SimonTemplar

I have the same blank above my rear fogs switch and have always assumed it to be for front fogs. I have seen other F1s with front fogs wired to that switch, with rear fogs to the lower one.

Morning all. First up, I am sorry if this has been asked before and I have missed it - I have searched, looked in the archive etc and can't find a response that covers this. So apologies if that turns out to be my incompetence and this has been covered before. We have a '79 SII Safari 109, with 12 seats - a row of three in the front, then a second row of three (front facing) seats behind those which fold flat, and then two side-facing benches in the rear. At the moment there is a static seat belt for the driver's seat, and one for the 'main' front passenger seat, and no seatbelts on the other ten seats. Both of the existing seatbelts are in pretty poor condition. The interior (and, for that matter, the rest of the Safari) is entirely standard. We would like to fit seatbelts of some sort to the front six seats, ie. the two forward-facing rows. We have kids, and in rough weather it would be useful to be able to do the occasional short school run in the Safari, ferry the odd friends through snow etc. My query here is really to ask people how they think I should proceed? My local garage are pretty switched on to both old cars and Land Rovers specifically, but on this occasion they have asked me to supply belts and they could fit. They know one local supplier whom I visited, but he refused to fit belts as he said that it would be unsafe for children so would not be happy fitting them, his main concerns being that the seats are low-backed and the second row folds forwards. I have not so far managed to get a clear answer elsewhere. I have seen other similar Land Rovers with seatbelts fitted to the front six seats, so I feel certain that this must be possible. So does anyone on here have any experience of this? I would be happy to replace the existing front two static belts with new static belts, as were we to switch to inertia reel the reel itself would be prone to damage etc being siting in the rear footwell. I am guessing that we would need a lap belt for the middle front seat. In terms of the second row belts, again a lap belt would be fine for the middle seat (assuming that fixing a shoulder belt would be problematic?) but for the left and right seats I'd rather go with an inertia reel belt with the reel mounted in the rear load area? Or failing that a shoulder static belt or even a full harness? My issue is that I have had conflicting advice elsewhere about both what is possible and which parts I would need. I feel like others must have done this previously and that I ought to be able to buy an off the shelf kit from somewhere that won't cost an arm and a leg. I am hoping that throwing the question out on here will lead to an averaged out opinion emerging as I'm finding it surprisingly difficult elsewhere. Many thanks in advance for any ideas - please help!! Simon

Yes, thank you, we're delighted with it. It handled the 160-mile trip back to our place easily, too, despite constant rain and it being my first run. Chuffed to bits so far! One family owned, 58k on the clock, drives nicely. Lol I'll bow to your greater knowledge of what the kids today say, but our boys (3-7) can't believe their luck, I think they think we bought it solely for them. Looks to be a good addition to the family.

Sure - although I have never uploaded a photo here before so this could well go wrong... How's this?

Thank you very much for all of the responses, guys, I appreciate it. Went with a more original car in the end, thank you for giving me the food for thought.

Hi all, Apologies if this has been asked before. We are looking to buy a Series III as a local runabout that will cope with Peak District winters. We have looked at a few, and have seen one with a 2.2 Isuzu diesel conversion, it also has the Isuzu gearbox. Does anyone on here have any experience of whether this is a decent engine in these? Or should I hang on for one with an original-spec engine? I'm by no means an expert on the oily bits..! Many thanks in advance for any insights.

I think that the legal view is that adults can sit on bench seats but should not use seatbelts - they do more harm than good in a serious impact, as your spine wants to jolt sideways, while your hips want to stay put, which is not good. The main limitation is with kids - child seats may only be placed on forward- or rearward-facing seats, so obviously not on bench seats. That rules out kids under 12 years old/135cm tall. We have three boys well under that, hence the research - I don't know if I am allowed to name drop companies on here, and there may be other alternatives, but Exmoor Trim solved our issue: they do folding seats for the rear that stow away above the rear wheelarch, thereby leaving the load area clear, but will fold out with an extra leg that drops to give two pretty sturdy forward- or rearward-facing seats (you choose the direction when ordering). There's space space for two to go side by side, with seat belts it is okay to put child seats on them (my experience is of a Series III but I think they do options for most if not all Land Rovers). Hope that helps.

In case anyone is still interested in this one, we got to the bottom of our yellow warning light issue: when the head gasket failed it swamped and broke the lambda sensor. So even with the head gasket sorted, the sensor still registered a fault. We swapped out the sensor, and no longer have the warning light. ST

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Taking the Freelander to the garage this morning, would rather go in armed with an opinion based on more than my own rudimentary knowledge!

Sorry to butt in, but what would coolant loss signify? Mine did this today...

