It is, of course, insured as a Camel Trophy, unmodified but the company are aware of its specification. All on an agreed valuation.

Can I ask who with?? You can PM me if you want to keep quiet. Reason I ask: I want an agreed value considering all the work I did on my freelander and all the accessories fitted. Adrian Flux said they couldn't even on a figure of £4K.

Regards,

Steve
 
Hi there,

I have found that driving without the viscous coupling actually makes the Freelander drive better in most circumstances - it free's up a lot of power, makes the fuel economy much better.

I actually went the whole hog, removed the propshafts and the pinion housing from the IRD box and put a blanking plate on - i got it from eBay off a guy that makes them out of aircraft quality ali - only 20 quid i think - I found it on ebay under a search for Freelander IRD blanking plate or similar. Came with great instructions on how to fit that would be suitable for a complete novice

Well worth the look - it makes the job look tidy and there is less dead weight under the car too.

Hope that helps
 
Heres a moral issue for you,

I have insured my vehicles with a local company for sometime now, I have over 10 years no claims, always pay my premium in full, quite the loyal customer

All of a sudden they introduce a 2% handling charge on credit cards........WTF! :eek: :mad:

What do I pay insurance admin fees for?

With all this talk of mondo mode, insurance fraud etc. ask yourself......... who are the real fraudsters, I mean 2% handling charge, did you ever?
 
The same goes for buying a holiday, even airport parking - a premium if you use credit cards!!

not jumping to their defence, I detest them as much as the next man. They are just passing on charges levied by the credit card people. Where this is outrageous is if you pay by debit card, the 2.5% is swallowed by the retailer. EG Boots. When you pay, there is a bit on the receipt that says 2.5% goes to boots card services, but the total paid remains the same. Which is more open and acceptable.

Once a company starts sneaking this charge on to credit cards, there's no turning back. A few people pay and a precedent is set. If everyone had stood up and said "NO FKCUING WAY" at the start, we wouldn't have got where we are.

No longer accepting cheques is about liability, nothing else. Under english law, if you sign something like a cheque, it is legally binding, and the onus is on the person accepting the cheque to check the signature, all at their risk. If the signature doesn't match,and the transaction bounces, then they have to bear the cost of the lost money.
However, with chip and pin, it's a new law. The law states that knowledge of the pin is deemed sufficient proof that the card holder is who they should be. Thus liability passes to the cardholder, not the retailer, who must bear any losses if the transaction was guaranteed with a pin.
 
Well, we did it... took the whole prop off. First one bit, then the whole lot !! Drove around for about two weeks with absolutely no change in anything... fuel no different, steering a little bit lighter, but not a lot. Anyway, we had to put it all back on as we have a huge problem... complete loss of power; so back to four different garages.... one lamda sensor, one set of plugs, leads, coil, dis cap, rotor arm, fuel filter and cat later and still not fixed. Trying to sell it as had enough now, but can't as we have no power. I think we're down to a new fuel pump now... but at over £200, is it really worth it... anyone want a nice 1998 1.8 with lots and lots of new bits on it !!!!
 
Having ruined a differential, viscous coupling, halfdrive shaft, both seals to halfshaft and having to be transported back to Germany from Croatia after the differential suddenly disintegrated, followed by a 4.000 € repair job, then 3 rear wheel bearings in 3 years, I was not inclined to spend a penny more on my 99 Freelander junk heap.

2 years of peace and then the IRD died completely 2 weeks ago. So what now?

Bought the Blanking plate from Ebay for 20 Pounds (deliverd in 36 hours from UK to Germany by Standard DHL, my compliment to purpletoyboy @ Ebay.co.uk)
http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/purpletoyboy/
I got it fitted in 1 hour and threw away the propshaft and VCD - the IRD was thouroughly chewed up, metal bits everywhere.

The result after the removal is FANTASTIC - the mpg has improved incredibly, MUCH quieter (the kids refused to travel in my Freelander before), the handling is MUCH better and not nearly so skittish (obviously the 4WD was too "wound up" and under tension). It now drives like new! Why didn't I do this YEARS ago?? (or why didnt Landrove build the Freelander als 2WD, as a 4WD it's an expensive disaster)

The only problem is now that going on/off the gas causes a light bump - obviously the propshaft "stablised" the engine before.

