Reverse gear problems

Hi everyone,

hoping for some advice to what might be the cause of the problem with freelander i just bought.

The freelander drives lovely through all forward gears but 95% of the time when i put it into reverse it pops out instantly as i take my foot off the clutch and makes a crunch noise, after a few attempts it will reverse but its becoming very annoying.

Is it likely to be the gearbox itself or hopefully something very minor that doesn't cost much to fix?

thanks for any help in advance

Welcome to the forum

Which Freelander have you purchased and which engine? There were a number of gearbox options on these cars...

thank you and its a TD4 on an 03 plate

There are quite a few places in the TD4 gear linkage that can give rise to wear and sloppy gear changes. Are the rest of the gears easily selectable or does there seem to be a lot of free play in the gear lever?

The rest of the gears feel fine, i have noticed in all gears the gearstick can be moved to the right a fair amount but doesnt seem to affect anything.

There is no synchro on reverse and if the clutch doesn't release properly it is easy to abuse reverse gear, try selecting third or fifth before selecting reverse and see if this helps full engagement of reverse

hi, i've taken it out today and selecting 3rd or 5th did nothing, again though it seemed driving a foot forward seemed to allow me to select reverse but doesnt seem to work everytime.

Seems like you have a problem with your linkages somewhere. You'd need to get under the car and follow them from the bottom of the gear lever to the gearbox checking each joint/bush etc.

thanks i will get under the car and take a look, it is something someone with little mechanical knowledge could do or something i would have to take it to a garage to have repaired?

It's a complicated set-up and the connecting rods in the engine bay are a bit of a pain to get to. You might possibly see something obvious though. It can't be the rods because if one of those had popped off you wouldn't be able to select any gears. That's why I think it's just wear in the mechanism somewhere. But that's just my opinion, it may well be a gearbox problem, but I hope not.

a similar issue with mine crops up from time to time
seems to happen when the hippo is leaning a bit ..
towards nearside usually .. or maybe offside 'n a tad facing downhill
haven't taken notes as it don't happen that often

putting it back in neutral .. engage clutch ..
then trying again for reverse ..
( like .. double clutch shifting )
that get's it into gear ..

i suspect it's a combination of old flexi-bushes
under the gear lever .. and engine/gearbox mounts

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