i tend to agree with you, after replacing all the obvious/common things its testbook time....
so have booked it in for next monday, and will keep you all up to date with whats going on. thanks for everyones help and advice so far (and saving money!) :)
 
Well the freelander has had it's testbook check and no error codes or faults reported by the ecu.... The lambda sensor is running in closed loop and we are now stuck as to what could be wrong. Wiring loom has been checked and all signals are reaching and leaving the ecu, the injectors are being opened for too long acording to the pulse width.I have noticed there are several other people over the last few years who have had exactly the same problem while surfing the net, and none of them managed to find out what it was either. They endedup either scrapping the vehicle or selling it on before the next mot was due! Funnily the fault seems to crop up after having the head gasket replaced and the vehicle is about 8+ years old. Any ideas why that should be? Older engines don't like the ml gasket? Changes compression ratio affecting map sensor?? (just a few guesses)
 
Sorry to hear that you don't have a solution yet, but at least you know what isn't causing the problem.

I have a working 1.8 Freelander from '98, can I check anything for you on a working engine?

It sounds like a real challenge to figure out the problem, that fact that most people would simply sell the vehicle instead of finding the problem is only more motivation to find it. Well at least it would be for me :)

Good luck!
 
the final chapter......
well took it to an injection specialist and they have told me whats wrong... the ecu is trying to reduce the injector 'on' time to reduce the mixture, but the ecu is only allowed to reduce the injector 'on' time down to 2 milliseconds and wont go any lower thanks to the way landrover programmed the ecu:rolleyes:. (mems 1.9)
I said to the engineer about re-mapping the ecu to the engine and he confirmed you should never need to re-map an ecu for normall running of a vehicle, the ecu has been mapped by the manufacturer to run on the car the way it is and re-mapping to compensate for a fault somewhere else is just a 'bodge', and will cause injector damage due to switching the injector on and off faster than the design spec (hence 2millisec stop limit)......:doh:
the reason its trying to shut the injectors down is due to too much fuel pressure! the only thing controlling the fuel pressure is the pressure regulator, which is part of the fuel pump. So i bought a fuel pump (£250!):eek:. Fitted it and guess what.........still the bl**dy same!:mad: even tried putting a seporate voltage feed to the pump and dropping the voltage down to 8 volts to reduce the speed of the pump and hence the pressure, with no difference to the lambda reading or ecu pulse width to injectors.....

So thats it for me, have spent more trying to find out whats causing this problem than the vehicle is worth,:doh: so if anyone out there has a petrol freelander that fails emissions at the mot and its not a easy fix......

get rid of it!
you cant fix it!
even if you throw over a thousand pounds at it (as ive done).......

time to buy a defender 90 with a 300tdi under the bonnet!

but a BIG thankyou to all the people on this forum that have helped me in my quest.....
to confirm that you should 'BUY A DIESEL!' lol:):):):)
 
hi all, just to let you know, that I have almost the same problem and still havent figured it out yet, maybe someone could shed some light on it for me. frelander 1.8, just had head gasket, but this problem was happening before which is why we thought it was the head gasket, now the problem is that when you try to start, it turns over and almost tries to start but refuses, remove the fuel pump fuse and eventually it starts, I have to be quick to put the fuse back in once started, then it runs fine and lovely, bit lumpy on idle but drives lovely, emmisions are perfect, but if i turn it off, failure to start again, take out fuse, voila running again, changed inlet air temp sensor, coolant temp sensor, all four injectors, dizzy cap, leads, tdc sensor, fuel pressure valve, now i am stuck. any ideas would be gratefully acknowledged.
 
note to above comment, no fault codes in ecu using snap on ethos scanner, all data looks fine.
 
wyldecyote said:
I said to the engineer about re-mapping the ecu to the engine and he confirmed you should never need to re-map an ecu for normall running of a vehicle, the ecu has been mapped by the manufacturer to run on the car the way it is and re-mapping to compensate for a fault somewhere else is just a 'bodge', and will cause injector damage due to switching the injector on and off faster than the design spec (hence 2millisec stop limit)......:doh:
Click to expand...


