RJF

I'd guess at it being a Molex Mini-Fit Jr. Measure the main body. If it's 18x9.6mm then it's a Mini-FitJr. If you need the crimps, Maplin do the 20way housing and 20 crimps for £2.19 (L70AZ - sold as ATX Motherboard Female Connector) and avoids the postage/small order charges from RS/Farnell. I might have some - I'll have to check. If I do I'll bung a couple in an envelope to you if that would help. Rob.

You'll need a PCB or something similar to mount those USB connectors as well. If you want a quick, easy switching regulator it might be best to look at one of the pre-made modules. These are available in simple 3-pin packages. I've used Recom ones to replace 78 series devices in the past and was quite impressed. Try here... http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/switching-regulators/7577239/ ... Although this is only a 0.5A part. The solution I went for in the end was to mount a Griffin Powerjolt Dual into the dash (Freelander) as it sits flush and provides a pair of 1A USB ports. http://store.griffintechnology.com/iphone/powerjolt-dual-universal-micro I do like the look of your plate though, so I'd be tempted to mount several of their PowerJolt Micros to it (providing that you can find them for sensible money). Then you'd just need to connect up 12V. If you're 3D printing the part, you could recess them behind the panel to hide the plasticy bit. Rob.

I'd agree - it sounds like it can only be the rotary coupler or the switches themselves (less likely). I have a rotary coupler in the spares box you're welcome to have if your one doesn't get there in time. Rob.

What FF said. Metcals are brilliant, but expensive. We use SP-200s at work and I have an older STSS system for home. You're looking at about £100 for a second hand sp200 and about £150+ for an STSS or MX500. Any soldering on the Freelander is done with the SP-200 and it's been fine. Outside work, or anywhere with draughts will need a bit more power. The Maplin iron you linked to is probably fine. For about £40 you should be able to pick up an old Weller TCP or similar. Parts availability is fine for the Wellers. Another tip is to use lead solder. This makes life ten times easier as it melts at a lower temperature and flows well. Rob.

It depends. I have a generic EOBD code reader. This will read basic fault codes and some live data from (in theory) any post 2001 petrol or post 2003/4 diesel. It is a Gendan GCR25 and I think it was about £60. I also have a Bearmach Hawkeye which is specific to Land Rovers. Mine is activated for Freelander1s and it was brilliant for sorting out my auto box problems (the generic EOBD readers will generally only deal with engine codes). The downside is that it is expensive for a home user (£300ish new, I bought s/h for about £160). To use it for FL1 and 2, you'd need to buy an additional vehicle unlock code, so it would get close to £500 all in - that's quite a lot of code reads at your local specialist and they'd be using more capable kit. I've used a Sykes Picavant ACR code reader in the past on older Rovers and Alfas (pre EOBD). All the readers I've used are good and reasonably easy to usen, but it depends on how much you are likely to use them. I'd have to think long and hard about buying a Hawkeye at full retail, especially as a home user, but it does have a lot of features. A generic EOBD reader is quite cheap now, will work on all modern cars, but only provide basic information. Rob

Mine does this. A Buzz that fades away. I think my noise is coming from around the EGR valve. Rob.

I'm fairly sure that the fitting instructions are in the RAVE manuals (see the Technical Archive). What grey centre panel? I think I have this tow bar on my Freelander (2001), and the swan neck pops out underneath the bumper. It attaches using three bolts each side into each "chassis" rail and two bolts upwards into spreader plates. The bumper doesn't have to be removed, but the rear towing eye needs to be loosened as it shares three of the fixings. Not sure about the 2004 onwards bumpers. Keys are probably dealer only. Rob.

Yep, mine's like Dorsetfreelander's one (but mine's Smokestone) and was about £30. They say the Boomerang ones are original LR, I don't kow for sure. Fit, finish and colour match is of a good standard and certainly OEM quality. Rob

I have the one from Boomerang and it is great. Simply screws to the top of the high centre cubby box. Only downside is that you can only open the cubby a little bit if you have the rear seats folded.

