myzeneye Posted March 5, 2010 Share Posted March 5, 2010 guys........ need some help... i bought an 05 plate freelander in january... full landrover service history, low miles, one owner etc etc very tidy motor.... i read up a few bits to check reguarding any problems and preventative maintenance etc etc.. and got to thinking the viscous coupling was on its way out... when i reversed on full lock and dipped the clutch it felt like i had the hand brake half on.... tried the tipex method and it didnt seem to move much ?allthough it would happily drive round the asda car park in reverse figure of 8's on tick over alone with out stalling...also, jacked back wheel up and couldnt really turn it by hand without almost kacking my pants and bursting an eye ball.. or with a bar through the u/j on the prop (allthough i couldnt really get good purchase on the bar/uj with the tools i had available.. took it to a good freind of mine who owns a gearbox centre....told him the results of my testing and he said he'd renew the viscous coupling for me if i bought one... i got a service filters kit aswell and the plan was to give it the once over at the same time whilst it was up on a ramp... when we took the v-c off he took out the front part of the transfer box to examine the bearings....you guessed it, the bearings were on there way out too..."over wound" i believe...they seemed ever so slightly notchy..? i read up that ,when the viscous coupling is shot, it locks it in 4 wheel drive and then in turn over winds the transfer box or IRD unit, all the bearing collapse, kill the crown wheel etc then its MEGA bucks to put right........ we agreed, and my mate at the gearbox centre took off the IRD transfer box, split it open on the bench and reconditioned it all with new bearings etc.... rebuilt the ****** and finally installed the new viscous coupleing........... viscous coupling was from land rover (hardy spicer i think) (?) so... its had the ird overhauled which is as good as new, a new viscous coupling and bearings.... i got it back today and took it for a spin.... £800 later in v- coupling,bearings and other service bits and labour costs.... THE SAME ISSUE IS STILL THERE !!!!!!!!!!! breaking feeling on full lock....feeling "tight" etc now, i now know that the ird and viscous coupling are right, cos there new ! Land rover say its supossed to feel like this.....????? WHATS THE SCORE?????? aaaaaaaarggghgghh!!!! have i just had all that work done for no reason ? with genuine gear on as oposed to a "loose" pattern vc is it normal for it to feel tight in full lock ? other then this it motors/ runs beatifully.... really need some advice hear, if its supposed to feel like this, then ill just get on with it and perhaps try to ignore the fact there may have been feck all wrong with it in the first place...... if this is not really ideal and will inevitably end in a broken ird well then the problem could be somewhere else ?? what about the rear diff ? anything i should look at there ? its fine in a straight line just on full lock.... now im paranoid to death over it....................... dont know if its right or wrong, is bette now or was ever broke to start with...i didnt want to wait till it all broke in an expensive way but i may have jumped the gun........ IS YOU FREE LANDER TIGHT ON FULL LOCK REVERSE AND FORWARD ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Llanigraham Posted March 5, 2010 Share Posted March 5, 2010 Sorry to say this, but yes you are being paranoid. What you are getting is a normal characturistic of the Freelander transmission system. Stop worrying about it, get out there and enjoy it!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LR NUT Posted March 5, 2010 Share Posted March 5, 2010 A costly mistake who told you to carry out all this work? You should have done some research yourself and asked Land Rover before you carried out the work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EggNChips Posted March 6, 2010 Share Posted March 6, 2010 IS YOU FREE LANDER TIGHT ON FULL LOCK REVERSE AND FORWARD ? Yes they all are, but there is a big difference between 'normal' tight and 'seized VC' tight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myzeneye Posted March 7, 2010 Author Share Posted March 7, 2010 A costly mistake who told you to carry out all this work? You should have done some research yourself and asked Land Rover before you carried out the work i had read up on forums such as this one.... most list the "slight breaking on reverse/full lock when you did the cltch" as a syptom of a gossed vc... not as normal.... i did the tipex test and didnt really see any major sign of movement between the dots..... i jacked it up and could not really turn the back wheel.... i didnt want to go to land rover as i was convinced they would just tell me it needed replacing anyhoo, or would charge me mega bucks just to test it...at the time, when i thought i would just be paying the bill for a new vc, i didnt want the added charge from lr... hindsight is a