Me first car was a festa. Bort new assit came wiv a year insurance. Load of problems wivvit but sorted under the warranty. Before that eye wanted a tratter to go oft road. Bort the lro mag monthly for years but everyfink was rusty. Ordered a new one but cancelled it when we lost our pay rises after the chap who done me apprenticehip retired early suddenly. No one to fight ferrus anymore. Chap round the corner raced tratters oft road. So ended up wiv the festa instead. Lucky escape. At this point the main dealer serviced me festa yearly. Eye would sit and wait ferrit. Interesting to see what happened in the service reception. Remember a doctor turning up in a light blue mondeo. Gearbox trouble. Machanic drive it 6 inch forward then reverse. Gorroot and said gearbox needs replaced. 2k7 sovs but need to check current part price. He had done another week before. Wow eye fort.
Sort of inhertid me freelander 1. It stayed in the garage for the first year. Had problems like the headlight leveling went up down up down constant on one side. Swopped motors side to side and fault followed it. Replaced un fixed. Gottid looking into fings more like there being no volumne sensor for the alarm. Bort one and fitted it and it wuked. Under coated it int garage. Jacked up and hippo ramps slid underneef. Did loads of minor stuff to sort it. Early one morning eye took it round the block to exercise it wiv no tax. Put me foot down pulling oot a junction and it flew to 50mph wivvoot hesitation. V6 petrol auto. Fort to meself eye'd have that. So eye did. Gorrit serviced at the main dealer and a few other checks down. Was happy to keep using em. Had already found forums and the rave disc. Internet was new to me back then. Newish kind of. Never used it for cars. Talked ro a chap on a merkin private forum a lot. Grouo action against lr. Had haynes anorl. Eye dunt see anyfink wrong wiv them. There be only so much yer can put inner book. Fings continued. Eye sorted minor problems meself and big fings like servicing and new brakes the main dealer did. Went oft road innit and we had a lorra fun.
Some years later the auto started playing up. Asked online and bob beast of bodmin was on lro at the time. Was quite worried eye would break it if continuing to yo drive it. A big freelander owner thought it may be low on auto oil but din't know about propper freelanders. It would jerk into gear assif you were stationary and a muppet drove into yer at 1mph. Took to nain dealer who did a resistance and level check. They said it drove betterer which it did. Betterer than it had everer done. Gear changes unbelievably smooth. Week or so later same clunk into gear. Took it back and same chap said yer that will happen its leaking. He never told me that before. Git. So he ends up trying to save me money by having the side cover taken oft and resealed. About 350 sovs from memory. It were leaking at the bottom of the seal. Gorrit back and they changed the front silenoid pan instead. Went back and he said that were dented and leaking anorl. Possible as it had a new engine early in its life. Eye got hold of it at about 2k2 miles after this eye fink. Anyways garage sealed the side pan for free but it din't fix the leak. Said new gearbox replacement needed. Finking back to moneo docotor in me head now. Fort the car were worth it. Eye kept it going ferra bit by dropping more auto oil in assit it clunked. Blew all 3 big seals on the auto casing. Game over. They never told me how to set the level correct. If they had we could have managed the problem meself.
Eye were going up norf fer wuk ferra week so they had it in for a 3 year service and lr supplied recon gearbox. Different chap took it in and promised warranty cover. Even the oil is covered which is expensive. Nowt to worry about. Called them later the following week and he said its on the floor with recon gearbox fitted and sealed. Waiting for sealer to dry over night and refit int morning. Eye were surprised they took the engine, gearbox and transfer box oot. He said it were quicker and easier. While oot eye asked them to do the 3 timing belts. Normally done in a service costing 1200 sovs. Allegiance member card got a few hundred oft labour. He priced it at 602+vat. Said they would put it all back together and test it. If drives ok they will do the belts. Sod to do wiv engine fitted so they popnit all oot again, change the belts and pop it back. So we left that for another time. Told me they gerrit oot easier by taking the rear bank oft the v6...
Later that week eye rang to see about collecting it. He said it were mucky wiv paw prints so needed washed. No time friday satdi so do it monday. At this point they were hesitent to give it back. Lots of excuses. Gorrit back on the tuesday after wuk. 3k3 sovs in total if eye remembers correctly. Pop it back if theres a problem.