Has anyone an idea how to improve this? New stiffer engine mounts or maybe a gas spring between engine and bulkhead?
 
if your ,ird,vcu,diff etc all working fine the freelander drives great and is very reassuring on wet round abouts ,driving in snow,wet feilds etc,but i took my prop and vcu off to do the bearings and drove around for a few days in mondo mode,it was ****ing awful and dangerous ,would never leave it in two wheel drive it aint set it up for it,im happy the way its meant to be
 
The strange thing is you get differing opinions about the pros and cons of running fwd only so maybe it's something to do with other factors of vehicle condition or even drivers. I used my Td4 for a summer without the rear drive and have to say there was never any indication that it was dangerous at all. Sure 4x4 is better if you want to drive it hard but it didn't have any particular vices once you adopt an appropriate fwd driving style. In fact it drove just like the couple of X-Trails i had owned previously. It also towed my caravan on a couple of holidays without any issues.
 
Hi,

I've got mine in 2 wheel drive at the moment, whilst i try to find the source of an intermitent soft knock that i'm sure is now somewhere on the front end.
To be honest I think it drives great in this mode, although I must admit I take it slightly easier in the wet and cornering...apart from the steering feeling slightly lighter it drives pretty much like any front wheel drive car... and better than some i've driven in the past.
That said i'll be happier once I get it sorted and I put it back to 4 wheel drive. It's got 70k on the clock now and although it's passing all the vcu tests, I might bite the bullet and put a new vcu and bearings on it before i put the prop back on.....the only thing I have noticed before droping the prop is the vcu gets hot after a long motorway run and i'm not sure if this is right or not.


Mat
 
well chaser you may be right,but i wouldnt tow a caravan in mondo mode,i have had many cars over the years and the td4 is the main family car,my partner drives the td4 mainly and when i told her to take it easy she might notice a difference as the prop etc was off when she came home from work she was fuming at me!! said it was hellish to drive,hence me fixing it asap lol
 
Hated mine in mondo mode. v6 auto tends to spin the front wheels slighty when pulling away. Still does it if gental with the pedel.

If any of you plan to run mondo, make sure you advise your insurance company.
 
Hippo,

I've been slowly going through all the posts on here to try and find an answer for the fault i've got (page 345 upto now).
Was it you who had a set of those chassis ears?.
Are they any good, if so I may invest in a set to try and pin point my problem.

Mat
 
Hippo,

I've been slowly going through all the posts on here to try and find an answer for the fault i've got (page 345 upto now).
Was it you who had a set of those chassis ears?.
Are they any good, if so I may invest in a set to try and pin point my problem.

Mat
Yep it was me. Got a set of these: Engine Electronic Stethoscope Kit AT414 on eBay (end time 19-Mar-11 15:35:55 GMT)

Considered an expensive toy by some, I found them quite helpful. Proved my squeal is from the auto or ird. Removing the front prop stops it, but the chassis ears can still detect it. Not enough to work out where it's from, as it's too low a volume. But with the prop fitted I could prove it was from the front.

You have to search for ALB30508A or electronic stethoscope to find them on the web. Effectively 6 independent ears, which you place on your car to hear sounds whilst driving. Flick the switch between channels to hear the noise from a different sensor/position. Advice for use: Take headache tablets before use, as you'll get a cracking headache. Place the squeeze clip things so the handle is to the rear of the car & sensor inside won't pick up so much wind noise. Turn the channel switch slowly, to reduce the possibility of a loud click when joining the next channel. Tie wrap loose cables to yer car.

Example of VCU bearing failed & sensor on bearing bracket: YouTube - Land Rover Freelander 1 v6 failed vcu support bearing
 
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Hi Hippo,

Expensive toy? It depends what value you put on your time, and if they can put you closer to finding the problem your costs are less in changing parts over that are ok.
Theres a set of 6 channel wireless ones available from the usa I may look at which would probably be quicker to move around although they cost a bit more money. Anythings that helps find this knock on mine has got to be better than worrying somethings about to go bang in a expensive way if I just leave it alone tell it gets worse.
 

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