is generally viewed with some trepidation. This doesn’t have to be the case. The internet has opened up vast communities and websites containing all manner of information and the amateur mechanic can now look at CAN bus info, diagnostic readouts etc.
This leads us to the thrust of this article, fixing stuff. In these austere times it can be a great money saver to try and fix things yourself. It can also be great fun! As mentioned above Land Rovers are great for this. An example of this is when the GLR Freelander had the HDC, TC and Brake warning lights appear on the dashboard. The fix was found on the internet and credit given in the article. This was a simple gratifying fix that cost about £20. Garage price would probably been twice this and heaven knows what a main dealer would have charged!
For this reason we have started a section in the links to list repair sites. The one I found this morning which inspired this article is ifixit. There’s a vehicle section on there but no Land Rover stuff yet. Maybe you could add something? GLR will be looking in to doing so.
A warning! Although fixing stuff yourself is fun and can save money, you should only attempt repairs you feel competent to do so. Start small and build your skills. Safety critical systems such as brakes, steering and drivetrain should be left to specialists.
Finally a caveat!!! Green Land Rover accepts no responsibility whatsoever for: -
- The advice given on any of the linked sites.
- The consequences of you carrying out your own repairs or modifications to your property.
Have fun!
Most Related Posts
5January2012
Posted by Modchop under: Discovery; Maintenance.
After getting the engine oil and filters changed just before Christmas (and gearbox oil a few weeks prior to that) I edged a little nearer to completing the full service today by changing the air filter. The existing air filter was less than 12000 miles ‘old’ but as you can see from the pictures below, it was in a pretty dreadful state, all of the paper fins were completely coated in a fine layer of dust. The air filter housing itself was pretty clean so at least the filter was doing it’s job effectively in stopping any dust or debris from entering the engine.
Air filter housing, surprisingly clean inside
You can clearly see from the next picture what 12000 miles worth of dust looks like and this is from a vehicle that spends the majority of it’s life on road as opposed to off road, you can clearly see the value of fitting a raised air intake if you regularly take your vehicle off road in dusty conditoins and that’s besides the benefits they offer during wading.
Once again I chose to fit a ‘pattern part’ air filter (Bearmach this time) as having compared genuine, original air filters with aftermarket (branded) ones there seems little point in paying twice the price for the same thing, that’s not to say I use this logic for every part, just simple parts like the air filter for instance. Also given the price of these filters (around £4) I’m going to start changing it every 6000 miles instead of the ‘recommended’ 12000, after all we all like clean air!
Spot the difference
Close up of the air filters dirty 'fins'
The part number of the air filter you’ll need for a Td5 Discovery II is LR027408 that is the Land Rover genuine part number but Googling that will lead you to the correct part.
Today was also the first time I’d driven the Discovery in almost 2 weeks, since the oil and filters change it had been parked up over the Christmas holidays being used as a temporary ‘extra’ shed for storing all manner of stuff.
Although the weather hasn’t been particularly harsh over the last 2 weeks there have been a few days where the temperature has dropped enough to cause a few frosty mornings so I was expecting a bit of a sluggish response this morning when I went out to start it but thankfully it burst in to life on the first turn of the key. It’s only when you haven’t driven a Land Rover for a while that you realise why you own one, nothing else has the ‘grin factor’ like a Land Rover and driving it today just reaffirmed that and may also have accounted for my rather leisurely, convoluted journey to work…
Gratuitous photograph of my shiny Discovery on today's 'extended' drive
Most Related Posts
4January2012
Posted by Dubsta under: Uncategorized.
We’re having problems at GLR Towers with our @Greenlandrover account at the moment.
Please bear with us while we get it sorted. The Tefal men are working on it as we type.
If anyone is waiting for a reply, our GLR staff will contact you via their own Twitter accounts.
Thanks for your patience….
Most Related Posts
27December2011
Posted by Modchop under: Discovery; Wheels.
Following on from the ‘are you ready for the freeze’ post below I decided I’d try to get myself another set of wheels and tyres for use mainly during the winter months, as luck would have it I came across a set of 16″ alloys shod with General Grabber AT2 tyres on the D2 forum for a very reasonable price, let’s just hope we now get some winter weather to justify the purchase…
The General Grabber AT2 has gained a formidable reputation over the last few years within the Land Rover community (and beyond) for maintaining traction in less than favourable conditions; including mud, sand and snow and also for it’s strength and longevity. Although this particular pattern is still available, albeit in ever limited numbers, it has now been replaced by General Grabbers new ‘AT’ tyre, this is down to new European legislation that imposes a limit on the amount a noise a tyre can make when it comes into contact with the road surface.
The only slight flaw in my plan so far is that one of the tyres has developed a very, very slight leak on the rim, I’m hoping that the tyre just needs to be re-seated on the rim to cure this, I’ll hopefully get this sorted next week so they’re ready to go on the Discovery for when/if the weather eventually turns bad.
General Grabber AT2
Most Related Posts
