Thread: Advice on Land Rover Freelander

Petrols are rubbish. diesels are great. early versions has drive line problems but was fixed afyer 2001. Can be expensive to repair as people get ripped off. if you have a good mechanic that you trust and will work on them they are a great little car

Originally Posted by woko

Petrols are rubbish. diesels are great.

A bit strong perhaps.
The 4cyl petrols are very likely to be rubbish.
The 6cyl petrols are potentially expensive rather than rubbish.

I owned a V6 and wouldn't suggest one over a late diesel.

Search a few posts here and you will find good and bad.

So only look at the ones with Diesel engines?

And look for a later model, is 2001 ok?

If i bought from a private seller should I consider getting a warranty?

Thanks guys

I recently bought a Freelander, I specifically looked for the TD4 (2001 and on wards), it is the more reliable diesel; other models can be okay but are not known to be as reliable. I would strongly suggest that you take it to a Land Rover dealer and get it looked over. It should cost around about $200, and they should give you a good indication of where it is at.

You may find it hard to get a warranty on one (though I don't really know about this), the $200 might be considered a more accurate way of knowing what you are getting.

Originally Posted by ghostpsalm

I recently bought a Freelander, I specifically looked for the TD4 (2001 and on wards), it is the more reliable diesel; other models can be okay but are not known to be as reliable. I would strongly suggest that you take it to a Land Rover dealer and get it looked over. It should cost around about $200, and they should give you a good indication of where it is at.

You may find it hard to get a warranty on one (though I don't really know about this), the $200 might be considered a more accurate way of knowing what you are getting.

How is it so far? Did you buy privately or dealer? I was looking at one at a dealer recently and it came with a 5 year warranty but it was a petrol engine.

Alright I will limit my search to Diesel and from 2001 onwards and look into getting it checked out at a dealer.

There aren't as many diesels, as far as I can tell. I am loving it. I bought it privately, but through carsales.com.au. I drove from Geelong (near Melbourne) to Adelaide to pick it up.

To be honest a 5 year warranty, if it covers mechanical issues, is pretty darn good. If you are looking for a Freelander 1, which is already eight years old at least, a five year warranty would cover quite a large chunk of the car's service life, and quite frankly might cover the "period-of-expected-issues", but you should rely on someone more familiar for that information...

As long as the price is right, I wouldn't rule out a petrol (unless you have a specific preference), but I am loving driving a diesel, more power when you want it. I have not yet taken it off road, but hope to soon. I suspect the diesel will be very handy when the time comes!

Originally Posted by SuperMono

A bit strong perhaps.
.

It is a bit strong. I will start again. 4cylinders if you do all the mods to the engine for head gasket failure (and will need to be a good block to start with) they are not to bad of a engine. the upgraded head gasket and oil rail has high labour costs to fit it.
V6 biggest problem with these is thermostats leaking and cooking engine. It is also common for the butterflies in the intake manifold to become noisy and start rattling. Both are expensive to fix and happen regularly with no long term fix.
There a 2 types of diesel engines fitted to these 1998-2000 had a Rover built engine (L series) 2001 onwards had a M47 BMW engine fitted (Td4) both are great engines but the Td4 has more power and a auto option. Reliabity wise both are excellent engines. I personaly beleive the L Series is more reliable but has to have timing belts changed every 80000 km and again a high labour cost.
Pre 2001 models had problems with IRD failures due to incorrect ratio in the IRD causing the VCU to seize and then the IRD failing. The IRD out of the newer diesel model is the replacement for all 4 cylinder model(petrol and diesel) do a search on this site, there is a easy way to tell if a new type IRD is fitted.

The later VCU's also fail. Our 2001 TD4 has a crook VCU. Not fully seized but it is way too tight, to the point that it scrubs the inside rear badly in a tight turn - enough to make it skip and hop. I removed it while waiting for a new one.

To the original poster - There are quite a few common problems - "the three amigos" (ABS fault - I'm still chasing this one), soft and split intake hoses on the turbo diesels, major expensive faults with the petrol engines (per above), clogged up breather filter in the TD4's, crook cam angle sensor in the TD4's, crook VCU's and the resulting smashed IRD or rear diff, crook engine mounts and rear diff bushes, crook centre bearings, dropped interior headlining, faulty electric window mechanisms, plastics that cant hack the aussie sun and fade badly, strange tyre sizes...... I know - all cars have their foibles and some of the above can be considered wear & tear, but having owned many makes and models of vehicles including Jap 4WD's I do think the Freelander 1 has more than it's fair share of issues.

Having said that, they are quite well appointed, reasonably well screwed together, drive well, parts aren't too bad to buy (particularly if you import or contact a specialist) and they can often be had at a bargain price. We paid less than $8k for a 2001 TD4 with all the options. Insurance value came up as $12k. I doubt I could sell it for that but generally they seem to fetch less than the suggested list. I have had to sort several of the above issues out but we are still well in front and the wife has a nice daily driver that uses bugger all fuel and that we can occasionally use to tag along on some of our (softer) 4WD adventures. We have a modified NP diesel Pajero for the harder stuff.

Would I buy one for my kids first car? Probably not - I wouldn't trust it, or trust that they could get decent help with it should it fail away from home.

Pat