Freelander 1 I didn't buy it for off-roading but...

As my Defender is currently off the road being remedied for a warped exhaust manifold (a common TD5 problem) and I've missed a lot of club events this year due to shift work I decided to take the Freelander on a little jaunt into the hills last Sunday on a social run with the club. It was a laugh to say the least. The old girl did pretty well but I did need some help at times. I had to bow out when the going got a bit extreme though as I didn't want to abuse the car too much. After I snapped an exhaust mount and wore several thousand miles off my clutch I thought it would be a good time to quit while I was ahead. I also discovered that the HDC doesn't seem to be working. The switch does nothing at all. So now I've got more work to do...
A previous victim of the hills:

Looks like you had fun.
Stick some decent boots on it and it'll do much better.

DefenderPilot said:

A previous victim of the hills:
View attachment 129906

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Im wondering how much of that was stripped by the owner, and how much by passer's by, over time.

Surprisingly little "waste" (smashed glass etc) visible in the photo.

Nodge68 said:

Stick some decent boots on it and it'll do much better.

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I did have fun. The black one pulling me backwards is an auto with slightly oversized AT tyres. It got stuck far less than I did. The owner is more experienced and also quite a lot more aggressive with his than I am with mine.

As for tyres, I'll soon be upgrading the wheels and tyres for ROAD use. Next time I'll be back in my Defender, which is properly equipped for conditions here.

julianf said:

Im wondering how much of that was stripped by the owner, and how much by passer's by, over time.

Surprisingly little "waste" (smashed glass etc) visible in the photo.

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Normally the mechanical bits get stripped off. I've never come across the body being taken away and the mechanical components left behind.

Nodge68 said:

Normally the mechanical bits get stripped off. I've never come across the body being taken away and the mechanical components left behind.

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It rains quite a lot up there...

I've said for many years the tratterers were slagging oft our hippo's so prices would fall and they could buy them cheap.

I have AT tyres on mine - and they're really good. The only time I've been stuck so far is when I ran out of ground clearance...

Agreed, it depends on the situation but it's the ground clearance that will usually stop a Freelander before loss of traction. Even on my 2WD setup!

Haven't had much chance to check underneath since Sunday but got around to doing it today. Looks like the exhaust was ready to give up anyway.



So for now I've whipped the back box off (with the help of a grinder and brute force) and made a "croft spec" (as they say around these parts) repair to stop it rattling around. It will do until I nick the back box off the wife's Freelander when we get the whole exhaust replaced on that.

Looks like the chassis rail is about as rusty as the exhaust.

Nodge68 said:

Looks like the chassis rail is about as rusty as the exhaust.

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Because Shetland.

Galvanise the whole car???

rob_bell said:

Galvanise the whole car???

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The plastic bits might melt.

It's only a bit of surface rust. Yer could sort that with some sand paper and put some underseal on after.

DefenderPilot said:

The plastic bits might melt.

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Might be tricky seeing through the glass afterwards too

I have some plans to increase it's longevity actually. I have plenty of mechanical spares so I just need to keep on top of the rust. Just depends on whether I think all the work will be worth it when I could buy a better one from the mainland.

So the HDC not working turned out to simply be the switch. Looks like a previous owner spilled something on the console and it's slowly been corroding the switch internals. Swapped the one from my spares car and hey presto! The HDC now works.

Spot the difference:

Good job! My HDC switch is on the gear lever like all(?) Pre-facelift Freelanders - this looks like a console switch?

rob_bell said:

Good job! My HDC switch is on the gear lever like all(?) Pre-facelift Freelanders - this looks like a console switch?

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They moved it to the console on the facelift. I suspect it was moved because the wiring of the gear stick mounted switch was a common failure point. The auto box HDC switch was always console mounted anyway.