garrycol

Hey - your not supposed to read Jules thread - just as well I didn't say nothing nasty about you behind your back I know what you mean about marrying Aussies - a couple of my Scottish cousins married them and were forced to emmigrate. They went to Brisbane and are suffering in the humid summer climate! Where are you going to settle? Somewhere nice or in Sydney or Melbourne?

Thanks for that - I will give it a try. Another bloody immigrant - we are being swamped by them

I don't think I will be doing too many changes to my XEDI, though since I changed my IRD to a much later version the overall gearing is not quite as low as it was - great on the highway but not so good in the bush when doing slow work at revs lower than when the turbo is on line - so something to increase torque below 2000 rpm woulod be nice. Have you got a big brother who goes by the name Reads90 - been chatting to him on my Aust landy forum. Seems like a nice guy. Garry

What about a real freelander - the L series What cars are the opposition - RAV4, X-Trail, CRV, Subaru? or is it a one brand series?

I agree with your point about what the Freelander was designed for BUT Landrover themselves do not seem to know what they wanted from the vehicle. They do not give it good ground clearance or low range - as sure sign of a softroader BUT They give it hill descent and have proper breathers on the diffs etc like proper 4WDs do - a sure sign there is a pretence of serious off road use - neither is needed on a softroader. I cannot speak about the UK but here (Aust) hill decent allows you to get down hills that you are then not capable of driving back. Proper 4wds have been known to be stuck in valleys for days after entering and then it rains making it impossible to get out because the hill is too steep and slippery. For a softroader this type of capability is dangerous because it creates a false sense of security as you can get yourself into dangerous situations - for me I would rather have a low range. As far as a big heavy gearbox (transfer case) - subaru and suzuki have been building softroaders for years with low ranges and they are far from being big and heavy. On a freelander a believe that a dual range system could have either been fitted in to the space in the gearbox where the diff went when the original engine gearbox combination was used in 2wd cars - or like Subaru, a dual range box could have gone on the end of the gearbox (near the front left wheel) where drive inside the box switches back to head towards the IRD. I know both are easier said than done but not such an issue at the design stage - as I said both Suzuki and Subaru are able to do it. Garry

What sort of cars does the Tomcat live in? Also does anyone know if the MGTF and the Lotus Elise or anyother car the K series engine is in have the same problems with the engine that the Freelander has?

Hey Jules, Did you leave the drums on the rear - while I appreciate the drums actually work well on a Freelander, I am surprised that disks were not put on the back - it is not as if having the handbrake operating the disk pads is a new novel idea - my 76 Lancia had them on the rear and subaru have has front operated handbrake disks for years. Even my E-type has the handbrake operating the rear disk but they do it with a seperate set of pads. Though, Freelanders having ABS and TC on drum brakes must be a first. I have to ask this, as here in Australia the Freelander is the last car we would think of racing, why race Freelanders? What is the competition? What sort of racing is it? How successful are they? What about a seperate post about the pros and cons of racing a Freelander, and maybe another about the formula they race under. Cheers Garry

I keep on hearing about Freelanders going through tyres (and brakes) in about 25-30,000 km but this is certainly not my experience. I have a 98 XEDI with 190,000km on the clock and the brakes have got about 50,000km on them. The disks and drums are still the originals. As far as tyres go I have got about 45,000 km so far and I guess there is another 20,000 km still left in them. The fronts certainly wear quicker than the rears and I have worn the fronts down to a bit above legal and then put them on the back. By the time the new fronts wear down the rears have worn and I am able to replace all at once. I have Bridgestones Highway/Trail tyres which are noisy on some surfaces but good on others. Off road they are not so good but if you tread carefully they are fine. When it comes time to renew my tyres I might go for a BFG A/T and accept a bit less life and a bit more grip offroad. Issues with my freelander - 6 months ago suffered the usual viscous coupling and IRD failure and have now relaced these and the diff with items from a TD4. Better onroad cruising, the design problem is gone but overall gearing is higher - great on the road, not so good off it. Other Issues (noting that the Freelander was never designed as a serious offroad car but realistically an allroad vehicle - we do seem to forget this sometimes) Ground clearance - just not enough under the engine - I have major holes in my undertray from one trip in rocky country - will need to replace it with a alloy plate. Gearing - first is just not low enough for slow rough work on a slope. I can sort of accept no lower range but a crawler gear would have been nice Viscous Coupling - why go this route when a perfectly good center diff and diff lock already existed in other landrovers - put this in a housing - it would be no bigger than the VC - provide full time 4wd rather than part time 4wd on the road and allow the system to be locked when needed. We would never have had the drivline problems of the 98/99 freelanders as a proper center diff would have been able to cope with the different diff ratios in the car. A switch to deactivate the Traction Control and ABS in certain conditions off road. Sand dunes will stop a freelander and discovery with traction control dead - the system with all wheels slipping and sliding doesn't know whether it is Arthur or Martha and the brakes go on and momentum is lost. In Aust many of us carry blown fuses to put in the fuse box to switch off the TC when off road. Plusses - great suspension compliance and reasonable travel. Ease of operation TC is great in most conditions and works really well Great fuel economy in the diesel A great engine - I really don't think the TD4 engine is better than the L series - it just has different characteristics. The 1.8s - never driven one but have read a lot about their overheating problems and resulting damage to heads and cylinder liners. It seems that the cooling system is marginal at best through poor design. A lot of engines seem to be repeatingly fail at 30-60,000km but if the engine gets past this it seems to be OK. While a lot of engines have failed there are also a lot that haven't - so if the sole issue was design all the engines wouold fail - clearly they are not - so I think that it is a marginal cooling system that has little redundancy if cooling is not working as well as it should - whether this be through lack of maintenance or being in a hot environment. I think the clue to longevity is simply keep the cooling system in tip top condition. As I said - I have never driven one, but on the basis of reading others' comments these are my conclusions on the 1.8. These are my thoughts - lets hear some support for the Freelander and lets hear some grumbles and lets get this forum going. Garry V8 Discovery XEDI Freelander

