SOLVED! Why Genuine Defender speedo cables are so expensive! I take them apart! 

Hello Mike. I was always a Jeep guy and bought my first Defender 3months ago. Diving more & more into this universe... Got a 1986 110 3,5l V8 from Germany (9th owner) and am enjoying it a lot. Lot's of little things to fix like speedo cables, door seals etc. which made me find your channel. My speedo initially worked apart from not showing the correct speed due to slightly bigger tires (235/85 R16). Then on my first 4.000 km trip with the family to Italy and back from Paris the speedo sometimes went berserk jumping like crazy and sometimes stopped working completely. The Odometer still worked for some time but then also stopped counting. I hope it is the cable which would be the cheapest option. Next stop would be the speed sensor and if still no effect, the speedo itself, right? Keep up the super interesting videos! Much appreciated.

Thank you for getting back so quickly you're a gentleman😁👍

You can do the same for throttle, choke, handbrake and bonnet release cables. It all helps!

Great job Mike, it always takes someone like you with the thirst for problem solving to get to the bottom of the issue, Well done.

One use I have found for UB40 aerosol is as a quick light spray on the side panels to hide hedge scratches for a short time. Just don't wash it or take it out in the rain after treatment. But yeah, it's crap otherwise.

Great stuff Mike. I've found with motorcycle Speedo cables that you need to avoid lubing the top 6 inches as the lube tends to creep into the Speedo head and eventually wreck it.

You get a like 👍 cutting up a new one

What i do is get a plastic bag cut a small hole at de bottom that can fit either end of speedo and tight de end with rubber band. Fill de bag with mixture of engine oil n some gear oil than hang it high to let de gravity flow. After several hours u will get proper lubricated cable once de oil discharge from de lower end. Just like hospital drips principle. Done this to all cable.

Brilliant video. Very interesting findings I did not even know about. The first 20 seconds sounds like a parody of an HubNut intro. LOL.

applause - Scientific Mike - I go with David and support that kind of productive destructment ;-) Cheers Axel

You found a better use for silicon instead of the usual Hollywood airbags. 👍🏻

Hi mike Fitted them for years on motorbikes what you have to do is not kink them on fitting and leave them in some oil over night job done oil finds its way in 👍

OMG I just bought a Britpart cable! Ideally if the liner on the genuine cable is a PTFE tube it would be the ultimate for reducing friction and would take more heat, but it would be very expensive...(ooh hang on!). It would be interesting to know. (If the tube melts with a soldering iron tip then it's not PTFE). Nice videos BTW.

I thought I'd my 10 pence worth here. I purchased an aftermarket speedometer cable from John Craddock (luckily 20 minutes away from me) and I think I can offer an explanation why some of these cables jump. The square drive on the aftermarket cables I have seen aren't exactly square, they're oval. The genuine Land Rover ones have a proper square end where they enter the transfer box. I got my replacement from Speedograph who make the cables for Dunsfold DLR and Land Rover Classic Works, and it was substantially cheaper than going to Land Rover themselves, and it had a perfectly square drive end. A new one-piece cable was just £15.95 + 20% tax from Speedograph. Admittedly, they don't make Defender cables but hopefully that explains some of the issues with aftermarket cables.

I recently bought 2 recently. At the Speedo end one was plastic barbed insert and the other was metal. Plastic one was cheap and horrible but only 15% difference in price. Metal was better.

I ditched the cable and went with electronic. Much easier to work with. Easy to adjust so you are getting accurate readings. Cheaper.

You are correct about WD40 as it evaporates leaving no protective film behind. I used it with a SnapOn hose removal tool, insert, create tiny opening then WD40 and roll the tool around the fitting. Important on brass hearted cores as it acts like glue installed new hose on new heater core. Also works great installing rubber hoses. It is for moisture / water displacement only. My grandfather had an electrical engineering degree in 32, but with the Army Corp of Engineers and ran field generators for this new fancy device called radar. He had a can in his garage The was “Yellow” stenciled with WD-40 on an olive drab can. I asked him about it and he sprayed it while lighting the spray on fire. He laughed as I was 11 and amazed. Only to add its for water on electrical circuit boards, turned off and cooled. I don’t remember the voltages but the Diesel engine drove a multiple stage generators producing 4 different voltages. Great video on the cable housing. Metal inner? That guy would get fired if not the better and cheaper nylon tubing. Crazy! Plus the captured driven end! Wow! Talk about greedy and not serviceable for cleaning and lubricating. Land Rover would have been out of business if they had not bought the tooling, design rights and everything to built the aluminum engine from GM’s Oldsmobile division, the 60’s F-85 model engine. They call it their own but never designed it. Trivia but true!

Hi, mike, I think your vids are so refreshing, i hang bowden cablles and drip sewing machine oil or similar, ,regards

Hey Mike...love your videos always. I have a problem with a 110 that I hope you can help. The 110 I drive has an inaccurate speedo... at 90kmph, it reads 180kmph... would it be the cable or the meter? Thanks Mike.. in advance.

Mike just a thought, wouldn't the LR cable and its inner plastic sheath protects the inner cable from moisture ingress if the outer cable got split, burnt or what have you, whereas the internals of the cheapo aftermarket cable, would just be the start of a slow death.

Bought one from bearmach. There was no cable inside the sheath. I think it shows the level of quality control.

Brilliant stuff!

Found automatic transmission fluid good, nice and runny but with just enough lube, if you know what I mean LoL.

Great channel. Subbed

Putting lubricant inside a high-speed cable might not be such a good idea. There's probably a reason why the manufacturers don't. That reason is friction. Clearly, the manufacturers believe that the nylon of corrugated steel liner (where the corruptions minimise metal-to-metal contact and nylon is itself a lubricant) is the best option. I'd suggest you do some checking on whether your lubricated cable heats up by running it attached to a power drill for a few hours. Just to be cautious.

Sent $5.00 via Paypal to help offset your expense, there, Mike.

Could you use a light machine oil?

Will you be repairing them ?

It is crazy that British vehicle manufacturers have to charge exsesive price, but its the vat charge that is in place. Even more so if the british manufacturer puts their name to it. Like a speedo cable. £5 to be made around the world. £50 to be made in Britain. £150+ if the british automotive company put their name on it and call it a genuine part. British politics, barhumbug.

Would grease not work better ?