Freelander ?

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Originally Posted by Captain_Rightfoot

The city economy you quote is interesting because I noted that the current impreza has a combined figure of 8.9, which is not really all that flash... I would have thought the bigger heavier forrester would have used a touch more.

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Yeah, i think the latest ones imprezas are a 2.5 litre and performance tuned? I'm not up to date with latest ones I must admit. The old mill was only a 2.0ltr and lacked power but it was frugal (on the forester i mean). Almost kept it and chucked lpg on it because I wanted to see how it would go. would of cost bugger all to run until now as lpg has jumped to an absurd price.

Xav

Stay right away from the 1.8. Nothing a lot wrong with the engine itself (it is in a number of other cars and is reasonably reliable) the issue is the thermostat design/location. The thermostat does not correctly read the engine temperature and stays closed as the engine heats up - by the time the thermostat picks up the high temp the engine is getting really hot and the thermostat sends cold water from the radiator causing thermal shock to the head - I bit like putting cold water in a boiling engine. The other scenario is the thermostat stays closed and the engine overheats - blows head gasket (if you are lucky) - a hotter engine will drop the cylinder liners.

When this happens a new engine is most often required.

One solution is to remove the thermostat so the engine never suffers the thermal shock - might work in Hot climates but not too well in colder climates in winter.

The other solution is a thermostat mod kit from Landrover which apparently works but I cannot vouch for it.

Go the TD4 (not that is anything wrong with the L series diesel version - I have one :) - the TD4 is just a newer engine and a more modern engine management system and autos are available).

Garry