When I spin one of the wheels I can see the gears moving inside the IRD immediately - but theres a second before the box takes up the slack - I suspect the usual amount of play in the PG1 final drive. They were all pretty bad at the diff once well worn!

Currently in 2wd - as I'm in the middle of doing the second VCU drain!

This is why when you buy a K powered vehicle you auto assume the head gasket has gone and factor it into the purchase price of the vehicle. A K powered freelander is worth about the equivalent of it's L or TD4 bretheren - minus the cost of a head gasket change.

So about two months ago, I did a whip round and changed all the oils on the K powered freelander. The IRD I changed to the specified GL5 75W90 and thought nothing of it - it was squeaky clean inside, so much so that I thought it may have been a rebuilt unit. Fast forward a couple of months and...

I actually prefer driving the hippo to the RX to be quite honest, the hippo is chilled out and you just sort of waft along in no hurry. Oh and people stay out of your way. The RX everyone is trying to kill you on the road and you get people in 800cc sh*tboxes trying to burn you off from the lights.

Honestly, I much prefer silver alloys - but they're an absolute pringle to respray right. Matt black takes 30 minutes a wheel to do and can be touched up in seconds with a spray can :)

Cleaned up the alloys, and found a tyre puncture. The alloys were practically coming apart on it so I've just hit them with matte black for now, I hate working with paint, but matte paint is real easy to work with:

I'll swap you my k1.8 box for the L box, it's a bit of a thrashy nightmare on the motorway!

That is indeed a fairly standard looking gasket, they weren't very substantial!

Can you get it to run at all? Sounds like either your fuel pump or fuel pump relay is playing up...

That is one very sick sounding freelander. Compression test. Will take an hour of your time and tell what condition the inside of the engine is in. Make sure all six cylinders have good compression. If 1 of the cylinders is low compression, you have a bent valve - your mechanic has wrecked your...

Danger, Will Robinson :) Mix and Match tyres will blow up your IRD (think transfer gearbox, but not!) pretty quickly so keep the miles off it until you've got new boots. I can't comment on the tyre sizes off the top of my head, but welcome to the forum, have a search around and look up the...

Sounds like you may have tied the main battery lead to the wrong side of the solenoid? If I remember correctly the solenoid is directly linked to the clutch mechanism so unless there's a short in the solenoid, or the battery lead is on the wrong side you can't spin the starter without engaging...

If someone has a later 1.8, can you do me a favour please? I need a shot of how the heater hose from the front of the head is supposed to be routed, and what it attaches to. I think I've finally tracked down my ultra annoying rattle to this hose, as someone has mashed it into entirely the...

I think that's a speed sensor location. Most vehicles don't use it though as they take the speed from the wheel sensors through the ABS/TC system post ~02 or so.

With resepect to the "why did it fail during the unrelated job?" question, it's probably a matter of time involved. Diesel leaks are a nightmare because they tend to leak air in in miniscule amounts instead of fuel out - and if a vehicle is used day in day out you just get the occasional hard...

I agree with Alibro, you don't need to take the ladder off when doing the gasket unless it's leaking :) Orrrrr.... if you don't trust the last set of monkeys that worked on your car (or paranoid like me) some digging is always good! I had a top end rattle, pulled the ladder off to find this...

Oh, also if you intend to take the water pump off, flatly smack the bolt heads with a small hammer first, otherwise they may shear. Have a read of this :) https://awj99.wordpress.com/rover-k-series-the-ultimate-head-gasket-replacement/

Highly reccomend breaking the pulley bolt as the first thing you do :) It's probably the toughest bit of the whole job, get it out of the way and you know that you shouldn't have any more high torque issues. If your liners are proud, personally I'd use the N series kit which contains all the...

IRD breather?