The MEMS 1.9 can not be remapped, even if it was going to sort your problem. Only the newer MEMS 3 can be tweaked.

The early engine runs fine on MLS should have no effect on fuelling, it does LOWER the compression, but did you not get a head skim???

As you have concluded that Testbook is fine and this has only happened since changing the gasket.........
It's not the gasket itself causing the issue, but more the process involved in fitting the gasket.

Your cams maybe slightly mis-alligned when you put the belt on again. Likewise the crank pulley, sitting early or late.


Cams CAN BE out by one tooth which is within tolerance for the K-series combustion cycle.

It wouldn't do any harm to clean the crank position sensor (very back of engine next to bell housing)

The physical ignition timing could be a fraction late or early. To what side of 2millisec of the pulse I am not sure..... but it does not like the two are not in sync. Adjusting the pulse on a mappable ECU is just fooling the ECU to suit the physical timing. There are Gurus who have setup injections engines withs carbs, now there's a real skill for a full on project (respect) remapping is the 'cheats' easy way out.

Manifold setup, esp carbon purge valve/gas recirculation canister may well need investigating
 
Last edited:
well not one to be defeated ( although cheesed off with this vehicle now!) im still working on the problem! have been looking at the new fuel pump i put on the vehicle, and discovered theres different fuel pumps fitted to these petrol freelanders!
so stripped my old pump right down to the individual components and found a 3.6bar pressure regulator. The reg looks like a standard fuel rail type with just a hole instead of a pipe for the vacuum feed on the side of it. Then i stripped my very expensive new pump down, and guess what.....theres NO PRESSURE REGULATOR! just a blanking plug!
This really started to make me think. A fuel pump with no pressure regulation makes no difference to the old pump i had with possibly a duff regulator which = fuel pressure way too high!
As its nearly impossible to test the pressure of the fuel while its on the vehicle (thanks landrover for using rubber coated PLASTIC fuel lines! that just blow pressure gauges out the line as they wont grip to plastic...) i have ordered a few different regulators and am just gonna chop the vacuum feed pipe off the side or top of it!. The short list of pressure regs are:
vectra =3 bar
vectra v6=3.5 bar
Audi a4=4 bar
all are the same standard 10mm output and 25mm side sealling rings.
so when i get those through from ebay i will let you all know what happens!
 
Thats the spirit Wyldecyote!! If you solve this problem you will carry great respect on here. No, scrub that, you already have that respect for sticking to the task of helping your Hippo get going again. Its cost you a load and there are plenty of us on here that feel for you on that score. I really wish you luck. I'm sure I speak for all of us. :D
 
I have just had exactly the same problem with my freelander, I have read your problem and read some of the replys but not all so don't no if this has been suggested yet but changing the water temp switch so the auto choke does not stay on and run ritch cured the problem of over fueling for me hope this helps and sorry if it has already been surggested
 
wyldecyote said:
the final chapter......
well took it to an injection specialist and they have told me whats wrong... the ecu is trying to reduce the injector 'on' time to reduce the mixture, but the ecu is only allowed to reduce the injector 'on' time down to 2 milliseconds and wont go any lower thanks to the way landrover programmed the ecu:rolleyes:. (mems 1.9)
I said to the engineer about re-mapping the ecu to the engine and he confirmed you should never need to re-map an ecu for normall running of a vehicle, the ecu has been mapped by the manufacturer to run on the car the way it is and re-mapping to compensate for a fault somewhere else is just a 'bodge', and will cause injector damage due to switching the injector on and off faster than the design spec (hence 2millisec stop limit)......:doh:
the reason its trying to shut the injectors down is due to too much fuel pressure! the only thing controlling the fuel pressure is the pressure regulator, which is part of the fuel pump. So i bought a fuel pump (£250!):eek:. Fitted it and guess what.........still the bl**dy same!:mad: even tried putting a seporate voltage feed to the pump and dropping the voltage down to 8 volts to reduce the speed of the pump and hence the pressure, with no difference to the lambda reading or ecu pulse width to injectors.....

