Freelander 1 Engine bay fuse box

Has anyone taken their engine bay fuse box apart?

I've had the fuses/relays out and disconnected the cables/plugs connecting to the rear and had a look at it. I want to know what's inside but don't want to take it apart if it's going to break apart. It looks like there's some clips to take it apart - they release the inner section when all the fuses/replays are removed I'm guessing. I'm wondering if there's a pcb inside or similar. I know the tracks on a pcb won't take the current involved but there must be something inside as the cable plugs on the rear don't match the fuse/relay mounts on the top.


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If the P38 fusebox is anything to go by, there are two PCB's, one above the other which are linked by single strand heavy gauge copper wires soldered to the boards. The main problem with this type of fusebox is that the receptacles (Terminals) for the relays and fuses tend to overheat and burn in time which causes numerous problems which are wrongly diagnosed as BECM or CCU problems. The usual faulty connections are to the heater blower fan relays.
A good initial check is to remove the relays and look for signs of burning around the receptacles and also get your snout in there and check for any smell of burning. There is a fair amount of info on Rangerovers.net if you are interested.

Thanks. That's eggsactly what I wanted to know. I now feel confident to take mine apart. The one thing I didn't want to have to do was realign all the pins so they poke through both side of the plastic again on reassembly. That may sound daft but I couldn't see inside and it's part of a LR so anything it possible.

Interesting site rangerover.net. Lot of helpful stuff and well laid out as a bible for rr owners. They could do with a bit more on Freelanders though.

Ere's the fuse bit I found.

Fuse Box Repairs

Hi Hippo...Pleased to hear you found it interesting. The site just goes to show how Land Rover generally tend to complicate things to an extent where it makes diy repairs extremely difficult to say the least. i tried to repair one of those fuseboards and despite experience and having the equipment available, the quality of the components made it a major exercise which at the end of the day I did not feel 100% confident that the work I had done resulted in a permanent fix.
Fortunately, it seems that the Freelander electrics do not suffer from Gremlin attacks to the same extent as the P38 and it appears, later Rangies do !!

I took my engine bay fuse box apart and can't find anything wrong with it. No burnt bits or broke'd connections. It doesn't have a pcb like the P38. It looks like it has metal strips sandwidged together to pass volts to the correct pins/connectors. I did pull all the clips oft and squeezed them a bit to make sure they grip the fuses/relays when they're put back. Not sure if any of this has solved my intermittent gearbox problem but it is happening less often now. Time will tell I guess.

You need to disconnect the battery if you take the fuse box apart or tinker with it.

Engine fuse box with all fuses/relays fitted:


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Cable connections under the engine bay fuse box:


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Cables with the engine bay fuse box removed:


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Rear cable connection pins:


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If you carefully push the plastic holding tabs to one side the inner plastic section will come out. Bit of a fiddle to get it out but it's easily possible if yer careful. I did mine this end first:


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A peek inside at the connections. These are the connections the fuses/relays push into:


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When the inner plastic bit comes oft yer left with the connections:


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The connection section comes oft too. Push the plastic tabs to one side to remove and yer left with this:


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Below is the heart of the engine bay fuse box. The fuses/relays plug into clips mounted on pins. These clips are designed to push onto one pin, and allow the pin from a fuse or relay to push into the other side. I pulled my oft and gave them a bit of a squeeze to make sure they have a tight grip on the fuses/relays after it's all put back together. Fuse/relay side:


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Rear connector side:


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This is the side view of multiple metal strips sandwidged together to form layers. The strips travel though the middle using different paths through the different layers:


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One of the clips removed:


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As usual....brilliant pic's Hippo :clap2:
Gives people an insight as to what lurks inside the box !!

You are dedicated I must say. Nice pics as usual

Just to revive this thread. I need to get to the suspension top nuts. I undid the engine bay fuse box. I could not lift it off. Having looked at your photo hippo, I can see why. How did you get to the cables connectors to undo them please?

Thanks

Madmustang said:

Just to revive this thread. I need to get to the suspension top nuts. I undid the engine bay fuse box. I could not lift it off. Having looked at your photo hippo, I can see why. How did you get to the cables connectors to undo them please?

Thanks

Click to expand...

When yer lift the fold up lid oft the fuse box, you will see the fuses. Look for 3x nuts which hold the fuse box in place. Disconnect the negative on the battery first, then undo the nuts. Think that's how I did it. When yer lift the fuse box after undoing the nuts, the cable connectors come out by pushing in the lever on each connector. Look at the pink one on the left, push in lever is on the left of it.

Ok Thanks will give it a go today.