I keep on hearing about Freelanders going through tyres (and brakes) in about 25-30,000 km but this is certainly not my experience. I have a 98 XEDI with 190,000km on the clock and the brakes have got about 50,000km on them. The disks and drums are still the originals. As far as tyres go I have got about 45,000 km so far and I guess there is another 20,000 km still left in them. The fronts certainly wear quicker than the rears and I have worn the fronts down to a bit above legal and then put them on the back. By the time the new fronts wear down the rears have worn and I am able to replace all at once. I have Bridgestones Highway/Trail tyres which are noisy on some surfaces but good on others. Off road they are not so good but if you tread carefully they are fine. When it comes time to renew my tyres I might go for a BFG A/T and accept a bit less life and a bit more grip offroad. Issues with my freelander - 6 months ago suffered the usual viscous coupling and IRD failure and have now relaced these and the diff with items from a TD4. Better onroad cruising, the design problem is gone but overall gearing is higher - great on the road, not so good off it. Other Issues (noting that the Freelander was never designed as a serious offroad car but realistically an allroad vehicle - we do seem to forget this sometimes) Ground clearance - just not enough under the engine - I have major holes in my undertray from one trip in rocky country - will need to replace it with a alloy plate. Gearing - first is just not low enough for slow rough work on a slope. I can sort of accept no lower range but a crawler gear would have been nice Viscous Coupling - why go this route when a perfectly good center diff and diff lock already existed in other landrovers - put this in a housing - it would be no bigger than the VC - provide full time 4wd rather than part time 4wd on the road and allow the system to be locked when needed. We would never have had the drivline problems of the 98/99 freelanders as a proper center diff would have been able to cope with the different diff ratios in the car. A switch to deactivate the Traction Control and ABS in certain conditions off road. Sand dunes will stop a freelander and discovery with traction control dead - the system with all wheels slipping and sliding doesn't know whether it is Arthur or Martha and the brakes go on and momentum is lost. In Aust many of us carry blown fuses to put in the fuse box to switch off the TC when off road. Plusses - great suspension compliance and reasonable travel. Ease of operation TC is great in most conditions and works really well Great fuel economy in the diesel A great engine - I really don't think the TD4 engine is better than the L series - it just has different characteristics. These are my thoughts - lets hear some support and lets hear some grumbles and lets get this forum going. Garry V8 Discovery XEDI Freelander

Deano - you misunderstood me completely - I don't expect to have a knowledge swap - I go on these things to share what little information I have - I don't expect anything in return. But n one else seems to be interested - even my provocative post of some time ago asking where have all the hippos gone didn't get anything back at the time - then after some time along came Jules and at least a half reasonable thread started. Freelanders, and in particular the 1.8s are notoriously unrealiable (though my early diesel runs well after I replaced the drivetrain) and I am surprised that there are more posts. I have tried to get soething going with my hippo post but we all come to these forums for different reasons - for me it is to learn from others and hopefully to give something as well. I am not interested getting as good as I give but it would be nice if there were a few more posts. Clearly from the responses to mine and Jules posts on this thread - people are clearly looking but not using. Garry

Must have. I think it is time to delete this forum from my favourites - if no one uses it what is the point. Every time I have asked a question I get little in the way of response but I am always happy to give my experiences with Freelanders but obviously everyone's car on this forum is running OK. Not so on other forums. Cheers Garry

now that looks like my car!!

Well at least someone looks at the page Maybe if you acted as a sponsor (ie a recovery vehicle) and took him out he might play. I don't have anyone to play with so I have to take my Disco out first to check the lie of the land before I go out and play with myself in my Freelander - mmmm - that didn't come out right - what I meant to say was - well you get the drift

No new threads or posts for 2 weeks - where have all the Freelander people gone?

You poor fellow - hope you have a fat wallet and a good creadit card limit I can say these things because I own two and have had them non stop for the last 30 years Garry

I have genuine landrover ones on my Discovery 1 update - they are not fibreglass but plastic. I think there are also some genuine later model ones made of rubber but they do not look as good. They might still be availaable through dealers.

