1.8 petrol engine mods

Hi all, the missus has fallen in love with a 2005 Freelander 1 1.8 petrol, 37k miles, one owner, great condition, £5995 from a dealer with a year's warranty. From trawling this forum I've learnt that it should have a modified gasket fitted with steel dowels and possibly modified oil rail too. Were they recalled for these mods and how can we check if they've been done? If they haven't been done, how important is it really (given that there's the warranty) and what's it's likely to cost? We've looked at quite a few and this does seem to be the best value.

Before anyone says, she doesn't want a Disco, it has to be as new as possible, safety and grip in snow / wet conditions are the priority.

Thanks.

run
RUN
and keep running..........






















until yu go for a doozil.

on second thoughts - give me 3 grand and use the other 3 grand for taxis - you wont be so dissapointed.

uncle nick said:

Hi all, the missus has fallen in love with a 2005 Freelander 1 1.8 petrol, 37k miles, one owner, great condition, £5995 from a dealer with a year's warranty. From trawling this forum I've learnt that it should have a modified gasket fitted with steel dowels and possibly modified oil rail too. Were they recalled for these mods and how can we check if they've been done? If they haven't been done, how important is it really (given that there's the warranty) and what's it's likely to cost? We've looked at quite a few and this does seem to be the best value.

Before anyone says, she doesn't want a Disco, it has to be as new as possible, safety and grip in snow / wet conditions are the priority.

Thanks.

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Snigger buy a diesel- bet the dealer rubbed their hands when you looked at it.

Matches and gallon of petrol the only mod on a 1.8 gaylander.

Buy a petrol and expect no sympathy-they are a pile of ****e

DO NOT BUY PETROL!!!

Far too many HGF's reported, some even with the upgrades! If it passes the years warranty period you are looking at expense out of your pocket!

Diesel is the way to go and there are plenty of bargains around for your £6000! Be patient.......

£5995 is alot of money to risk wasting on a petrol freelander1. You'll get a nice td4 for the same price.

Thank you all for your ever so helpful replies.

We don't want a diesel. They are at least £1500 to £2000 dearer or much older with higher miles for the same money.

I can't see how every petrol Freelander will have problems or there would have been a massive recall and they wouldn't be Land Rover's number one selling car.

Think I'll try another forum where the members aren't so blinkered and just out of interest, how many of you have actually owned Freelanders or is your prejudice purely second hand?

don't buy it take it from someone who worked on the maintenance at Rover Powertrain for 16 years, love the freelander and went for the BMW diesel it had it problem;s .
the K Series engine went from wet liners to semi-damp screen gaskets to out sourced gaskets .
Leaking blocks space-sealed to heli-coiled damaged thread holes toflats on cam lobes I could go on and on but won't.
buy the diesel version or a box of matches

If you treat FL with respect, shouldn't be a problem.

But must admit, 1.8 petrol is a bit underpowered.

hmmm, ignore all the replies above. They just don't want to see you coming back on here saying 'my head gaskets gone, what to do???'.

You're right about the modifications, as long as the head gasket hasn't gone so far and you do the modifications straight away you should be ok. Through the reading i've done on the subject i believe head gaskets only go again after the modified gasket etc if a porous head has been reused, and the head usually goes porous and loses it's hardness after a head gasket failure when it overheats

If you do the modifications, uprated gaskets, steel dowels and oil rail (you can do the thermostat mod as well but i personally haven't bothered) then you should be ok, and if you do a few more modifications it won't be as underpowered as some people think and can leave a td4 standing.

Removing the air box altogether and placing a conical filter on the throttle body like seen in some 1.8k caterhams can have the biggest gains for the least money.

Go ahead and buy it, as long as the modifications are done before you give it chance for the head gasket to go, you should be quite happy with it. I absolutely love my 1.8k freeby, wouldn't swap it for anything.

freebiker said:

hmmm, ignore all the replies above. They just don't want to see you coming back on here saying 'my head gaskets gone, what to do???'.

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rubbish - that applies to both your comment and the mentioned vehicle

the vehicle is over priced, has a minimal resale value (compared to it's advertised price) and is well known to be one of the most unreliable vehicles LR ever produced, simply because you own one isn't enough justification to advise the OP to purchase one

am sure if it was your money you'd not be buying it

wheres me popcorn.....

goonarmy said:

wheres me popcorn.....

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this early ? - yuck

I didnt get fat by accidentop2:

why ask for advise get it then then you dont like the answer !!!!
fooking twaat go buy a slitty then

hopefully he'll buy a k series

Sean said:

rubbish - that applies to both your comment and the mentioned vehicle

the vehicle is over priced, has a minimal resale value (compared to it's advertised price) and is well known to be one of the most unreliable vehicles LR ever produced, simply because you own one isn't enough justification to advise the OP to purchase one

am sure if it was your money you'd not be buying it

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I stick by what i wrote, though i do admit you could probably get a 2005 1.8 for a cheaper price somewhere.

There are other landrovers with as many problems with the k series freelander. All landrovers can generally be seen as unreliable at one point or other. I've seen as many threads on here stating problems with the diesels as i have problems with the petrols, especially when it comes to turbos.

OP had made his mind up that he definitely didn't want a diesel, and by the sound of it had made his mind up about a petrol fl, therefore was wanting information on the modifications, no advice to not buy it. He sounds like he already knows the potential problems but still wants to buy one.

So, OP doesn't want a diesel, and the 1.8 petrol isn't as reliable as it should be. That leaves one option...

The V6...

Cmdr_Keen said:

So, OP doesn't want a diesel, and the 1.8 petrol isn't as reliable as it should be. That leaves one option...

The V6...

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ermmmm .....

It's an option...