Hello,

I am new to this forum, but see there are a lot of Freelanders fans here like me.

I am kindly asking for help.

I have a 98 Freelander 1.8 (petrol) which developed a problem. The first thing I noticed was, when I was driving, the HDC warning light came on and the car began to increase RPM erratically when I changed to lower gears. The throttle/RPM went so far, I had to stop and shut down the engine - it was like the Landy wanted to take off.

After driving on- and off-road the next day the throttle was not increasing erratically anymore, only the amber HDC warning light stayed always on and the HDC appears not to be working when applying the yellow button on the gear stick.

Also I noticed when braking or driving on wet surfaces, the ABS/TC squeaks/grinds like something is stuck - a mechanical sound which sounds and gives a feeling it does not work properly. The TC light comes on in these situations, but that this is normal.

I have read other posts which indicate a faulty braking light, but my issue isn't related to the dashboard - is it related (from what I read) to the throttle body or the potentiometer, am I assuming correctly?

What could be faulty? What would you recommend as the first thing to check/replace?

Thank you for any help in advance.

Hello pal.
Pop to the community forum and introduce yourself
I'd guess throttle body as a good starting point.
Some of the k series guys will be along to give you more advice.
Mike

erratic throttle could be the idle air control valve. Its quite a common problem on the 1.8

i had a similar issue and i just whipped it off, cleaned it with petrol and hey presto all fixed.

its attached to the intake manifold with a couple of ... (thinking back here) torx screws?

Whoa, that was really fast, thanks for the quick replies.

Will go and find a throttle body, have in the meantime found some (surprisigly cheap) used, but in working condition on eBay UK, will try to get more info - don't want to waste time and money on "to-good-to-be-true-parts".

And thanks for the air control valve tip - will definately clean it.

I wouldn't go buying a whole new throttle body just yet

Whatever caused your erratic idle has thrown a code probably - causing the yellow hdc to stay on.
I would get a code read done before buying things - I changed lots of things and the light still stayed on... until I had the light reset at my local garage.

The problem is that the code readers for 98 aren't common in Slovenia. I have checked and the response from local garages was, that I need a special Land Rover code reader/computer because "generic/universal" code readers can't read the 98 onboard computer.

Am checking right now where I could find one - up until now I have found these readers to be very expensive.

What would be the best option-where could I get a code reader for 98 Freelander?

This could be a combination of faults at one time. I suspect the IACV needs a clean. The throttle pot sounds like a potential candidate for the HDC light. The pot can be changed easy enough. But you should read the base resistance of the old one and set up the new one to give the same base resistance.