Freelander loss of power at 70mph

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I have had power loss problems at 70mph for some time with my 02 td4, especially on the motorway and going up hills. I have just had my local garage look at the car and after some searching they have replaced the Power boost solenoid valve. Part cost £183 plus fitting and my vehicle now has loads of power and the problem has been resolved. Its like driving a new car.

Hope this might help.
 
hi there i had same prob its been doing my head in as it only happens now and then took it to landrover garage they told me to book the car in and they would have a guy drive around in it to find the problem that would cost a fortune for them to find out what i already told them so booked car in then while waighting found this site had a look round the engine and there you go i found two breath pipies with holes in replaced these car works fine better then ever so i phoned up the landrover plaice to cancel the guy asked me why told him fixed it myself and what it was and he said he dident think that was the problem and it sounds a lot more searius than that are these people idiots they must see this thing all the time the pipes are so poorley run around the engine they rub everywhere i have now cable tied mine thanx to everyone on this site i couldent have fixed this whithout you cheers:) :) :) :)
 
Hi Guys,
I live in Kenya and the LR dealers here have no idea what service means. Anyway I took my 2004 TD4 because of loss of power on inclines and hard start in the morning. The car stayed there for 2 months while they while the tried to figure out what the problem was and changed this and that. When I got it back the hard start was worse than before but in addition it was stalling all the time - the engine would cut out while on full flight, when I restarted it would hardly move and it was obvious hardly any fuel was getting through. Back to Land Rover Kenya and two weeks later they handed it back to me with assurance that it was ok. It stalled the very next morning and de Vaux, the service manager has refused to talk to me. I have been reading through what you guys have written and my car appears to have a combination of all the faults of the acursed car. It is just lying in the garage now because no independent mechanic would touch a td4 in Nairobi. What should I do with the darn thing, give it to the political mobs to burn it?
 
Hi

I purchased my Freelander back in November of last year. I love it and have not had any problems until over the last 6 weeks. I was collecting a paper from the local garage near my work and pulled off to drive away. The vehicle juddered and cut out. I managed to restart and continue a couple of feet before it did the same thing. Not being able to start again I contacted the AA and waited for assistance. On arriving the first thing the guy checked was the fuel pump, (common fault he said). Not the fuel pump, this was working perfectly. So next he went through everything under the bonnet and diagnosed that it was the ignition coil. No one had one in stock, including the local LR dealer only 1/2 a mile up the road!!!! Therefore he towed me to the garage I use where they said they would obtain the part in fix it for me. However, next morning, the garage owner rang to say that the ignition coil was not the problem and it was in fact the rotor arm. So new one installed I was back on the road.

Lulled into thinking the car was now fine and two weeks down the line, the exact same thing happened again!!! Once more the AA man came out and diagnosed this time that it was the rotor arm. He pointed out that it was 'pitted' which was causing a faulty connection and hence the lack of power to start. Towed back to the garage where they obtained a replacement and fitted free of charge as the part was under warranty.

So now, again two weeks down the road, I take a trip to the Badminton Horse Trials. No problems travelling up and almost all the way home, (which is in Cornwall). But as in other threads on this subject, the Freelander decided it was not going to run up hills in its' usually happy manner. I was in top gear only travelling a meagre 50mph.

Delivering my last passenger to her door, I tried to pull away and changed from first to second and found we were goin nowhere. Back into first, and we got going, but as soon as second was changed into, no power at all, even with foot to the floor. I managed to limp home and now this morning, hubby as taken a look under the bonnet but we have no idea what the problem is. He has looked at both the distributor cap, (which is brand new), and the rotor arm.

Does any kind soul out there have a suggestion as to which way I should turn now please.
 
Hi

I purchased my Freelander back in November of last year. I love it and have not had any problems until over the last 6 weeks. I was collecting a paper from the local garage near my work and pulled off to drive away. The vehicle juddered and cut out. I managed to restart and continue a couple of feet before it did the same thing. Not being able to start again I contacted the AA and waited for assistance. On arriving the first thing the guy checked was the fuel pump, (common fault he said). Not the fuel pump, this was working perfectly. So next he went through everything under the bonnet and diagnosed that it was the ignition coil. No one had one in stock, including the local LR dealer only 1/2 a mile up the road!!!! Therefore he towed me to the garage I use where they said they would obtain the part in fix it for me. However, next morning, the garage owner rang to say that the ignition coil was not the problem and it was in fact the rotor arm. So new one installed I was back on the road.