Ratios are different as well. I had a look into this when I needed a new box. There are loads of used Freelander and Rover V6 boxes out there, and almost no TD4 ones!

Whole prop off. You'll need torx sockets to remove both ends, and possibly a press to remove the old bearings. Buy genuine bearings, pattern ones last six months tops

Here is a close up of the preamp. The red lines show where the zero ohm links were originally. The blue lines are where I moved them to, although you could just remove them. I kept them as I wasn't sure this mod would work. The cable is screened and the screen is attached to the ground plane under the cable in the pic. I'm not sure about adding things to a Disco2 CD Player. It might be possible. This mod was quite easy as I was replacing one signal source (the tape) with another. I would have gone with one of those Connects2 Aux in boxes that pretend to be a CD changer, but I like the changer as well. Rob.

Details of the tape mechanism connector... Molex 5294 series SPOX connector 2.5mm pitch PinNo - WireColour - Function 1 - Black 2 - White - 1&2 are the tape type switch (Chrome or Ferric) 3 - Grey 4 - Purple - 3&4 are the small hold coil that is part of the auto-reverse 5 - Blue - 5&9Head loaded switch. Closed when head is in the correct position (unmutes audio) 6 - Green - drive motor 7 - Yellow 8 - Orange - 7&8 Tape loaded switch Closed = Tape In (enables selection in menu) 9 - Brown 10 - Red - 9&10 Tape Side switch (Closed = Side 1, Open = Side 2) 11 - nc I shorted pins 7 to 8, 5 to 9 and 10 to 9 and this worked (Tape in and loaded correctly, playing side 1) Rob.

Hi, I've managed to add an aux in on my C43 radio cassette player as fitted to my '01 Freelander. Why do this rather than just buy a £50 new radio with iPod controls? I quite like the steering wheel controls, I like having a CD changer (a bit 90s I know), and probably more importantly - I was bored yesterday lunchtime. I don't use the tape function anyway, (I don't even think I own any tapes anymore) so I was looking for a possible way to re-use this input. I removed the top cover, removed the tape mechanism and had a nose at the board. The tape preamplifier is a Phillips TEA0676. I isolated the outputs of this and attached my Aux cable to the PCB pads. There are some zero ohm links nearby that make this really easy. I then had to fool the control electronics into thinking that a tape was inserted. Fortunately all the logic is on the board and the mechanism is just motors, coils and switches. After a bit of poking around at the mechanism I found the switches that would signal that a tape was inserted (to enable tape selection when pressing the mode button) and that the heads were in contact (this is needed to unmute the audio path) I attached some links on the connector to emulate the switches and tried it. It works! I've now tidied it up by adding a pair of phono connectors on the back rather than the odd bits of wire and thought I'd share it here. I'll try and add a bit more information later. I thought I'd taken some more pictures as well, but these are the only ones I can find. Rob

I think Mantec are about the only people offering off-the shelf guards. I bought a second hand Mantec sump guard and it has been good, but the welds wern't as strong as they looked. I think the most common lift is to use spacers on the top of the strut. These are 40 or 50mm tall and require some trimming of the inner wings I think. I haven't done this. I have Grabber ATs on mine in 215/65R16 (standard size) and they work well and are quiet enough for a daily driver. I did have a set of Kumho KL71 muds (195/80R15), but I found these too noisy on-road (good off-road though). LR produced a little bracket to hold four switches that sits in the little cubby/slot below the drivers side air vent. Search on eBay for "freelander fog kit" (or "freelander spot kit") to get the idea. You loose the use of the cubby. Alternatively, if you don't have a heated front screen or cruise control, there will be two spare switch positions in the binacle and console that you can replace with factory switches (the tops just clip on, so you can pop one with the correct legend or blank on easily). It seems to be cheaper to get a second hand heater panel to get three extra switches rather than buying the switches individually. Hope this helps, Rob.