My 4x4 story starts in 1987 when I had a classic 2 door Range Rover for about 10 months, but sold it when I moved to London.
Ever since then I have wanted another 4x4, but couldn’t justify running a Range Rover.

I only drive about 18-20,000 miles a year, and only want 1 car, that has to do everything and be reliable.

My 4x4 story resumes with a Skoda Yeti, a car I bought new in December 2010, which I really enjoyed, but decided I didn't want to carry on paying for the PCP. I wanted another 4x4 diesel automatic, that was similar in size and reasonably economical.
I also wanted to be able to buy it outright.

I scoured the Internet and one vehicle kept on coming up. The Freelander 1.
I know they didn't have a very good reliability record, specially the first ones. Having done a lot of research, I decided I wanted one of the latest ones, preferably an HSE, TD4 auto. Hopefully most of the problems had been ironed out by then.

So I set about looking for one. Eventually after looking at a few, I found one. Problem was I still had the Yeti. Anyway, the Freelander was being sold by a dealer, and they offered to part exchange the Yeti for the Freelander. Great. They talked me through the car over the phone, and everything appeared to be in order. A deal was done that I was happy with.

I then drove down on 16th August 2013 and handed over my keys to the Yeti, and took over the keys to the Freelander.
The vehicle is a Rimini Red micatalic with Alpaca perforated leather interior, HSE TD4 auto, with all the HSE stuff plus cruise control. Sunroof, Becker satellite navigation & Harmon Kardon sound system, remote audio controls, heated seats, rear park sensors, sunset glass, wind deflectors front and rear, front light guards.

First impressions were that it was bigger, but the tape measure doesn't lie. It is 10mm wider, about 100mm taller and about 200mm longer, but that is accounted for by the spare wheel mounted on the rear door.

I fitted my CG-Lock before leaving. The car looked clean, until you examined it closely. It also had that used car smell. Anyway, I liked it, liked the colour combination so signed the documents and drove home.

I stopped at a service station on the way home, reversed on full left lock into a parking space. The Freelander stalled. Three times. More about that later. I noticed a whistling sound, thought it might be the turbo, but ignored it. The air conditioning didn't work either. I had checked everything else, including that it had a viscous coupling unit (VCU) and both propshafts.

The Freelander came with a full dealer service history, but with 113,000 miles on the clock. I purchased the Freelander with 1 years warranty.

I told the supplying dealer about the stalling and the air con.

When I arrived back home I went straight to my local Land Rover specialist, Millennium Ranger Rover in Croydon. I booked the Freelander in for a service for when I got back from holiday. I took the Freelander round the corner to Turners who checked the air con and then re-gassed it. There were no leaks, but there was no gas in the system.
The supplying dealer has paid for the re-gas.

The first thing I did when I arrived home was fit my BlackVue DR400HD vehicle drive recorder in front of the rear view mirror. It was hard wired to the fusebox so it comes on with the ignition.
I also fitted a pair of Philips extreme vision H7 bulbs on dip beam.

I then used the Freelander for a week before going on holiday on the 23rd August. I had planned on borrowing my parents caravan, but as the V5 had not turned up, there was no point in fitting a towbar just yet, as I could not buy a number plate.

My Yeti had been slightly fettled, and was pushing out about 175bhp, so the TD4 with 110bhp, was a little on the slow side to say the least. After much research, a Ronbox, a new Pierberg MAF and a dashboard switch were purchased. The Ronbox was duly fitted and made a little difference. It ups the power to about 140bhp. It is adjustable and can be turned off without disconnecting it.

I took the spare wheel off to check all was okay and the locking wheel nut had seized on, and the lower stud snapped off with my locking nut.

Fuel economy was about 32.5mpg, which was less that what I was expecting. The Yeti had averaged 38mpg over 41,000 miles, with long runs achieving around 50mpg.

While on holiday, I cleaned the inside. What a difference, it looked and smelled cleaner. I also fitted the dash switch. It felt a bit faster, but I wasn't that impressed. We returned from our holiday and the car averaged 38.5mpg on the way home, which was much better.

Driving on and off our drive on full lock felt like the brakes were on. I thought that was normal.

The car went in for its service at Millennium. All seemed fine. but 2 days later, when driving home late at night from seeing a client the Freelander had a hissing sound at over 2000rpm and there seemed to be a lack of power. I took it to Millennium and they said that the short 90 degree turbo to EGR hose had split. There was a lot of black smoke. They told me that Land Rover stock this item, as this was a very common problem. So I drove down to Hartwells Land Rover and purchased a replacement hose, a new locking wheel nut and a washer bottle cap that was missing.

