Just been to look at a FL1

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james6546

james6546

Well-Known Member
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Location
Ashbourne
Hello Freelander friends!

I know I am normally in the Defender section, but I could do with a bit of help...

We have just been to look at a FL1 from a dealer for my partner, seems pretty cheap: 2004 3dr black TD4 sport with 62k miles on it for £4800.

Very smart, but when I changed from 1st to 2nd on the test drive there was a crunch from the gearbox. Does this mean that the gearbox is buggered?!

The guy we talked to said that they would get their mechanic to look at it on Monday and it would be sorted.

Would you go for it or avoid?
 
Depends what they do to it. Could be something simple, maybe not
I would take it for an extended test drive with lots of gear changes and stops and starts.
If you decide to buy it, ask for a warranty including the work done to the gear box. Must be written down not verbal.
Also consider an extended warranty, not my favourite things but if your concerned it will give peace of mind.
Hope you join the Freelander team.
Mike
 
Thanks Mike :)

My partner says she will join landy zone if she gets it!

The dealer seemed pretty straight forwards with us l, so hopefully they will sort it.

Apparently the clutch was changed last year, but I did think it felt a little odd.

It only crunched when I tried to make fast progress.

It was only a short test drive, so when we go back I will go on a decent one. It comes with a 3 month warranty, but will see how much it is to extend, though I too hate extended warranties!
 
I had a little Suzuki that I had a new clutch on as it had worn out. Made the driving experience terrible, took a lot of tweaking to sort, although that was a cable clutch, yours will be hydraulic, but still need adjusting slightly.
As Nodge says, it could be as simple as new fluid.
Mike
 
If there was a problem with a dragging clutch, you would be likely to get crunching between all gears, not just 1st and 2nd, though it is more likely between these two because of the differential between RPM. It could be that the synchro rings are worn in the gearbox, in it's early stages this can manifest when the car is cold and improve when the oil warms so on your next test drive check the car is cold.

If it is gearbox related - the mechanic isn't going to fix this on Monday morning... Would also query why the clutch was changed so early? It might be that the car had been driven round town only or it's done a lot of towing - as always check the prop shaft.
 
Tannaton said:
If there was a problem with a dragging clutch, you would be likely to get crunching between all gears, not just 1st and 2nd, though it is more likely between these two because of the differential between RPM. It could be that the synchro rings are worn in the gearbox, in it's early stages this can manifest when the car is cold and improve when the oil warms so on your next test drive check the car is cold.

If it is gearbox related - the mechanic isn't going to fix this on Monday morning... Would also query why the clutch was changed so early? It might be that the car had been driven round town only or it's done a lot of towing - as always check the prop shaft.
Click to expand...

Or the slave cylinder bracket is cracked, a common fault so they say
 
Traded my 55 reg F1 in couple of months ago max price I could get was £3200 and that was against a £13000 VW. Dealers didn't really want to know even though all the usual premature failure items had been replaced.
 
Ok, thanks for all the advice. Not sure about spam fritters though...

What the dealer actually said was "our mechanic isn't in until Monday, he will look then. But we will have to get this fixed before selling it".

It was actually good as we were the only ones on an industrial estate, so he just let us take the car. It was cold, and I didn't get into 3rd gear much.

The gearbox was generally sloppy, so I'm thinking it could be something worn. But then again the clutch felt very weird, no feedback at all.

To be honest the gearbox put us off, so I didn't check anything else, but I actually liked the car.
 
james6546 said:
Ok, thanks for all the advice. Not sure about spam fritters though...

What the dealer actually said was "our mechanic isn't in until Monday, he will look then. But we will have to get this fixed before selling it".

It was actually good as we were the only ones on an industrial estate, so he just let us take the car. It was cold, and I didn't get into 3rd gear much.

The gearbox was generally sloppy, so I'm thinking it could be something worn. But then again the clutch felt very weird, no feedback at all.

To be honest the gearbox put us off, so I didn't check anything else, but I actually liked the car.
Click to expand...

If you are used to a Defender the gearbox will feel sloppy - on a Defender the gearstick sits on top of the gearbox and operates it directly, on a FL the gearbox is in the engine bay and operated by linkages - hence it will never feel the same.

If it was a cracked slave cylinder mounting, this would have the effect of the clutch pedal not being fully depressed and lack of feedback as you described but you would get the crunching symptoms between all gears.

Someone else made a good suggestion - get out and try 2 or 3 more - then you will have a much better idea.
 
Test drive some others. Get a feel for the freelander (in all driving conditions - town, open road etc)

I would guess at the sloppy gear feel could be down to worn linkages, the fact the clutch was changed at low milage suggests that a previous owner may have been lazy and left their foot on the clutch pedal and hand on the gear lever. This promotes premature wear on the associated components.
 
Tannaton said:
If you are used to a Defender the gearbox will feel sloppy - on a Defender the gearstick sits on top of the gearbox and operates it directly, on a FL the gearbox is in the engine bay and operated by linkages - hence it will never feel the same.

If it was a cracked slave cylinder mounting, this would have the effect of the clutch pedal not being fully depressed and lack of feedback as you described but you would get the crunching symptoms between all gears.

Someone else made a good suggestion - get out and try 2 or 3 more - then you will have a much better idea.
Click to expand...

Not likely to be the slave cylinder bracket as a TD4 doesn't have one. It uses a concentric cylinder in the gearbox.
It's common for the Td4 to suffer bush wear on the linkage. I believe the mass dampers fitted to a linkage are responsible for this.
 
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