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mudinuri

Active Member
Posts
609
Location
New Forest
Just over 14 months ago I sold my Freelander, I"ve had 3 of them and bought a Toyota Rav4. What a mistakea to makea.
I really have missed the Freelander and want to sell the Rav as quickly as I can.
My question to you is this.
All my Freelanders have been TD4S and looking at the prices I dont think I will be able to afford to buy another TD4, So what about a Petrol engined Freelander. I know all about the Head Gasket problem, but if I can find one that has had the Gasket problem cured are they worth considering.?
Any help and advice welcome and does anyone want to buy a really nice 3 door Rav. Perfect off roader!
 
Just over 14 months ago I sold my Freelander, I"ve had 3 of them and bought a Toyota Rav4. What a mistakea to makea.
I really have missed the Freelander and want to sell the Rav as quickly as I can.
My question to you is this.
All my Freelanders have been TD4S and looking at the prices I dont think I will be able to afford to buy another TD4, So what about a Petrol engined Freelander. I know all about the Head Gasket problem, but if I can find one that has had the Gasket problem cured are they worth considering.?
Any help and advice welcome and does anyone want to buy a really nice 3 door Rav. Perfect off roader!
Welcome back.
Me, I'd have the 1.8 or V6 petrol but then I can fix them properly. It's like every. You pay you money and take a chance.
 
Just over 14 months ago I sold my Freelander, I"ve had 3 of them and bought a Toyota Rav4. What a mistakea to makea.
I really have missed the Freelander and want to sell the Rav as quickly as I can.
My question to you is this.
All my Freelanders have been TD4S and looking at the prices I dont think I will be able to afford to buy another TD4, So what about a Petrol engined Freelander. I know all about the Head Gasket problem, but if I can find one that has had the Gasket problem cured are they worth considering.?
Any help and advice welcome and does anyone want to buy a really nice 3 door Rav. Perfect off roader!

have u looked at the commercial td4 as I bought one , then converted it, by paying cash i ended up paying no vat saved at least a grand

as there commercial I found that they came with a full service history etc
 
I bought a 1.8 as they are around £1200 cheaper than a TD4 and had to replace the HG a couple of months later. For normal road use it is fine but not great for towing or serious mud plugging.
If you can do the HG yourself or have a good reliable cheap mechanic who is experienced with K series engines then go for it. If not then steer well clear as garages will rip you off big time doing it.
It's not if but when it will go and can you trust the previous owner to have done it properly?
 
I'm not sure you 'can fix' the K and KV6 overheating/HG problems. Any motor can have HG failure or overheating problems, its a case of the likelyhood of it happening. In std spec, the K and KV6 are probably one of the most likely engines every built (in modern times and probably just an opinion) to suffer early and regular problems. With care, knowledge and ability, they can be made better, but probably still not up to today's expected standards of engines.

My local Rover focused car yard will never sell a K unless they've stripped the head off put a new gasket on and rebuilt it to their saticfaction. They're a bit old time and you get the feeling they really car about their cars - rather than just 'knocking them out'. But if you do get a K and it has problems, they're complex beasts to understand and if you give it to a garage, will they really know enough about it to sort it into a better condition?

My thoughts are that if you do want a reliable Freelander, then you should really go for a diesel. They do have their own individual areas that can cause problems, eg sensors and fuel pumps on the TD4 and aux belt tensioners on L Series, but overall I'm sure they give owners much less trouble and can be relied upon much more.

If you don't want to/can't spend out on a TD4, why not consider an L Series? They are (very) slow off the lights but they're mid range performance is fine and they tow fantastically. The engines are ecconomic and very reliable - almost boringly bullet proof. The only thing to keep an eye on is the aux belt tensioner - they can 'go' which throws the aux belt that then wraps around the crank pulley and takes the cambelt out with it - dead engine. Its not very common, but occurs enough times to take care of that tensioner. If your interested in it, there are lots of tuning options as well that you can play with over time. Plus of course they're a British engine if that gives you a bit of pride :)
 
A quick look at the MG Rover forums and you will see HG failure is one of the most common issues. Unfortunately like Grumpy said the problem cannot be fixed completely however if the repairer knows what he is doing they can be repaired to give another 50,000 or 60,000 trouble free miles. My car will be dead and buried before it ever reaches that many more miles since I changed mine. Mind you I'm still paranoid about the water level in the coolant tank.

