[Head gasket replacement - what else?]

Guys,

I just had the head gasket replaced by a freelander guy. It never solved the poor starting problem, which the guys says is down to a slightly bent con rod on a piston as it couldnt compress the water in the cylender.

I've seen a new piston and cylender sleeve for £43 quid, but:

How much would a reasonable garage charge to supply and fit a piston and sleeve (its an engine out job I beleive so I take it a ton of labour) and would it then require a new gasket again.

How much longer will the engine last with a slightly bent con rod.

Trying to weigh up running it to death as is or getting what is really now the only problem fixed. spent £500 on it on three other problems very recently. 67000 on the clock and runs sweet once its started.

Thanks guys.

[Window regulator wire kit]

I have no experience of the K series, but in general the Lambda sensor is only read when the engine goes closed loop, so it will have no effect on cold starting. I would completely disregard that diagnosis.

Injector problem sounds feasible, other things could be air flow meter,coolant temp sensor. Sounds really annoying, but not serious (expensive).

Good Luck

Turned out to be the head gasket after all, leaking down the side of number 1 cylender rather than into it, which is why the first guy never spotted it I guess, althought the con rod has slightly bent which means the starting problem isnt going to go away anytime soon. Got the window and a ball joint fixed and replaced, kinda back on the road again at last, see what the MOT brings.

I would say I hate it, but having been car less for a week, I'm sooooooo glad to have it back LoL, might even wash it this week!

[Window regulator wire kit]

can't answer the bit about the window regulator, but surely you can get an ecu from a breaker for next to nothing. There is heaps of petrol Frelanders getting broken because of the head gasket issue. Looking on flebay, you'll pay less than 100 quid posted.

Have to say tho, that the bit about the Lambda reading does not sound right. The engine will only go closed loop once the car is fully up to temp, so it will ignore the lambda sensor until that point. Who diagnosed this problem?

Thanks for the reply mate,

the original diagnosis was from a local garage. I took it to a Landy approved place this afternoon, who couldnt find a fault on their diagnostics. So they are a bit flumaxed. I've to take it back in and leave it overnight so they can replicate the cold start to see if they can spot a problem, they think it may possibly be a cold weather injector thats not working for some reason.

Theres a host of other stuff wrong as well that I dont want to fix until the starting problem is sorted, like a ball joint and flexi pipe kwik fit never spotted when they changed the mid and baffle sections last week.

Anyone else tried the wire fix instead of replacing the whole unit?

[Window regulator wire kit]

HI folks,

First time poster and not real handy when it comes to repairs:

My drivers electric window is goosed and the garage wanted £105 to fix it. I noticed on ebay wire replacement kits for £25, do these work and is it easy to do?

I have a slightly bigger problem in that my ECU is giving a false lamda reading and telling the car not to use petrol when starting, which isnt good and is going to cost a bomb to fix so dont want to send good money after bad if I can help it. Only had the car 10 months, but it is a K series