So thats it for me, have spent more trying to find out whats causing this problem than the vehicle is worth,:doh: so if anyone out there has a petrol freelander that fails emissions at the mot and its not a easy fix......

get rid of it!
you cant fix it!
even if you throw over a thousand pounds at it (as ive done).......

time to buy a defender 90 with a 300tdi under the bonnet!

but a BIG thankyou to all the people on this forum that have helped me in my quest.....
to confirm that you should 'BUY A DIESEL!' lol:):):):)
Click to expand...
Should have replied to this earlier,but here goes - I had a 1.8K series FL in a while ago from a local LR indy,they had done allsorts to it to get it past its emissions test.I did too,and scoping the Oxy sensor shows a wide rich band of the oxy sensor cycle no matter how much I confused the ecu with a very high coolant temp.(Bypassed the coolant temp sensor with a variable pot.)What it all boiled down to is the Cat has alot of work to do in terms of good emissions.(Unlike a closed loop Rover V8 - will almost pass a Cat test with no cats if running properly)The garage had fitted a new,(Cheap) Cat so thought it was covered - so did I till I disconnected it and emissions tested it straight from the down pipe,results were exactly the same.I then fitted the Cat off my own car,a geuine one with 70k on it - perfect results.My conclusion was the K series motor is a much more modern multivalve engine that works generally higher in its rev range than the v8's and has more valve overlap so a larger amount of fuel goes straight out the exhaust port before it closes and never gets to be burnt in the combustion chamber - hence the need for more "treatment" by the Cat.
 
Well guess what.......I've fixed it!!!! Wooohooo!
Here's what I finally done......
Changed the fuel pressure reg in the pump for a 3 bar one,
changed the lambda sensor for a NGK one and changed the cat for a better quality one. When I changed the 3.6 bar reg for the 3 bar one it didn't make much of a difference to emissions,still goes well though with no flat spots. so the conclusion there is it's not really to do with fuel pressure (but might help on mpg a bit so will report back later on it's mpg). So I was out of ideas really until I done some more research on lambda sensors, and that cheaper ones can be faulty out the box from new. Symptoms are starting on .16v and rising whithin seconds to .96 to 1.1v what made me think it was faulty in the end was the fact it stays on .9v after the engine is switched off until the sensor cools down.....had to change the cat again due to it giving up after getting drowned in petrol from the engine running so rich and killing it! so there you go. Fit a good quality NGK lambda sensor and maybe a cat and job done!!!! Thanks to everyone for their input and ideas and hope this helps other people to keep their freelanders on the road a bit longer :)
 
Glad its sorted,these cheap parts can really mess you around.I had a Range Rover 4.6 at another garage a while back that had been fitted with an Oxygen sensor from Euro Car Parts - had the right plug and everything.But it looked nothing like the original and was cycling between 0 and 10 v ! Played havoc with the ecu,swopped it for a proper one and reset its adaptions and it is fine.
 
....and i had a lucky escape a few hours ago.... changed the engine oil/petrol mix (lol) and thought i would change the ird oil just to be on the safe side, and upon draining the ird there was less than a mug full in it! :eek::eek::eek::eek:
no signs of any leaks anywhere either:confused:. So i urge everyone to check their ird levels!!!:) think im going to check the gearbox and rear diff now just incase!....
 
where is this damper?

eightinavee said:
Cancel the order,its not a fuel pressure regulator - its just a damper.When you had the ecu recoded did they go through an adaptive reset ?
When the engine is hot and running at a steady 2000rpm what does the Oxygen sensor show - does it just stay at .9v ?
Click to expand...
 
hi im not much help but ive got the same problem, over fueling big time only way i can get mine 2 fire is by taking fuse out fuel pump its flooding it so much
 
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