Dorsetfreelander

You are asking about reliability on two 14 year old cars which are totally different in terms of engine and construction. Expect problems with either. And don't expect too much in the way of testing and upgrades. Best FL2 is a post 2013 SD4 auto which has a lot of Evoque tech in it but presumably beyond your financial reach.

Totally different car, the FL2 is basically a Ford with a Peugeot engine. The FL2 is bigger and is a big improvement on the FL1. I have had three FL1s and five FL2s. FL2 is more comfortable and quieter. The 4 WD system in the FL2 is also much more sophisticated so more to go wrong. I actually prefer the look of the FL1 as it's more of a proper off roader. I believe that it's a 10 year or 150k miles for changes on the earlier cambelts but 7 years on later ones.

Might help if you told us what sort of car it is but for a start have you checked the battery voltage?

I would start with the glow plugs. What does the exhaust smoke look like? Black would indicate unburnt fuel. I had a similar problem with a Citroen diesel and one glow plug had failed. Starting was difficult and it was then lumpy until it warmed up. Glow plugs remain on for a few minutes after the engine has started. You might be able to test in situ with a multimeter.

Well done but you need to check on the MOT issues and EGRs if you blank it off. I seem to remember something being raised about this issue on one of the forums.

Makes you wonder how long modern cars will last. In the old days it was rust and corrosion that finished off a car but nowadays they seem to look good for many years until some problem occurs that is uneconomic to diagnose and fix. The problem comes when you have a fault on what has become increasingly complex pieces of electronics and control systems surrounding modern engines, note that the basic mechanical bits are rarely the problem. Sorry, this doesn't help you much but it's one reason that I am on my last diesel and wouldn't run one of these cars without a warranty, next one will be a petrol and after that electric I guess. Best of luck.

Well all I can say is that the two TD4s (one manual and one auto) I had were no problem I moved both on at about 80k miles. My brother in law had a Rover with the same engine which was OK too. My first FL1 was a company car FL1 1.8 petrol and I suffered the inevitable head gasket problem. Early FL1s were prone to noisy tyres due to "castellation" as they wore prematurely. The rear diff was a slightly different ratio to the front to keep the transmission tight but.too different, this was one of the BMW changes. Air circulation in the early ones was very poor and BMW added a bigger air con and blower unit but even that wasn't enough.

I very much doubt it as they are really different vehicles. The TD4 engine was introduced when BMW took over and they revamped all the electrics, changed air con system and the diff ratios. I had both and the later was a big improvement.

Yes indeed but think that all of the obvious issues like that have been covered by others. Luckily I don’t have the car any longer. Last I heard it was linked to a specific ÉCU and software but LR gave up trying to fix it.

I agree with your approach but cars are getting so complex now that finding faults can be very difficult. Take as an example the hesitation fault on the 2011 Freelander 2. I won't go into the details but basically when pulling away the car will occasionally hesitate and then pick up a few seconds later. This can be a bit scary when pulling onto a roundabout for instance.but it only seems to occur in warmer weather. We had this on one of our FL2s and the dealer couldn't fix it and openly admitted that LR technical support couldn't find the root cause of the problem. There is a long thread on freel2.com about the issue and people have even replaced throttle pedals with varied success although it's probably a coding issue in the ECU as a number of changes were made in 2011 with the introduction of DPFs. I was brought up servicing my own Morris Marina and Ford Escort and things were a lot simpler in those days.

as a matter of interest has it had an MOT? it would be interesting to see the emissions with and without the MAF.

Each fob contains a battery which is charged when in the slot in the dash. This battery is used for the unlocking electronics and might need changing. Once in the slot the car recognises the fob but doesn’t need the fob battery to start. It is possible to open the fob and solder in a new battery although there are people on eBay offering this service.

Yes, there is definitely a throttle body on a dièsel FL2. Do your homework.

Since you haven’t mentioned taking it back to the dealer I guess you bought it privately? It might be a throttle body problem anyway and you need to get some codes read for a start.

The whistling noise is from the throttle body and is normal. I have had 5 FL2s and they all do it. The throttle body is at the front of the engine and emits the noise for several minutes, some times then you hear a click and it stops.