wonderfull thing mate.. when i got it back from all this work being done and it still felt the same, well i just felt sick......... 800 quid type sick..... maybe as a suggestion, one of the mods here could write a more conclusive sticky/guide to identifting the failiure of a vc and perhaps add to the fact that it is also a charactoristic of the freelander to feel tight and break itself on full lock when you dip the clutch ?? it just might help any other paranoid fools in the future..hahaha honestly, i think the info i found on various sites is conflicting....more of the threads should push the point that the feeling is normal for this car.... http://www.myfreelander.co.uk/Transmission/transprobs1.htm they say: Bulletin Number - 0001 Issue - 1 Date - 21.01.1998 Model - Freelander Affected Range - All vehicles Re-Issue Information - Problem -SLIGHT BRAKING EFFECT WHEN ON FULL LOCK When manoeuvering on full lock at low speed, slight resistance to rolling is felt in both forward and reverse directions. Cause Characteristics of the viscous coupling employed in the transmission which result in slight ‘wind up’ between front and rear wheels. Action Do not attempt to rectify this condition as it is a characteristic of the model. In the event of customer complaint, explain to the customer that there is no fault with the car and that this is a normal effect which is noticeable on vehicles which employ a viscous coupling in the ‘drive line’. this (above)was the ONLY sight i found (afterwards) that said it was normal and didnt bang on about tipex,putting bars through the prop and being able to turn it etc etc...other sights said these tests where a load of carp....... http://www.bellengineering.co.uk/5.html bell engeneering site even says " your Freelander feels "tight" or it appears the brakes are binding, especially when reversing on full lock, this means your existing VCU is past its servicable life and you should change it as soon as possible. A damaged VCU put massive strain on the rest of your transmission line, causing the IRD unit, rear diff and gearbox to wear at a hugely accelerated rate, and will cause a very costly failure of these parts." i got confused, i got paranoid and thought it may end up costing me alot of money... the irony of it is....it did ! hahahahahhahahahahah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
viorelluta Posted March 8, 2010 Share Posted March 8, 2010 You have now very good transmission, you should not feel sorry about it. I have paid more than double to solve the head gasket issue and, 25k km later, the coolant level was dropping again. So you should go out and have fun indeed - at least in between such repairs :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myzeneye Posted March 8, 2010 Author Share Posted March 8, 2010 point taken... just cant help feeling i had a good transmission anyway....hahahahahha and please, dont even joke about more expensive repair bills.... i did this transmission stuff to try and avoid costly repair bills, but it went from being a few hundred quid on a vc to a whole lot more.... oh well, its done now and SHOULD help me towards trouble free motoring.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aragorn Posted March 9, 2010 Share Posted March 9, 2010 If you took it apart and the bearings were gubbed, then it needed replaced anyway? Its not like you just replaced the parts for the fun, you did the diagnosis, took the parts off and they appeared broken. Perhaps it hadnt got bad enough to cause major obvious signs, but (assuming you can trust him) your friend found the bearings were faulty and repaired the fault, had you left it another 6months it could easily have failed in a more terminal way? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myzeneye Posted March 13, 2010 Author Share Posted March 13, 2010 your right..... i do trust him and even though the ird bearings wer'nt in a terrible state i suppose sonner or later they would be... ive drove this new drive line in for a week or so now and im still convinced it seems very tight on full lock with a dipped clutch ? im listening when everyone says this is normal, including landrover, but it just does'nt seem right to me? its like the hand brake is at least half on ? the vehicle doesnt come to an abrupt halt or anything but it does stop itself if you try to coast with a dipped clutch... if this is right, let me know.. i wonder what kind of affect this strain has on fuel consumption ? allthough it seems fine in a straight line...... it must also have a serious affect on tyre wear... i understand the castlating effects of a duff vcu, would this continue with the tight feeling of my new drive train? