I am also not talking about general wear and tear. Normal wear and tear does not include subframe mounts ripping out. The weakest point in the dive chain destroying the rest of said drive train. A sensitive and temperamental cooling system which measures coolant temperature after it's been cooled! Those are all basic design faults.
 
There's an ocean of design faults out there. It's not something only Land Rover are guilty of.

My MINI has the wonderful Prince N14 engine. Peugeot/BMW design, it's blessed with Direct Injection which cause the inlet ports to coke up so badly you have to have the inlet stripped off and walnut beads shot in under high pressure to clean the tracts. Prior to that it was a £1300 head strip/clean/refit job.

BMW, bless them, also acknowledge 1 litre of oil per 1000km as 'within tolerance'.

As you say, eye's wide open.

Being informed and proactive is your best defence.
 
Don't get me wrong.....
It ain't the only dog out there...
Disco 3 that needs the body removed to carry out a simple ?????
Vauxhalls that need engine removal to change the rear bank of spark plugs on a v6.
The list goes on, but that does not excuse the design of the freelander.
I suppose my argument is with the " good servicing wont give you these problems" brigade and those that come on here either whinging " i just bought one - they can't be that bad" or those that come on with props missing and didn't bother to look.

If you know what that can be like and buy with knowledge that is fine.
.
 
nuthin' - it's still brokened :(

Cam belt going had actually nipped a valve so it's idling like an old dog that's been on 60 park drive a day all it's life.

Can't wait for Monday when the head gasket and valves arrive, so my good mechanic friend can make her live again :)
 
Last edited:
I suppose with all these crumple zones and safety designs, having the engine and other major parts put where you want them for easy servicing is not possible. And don;t mention all the electronic and emissions crap that has to be fitted in there somewhere...





Oh, and there are Alfas such as the 159 and Spider that have Q4 awd.... ;)
 
Zigster said:
nuthin' - it's still brokened :(

Cam belt going had actually nipped a valve so it's idling like an old dog that's been on 60 park drive a day all it's life.

Can't wait for Monday when the head gasket and valves arrive, so my good mechanic friend can make her live again :)
Click to expand...


Take a picture if it's messy, we can compare
zejudy6y.jpg
 
There's a lot of other factors involved. It's not just down to design faults. Admittedly there are several. Most buyers don't know what to look for on any car. Most buyers don't do their homework. Most sellers would happily tell a small lie when selling to hide a fault. Some sellers will happily flog a vehicle with an expensive fault. That's the only reason why they're selling, knowing the buyer hasn't spotted it. Adding all this to some design faults which can escalate when a Freelander isn't looked after/serviced propper just makes things worse.
 
Spacemonkey... said:
Hmmm... 159? Last year or the year before I heard that Alfa topped VW on reliability scores. Now I know VW sell a heck of a lot more, so numerically more chance of failure, but they got on the quality thing before the 159 was launched by poaching the chap from BMW in charge of M division and his first task was to sort reliability and the 159 scores very highly in this regard. I was going to get a Sportwagon instead of the Freelander but fate decided otherwise. :cool:
Click to expand...

Mines a 52 reg 147 2.0 lusso so heated leather etc, great on fuel, handles well and coughs up first time every time so I can't moan for a grand. I drive a Tranny for work and use the Lander for getting me up to the shoots and as a dog taxi, wifes got a new Toyota but its about as much fun as measles so I have to have my own toy. My other toy is a 1000cc Honda Fireblade but thats strictly for the good weather, On the VW reliability thing though, you see a lot of them on the hard shoulder so I dont think they are the best, a recovery guy I spoke to said VW and BMW were his best customers!
 
I agree that VWs are overrated on reliability. However, my 171k mile VW T5 van has only just given me it's first problem- a corroded (damp furred up) wire under the seat for the central locking computer causing the locking to stop working. Quick resolder and it will be done. It does have full VW sh and always had genuine parts from it's one owner so there's good ones and bad ones- as well as good owners and bad owners. The only real design fault on them is that they never used enough grease when fitting the driver's side driveshaft and they wear through the splines. Once new ones with grease are fitted, they don't re-offend.


Oh, and love the 147s. Nearly bought one but had to change a clutch on a friend's 147 diesel and vowed never to buy one after that **** of a job!
 
171k, feck that's a good un, I once did Europe in a type 2 transporter and only had to change the points in 6000 miles, I bought it from a scrap yard and fixed it up when I was young and poor. Good times those were, now I'm old and poor!
 
mick9264 said:
171k, feck that's a good un, I once did Europe in a type 2 transporter and only had to change the points in 6000 miles, I bought it from a scrap yard and fixed it up when I was young and poor. Good times those were, now I'm old and poor!
Click to expand...

Some things never change,,,
 
The Mad Hat Man said:
If you own a Gaylander one could ask the same thing :p :).


Because I have 2 discoveries. Both are weekend toys. One is in the process of a full ground up rebuild - see my avatar.
I expect them to fail regularly. They are not used as daily drives. They are used and abused. I am not talking of failure due to abuse, I am talking about inherent design flaws.
Click to expand...

all landys have inherent design flaws.leaks,rust,gearbox,engine probs.the list goes on.this is across the entire range.
 
The Mad Hat Man said:
Don't get me wrong.....
It ain't the only dog out there...
Disco 3 that needs the body removed to carry out a simple ?????
Vauxhalls that need engine removal to change the rear bank of spark plugs on a v6.
The list goes on, but that does not excuse the design of the freelander.
I suppose my argument is with the " good servicing wont give you these problems" brigade and those that come on here either whinging " i just bought one - they can't be that bad" or those that come on with props missing and didn't bother to look.

If you know what that can be like and buy with knowledge that is fine.
.
Click to expand...

but you bought one mhm,did you do all the research on it and look for the hidden dangers on it???
 
gemsdad said:
but you bought one mhm,did you do all the research on it and look for the hidden dangers on it???
Click to expand...

I thought I had. I asked the questions. Unfortunately I didnt ask the right questions...... and it was a long time ago. so did Trewy and quite a few of us, not short on knowledge or spanner wielding.

Hence why it is wise to tell others, in the same way disco owners are always warned about rust...
 
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