Picking up ou first Freelander tomorrow!

[Morby]

Hey guys!

Totally brand spanking new here, so please excuse my ignorance!

I'll be the first to admit that I know absolutely nothing about Freelanders, or even Land Rover in general! However last week, we spotted a lovely 02 Freelander 2.0L Diesel, and well we've paid down a deposit and we're due to pick it up hopefully tomorrow!

We've bought from a Landrover dealer so we'll be getting a 6 month warranty with it.

Now, I have to admit, we kinda bought it in haste.. it was a bit of an impulse purchase, and later on that evening when I got home and did some digging on Freelanders in general I was shocked to find so many terrible reviews and reports of problems which made us rather wary..

However, seeing as it's the Diesel we've bought we reckon we'll go ahead as hopefully it shouldn't be as troublesome with regards to Head gaskets blowing etc.. like in the Petrol models.

We have a Rover 75 already and we were told that it has the same BMW engine as the Freelander, and we're happy with that as we love the 75!

Now, as I said, I'm a complete green horn when it comes to Freelanders so I was hoping you experts and enthusiastics on here wouldn't mind perhaps giving me some tips on any problems / faults etc.. I'll need to watch out for.

There was some work to be done on it before we collect tomorrow (Air con and the Drivers window not working) hopefully these will have been sorted, however is there anything we should ask the Garage to check/sort out before we pick it up?

I believe it has a Timing Chain as opposed to a belt and this doesn't need to be changed, and it had the clutch changed at about 60k miles I think (Is 90k now)

I've seen some talk of people having to check IRD and Rear Diff (I have no idea what these are!) and also tracking.. anything else I should be aware of?

Any advice/suggestions/tips/anything at all gratefully appreciated!

*Prepares brain in sponge-like manner to soak up all new found knowledge contained within*

[Llanigraham]

Td4 engine is the BMW engine, which has a cam chain that shouldn't need changing. Only things to check are EGR valves, but this can be removed. Generally not a problem engine.

Check all windows work as cables do break.

If buying from a dealer check the service records are up to date.

IRD is the bit that transfers and splits the drive from the gearbox to front and rear.

VCU is the Freelander magic box that sends lots of drive to the rear wheels when the front ones slip. Look underneath, roughly in the middle, for a big black thing with 2 support bearings on the prop shaft.

Grumbling noise from the middle is probably the VCU suppport bearings, which can go eventually.

Knocking from the rear is normally the front support for the rear diff.

Join the Freelander Club and come and get it MUDDY

[pinkbeef]

Join the RAC, Red Flag or AA.

[FridgeFreezer]

If you've already bought it some might say it's a bit late to be asking if it's a good idea or not however all the usual suspects are answered many, many times on this forum.

My advice would be to get the best value possible out of your warranty by getting every little niggle corrected.

The IRD/VCU/Bearing/Diff problems are easily remedied for free by removing the rear propshaft at the first sign of trouble and going front-wheel drive only, perfectly acceptable unless you plan on proper mud plugging with it.