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt S Posted March 13, 2010 Share Posted March 13, 2010 your right..... i do trust him and even though the ird bearings wer'nt in a terrible state i suppose sonner or later they would be... ive drove this new drive line in for a week or so now and im still convinced it seems very tight on full lock with a dipped clutch ? im listening when everyone says this is normal, including landrover, but it just does'nt seem right to me? its like the hand brake is at least half on ? the vehicle doesnt come to an abrupt halt or anything but it does stop itself if you try to coast with a dipped clutch... if this is right, let me know.. i wonder what kind of affect this strain has on fuel consumption ? allthough it seems fine in a straight line...... it must also have a serious affect on tyre wear... i understand the castlating effects of a duff vcu, would this continue with the tight feeling of my new drive train? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt S Posted March 13, 2010 Share Posted March 13, 2010 Hmmm. When I got my 2005 FL, 2 1/2 years ago, I read lots of scary things about transmission failure and dire problems with almost everything. So much so that when I reversed across some gravel on full lock in my works car park and felt a 'tightness', I thought sh**, it's broken. Expense. Except that that was nearly 30,000 miles ago, and it still feels exactly the same (at 70,000 miles). I just got used to it, and came to realise that it just feels different to other vehicles. I still think if your parts were worn then they probably needed replacing, but don't worry about the new bits - I think it's just a characteristic of the vehicle. Enjoy it, don't worry!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myzeneye Posted March 16, 2010 Author Share Posted March 16, 2010 Hmmm. When I got my 2005 FL, 2 1/2 years ago, I read lots of scary things about transmission failure and dire problems with almost everything. So much so that when I reversed across some gravel on full lock in my works car park and felt a 'tightness', I thought sh**, it's broken. Expense. Except that that was nearly 30,000 miles ago, and it still feels exactly the same (at 70,000 miles). I just got used to it, and came to realise that it just feels different to other vehicles. I still think if your parts were worn then they probably needed replacing, but don't worry about the new bits - I think it's just a characteristic of the vehicle. Enjoy it, don't worry!! cheers mat.... im slowly coming round to the idea that this is the way the car drives, strange as it is, i guess ill learn to live with it.... feels all wrong to me though! hahaha took it off road this week end and give it quite a bit of stick.... it coped rather well and suprised me to be fair...i will be using it regular off road and it proved more than capable for the terrain ill be up againts......ok, its no 90, but still.... if the "tightness" is a charactoristic feeling of the car, does it result in going through back tyres like they're going out of fashion? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt S Posted March 16, 2010 Share Posted March 16, 2010 'if the "tightness" is a charactoristic feeling of the car, does it result in going through back tyres like they're going out of fashion?' Well...I did have to get a new tyre last year, and used the (unused) spare, but seeing as the ones they replaced had done 60k miles I didn't think that was too bad (Michelin Synchrone's, don't make 'em any more apparently.) That's all I've bought in my 30k miles, tyre-wise. Not too bad?? As for off road, mine never fails to surprise me with what it can do. You're right, it's no 90, but then you can do 100mph and nearly 40mpg (although not at the same time ) whilst listening to the stereo in lots of comfort, and when was the last time you saw a 90 that could do that? And yes, I'd love a 90 - but it wouldn't suit what I use my vehicle for, whereas the FL is pretty damn good. Horses for courses and all that... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FridgeFreezer Posted March 17, 2010 Share Posted March 17, 2010 If the VCU is OK then it shouldn't be bad on the back tyres, when the tyre treads wear in a weird sloping pattern it's time to have a look at the VCU. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mason8242 Posted November 30, 2019 Share Posted November 30, 2019 (edited) This chat has helped me loads guys. I have just bought a 04 freelander in auction with no service history. I started reading all the doom and gloom forums and did the reverse test and surprise surprise it is tight. Thank you for the peace in mind. I can now relax for the time being and get ready for some snow and off roading. Edited November 30, 2019 by Mason8242 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abbo66 Posted January 7, 2021 Share Posted January 7, 2021 just a thought you spoke about the vehicle coming to a stop when depressing the clutch in a straight line too have you checked your brakes as the problem simply could be a sticky plunger on your calipers if you check your pads and one set seems more worn than the others that is a good sign of sticking brakes and if you can use a spanner it's not that hard to repair allan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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