I wrote this a few weeks ago in the K series sticky thread.

"Most of what has been said in this thread is of no help to anyone stupid enough (like me) or unfortunate enough (someone who didn't know any better) to buy a 1.8 petrol Freelander.
As far as Head gasket failure is concerned most times it happens there is plenty of warning but it is either missed or ignored. My company car gets serviced by a garage every 18000 miles and in between times, the only reason I lift the bonnet is to fill the washer bottle.
If you have a K series then that regime doesn't work. You must regularly (weekly) check the coolant level hasn't dropped and the dipstick is clean (no white creamy residue). This is especially true if your car has done over 40,000 miles since the last head gasket change (yes they can go that often).
If the coolant level has dropped then find out why. Besides the obvious "Your head gasket is gone" that everyone loves to shout. There are lots of hoses that can fail, as can the header tank and the seal at the water pump, but topping it up and driving on without curing the problem is a stupid and ultimately very expensive thing to do.
If you catch a headgasket failure early it is a reasonably straight forward thing to fix and needn't be that expensive. If you wait until the car has come to a halt with steam pouring out then it will be.
For the record I bought a 1.8 Freelander with 105,000 miles on the clock. I bought it with no service record or warranty but was able to use that to beat the price down. It came as no surprise when 2 months after buying it I found Mayo on the dip stick. My theory was at that mileage it probably already had the head gasket replaced at least once and if it was only once then it was due to go again.
Replacing the head gasket cost me around £250 as I could do the job myself and would have been cheaper but I ran into some very unusual issues.
The point of all this is lots of people talk a lot of rubbish about K series engines needing replaced if the HG goes. They do fail more often than is acceptable but with a little common sense and regular checks they can be repaired.
If you are not prepared to open your bonnet once a week then run a mile from a petrol Freelander.
If you enjoy a challenge, don't mind getting your hands dirty and want to save between £1200 and £1500 on the cost of buying a Freelander over an equivalent diseasil then go ahead. But you have been warned."
 
they're complex beasts to understand and if you give it to a garage, will they really know enough about it to sort it into a better condition?

Those diesels do seem to give better service and reliability, especially the L series. I read a service commentary that of all the freelanders the L series was the least seen for engine problems. However, the 1.8 is not that complex. In my opinion I find the 1.8 fairly simple to work on. I'm a teacher by occupation and pretty handy with spanners ... Having any workshop work on anything can be problematic and expen$ive. Basic common sense and servicing will keep you on the road.

Re power, if you're interested there are things that can be done to give a wee bit more omph! I've done some mod's to my 1.8s head, induction and exhaust. Perhaps a turbo?? :)
 
I've had 1.8 which is now my dads, it had the head gasket done and the thermostat conversion, if you understand why the gaskets fail so much you will know that thermostat conversion cures it. The k series is a strong engine when the thermostats in the right place, my dad tows his caravan and has done umpteen trouble free miles in his. He does do his regular checks like he always has though but to be fair it has never used any oil or water since hes had it.
 
The coolant system should be sealed and build up pressure when hot. The theory is water under pressure requires a higher temperature before it boils. Hence if you have a leak in the radiator, heater matrix or pipes joints etc then pressure won't build up and you risk boiling yer coolant. That isn't good for yer engine. The reservoir cap allows excess pressure to vent oft.

Fitting a level sensor (link below) is the way to go. It's not difficult, but not something everyone will feel they can do. In the right circumstances it can warn you of HGF as soon as 25 miles from when oil/coolant starts to mix, and the coolant level drops.

As well as checking coolant level etc regular you can also squeeze one of the big coolant pipes when hot and cold, to feel the difference in pressure. When the coolant is hot the pipe will be a lot firmer if there's no leaks. When the coolant pipe is cold it will be easier to squeeze.

http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f69/freelander-1-coolant-level-sensor-how-guide-256090.html
 
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we all know the k series and its issues,but what have mg motors done to it to make it reliable enough to put in there cars?its the same engine just re named the N series
 

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we all know the k series and its issues,but what have mg motors done to it to make it reliable enough to put in there cars?its the same engine just re named the N series
Rover peeps say it's far more reliable than before. I was told it was different but don't know what changes have been done.

As for our Freelanders... the best we can do is regular checks and add a coolant sensor.
 
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