v8bertha

IIRC there are no bushes between the rear subframe and the chassis I've probably misinterpreted what you mean though, so apologies if thats the case. The only reason I can see for welding the subframe to the chassis would be if the previous owner had stripped the thread on one of the captive nuts or had lost a bolt and couldn't be arsed to get a new one. Either way it seems like a bit of a nasty bodge to me. As for the MOT, I have no idea. I'd guess Mr MOT-man will be looking for play in bushes and stuff. Whether he'd look at the actual mounting of the subframe or not, I don't know. Not really much help to you, but thought I'd chip in anyway. D

Following on from what Fridge said... IIRC the original stereo was linked to the clock in the center of the dash and served 2 purposes: 1- To display the radio station 2- to allow you to enter the 4digit code that all the factory fit stereos had. Obviously if you don't have the original head unit then this wire is left unplugged and the clocks only purpose in life becomes showing the time.

Helicoil!

Fit smaller wheels

IIRC you are supposed to change the drive member bolts, they come pre-treated with the blue stuff. Maybe this is only on newer vehicles, I'm not sure, but Retro's advise is good... gloop them with blue stuff, because if you don't they have a tendency to come undone which causes a whole heap of wear on your splines, leaky flanges , and some serious drive-train clonking... ask me how I know Dan

IIRC it's not a quick job... you need to drop the front subframe and remove the IRD before even getting to the gearbox. You'll need to support the weight of the engine too as the nearside mount is attached to the gearbox. I found this website some time ago that gave some useful pointers. The car used here is a 2l Diesel L series, but the gearbox is the same. Dan

Blimey... there is loads! It just depends on how far you want to go. You could be really paranoid about it and change everything that moves. Alternatively just checking a few basic things will generally provide you with some peace of mind. As a rule, if if requires lubrication, lubricate it! check wheel bearings for play, re-grease propshaft UJ's suspension bushes steering joints any oil leaks? check all oil seals for signs of wear or leaks, replace as necessary. change all the fluids and give it a good service Of course sods-law states that whatever you don't carry spares of/change/re-grease will fail. The power steering pump on the most meticulously serviced and maintained 90 in the world belonging to a friend failed while in Italy a few years back. One of those things that you couldn't predict. Enjoy your trip Dan

Sorry, but who in their right mind would GIVE their car to an unknown garage on the say-so of some bloke who phones up to say he has a buyer... The bloke needs a reality slap!

We have 2 Freelanders and I wouldn't describe either of them as wallowy... but then again I am comparing them to a Camel 110, so anything else will feel positively sporty by comparison!! Changing the front dampers is not too hard. You will need to split the leg from the front wishbone, remove the steering linkage and the anti-roll bar links and then undo the 3 securing bolts at the top that fix it to the inner wing. Some cars have the expansion tank mounted on top of the strut mounting bolts so this may need moved out the way first. Once you have removed the leg you will need spring compressors to clamp the road spring so that you can remove the top plate. Refitting is the reverse of removal I need to do the rears on my Freelander too, but have shied away because apparently it's a right ball-ache of a job to get all the trim off around the boot. You need to do this to allow access to the top mounts. If you do the rears make sure you post up and let me know how much of a pain the job was! Dan

I've always found hammerite to be a bit pants as a rust inhibitor. Mybe I've not prepared the surfaces properly, but the rust always seems to show through again quite rapidly, especially on exposed metalwork. MikeTomcat used POR15 on the chassis of the 90 he built to take to ladoga. As Fridge says it provides rock'ard protection. Just make sure the chassis (or whatever it is you are painting) is dry and free from flaky rust and greasy bits.

A friend has a field that he keeps horses in. The field is separated into horsey-sized sections using an electric fence that runs off a car battery. You don't get a big belt from it, but its enough to make you tingle, especially when climbing over said fence with some light summer shorts on!! I see no reason why you couldn't rig something up to the doors and electrocute the buggers in a similar fashion. I'm sure someone will be along to mention the legal implications of this at some point Dan

I was talking about them going on strike whenever something remotely unappealing happens... not that it seems to do much good though!