Lulled into thinking the car was now fine and two weeks down the line, the exact same thing happened again!!! Once more the AA man came out and diagnosed this time that it was the rotor arm. He pointed out that it was 'pitted' which was causing a faulty connection and hence the lack of power to start. Towed back to the garage where they obtained a replacement and fitted free of charge as the part was under warranty.

So now, again two weeks down the road, I take a trip to the Badminton Horse Trials. No problems travelling up and almost all the way home, (which is in Cornwall). But as in other threads on this subject, the Freelander decided it was not going to run up hills in its' usually happy manner. I was in top gear only travelling a meagre 50mph.

Delivering my last passenger to her door, I tried to pull away and changed from first to second and found we were goin nowhere. Back into first, and we got going, but as soon as second was changed into, no power at all, even with foot to the floor. I managed to limp home and now this morning, hubby as taken a look under the bonnet but we have no idea what the problem is. He has looked at both the distributor cap, (which is brand new), and the rotor arm.

Does any kind soul out there have a suggestion as to which way I should turn now please.
sounds like your driving mine , they are a right pain
 
Hi Brian

Thanks for replying to my plea. Am going to attempt toget it to the garage we use tomorrow morning in the hope he can unravel the mystery. He is based walking distance from our main LR dealer but I don't really want to get them involved due to their prices. If he finds the problem before you look at yours I will pass on the information.

Thanks again
 
Hello Out There

I have seen other threads on this but here is my experience with no solution yet. Took my 02 Td4 infor a 72K service (local recommended garage, not the dealer for the first time) . Came out and found that when doing about 70/80mph I would loose power and was able to push the accelerator to the floor and nothing would happen and slowly loose speed. Got LR Assistance out as I thought a turbo hose had gone, this was not the case. Took to the LR Dealers, they replaced air flow sensor, might have made a slight differance although fault still occurred, checked other hose before exhaust valve ,thought it had a small hole, replaced, no change, inspected other hoses and do not think they are collapsing,replaced exhaust valve, no change, replaced a fuel senor thing on the front of the engine, no change and now waiting to go back for a thorough going over. I avoid motorways now and seems to drive sort of alright at 30 to 40mph although I feel fuel consumption is up and there is definetly I feel more exhaust being produced but not black smoke. Any ideas welcomed.

just thought you should know that landrover have changed the service on these cars , td4 , there is a filter in the engine that was supposed to last the life of the car , landrover have now informed all landrover dealerships that this filter needs to be changed every service as this filter will cause power loss and as in our case complete engine failure, smoke is caused by back pressure making oil go down turbo , main dealers will not inform owners who go elsware for servicing as thay say the garage should know about revised servicing routine , hope you get this part fitted and your ok , we unfortunatley have to find a new engine as garage will not take responsability for not knowing about the filter needing to be changed
 
Hi everyone. Just a quick note to let you know the next stage in the saga of discovering why no power when foot to floor :( Had the AA out yesterday to start the Freelander and he managed to do so (more than we had). He then very kindly drove it to the local garage we use. It turns out that the garage think that it could be something called the Hydraulic Lifters??!!!?? Aparently these control the valves that create the vaccuum to the engine. The AA chap had pointed out that there was little of this to the pipe leading to the ECU.

So the upshot is, if this is the problem, the head has to come off to get to the source of the trouble.

Will keep you all informed in due course.
 
To be honest hydraulic lifters very rarely go wrong to the extent you loose power. They are usually noisy on startup(tapetty tap noise from top of engine) and then when oil pressure goes up and everything warms up they go quieter. I haven't read all the thread so don't know if its diesel or petrol etc, but I haven't heard of hydraulic lifters being a head off job. The are normally in the top of the head under the cams, so its a remove cams and pull out lifters (tappets) and replace, no need to take head off. Thinking about it if its the 1.8 petrol with the bolts that go from top top bottom then maybe thats why garage said head off. The hydraulic lifters basically touch/follow the cams lobes and then press the valves open to let air and fuel in and exhaust gases out. They are just used to auto adjust the gap between the cam lobes and the valve stems. The only time I have had them go completely was 1 (out of 8) on an Opel Manta and it ran but only on 3 cylinders. I have changed them on a Golf 16v as they were tapping, car ran fine but the tapping noise was annoying me.

