EDIT
I'm going to use this thread as a diary of stuff done to my Freelander so will probably be editing more than adding to it.


Hi Guys
I finally gone and done it. I bought me a Freelander, got it home today.

Petrol

I know, I know. It was a stupid thing to do but then I'm a stupid person so that all fits. :lol:

Anyhoo this is it.



2004, 12 months MOT, five good tyres and 103,000 miles. I bought it from a dealer who had put it through MOT and must have been concerned it might come back on him cause he started at 1950 and almost immediately came down to £1500 and settled for £1450 so long as it was sold as seen. It does have a few wee niggles.
So in no particular order here are the issues and jobs to do that I am aware of so far.

1. VCU, I thought it was tight on the test drive and tried the one wheel in the air test tonight. It ahem, failed as it was locked solid so first job done tonight was to remove drive shaft. This may be repaired and refitted later in the year when finances allow but not now.
2. IRD has been leaking oil (probably due to the stress of a seized VCU) so will need cleaned up, refilled and kept an eye on in case it continues leaking and if so fixed.
3. Wipers not working correctly, if I push for single wipe they stop in the middle of the screen when I let go of the stalk.
4. Rear windscreen heater not working.
5. Rear window goes back up when you let go of the handle so is in the wrong position when you close the rear door. You have to hold the handle up when closing the door.
6. Full service including plugs, leads, timing belt, water pump and tensioner etc etc.
7. New coolant header tank as it has hair line cracks near the lid.
8. Repair dodgy power connection to tow bar.
9. Dry out dampness caused (hopefully) by rear window not being closed correctly.
10. Repair a few areas of rust on the back door and under some of the plastic window trims.
11. Buy a second fob and blank key off ebay and get them working.

This is all I can think of now but I'm sure the list will grow. Having said that she is pretty rot free underneath, clean inside and a good solid base for a very nice car. For £1450 it is small money to pay for an 04 model.

If anyone has any advice for any of the issues listed please share.
Thanks

welcome , looks ok ,is that an Irish reg? have a good look at your ird and rear diff if the vcu has gone it may have or should I say probably has damaged both not heard of the back window going up when the door latch is let go but I sure you will fix it. replace that header tank as you do the refill of water take the small hose of the side and blow into it this opens the jiggle pin so it lets water into cylinder head. I have heard of people buying them cheap keys and they broke I got a new one cut and programed from Timpson's shoe repairs. This is so the wife can get in the car when she needs to if you need all doors open you just turn the key twice. hope this helps

Welcome to the world of Hippos. Deep pockets required

That looks to be a very good purchase! Congrat's

Re point 9: have a look in the secure storage locker in the luggage area. It may have water in it.

I'll second that the IRD will probably have worn severely due to VCU. However as its not making noise the gears should be fine - if you remove it to replace seals, it may be worth doing the bearings at the same time - will be right as rain then. The kits inc bearings, oil cooler and seals are around £150 on eBay. I used 1 on mine

I got a gearbox shop to fit the bearings which does knock the price up though - towards the territory of a straight recon unit!

looks good.my wipers did that at first but with us are fine now was standing for some time
before i got it

teddywood1 said:

welcome , looks ok ,is that an Irish reg? have a good look at your ird and rear diff if the vcu has gone it may have or should I say probably has damaged both not heard of the back window going up when the door latch is let go but I sure you will fix it. replace that header tank as you do the refill of water take the small hose of the side and blow into it this opens the jiggle pin so it lets water into cylinder head. I have heard of people buying them cheap keys and they broke I got a new one cut and programed from Timpson's shoe repairs. This is so the wife can get in the car when she needs to if you need all doors open you just turn the key twice. hope this helps

Click to expand...

Cheers pal, thanks for the tips, helps a lot, expansion tank is no1 on the shopping list and yes I'm in Northern Ireland.

englishbullterrier said:

Welcome to the world of Hippos. Deep pockets required

Click to expand...

Oops, what have I done.

htr said:

That looks to be a very good purchase! Congrat's

Thanks mate

Re point 9: have a look in the secure storage locker in the luggage area. It may have water in it.

Click to expand...

Yeah I checked it when buying and found a puddle. Used it to barter down the price.

GrumpyGel said:

I'll second that the IRD will probably have worn severely due to VCU. However as its not making noise the gears should be fine - if you remove it to replace seals, it may be worth doing the bearings at the same time - will be right as rain then. The kits inc bearings, oil cooler and seals are around £150 on eBay. I used 1 on mine

I got a gearbox shop to fit the bearings which does knock the price up though - towards the territory of a straight recon unit!

Click to expand...

There was no sign of problems when driving the car apart from tightness reversing full lock. I'm hoping I've caught it soon enough and now the drive shaft is off it will be OK. If I do need to replace seals I will bear that in mind.

Nice looking Freelander

Brack said:

Nice looking Freelander

Click to expand...

Thanks Brack, I took it for a drive tonight and remembered why I love these cars sooo much, it is the most comfortable car I have driven in over 30 years driving.

Seems poor that a dealer sorted a car enough to put it through MOT and didn't even do a basic service, and were willing to sell it to some poor unsuspecting sod when it was about to destroy it's drive train.
I spent today working at the car, first job was to replace the IRD lubricant, easy job made a whole lot more simple by using a 240V impact driver to take the fill bolt out. A lot of people have had issues freeing this bolt but I had it off in a couple of seconds. Next job was the expansion tank.