The hose took about 5 minutes to fit and what a transformation. I now had a different car! The whistle I had heard when I bough the Freelander now went, so it must have been on its way out for a while.

I also decided to remove the EGR and purchased a bypass from the wonderful eBay.

Having read lots about the VCU and speaking to Bell Engineering, I realised that my VCU needed replacing as soon as possible. I rang them up and arranged to visit them after my holiday.

The Becker head unit didn't have a CD for the navigation, but I bought one on eBay. The navigation was terrible. I wanted to have Bluetooth hands free in the car, so decided to have a new head unit fitted. Ended up going for the Kenwood KDC73DAB with everything built in. DAB radio, FM, BT audio, iPod control, USB front and rear, aux in, aha radio & BT hands free. It also works with Siri. I managed to source a remote control lead so my steering wheel audio controls still worked.I bought a TomTom Go 6000 and hard wired it to a switched fuse in the fuse box as I need satellite navigation for my work. – My Yeti had the excellent Skoda Navigation built in and I missed that.

I also bought some CREE LED's for sidelights. I generally have them on most of the time as DRL's.I also sourced some LED's for the interior lighting. I can now see inside the car at night!

I drove up to Bell Engineering, stopping at a Freelander breaker in Coventry and collecting some genuine rubber mats I had bought on eBay. I also picked up a second hand spare wheel carrier with 3 studs on it. Austen at Bell Engineering replaced my VCU in under 30 minutes. Transformed the car. Full lock reversing the car will now just idle round on tickover. The car also feels better to drive. The round trip returned 40mpg. There was way to much stationary traffic on the 390 mile journey. Plus the sweeping A roads up and down dale kept the consumption down. Spent most of the motorway at 60/65mph.

The PTC heater fuse box was missing its cover and I managed to find one using partsgateway.

I fitted the replacement spare wheel carrier. I have discovered that the rear washer doesn't work properly, but not sure why at the moment.

I ordered a Witter removable towbar and a Land Rover specific electric kit and a new relay. I swapped the 12N socket for a 13 pin. They are so much more reliable.

I also bought a new fuel filter and a new header tank, and the existing one was starting to crack. The header tank was easy to fit. The fuel filter wasn’t so easy. The bolts holding the snow cover as Haynes calls it were rusted up. I managed to eventually remove the cover, having discovered that the rivets had corroded. Also the earth that attaches to the fuel filter had rusted though when I touched it. So the whole assembly had to be removed and the cover rebuilt. I painted the metal straps with hamerite to give them a little protection before reassembling it. I must have connected everything properly, as it all worked when the car was started.

I bought and fitted a ‘dyson cyclone’ BMW crankcase breather and a Pipercross air filter. I also bought and fitted a set of 5 red silicon turbo hoses with new T bolt clamps.

I adjusted the rear drum brakes as they seemed to be out slightly. Then I fitted some Terafirma vented drilled & grooved front discs with some EBC Ultimate pads.

I had some 215/60 R16 Continental WinterContact tyres from my Yeti in storage, so I found some Land Rover 6J x 16” wheels and had them fitted, so when the weather turns colder, I’ll fit real winter tyres. I’m sure the General Grabber UHP tyres are fine, but having used dedicated winter tyres for the last 3 years, I’m not even going to bother with the Grabber UHP’s during the winter. My winter tyres have about 6mm left so they will last me 1 possibly 2 winters before I need to replace them, then I’ll put on the correct size. I had a 5th wheel, so I bought a second hand 215/60 R16 tyre to use as a spare if needed, but only to be used in an emergency.

I switched off the Ronbox for a couple of tankfulls as I didn’t have any idea what improvements it made over standard, as I hadn’t really driven it when the car was working properly without it.
The Ronbox is set to 10, but the switch is set to Eco2 the central position. The MAF compensation is switched on.

So, after 3000 miles, I’m really enjoying the Freelander. It does all that I ask of it. It is not as fast or as economical as my Yeti was, the driving position is higher and it is more comfortable. But it can’t park itself! Spares for the Freelander seem plentiful and relatively cheap compared to the Yeti.
I’m sure the Freelander is more capable offroad than the Yeti, as it has more ground clearance.

Best of all…..it is MINE!!!!

There are more modifications to follow as and when time and money allow…..

Nice example

Very nice, love the colour.

very nice but I would have tackled the place you brought it from as you have seemed to have had a few problems you should not have had

Looking great! I wanted a Rimini Red one originally, almost bought a Sport that colour but bought a house instead and ended up with my Cairns Blue one a few months later, love the colour!
Will look even better with the lift kit fitted

Thanks guys. It does seem to be a reasonable example.