At that sort of price I'd seriously consider running the 110 as my everyday vehicle and getting shot of the Freelander. I don't suppose for one minute that prices will start coming down, and as is the good old British tradition, we will of course just accept it and then moan about it to our mates down the pub. There are times when I wish we were more like the French!

LOL... shopping mode... love it! Just what I wanted to know... will have to go shopping now to experiment!

We have 2 freelanders, a 98 camel and an 02 TD4. Having never used the tailgate key lock on either of them I thought I'd randomly stick the key in on the Camel and see what it does... the answer? Nothing! So now my curiosity has got the better of me and I go and get the keys for the TD4, insert and turn... what happens? Nothing, zilch, bugger all! It seems that the lock barrel is connected to some sort of microswitch rather than a traditional linkage which leads me to think that there is probably some special task for the lock, other than opening the door. Is this the case ? should turning the key do something? Or are both of our freelanders knackered? And before some helpful soul says RTFM... we haven't got one! Cheers all Dan

Time to resurrect this old thread as I found and solved the problem During the xmas break I decided to invstigate the problem properly. I started by checking the breathers. To remove the breather pipe that goes between the filler neck and the top of the tank you need to remove the rear inner-wing liner and loosen the rear sub frame. This allows you to drop the tank just enough to get the pipe off the tank. You can do this through the plate that provides access to the tank sender/pump unit. However, the breather was fine, no blockages, no kinks etc etc, so that wasn't the problem. Next I set about removing the filler neck. There is a small bit of rubber hose connecting the neck to the tank. The jubilee clips that hold the pipe in place have anti-tamper caps on. Basically this means that you need to cut the clips off. Having done this and removed the filler neck I checked that for blockages. Again, all clear. Then I stuck my fingers in the tank and pulled out a small piece of plastic that I can only assume is some sort of anti-siphon device. It wasn't fixed to anything so I removed it. Further in is the "anti blow-back flap" thingy... that seemed to operate as expected. After putting everything back together I took the car to Sainsbury's. Oh the joy! The pleasure! Fuel flowed into the tank without a single cut-out of the pump... Despite fuel being nearly £1.30/litre I am now looking forward to filling it up again! So, problem solved

Hi Tony, The stub/hub is a cast assembly with various bits of machining done to make it shiny... but its a big old lump. From what we've heard it should be near on impossible to break the items we have, unless your name is Jezz , so I don't think we'll be needing replacements for a while. TBH we've waited so long for our bits I don't really want to let them out of my sight at the mo. But if there was a market and somebody had the time and inclination to make something similar I'm sure we'd be able to work something out. D

Yes. They are not interchangeable.

If a kit that used standard LR parts could be cobbled together then that would be a good step forward! I'll be watching with interest

HOFS don't make their own kits :-( RPR is correct... the kit comprises of off-the-shelf willwood calipers and disks. The stub axle is the important bit. But its taken us nearly 2 years to get ours from Portal-tek! As far as I'm aware there isn't anybody else who makes them... anybody any good at reverse engineering Dan

Thats Richards D-lander, built by North Off-Road... and then slightly modified by Richard! Its Disco based with a space-frame welded in and plastic replica body panels hung off it. Some Youtube footage

A couple of my favourite pics from our little holiday in 2007. One of the comics normally includes a year planner in their December edition, LRM I think... We buy a copy once a year specially for this. But this year we either missed it or there wasn't one... so any variations of the theme would be welcomed by me and 'er indoors

I'm sure they weren't really washing their wheels, it was just the most direct route home

Yeah, good day out! The 110 wouldn't start this morning so had to take the baby Camel instead. Only got stuck once... or was it twice... errr, ok, maybe it was 3 times And even with all the bumping around 6 month old Izzy slept through everything! D

Why steal a balloon... take your kids to Pizza Hut and they give you a free one! My coat? Why thank you!