Does anyone know if the BioDiesel service station at Hexam just north of Newcastle still exists. Also - while the car will run fine on 100% biodiesel - will a diesel run on a mixture of diesel and properly filtered cooking oil (not biodiesel). I understand that some low tech diesels will actually run on 100% cooking oil - when I use the term cooking oil I am not talking about BioDiesel. Gazz

OK - thanks - but what about the second intake that is not comnnected to anything and sucks air from the engine bay - much like a standard disco one does - any ideas on this?

Hi the L series air filter has 2 intakes - the bottom intake seems to suck air from a box in the front wheel arch and the top intake sucks air from the engine bay behind the front left headlight. Can anyone explain the purpose of the two intakes? Thanks Garry

In Australia at the moment we have an ad on TV at the moment where a guy puts a T Bird rocker cover and a spanner in the dishwasher but his wife finds the stuff - confronts him - and whacks him in the head with the spanner - to which he replies - fair enough. Seemed to clean the T Bird rocker cover OK. The Ad did get plenty of complaints as it is demeaning to men! The complaints review people dismissed the complaint. Gazzz

Given the revs vs speed on the original post I am assuming that he still has the original IRD in the XEDI. You are right about the fact that there is only one IRD on the market now but if you went to a wreckers you could end up with an old one. The difference in revs vs speed between to two is about 300 rpm at 100 kph. In April my original IRD failed in my 98 XEDI - new parts were too expensive (half the cost of the car) so I was able the source an IRD, Viscous Coupling and rear diff out of a 40,000km TD4. Cost was a third of new. I thoughly researched gearing issues because I had concerns about not suffering the same problem again - before fitting, it was obvious the gearing in the newer IRD was different from the old one and when put in the car revs at 100kph dropped from about 3000 rpm to about 2600-2700RPM - is quieter and gives better fuel consumption. As I said if revs are about 3300 at 70mph - this indicates the original IRD is still in the car and some alarm bells should be ringing - when is my IRD and VC going to fail? Solution - change the IRD now to the new one - it will reduce revs and save on the cost of a new VC as well. Garry

In Aust - the mozzies are not what you have to worry about - it is the Drop Bears - the little buggers drop out of the trees and go for the throat - mean little critters. Gazzz

Log Remove the windscreen pillar trim, the top half of the doors sealing rubbers, the trim in the centre pillar where the front seat belt anchorages are, remove any other loose plastic type trim bits around the roof lining. The actual roof lining does not have to be removed and if you are careful the edges around the doors can be pulled down just enough to get at the holes in the roof reinforcing beams. Extreme care is needed though to prevent the moulded roof lining from creasing - particularly at the rear above the back seat. With care it can be done. Garry

Whatever you do - don't have a pint or two first - a good cup of tea and a think maybe!! There are cushioning pads on the feet of the rails that sit on the actual roof - they take up any misalignment and the small amount of space between the feet of the rails and the roof panel - as you tighten up the bolts the cushioning pads compress. If they were not fitted there would probably be a 1-2mm gap between the roof and the feet of the rails. Unfortunately as the cushions are some sort of sponge I don't think they as waterproof as they should be so lots of silicon sealant is needed. While the feet rails sit on the roof the actual weight is carried by the central mounting bolts and flange which bolt to the inner frame inside the roof. The inner frame has the correct size holes for the bolts already in it so no drilling of the mounting frame inside the roof is needed. From the inside of the car you just drill a very small pilot hole through the roof panel using in the centre of the mounting hole in the inner frame as the guide. You don't have to be spot on -just close. You then buy a metal hole saw (proper one - not a cheapee) - the size should be a couple of mm bigger than the size of the flange around the mounting bolts on the roof rails - this gives a bit of flexibility in fitting and takes into account if the pilot hole was slightly off centre. From the outside - slowly drill the the required holes, touchup paint, add sealer and fit rails - I did it in about an hour without any instructions using the second hand rails that I bought as a guide. Piece of cake If I can do it anyone can do it especially when they have my superb and exceptionally clear instructions - I have had mine on for 18 months - no problems - no leaks - they work great. Once you have your rails and have pulled down your headlineing (be careful with this as it is moulded and can crease) all will become clear!! Garry

Recently fitted roof rails to my Disco series 1+ As mentioned the rails do not actually bolt to the roof panel - there is a frame with reinforced holes between the roof panel and the headlining - simply loosen headlining (doesn't have to be actually removed and drill a small guide hole from the inside in the middle of the reinforced hole through the roof panel - you only have one chance to get it right but it is not hard. From the outside, with a suitable metal hole saw (measure the required size from the roof rails) drill the correct size holes using the guide holes - go slowly as the heat will blister the paint - test fit the rails - remove - paint around the holes - the roof is steel and will rust - use heaps of silicon sealant - refit rails and tighten - until firm bur not overtighten - as I said the rails actual bolt to the roof framing which take the weight - the room panel carries no actual weight so if you overtighten, the roof panel can be dented. Go slowly and it is not a hard job. Garry