I am expecting to be reimbursed for the cost of the VCU. I can live with the cost of replacing the punctured turbo pipe.

It supposedly had the injectors sorted before I bought the car and the rear offside window regulator replaced.

Looking forward to the lift kit!

Oh yes, discovered that the sub-woofer was dud. That again doesn't bother me, as I prefer to have the under boot storage. I'm not into big base sounds! The rest of the speakers work fine.

It has cruise control. The one fitted to this car is quite possibly the best one I have used. You set the speed and it stays at that speed. The Yeti one would slow down and speed up, the 530d one was as bad and so was my Octavia as well.

When I saw the car advertised there was no mention of cruise. I really wanted cruise and it was the icing on the cake Shen I discovered it had it.

It doesn't have a heated windscreen or the fuel burner heater. Can either be retro-fitted?

Yes both can. That's why I bought mine.. I was looking all over the south for a well specced one with FBH and heated screen but when I found out they could easily be retrofitted, I went for the one I have which was an S model but in my town! I'll add those parts as and when. Good call on the expansion bottle- I noticed a little bit of crazing near the neck on mine. How much are they new?

Like the colour, do the hoses come with the clips?

Gee-dub-ya said:

Like the colour, do the hoses come with the clips?

Click to expand...

Thanks. It's a little brighter than all the blacks/brown/grey/greens/blues without being in your face. I have tended to go for colours that stand out more- my Yeti was white.

The clips are extra. I think they cost £20 for the set. Worth it though.

Will this hoses fit on my v6 thoo haha looks sharp pal

I got red hoses too but not fitted them yet. Obviously red ones will make it faster than blue ones...

thizzlemania91 said:

Will this hoses fit on my v6 thoo haha looks sharp pal

Click to expand...

You need to find a kit for the V6, as it doesn't have a turbo, it will need different hoses.

try dph they do them all different sizes to

Here is the cockpit....

I like the in-flight TV.

My V6 has orange plug leads. They made it much faster!

Actually that's true as the old ones were farked.

Epicuser said:

Thanks. It's a little brighter than all the blacks/brown/grey/greens/blues without being in your face. I have tended to go for colours that stand out more- my Yeti was white.

The clips are extra. I think they cost £20 for the set. Worth it though.

Click to expand...

Obviously the top hose are easy to fit what about the lower fittings?

Gee-dub-ya said:

Obviously the top hose are easy to fit what about the lower fittings?

Click to expand...

The only one that is a pain in the left hand intercooler one as you look at the engine. use a 6mm open need spanner until it is loose enough to spin the jubilee clip round then undo with screw driver. The T bolt clamp can be set in the right place to get to with a 10mm socket and both my extensions in my 1/4" drive set.

One of the things I missed from my Yeti is an external temperature gauge. It also had climate control, and this his the first car I have owned for 10 years without it, so I always just set the cabin temperature and rarely touched it, whereas with the FL1 I am continually adjusting it.

Anyhow.

I fitted this..... a Lampa 86312 Inside/Outside Double Thermometer 12 V



Here.....



By removing the trim around the clock in the centre of the dash under the windscreen. I then removed the clock and covered the multi connector with tape.



I then cut off the ends at the back of the trim with a hacksaw.
When the cable come out of the back of the unit, I just removed carefully a piece of the casing so the at cable would lie flat under the unit.
I then fitted it. It is a tight fit. I then used tape to hold it in place. I expect at a later date I will glue it in place, but to start with I wanted to make sure it all fitted properly.


The hard part was feeding the cables down from the clock to the fuse box area. Took a while, but I eventually found the 12v power adaptor, to which I had cable tied the outside temp sensor to.

I wanted to feed the sensor through the cable real ease hole in the bulkhead so I could run it to behind the front bumper, but as my Ronbox cable also goes through the same hole, it didn't fit. I wasn't going to mess around with removing the sensor wires from the back of the unit, so I placed the sensor at the bottom of the front offside wing and put red tape over it to protect it. The sensor has a sticky pad on the end. I did wonder if I could trip the pad, but decided against it just incase I damaged the sensor.
I will be wiring the 12V up permanently on a switched live.



Now I have internal and external temperature sensors in the car and it looks OEM. I have a clock on the Kenwood head unit, so I don't miss the clock.



The unit also appears to have a green backlight which is perfect.

It cost me £33 delivered. bought from here http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000DZRNZM/ref=pe_385721_37986871_TE_item_image

Nice idea and I miss the outside temp thing too. I'm thinking of getting a Scanguage OBD thingy or an app for my phone that does the same thing through Bluetooth. Hoping that would do outside temp too?

Very good, want something similar myself but me and electrics don't mix!