scary cornering

Dont sound right to me, i trust you are experienced enough to know wether the road was greasy/diesel spill etc. but the road noise bothers me, could be a wheel bearing siezing, i would get them checked.
I use country lanes for 10 miles going to work, and i find the handling superb, even on a par with sports saloons of the near past.

My Freelander is certainly more skitish in the wet, not dangerously though. In the dry she's fine but very heavy and rolls a lot.
You have to remember that the centre of gravity is quite high which does no favours for cornering.
Also, I think the tyre size is narrower on the 1.8 litre compared to the 2.5 litre. From memory mine are 215 wide on 16 inch rims.
Bottom line, mine doesn't grip any where near as good in the wet as it does in the dry.

hmmm - definately sounds something wrong there - 'lower' speed cornering (30ish mph) and quick changes of direction (whipping it round a roundabout) are superb. Is this the first 4x4 you have driven?? - as Mark correctly pointed out, the higher centre of gravity and the body roll can be disconcerting until you get used to it - my experience so far is that the Freelander takes quite a lot of 'goading' until it will actually misbehave. The one thing it doesn't like is if you over commit going into a bend and bottle it and ease off the gas, the sudden lack of momentum changes the angle of body-roll makes the car feel very unstable and as if it is understeering and going pear-shaped.

What sort of speeds are we talking here and did this happen on tight or sweeping bends??

By the way, Welcome to 'the club!" I hope you are as chuffed with your Freelander as I am with mine!

Its your tyres matey- check your pressures, these like to be on the soft side.

This sounds like a mixed tire problem, i had different tires on the front and it felt like ****e ,after i changed them for all the same, felt great , also have been told that ya have to track both front and rear on the gaylander [don't know how true that is as i haven't had a look] also not to mix worn with new or if ya do put the part worns on the rear, Ming

get a full set of new tyres. that will cure it. ask peeps here what they have and can vouch for, (freelander).
mixed tyres are never a good idea.
had a similar prob on the disco section last month. the car was transformed by new decent tyres.

I agree with Outlander about easing off the gas in a corner, makes the car understear which is not a nice feeling.
My hippo has Michelin 4x4 tyres all round.

Hi will-alex,

As said already by others in this thread you should have reduced your speed before entering the corner and while taking the corner start giving throttle to have it under power when coming out of the corner, once you're used to do that the Freelander behaves as a real sportscar, cornering becomes a pleasure and taking roundabouts leaves everyone behind you. Also tire pressure is important, (I have mine on 2.2 kgs on all four wheels, LR prescribes 2.0 on all four, for my size at least, 215/65x16 but that's more to guarantee a soft ride and is not the optimal pressure, both tire manufacturers and car manufacturers give the lowest possible pressure to give a soft ride, this doesn't necessarily mean it's the optimal predssure for the car, one has to experiment a little to find the ideal situ. for the car in question), and as also said, 4 tires of the same sort/make are much better than to drive with two different drivetrains. What ming says :"also not to mix worn with new or if ya do put the part worns on the rear", I think I read that if putting new tires to always put these in the back and not in the front as you risk to ruin your front drivetrain. And is your name typical British??
Good luck.

marksurry said:

I agree with Outlander about easing off the gas in a corner, makes the car understear which is not a nice feeling.
My hippo has Michelin 4x4 tyres all round.

Click to expand...

I have to say it really took me by surprise at first, having done a fair bit of karting in the past, I failed to approach the Freelander with the care that I should have done initially. That sort of handling characteristic is a foible of the first 'hot hatches' (I used to have a Renault Gordini that would quite cheerfully spit you into a ditch if you lifted off halfway through a bend) and not what I expected from a 4WD.

Yup willo, roundabouts are fun in a Freelander!!!

My old Astra GTE 16v used to get lively on corners when easing the power. Dam good fun though and fixed under stear with over stear

ffs youre driving a freelander, not an audi quatro s1!
take it easy.

Ormus, a Freelander CAN drive like a sports car when it needs to, especially the V6. If, and only if it runs wide into a field it doesn't matter because it's good on fields too
Only joking, it never runs wide. Just feels weird because they roll a lot.

Many thanks to all. I will invest in 4 new tyres and let you know if there is a big improvement. As a new owner of a 2000 model 1.8 petrol, I look forward to many more discussions, especially about the "land rover stated", inevitable engine problems!!!!

Cheers

May God look after all the clowns who want to drive Freelanders like sports cars, He will be meeting some of you soon.

Check all the presures on the tyres as tyre fitters are crap at getting them all the same, you may even end up with similar symptoms if they are different presures.

Just another pointer regarding tracking.

Gaylanders should have the rear one degrees out from what most tyre "experts" set them at. Make sure its tracked by someone with knowledge, not some quick fit monkey.
It makes a MASSIVE difference.

Thanks again for those of you who gave constructive replies. Just to explain abit. I am a new freelander driver, however, I have been driving Landrovers for the last 16 years when got behind the wheel of my first discovery. This situation is NOT a speed issue!!!

will-alex said:

Thanks again for those of you who gave constructive replies. Just to explain abit. I am a new freelander driver, however, I have been driving Landrovers for the last 16 years when got behind the wheel of my first discovery. This situation is NOT a speed issue!!!

Click to expand...

16 years of driving 'real' Land Rovers then you decide to buy a Freelander???

Seriously now , be interesting to see how you find the Freelander in comparison once you have the tyres / handling issue sorted

If this is seriously not a speed problem, one other thing which you may have overlooked is,has the vehicle been in an accident or seriously ill-treated off road? You don't say what speed this is happening at,or what kind of a corner you were taking.