The following are my personal ‘Top 10’ recommendations (and they are just as applicable whether you’ve bought a brand new car or a previously cherished one).
1) If your car is pre 2014 then there are a number of potentially serious issues that you need to be fully aware of. I don’t intend to go into them all here but you owe it to yourself to check out the 5-Speeder Buyer’s Guide for more details. This is available as a free download on the MTWC website.
2) Add a puncture prevention compound to the rear tyre. I use OKO but there are a number of alternatives out there. A rear puncture is at the least very inconvenient and potentially extremely dangerous. Search YouTube for ‘OKO Tyre Sealant Introduction Video’ if you need convincing.
3) While you’re at it, check the rear tyre. It should have plenty of tread depth to aid water clearance. 5-Speeders are prone to rear wheel aquaplaning (and a corresponding complete loss of control) when you hit standing water. The legal minimum tread depth is way too little for our cars. By the way, while you have the rear wheel out, also replace the standard rear hub bearings with higher quality ones.
4) It is not uncommon for the standard (LandRover derived) fuel pump to fail – always at a most inconvenient moment. Replace it with a high quality Walbro pump while you can do it at your convenience and in the comfort of your own garage.
5) Sort out the exhaust. Various straight-through systems are available and all of them will unlock the stifled engine and make the car smoother and all together more pleasant to drive. Arguably, the Garage56 system offers the best compromise between performance and acceptable noise levels but it is reassuringly expensive!
6) The Centa ‘cush drive’ rubber rollers are consumables. Unfortunately if they fail (and they will…) you will loose all drive and the engine will have to be removed in order to replace them. Give Phil Bleazey a call and book the car in for his Centa modifications. This will allow the consumable items to be changed at the roadside if necessary and has a number of other advantages. Not cheap but invaluable in my opinion.
7) The standard Banner battery has earned itself a poor reputation so pre-emptively replace it with a more reliable brand – you wouldn’t want it to fail when you’re hundreds of miles away from home would you?
8) The fuel tanks are prone to failure due to undue vertical movement. Regularly check that the tensioning straps are taught and pre-emptively reinforce the fuel tank brackets with folded aluminium sheet, stuck in place with PU adhesive. This will hopefully prevent metal fatigue and fuel leaks from occurring.
9) Carefully check the fuel filter. These have been known to corrode between the canister and mounting bracket, causing fuel leaks. The best course of action is to wrap the fuel filter in duct tape where it is clamped by the bracket.
10) Screw-on plug caps inevitably come loose causing lumpy engine running. Fix plug caps with a dab of Loctite. Better still, fit spark plugs with a fixed anode.
I’m confident that if you take care of these basics, the 5-Speeder M3W will prove to be both enjoyable and reliable. Instructions for most of the above modifications can be found in the 5-Speeder section of the MTWC website.
