Early diesel reliability.

[benji]

My wife is looking for a small 4wd, and is wanting to know how reliable are the early diesels are. If the budget allows it the later bmw diesel is the pick from what I've read.

I've heard some horror stories about the early v6, and the ird going due to a siezed vc, but how common is that really?

She's after something that is good on fuel, reliable, and will do the hwy km easily.
Thanks.

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[simmo]

Early freelanders, I wouldn't touch them, a friend of mine bought a new one for his wife to drive to work in the mountains, wet slippery, icy roads etc.

It nearly ruined them, the costs were incredible and the car spent most of its time on the tilt truck back to the city or at the landrover workshop, and nearly caused a divorce. You could not mention "the car" when she was around or she would burst into tears. Landrover were not obliging. On its first moment of reliability they drove it straight to the Nissan or Toyota dealer and swapped for an Xtrail or something at a huge loss. Landrover using the customer to do R&D again. I think the later ones were oK, but the damage was done to their reputation. So before you buy anyhting with the Freelander cloud hanging over it I recommend to do your home work. I even know landrover mechanics that don't like them.
I know a lady with a Mums Taxi, Nissan Xtrail she been driving for ever, over 300,000 trouble free Kms.

[camel_landy]

Petrol versions are to be avoided but diesels aren't too bad, TD4 Auto is by far the best of the bunch. The early diesels I have found to be very reliable... but you do need to be aware of a few things:

* IRD Units - Yes, they can and will fail.
* VC - As above and usually as a pair.
* Tyre wear

A quick google should throw up plenty of information, so I'll not go over it again here.

M

[woko]

Again, avoid petrols. Both Rover (L series) and BMW (M47) diesels are reliable engines. I did my trade on these.

I have a L series one and the only major issue I've had with it in the 4 years of ownership (other than faults I bought it with) is I broke a timing belt on the injector pump with only 40000km on the belt. It was a cheap no name belt.

If you have googled the IRD issues on these you would know of the cause, so I won't go into this. With the newer IRD, the VC usually requires replacement around the 200000km mark. They do wear and Freelanders are not the only vehicle to suffer from VC failure.

If only doing high way driving, I would recommend removing the rear prop shaft and just running it as a front wheel drive. This removes the VC and the load on the IRD thus removing failure of both.It also improves tyre wear and fuel economy

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[psproule]

IMHO you should probably only buy one if you are handy with a spanner and dont mind some fault finding. My wife's FL1 TD4 was picked up with low KM and a low price tag. But it suffered from every common fault except the IRD. It took me about 12 months but once sorted (new diff bushes, new thermostat, new cam angle sensor, new VCU, new wheel speed sensors, new G sensor, new AFM, new window mechanisms x 4) but it is perfectly reliable now. Touch wood! Once sorted it's actually been a good little bus but if I had to pay for all of it (the labour) I'd be in tears.

Pat