50 miles later it had driven perfectly. Eye were passing a bit of forest so reversed it in ferra jungle photo. When driving oot it cross axled and traction control activated and there were a bang. Drove ok so eye continued. Bit of a squealing sound. We now know this to be possible to create when changing the auto. Yer upset the transfer box which is where the squeal is coming from. Needs rebuilt to fix. So eye takes me squeal back to the garage. Test drive with them. They took it in ferra look but found nowt. Origionally while eye waited as they thought it were the brakes. But later on had it for a day to look at. Came back nowt wrong and would charge for future diagnostic time. Come back if happens again. It did and eye did but there be only so many test drives yer can do wiv them saying they can't hear a squealing so loud its unbelievable. Tell me when you can hear it. It were speed dependent.
By this point we made a lift wiv hippo ramps so we could drive it stationary while lifted in the air in 5th. Squeal continued. Garage said they din't have chassis ears so would need lr's help iffit continued. Wot they really meant was go away. Bort me own chassis ears for 80 sovs. Device wiv 6 microfones to listern to different noises while driving. Argued wiv the garage but gave up. Eye couldn't proove it were their fault. Service chap said it would be bad luck if the ird failed after the gearbox. Fink they knew. He said he had said that to the others in the garage so they were obviously talking about it.
So by this time eye had been all over ma hippo and learning. Eye is an lectronic hippo so lectric and lectronics dun't bother me. Researched the cam belt change and did that meself. 40 somefink hours in total. Mot man showed me his book that said 5.2 hours book time which main dealer also quoted. When me air con pump bearing failed eye took it to the main dealer. Mud gorrin oft road. Test drive man had a look int car park and showed me it were caused by putting air con on and oft. Fink he din't need the hassel of me kicking oft again in reception when eye gorrup set wiv them. Road test man said it would be expensive eye could probably try meself. Bort a puller and second hand air con unit. At about 8 ton it snapped. We then found the circlip. Got mine oft and bort/fitted a new bearing to the pulley wheel. Lots of little jobs solved like this including the damaged auto wiring harness coming apart. Solved wiv hose pipe clips and tie wraps. Vcu changed. Drive shaft anorl. Most failures due to oft road use. Started servicing meself and done the beakes anorl. Brake switch fail. Simple jobs but stuff eye din't know about but could diagnose. Main dealer parts. Allegiance discount and tapped them for knowledge norrin rave. Already had me hawkeye disagnistic to help. Hence the vid's on youtube.
We did ok. Some years later the coolant dropped a bit. Put the liquid version of bars leaks in but dint solve it. By this time the speed dependent squeal was a bug bear. The thought of needing to take the engine apart and transfer box squearl were too much. Lots of bad news about the petrol v6 and over heating. Had a lot of freelander feinds online whilo gave up wiv theirs so eye looked for some freelander 2 parts to upgrade it. On a long drive one day it got hot enuff to seal the leak. Eye never drove far innit. It always had a small coolant leak but we couldn't find it. They use a small amount. But by this time eye'd gone as far as eye could wivvit. Some local garages smaller who specialise in rover engine cars could fix it but wiv no warranty. They had a good record of solving but wanted somefink like 1500. They run hot and a leak can over heat too easily. So gave up.
As part of upgrading it wiv freelander 2 parts eye had to take the engine out. Took it all to bits. One nite at about 2am eye were undoing the big head bolts. First 2 int corner by the coolant reservour were strong finger tight only. Dint really fink about it until eye'd started on the 3rd which were propper tight. Rest were anorl. So eye had found me coolant leak. Gasket agreed. Problem was ah din't get the engine, gearbox and transfer box oot the conventiinal way. Eye lowered it and the two trollys jumped oot the way assit landed. Fings int way got cut. So had to lever best part of 400kg 10 foot into me garage. Much easier at the main dealer than on the side of the road. They take oft the rear bank and tilt the engine un lift it oot. They would have been the last ones to touch the head bolts which wern't propper tight. Gits.
Faced wiv this and 1850kg of freelander 2 parts eye set about upgrading ma beloved freelander 1 to freelander 2. Norr easy but we managed it in the end. All wuked well and drove ok. So ma hippo lives on just like a rebuilt tratter but wivoot the biscuit tin home made parts.
Freelandering has widened me knowdege of cars and mechanical fings. Assa nippa eye always took fings apart to see how they wuked. Fixed the crispmus lights yearly to keep em going. Freelandering be an extension of this. Eye remember gerrin the latest monthly copy of lro int 90's wiv the baby freelander ont front cover. First time it had bin showd. Sat int hair dressers waiting for me hair cut. Who wood av fort eye would have owned one fer the last 20 years. Eye loves ma hippo. He makes me happy.
