Thread: im wanting to buy a freelander

Originally Posted by ADMIRAL

sorry...would not touch one. I know a tech at a local LR agent. They have rebuilt gearboxes to cycle through the early Freelanders. Buyer beware I reckon

There is nothing wrong with the gearboxes in early freelanders .

Jacob - I have the same as you are looking at - bought at 170,000km and now has 260,000km.

As`mentioned the main issue is that there is a difference between the diff ratios in the front and the back and over time this causes the viscous coupling unit on the propshaft to fail due to over work. This in turn causes transmission windup which in turn causes the IRD to fail.

So in looking at yours you need to be assured the VCU is OK. See here to test http://www.aulro.com/afvb/freelander...lander-vcu.htm
However any easy test is to simply put the car into reverse, on full steering lock and reverse - if the engine labours or stalls you need to look at the VCU. There should be a little binding as the VCU will bind but not be real tight.

As`others have mentioned - at 190,000 the VCU has either been replaced 2 or three times or the IRD has been replaced (all new replacement IRD's have had the diff difference problem fixed so this is not an issue). One of the easiest ways to check is take the car for a drive - approx 3000 rpm at 100kph and you have an older IRD, 3000 rpm at about 115kph then you have a later replacement.

A Freelander will drive quite well in front wheel drive without any of the rear drivetrain being in place. Where the IRD has failed but not damaged the front drive components like the diff, it can still be driven so some people then remove the tailshaft and VCU rather than spend a couple of thousand fixing it.

So make sure the tailshaft extra is all there - on AULRO member recently bought a Freelander and it was all missing.

The rest of the car is generally pretty good - the engine is great - oil leaks - some but not too bad, brakes are good, gearbox is good - rear window always leaks and fills the tool box area under the rear floor.

You do not say whether the car is an XeDi or a Di - if it has hill decent make sure it works as the switch on the gearstick has a design faul and the wires get ripped out.

Hope this helps

Garry

Originally Posted by Junosi

This page shows you all the standard options for the different Freelander models

Equipment - Parker's

Clark

Unfortunately that is a UK list - Australian specs were different.

https://www.mynrma.com.au/cps/rde/xc...car_review.htm

Land Rover Freelander