It was cracked around the lid and some numpty had sealed the inlet pipe with silicon sealant. Why would you do that????? A new one was £15 off ebay.

Before


After


I tried fixing the wiper problems too but no joy. I took the wiper mechanism out and drilled out the rivets on the contact mechanism and cleaned it up but it was still the same, checked continuity of contacts to the plug and ok there too so thinking the problem must be else where.

That bottle was bollox

Lots of people buy Freelanders with no idea of what can go wrong and how to avoid expensive problems...I was one of em.

Teddywood mentioned the jiggle valve ball bearing - some people remove it altogether, this removes the risk of it sticking and trapping air in the head ...read up about it ...its in the inlet manifold (at the end of that bodged pipe) if you decide to do it.

did you replace the bottle cap at the same time?

No kidding about the bottle, I wouldn't let the missus take the car anywhere until it was replaced. What kind of idiot would have tried to fix the inlet pipe instead of just replacing the bottle. Took all of 15 minutes.
New cap came with the bottle but I threw the old one in the boot just in case.

fit the prt as well, if not already firred.

Heard a lot about PRT in MG.ORG but don't know if fitted to either MGF or Freelander. Maybe silly but I just never bothered. Will they make a big difference?

being an 04 I think yours should have the prt already fitted - it's front of the engine and behind the cooling fans as you look down.

Cheers pal, will take a look tomorrow.

Thought this might give you a laugh.
I removed the drive shaft on the day I got my Freelander home and left it to one side. Later I noticed writing on the rear drive shaft, it said "Freelander Rear" in white marker pen
It looks like some complete numpty has replaced the rear drive shaft and didn't bother to change the VCU which probably caused the problem in the first place.

Alibro said:

...
6. Full service including plugs, leads, timing belt, water pump and tensioner etc etc.
7. New coolant header tank as it has hair line cracks near the lid.
...

Click to expand...

is there any paperwork (service history, receipts) indicating HG replacement - it's supposed to be done every 72K.

1. Keep a close eye on the coolant level in the expansion tank
2. check the coolant for traces of sealant additive (e.g. copper coloured flecks around the neck of the expansion tank cap)
3. check that coolant flows into the expansion tank from the hose connected to the inlet manifold
4. check there are no gurgling noises from the heater when you start the engine

Cheers
Simon

Gonna use this post to document costs.

2004 Facelifted Freelander 1.8 S..........................£1450
Coolant expansion bottle........................................£15
Boot door lock mechanism......................................£26
Spark plugs............................................................£15
Roof Rails..............................................................£48
Wiper blades F & R.................................................£24
Spare key, transponder and fob................................£18
Propshaft UV joint....................................................£7
Oil, Antifreeze, filters, tensioner...............................£67
Timing belt, gearbox oil...........................................£33
Belts, rocker cover gasket, plug leads......................£48............................Running total 22/2/15 £1751
Head gasket kit......................................................£96
Clutch Kit..............................................................£100
Uprated Oil Rail......................................................£73
Instant Gasket........................................................£6
Two Coil Packs........................................................£39
VCU Silicon fluid......................................................£27
Bolts etc.................................................................£6
Propshaft bearings....................................................£75........................Running total 16/5/15
Drivers window regulator + dodgy cable that didn't work. £40
£2213

Edit I'm going to use this post to document repairs and updates.

14/2/15
Replaced boot door lock, so now it closes without me having to hold the handle up.
Replaced plugs and leads. They were pretty worn but worse, one of the plugs was loose and letting gasses escape past it, cars going much better now.
Changed IRD, engine and geabox oil, all of which were black dirty. God knows when it last had an oil change,
Today replaced cam belt, tensioner, water pump, coolant, alternator belt and would have replaced the power steering belt but got the wrong one. Not gonna worry about it though as the original belt is in good condition.
Next job is to replace the cam cover gasket as it is seeping oil everywhere.

19/2/15
Fitted new upper and lower engine tie rod bushes.
http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af279/alibro/Mobile Uploads/CAM00775_zpsgxhfpypq.jpg
http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af279/alibro/Mobile Uploads/CAM00773_zpsg9nl4mtt.jpg
Fitted roof rails.

21/2/15
Cleaned cam cover amd replaced gasket, used instant gasket too.
I know for a fact the head gasket was replaced in the past as breather pipe from the cam cover to the throttle body was almost blocked with mayonnaise, so cleaned it out and removed the throttle body and cleaned it too. Mayo everywhere.
Was having issues with the idle speed so sprayed WD40 into the idle control valve to try and clean it out as I had stupidly forgotten to take it off and clean it while the cam cover was off, and don't have the right angle torqs needed to get at the bottom screws. Seemed to work though as idle was fine afterwards but if the gasket was as bad as I think it was it may have been part of the problem.

Mar 2015
Replaced Head gasket and oil rail and cleaned out blocked oil passage ways. How this engine didn't destroy itself is beyond me as the oil can't have been flowing properly.

Oct 2015
Found header tank empty
Turned out it was a dodgy hose, not HGF again.

Feb 2016
Replaced clutch.

March 2016
Cut dodgy end off a coolant pipe and refitted.

July 2016
Replaced drivers side window regulator

August 2016
Sold it.