I think the garage should do a compression test, this should give an idea if its piston rings (head+sump off job) or hydraulic lifters. If piston rings are at fault compression pressure wold increase by adding a few milliliters of oil in through injector holes to 'assist' the piston rings. If oil in cylinders helps then probably rings.

To me sounds like a fuel problem of some sort. Almost like not enough fuel to produce power. I guess fuel pressure has been checked (at fuel injectors), electrical pulses getting to injectors, crank position sensor functioning, after all that I would do a compression test. All the above tests are cheap and easy, except maybe the compression test if its a diesel you need an injector out(not easy without damage) if its petrol just remove spark plug.
Unless the garage can prove its lifters and its nothing else I would ask for the tests to be done first.

I am no expert on Freelanders but have worked on many cars and worked in an engine test lab for MoD for about 5 years.
Sorry for long post but hopefully the above explains things and hopefully might save you some money.
Good Luck.
 
Thanks Ched.

Garage now had Freelander since Wednesday evening and still no joy. Now fitting new Lamda sensor and hoping this will work. Won't know until Monday :(
 
I would be surprised if its the lambda sensor. Lambda sensors are in the exhaust towards the exhaust manifold, they are Oxygen sensors. They are used as a feedback to the ecu to control fuel/air mixture and to cycle the catalytic converter. They dont have a huge effect on startup fueling as you need a rich mixture that is normally outside the range the Lambda sensor can measure.
I hope the garage can find the fault soon.
 
A whole week since local garage has had Freelander. Still no joy as to what the problem is. They have now taken it 100yds round the corner to the local dealer (help need a mortgage to pay for this). They've spent 4 and half hours on it at £55/hr !!!!! Still no joy as to the fault. They are now saying that the head needs to come off for further investigation. I am at my whits end :confused: :mad: :( :eek:
 
Sorry to hear that its not going well. I am surprised that the main dealer cant find fault. Make sure you get a breakdown of what the main dealer did. So that when it is fixed, if the main dealer charged you for tests/investigation and they missed the fault you should get a refund!
I still find it hard to believe that they think the head needs to be removed to find out why it wont run. Once the head is removed you cant do a compression test, or a sniff test on coolant(check for combustion gasses in coolant).
I take it they have good compression, fuel at injectors, electrical pulses at injectors, fuel actually coming out of the injectors(should be able to remove injectors from inlet manifold and test). Then its sparks, that should be easy to test, also are the timings correct?
The above probably has already been done. Only other thing I can think of is alarm ecu but the above tests should point to this if faulty.

After all that I cant think of anything that shouldn't have been identified.
Good luck, keep us updated.
 
Latest update!!! Service Foreman spoke to me this morning. Compression Test being done. If still no joy, he's suggesting it goes back to the other garage as they are on cheaper rates than the dealer it's at. He feels that it's unfair to charge me too much if they cannot sort the fault. :(
 
i have had this problem after a service, the only filter that i did not change was the fuel fitter under the rear driver side arch. whwn i changed it the problem at 70mph went away. the filter collapses and stops the fuel.
hope this helps...

52 plate tdi
 
Hi All

Having been without my FL for a whole month now, the local garage has finally found the problem.

The head was taken off on Monday morning and they discovered that one of the Hydraulic lifters had got hot and was stuck shut. Am getting a price tomorrow for renewal of said lifters & head clean.

Yippppeeeee!!!!! At least it's not a cracked head as first feared.
:D
 
Glad you are sorted Sue,

TBH it doesnt really sound like a tappet problem, sticky tappets are common, but stuck shut is not a common problem on the k-series, if a tappet starts to stick you will hear it a mile away.

Cant believe they didnt pick this up with a standard compression test, or the old stethoscope/long screwdriver trick.

What cam was it on, inlet or exhaust cam, either way, under-fuelling and over-fuelling can both have adverse effects on your cat.

Mechanics nowadays :rolleyes: all they know is how to plug in to a diagnostics socket:rolleyes:
 
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