Nice Freelander
I bought a TD4 2.0 Diesel (2001) about a month ago in a nice blue paint job. Up to last weekend, i have been enjoying the comfort / style and handling. I thought i had a gem, until last saturday, as i reversed off the drive there was a loud knocking noise coming from the front. I must say that over the last two weeks, it has been difficult to steer into tight parking spaces and developed a small clicking sound. As a car driver for many years, i have become familiar with problems such as power steering faults / discs running out and wheel bearing drone. All these symptoms were more or less playing the same tune with my Freelander. How wrong i was, and now i feel that if i new then, what i know now, all this could have been avoided which amounts to a bill of around £1800 with labour. My advise to any new Freelander owner is (a) check the Viscous Coupling Unit (VCU) £300 (ish) this is found in the middle of the prop shaft and is responsible for the failure of the transfer box and diff. it works internally with fluid which gets thicker with age until it seizes and takes out your box and diff which costs around £800 to aquire a replacement. I can understand why people hate them and when you talk to landrover dealership to ask how this can be avoided by careful maintenance, they say that you cannot avoid it but you should check your VCU before 70,000 miles. My answer is 2 wheel drive, get rid of the prop shaft and viscous coupling altogether and just drive it around on front wheel drive with a floating rear diff axle. I would also expect fuel economy to increase also. I hope that this opens a can of worms and anyone reading it who agrees or can correct or improvise on this information, then come on lads, lets sort this out once and for all !!!!!
I still love it to bits though.
