Mark

The 'paint man' stuff that I have uses xylene as a thinner rather than white spirit....

Yeah, we refer to similar computer releated issues as an ID-Ten-T error (ID10T)...

Freelander club jules? got a link? ta

Good call tim... I shall see what I can find...

Well, this is the promotional photo of the new member of the fleet: I have been told I am not allowed to play with it, but ..... it really does need some bigger wheels, and some roof bars, and, and...

Steve, you are a gent! I had managed to find a small version, but thats excellent! cheers Mark

Fairly early on in the life of the freelander, Land Rover had a poster campaign where one of the photos was of two hippo's crossing some water with a freelander in line with them, looking very much like the hippos.. Does anyone remember the picture, and if so does anyone have a decent electronic version of it? Or in fact even a largeish print would be cool id someone whated to get rid of it??? Anyway, I would really like a copy of that image one way or another if anyone round here could help? cheers Mark

:D

Tim, The info was invaluable. I always like to go into a car place knowing what I am talking about, even if I don't let on. It helps me work out what is sales patter and what is genuine with the place in question. In general this place seemed very good, and at least as honest as you can expect for a motor trader... Cheers Mark

Had a look through that thread, and it confirms all the things I had heard about the 1.8... However, in our true impatient style, we bought a 1.8 today... We only discounted the td4 on price really. The equivalent 1.8 to td4 specwise was over a grand dearer, and that wasn't really taking into account the mileage. In the end we found ourselves an '03 plate 1.8 three door with 19k on the clock for reasonable money, and that included p/x'ing the astra. I will post up a thread in the members vehicles section as soon as we take delivery. Cheers Mark

100x60 is what I used - 3mm wall. I cut the bottom out of the inner and outer sill - basically cutting the walls halfway up the vertical faces and pushing the box section up in between. The only issue I found was that the 60mm box was slightly too wide, to slide up inside the existing sill nicely, so I ran the grinder (with a normal thickness disc rather than a skinny one) along the top face, then clamped the box back together and welded it up. This gave enough of a taper on the sides of the box that it slid up into the existing sill really well. The sills are super strong now, way stronger than the original. Cheers Mark

I caught mine and removed the backbox... clicky it's a bit louder, but not much.

We are seriously looking for a freelander to replace my Mrs's astra. She would like a 3-door soft or hardtop one. We are looking at something around the 2000/2001 year mainly from a price point of view. For a similar reason we have pretty much discounted the td4 models as they seem to go for too much money. This leaves us with the 1.8 and the V6... Given the amount of mileage she does (not much) the V6 is perfectly viable, and hopefully gives a bit more 'poke' but only seems to come in auto. Were they made with manual box's? What sort of performance versus mpg can you expect from the V6? Are there any horrors to look out for? I am aware of the 1.8's head gasket issues, but I believe that can be rectified, if it hasn't already on a car this age. Again, are there any other things to look out for? I am happy doing stuff at home on Landies, manily cos I know I have this place to fall back on if there are problems or issues. This is one of my main motivations for the freelander. The current Astra is basically a black box to me, and I can't seem to find a kowledgeable community to help me out. Am I deluding myself that I should be able to maintain the Floda, or am I going to be back at the mercy of the local garage to get stuff sorted? Lastly, does anyone have a v6 3 door floda they can part ex an astra for???? Cheers Mark

I am sure Bish would have lent us one, had he remembered to bring them....

Heres one of mine from last weekend: (credit to darth dicky for the picture) plenty more pictures of my truck in my disco blog (clicky in my sig... ) Cheers Mark

Tony, Adrian's post was in jest! we tried to convince bish that he only needed one axle to drive home on.... then we tried distracting him while we attacked his back axle but he wasn't having any of it... :D Richard, would also appreciate a copy of the pix. will drop you a pm. Cheers Mark

That was a cracking weekend - well worth the trip over to wales. Startted off a bit omminously when the crank damper disintegrated on the Disco between horsham and guildford. Got that fixed in a car park in guildford, and then convoyed over to the site, albeit a bit later, with Orange and Team Pinzgauer. Spent the weekend bimbling about the site with Orange in his (now 2wd rangie) and DarthDicky and Jon in thier 90, doing punches where we found them. Some good teamwork got all three vehicles through the vast majority of the ones we found. From the maps there are vast tracts of the site we didn't get to, so I am very much looking forward to visiting again! Thanks must go to the shires team for organising, and setting out punches and trials. And to Orange for being a ground anchor and dickie for being an impromtu guide... Mark

I have read Chris's excellent write up on doing the 200TDI cam belt on his defender from the tech archicve, but could somone confirm that it is the same for the discovery? There were a couple of comments on the thread which indicated they might be different. Thanks Mark (Chris, rest assured, the timing hasn't failed on the disco following this weekends escapades with crank dampeners ... I just decided that I really ought to do the cam belt, since I have never done it on this car, and don't know when it was last done, and cos I will probably have to take the timing chest cover off to get the offending woodruff key back in place.)

Can't find many pictures, but this got plenty of use this weekend on the front of Orange's Rangie: Marginally less complicated would be this on one end of my steering damper: and this on the other: There are plenty of pictures on my inner wing replacement thread, although none of it is exactly pretty.. and just to show that welding isn't the only answer, here's my winch drum support that I machined from Ally...

Just as an aside, but 265/75's on a 200TDI used for towing? i think you may find the gearing a bit high for that if you retain the 1.2 transfer box... I run 255/70's on my (albeit a bit tired) 200tdi disco, and the gearing is a bit high on that before I try and tow anything. The solution is to go for a 1.4 transfer box from a defender, and then you can fit defender sized tyres... Cheers Mark

You must be joking, Bish will be stuck, and Chris will be the one at the side laughing and pointing... :P

Hmmm, I like the BT van body idea. Size wise it looks good, but needs insulating.

Hmph.... Will take you up on the offer of the maps tho - leaving them in the gas locker would be an excellent plan! Cheers Mark

From memory, short 1 and 2 and apply 12V to 3 for one direction, short 3 and 2 and apply 12V to 1 for the other direction...

What sort of profile are you looking at? 235/85 is a common size on defenders (~33" diameter) but if you want to use the motor as a tow car you will need to do something with the gearing. I run 255/70's and even they are a bit big for the transfer box. They also need a little bit of trimming to the wheel arches, but they look like this: Let us know what sort of profile you were thinking of, as it makes a big difference. Cheers Mark