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Are freelanders any good ?


Dominicrobed
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Taken from a previous post

 

No amount of servicing will ensure a good petrol engine they have inherit design floors which have not to date been over came compleatly (head creep) both the British an German diesels are good engines the German one Being more modern. the drive train issues stem mainly from the viscous couplings which degrade with age & cause the transfer box bearings to fail. buy a good car & change the VC & this stops many freelancer issues

Make sure any car you buy has a propshaft as people take them off to hide faults (they claim its for econamy)

This is not exhaustive but I hope it will help

I have had many freelances & have found them to be very capable

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The 1.8 k series ARE. A good engine. Full stop. Iv had several, Iv converted a 1.4 to a turbo and a lad I know who's done the same, has a mini running 11 sec quarters.

 

I'll elaborate... They have head problems, but, that's only from bad workmanship. Not engine design. There prone to boiling up because people don't bleed them properly. And bodge things like re using head bolts.

 

The problem is when it's mated to THAT 4wd system. It's a bloody heavy car, there's a lot of drag, and the box is **** and the cv and VC die every 1000 miles lol

 

Iv had the td. Was fantastic family car. It started to look like a Christmas tree on the dash, was **** offroad tho.

 

Not so safe tho. Was totalled and wrote off by a ford ka!

Edited by houlsby
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The 1.8 k series ARE. A good engine. Full stop. Iv had several, Iv converted a 1.4 to a turbo and a lad I know who's done the same, has a mini running 11 sec quarters.

 

I'll elaborate... They have head problems, but, that's only from bad workmanship. Not engine design. There prone to boiling up because people don't bleed them properly. And bodge things like re using head bolts.

 

The problem is when it's mated to THAT 4wd system. It's a bloody heavy car, there's a lot of drag, and the box is **** and the cv and VC die every 1000 miles lol

 

Iv had the td. Was fantastic family car. It started to look like a Christmas tree on the dash, was **** offroad tho.

 

Not so safe tho. Was totalled and wrote off by a ford ka!

No disrespect but you are factually incorrect on every level, Yes people have owned ~K series cars without issue but that is not the norm I have had many years repairing these cars and incidentally they give the most problems in rover cars nothing to do with the 4x4 system (which admittedly is not great)

 

a simple web search will reveal even the engine manufactures admitting design flaws just look on Wikipedia at the K series engine

 

houlsby no disrespect and I'm not wanting a war of words I just fundamentally disagree with your statements

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The 1.8 k series ARE. A good engine. Full stop.

 

Sorry but I couldn't disagree anymore with that statement about why the heads go. Five years ago I was a mechanic and did loads and loads of head gaskets on the k-series. The cc is irrelivent. ALL K-series were prone to blowing. Usually people coming in saying they've got oil in the expansion tank.

 

I can't see how all engines suffered from poor bleeding of the coolant system to make the head pop and reusing of the head bolts which on the K -series are stretch bolts which should never be used again. Plus it's not coincidence that they usually went around 40,000 miles.

 

Funnily enough appart from the head gasket going they were a fairly reliable engine. Used in hundreds of different vehicles over the years.

 

Just my two peneth worth. ATB 425

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Each to their own, Iv rebuilt several just saying what Iv seen.

 

If you delve into k series tuning (I was into minis, there's a lot of info out there on qed) you'll see what I'm on about. Warping of heads caused by people. Cracked heads. Wrong gaskets. It's a alloy engine!

 

Like I say tho, each to their own.

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Every single K-series engine I know of has had AT LEAST 1 head gasket failure.

 

Based on my experience, I think Freelanders are total junk. I was told by a Land Rover engineer that I wasn't allowed to drive on on a 50 yard section of cobbles track because "you'll break it"...said it all to me!

 

With so many more reliable options, why risk it?

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Dont buy one unless your good on the spanners,i spent 2.5 years fixing and trying to sell my 1.8 petrol 04 plate. Tbh I wouldnt touch anything with a green oval badge unless you are good on the spanners. My engine was good and had no bother with it as the gaskets and bolts where uprated on mine before I got it. Its just the rest of the poop on the car that was no good. Stay well clear of landrovers. Saying that I have a diso on the drive under repair. I love the challenge and pain of all the work it takes to keep them on the road:'(.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I always went for vitara's, until about 4 months ago I bought a fellow PW members freelander, and within 2 hours of driving it, love it to bits and gave the wife the vitara, mines a diesel, like every car in this world, theres good and bad ones, so far mines been good

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My k series has just covered 125 thousand miles lol

 

And still going strong. Head gasket problems from 40-50 thousand. If that's the only problem you get in 4-5 years motoring happy days.

 

Our place has done plenty of terano gearboxes and turbos. Every car has its niggles.

 

Karpmam

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