Hi,

I have a mysterious problem. Taken the car to 2 dealers and a independent garage to look into this problem.

Freelander 2 i6 3,2 2007 model with 117 000km.
Car overheated mysteriously one day. Pulled over let the car cool down and check everything. Could not see a leak or if the fan was not working. All seamed fine and did not happen again for 1 week.

This then become more and more common in traffic and found that the radiator fan was not working. However this was not evident on the diagnostic tools.
The radiator control unit was the problem item and replaced. Car behaved for 3 weeks without a fault. It has now reoccurred.
1 Dealer - ECU must be replaced
2 Dealer - Thermostat
3 Dealer - Fan controller (Explained it has been replaced, admittance its faulty)

I have searched the whole web and cant find a possible solution unless I start to replace the ECU and Thermostat.

Any clues?

Thanks

sounds definitly like the fan is not working properly

The only mention of FL2's overheating i can find are for Fan Pack Inoperative, but its for Diesel engines only. It says if they fans are inoperative, pull the fuse for 10 seconds , refit it. If they start working you need a new fan control module, although as you said, you've had it replaced.

To be honest, you probably wont find much about i6's in Land Rovers, since they are like rocking horse ****. Hardly anyone bought them.

i6 is mainly for export market I think. At 3 years old they're half price in the UK with 30k miles on the clock.

just because you have had a new fan speed controller replaced doesn't mean it works ok ! Mine suffered the same, dealer spent a week looking for all sorts of faults & it was yet another fan speed controller. To date mines had 3 or 4 in less than 20.000 miles !

If its a genuine part. Then surely its under parts warrenty to atleast get it tried and tested out?

Thank you for the advise, the fan is genuine LR part.
I will have the controller checked and have requested that they obtain another controller and test it out.

I was told the TD4 fan problem is common however they say that i6 having this problem is unheard of.
I have put 60 000km in my 2yrs and this is only glitch I have picked up>
I saw a post on another forum where I person has encountering the same glitch and is in the process of replacing the fan controller

Its unheard of maybe as there is probably 100+ FL Td4 to every 1 i6?

i6 int very popular in the UK. Think it was a bit like the v6. Aimed at foreign markets and expensive for fuel (fool).

According to howmanyleft there’s 528 licensed (either road taxed or sorned) at the end of 2011.

Freelander 2’s 2007 to 2001 there was 70931 new vehicles registered

In comparison there’s 4269 v6 Freelander 1’s licensed (either road tax or sorned) in 2011.

In total there’s 201096 Freelanders (1 and 2) licensed or sorned at the end of 2011.

That’s if their figures are accurate.

After trial and error. The fan was replaced and I am happy to say that it was not the controller which was faulty but the fan. Sadly here in SA I cannot buy just the fan without the controller but now I have a spare

jbs said:

The fan was replaced and I am happy to say that it was not the controller which was faulty but the fan. Sadly here in SA I cannot buy just the fan without the controller but now I have a spare

Click to expand...

Hi jbs,

Glad you got sorted - my turn now, also i6, same vintage.

First occurred 2 months ago in Lesotho, ambient temperature 6°C, altitude 2800m.

After being parked for 2 hours while Moteng Pass was being de-iced, we moved off. 2nd gear, 1500rpm. 2km later, temp max, warning light on, coolant cap vents. 500m later, everything back to normal, except for the 1l of coolant loss through the cap.

Topped up, runs as before. Fine for 2 months, then yesterday through slow traffic - ambient temp 27° - same thing, except for the venting due to the higher ambient pressure.

This time I could experiment. Turn up the A/C - warm air, so knew the fan was not running. Switch off car and turn on again straight away - warning resets, temp needle normal, but rising immediately. Start driving - by now manoevred myself out of the traffic doing a u-turn across some pavements - and needle returns to normal.

Unfortunately traffic comes to dead stop 2kms later and needle goes up again. Pull off the road and with engine running, open the bonnet and confirms fan stationary. Switch off engine, wait half hour, start - everything normal, fan working, drive home. Turn off car, fan comes on for around 3 minutes, progressively reducing speed.

This morning driving to work as if it never happened.

Conclusion: Temp sensing and indicating fine, fan OK, fan controller does not activate fan.

This maps with the experience of a friend and a TD4 - same vintage - also with this issue. His wife complained the A/C was not working.

As you rightly say, in SA you have to buy the fan together with the controller, which he did and which I'll also be getting on Monday.

Looking at the layout of the parts, my suspicion is that the controller is located in the worst possible area of the engine compartment. I would rather touch the engine than that little box.

It is hard to believe that a car manufacturer expects electronics to last under those temperatures, even though they have added a heatsink - which is probably too small. Then again, maybe they used military spec components....

Report back: Also the fan, in the end. I was very wary as to how the workshop knew this, but their diagnostic tool can control/detect the controller/fan independently. What they do is send a specific speed command directly to the fan and observe. After a while it just stops.

But to get this lot out, the whole front of the car comes off. Lights, bumper, all the under-engine covers. Then the coolant is drained - they lose about a litre of the 8l radiator capacity which is topped up afterwards. The radiator is then dropped and removed from beneath the car. Only THEN can they get to the fan. Due to this, the labour charge on this activity is 4 hours. So total cost - out-of-warranty, unfortunately - just under R8000. About GBP600, for the UK readers.