This happened to ours a couple of weeks ago. We booked it in, they scanned it, it came up with a few minor faults related to service intervals (it had been serviced but not reset), they cleared it off, then in the hard frost a few days ago it came back. It now flashes when we set off, then goes back to constant. It will sometimes just go out on its own. The garage can't find anything wrong, and they know these cars, so I am wondering if it is just a connection somewhere to the light itself that does not like the cold weather... the car drives perfectly. So if you get any response more substantive than that, I would be an interested reader, too! ST

Most likely those - these things were black, and I figured there were 4-6 of them, and the guy was holding them up in a small plastic bag - the sort you might freeze things in - which was wet with condensation, it was snowing, the kids were impatient, it was 14 months ago, and I didn't really know what I was looking at - so that does sound as if it must be what they replaced to me. In a past life I used to take witness statements as part of my job, and it always worked best when someone just said exactly what they thought they saw, then on reviewing it someone with knowledge and experience often made a leap. If i had tried to analyze that lot I would likely have just confused you all more. So I think it sounds as though it was the injector rubber seals - fixed our problem instantly. ST

Well, I should caveat this up front by saying that I am a novice at LR mechanics, so this will be a pretty layman response, I am afraid, but the issue was identified by someone who knows what they are doing, so even if my explanation is poor the underlying information solved my issue. The cylinder head on ours (2003 TD5 110) cracked last winter during the very sharp frost. As we had only owned it for six weeks it was under warranty, so the roadside recovery guys trailered it back to the chap I bought it from. Not sure whether I am allowed to namedrop on here, but an excellent private outfit in Staffordshire that sell and service all sorts of Land Rovers with a good, big workshop, they've been around for 50 years. They ordered up a reconditioned cylinder head, swapped onto the car, tested it, all good so I picked it up. Garaged the car over night, and the following morning it turned over for a few seconds before catching. Later in the day it was fine. Next morning, it struggled slightly longer. The third morning, it wouldn't start and I had to jump it, WD40 etc. to get going. I rang the garage, they asked me to bring it back in before it stranded me somewhere. They went through the fuel system, tested it overnight, replaced filters and a few small service items but couldn't find an issue. I picked it up, was fine on the first day, then a little slow by day four or so - better than before, but deteriorating. They asked for it back, I dropped it off, and they could not find anything wrong (although it did start giving them the same problem when they left it outside overnight - it seemed to be related to temperature (we live in a very exposed spot, so inside our garage is about the temperature of most people's outside lol)). They were stumped, but did not want to give it back to me as there was clearly an issue. One of the mechanics on a whim suddenly wondered if any of the components on the cylinder head might not be up to scratch (although it was a supplier they use a lot). So they went over it, and decided that all it could be what they described to me (knowing that I am a novice!) as rubber bungs. They ordered a new set for 'pennies' from Land Rover, swapped them out and it 100% cured the problem. The new ones were visually identical, so we can only assume that the compound of the rubber was different and not giving a perfect seal - they were fine once they warmed up and expanded a little, but from cold they would stop it starting. They now routinely swap them out for new ones from Land Rover. I am afraid that I do not know the technical name for them, but he held them up for me in a plastic bag: from memory (this was over a year ago!!) they were small, about 15-20mm long, cylindrical, max 10mm wide, black rubber. Maybe 4-6 of them? Not sure where they came from (I had a crying baby with me at the time) but they came with the cylinder head and were fitted as part of replacing it. I do hope that that helps - apologies for the poor description. (And apologies for the thread hijack) ST

Ours is nippy enough, and will cruise well, but hills are its undoing and I'm pretty sure, from having driven others, that there is nothing wrong with it. I like how it drives overall, but mid-range punch is certainly not its strong suit lol.

Hi guys, thank you for the responses. It is audible but quite soft, you certainly can't feel it through the steering. I don't think that it can be the self-cancelling indicators, as they still cancel normally, and the knock is deeper than that. Shame I can get the sound across on here. It is one knock on short turns, two knocks on a hairpin when I have to go to full lock (there are two on our school run!), only on left lock not on right. The knocks are quite deep but soft, with a stereo on or heavy weather or even animated conversation you wouldn't hear them and you can't feel them through the steering. We are thinking of selling the car on - we have been offered another with fewer miles - and so of course this noise shows up this week out of the blue! So I am worried primarily that it is something within the steering that will deteriorate, but also that when a potential buyer is looking around he will ask about it and it will scare people off. So I at least need to figure out what it is and then be honest about it, or preferably fix it. Sometimes timing is unfair - we have put 18,000 miles on it without issue, then we briefly mention selling it and it starts making a strange noise!! Thank you for all the responses so far, all helpful stuff. ST