Freelander 1 Avoid this one if for sale elsewhere

LUKBENPHI · May 20, 2016

As title

http://www.swapz.co.uk/swapz/5854440/Freelander_td4_es/

Spotted this one for sale on the swaps website, owner has had new tyres fitted to front and wonders why there is a whine from transmission

Dropped him an email to advise of his error n to get new ones on rear sharpish and he has replied asking for further details so pointed him in direction of this fountain of knowledge

but by sound of advert damage may have already been done.

Nodge68 · May 20, 2016

127K miles so might need new VCU bearings apparently. At that mileage, I can pretty much guess as to the condition of the VCU. Incorrect tyre placement is only going to speed up the demise to the transmission.

LUKBENPHI · May 23, 2016

Nodge68 said:
127K miles so might need new VCU bearings apparently. At that mileage, I can pretty much guess as to the condition of the VCU. Incorrect tyre placement is only going to speed up the demise to the transmission.

That's what I thought, probably needs at least a grand chucking at it

tonksy1974 · May 23, 2016

Sorry for being ignorant but I'm new and no mechanic. I'm just wondering what the issue is with two new tyres. I have different tires on the front of my disco.. Should I be worried?..

hd3 · May 23, 2016

I'm just wondering what the issue is with two new tyres. I have different tires on the front of my disco.. Should I be worried?..

worried ? .. i don't think so as the disco setup for 4wd is different to the freelander1 ..
( but Do check with disco owners to be 100% sure )

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the freelander1 4wd system can be in trouble with mismatched tyres :

https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/the-definitive-freelander-vcu-testing-thread.99163/

" IRD and/or VCU failure is also caused by miss matched tyre sizes between the front and rear axles. The difference in tyre diameter, and thus the rolling radius of the wheel causes a constant difference in the rotational speed of the front and rear prop shafts, this difference has to be compensated for by the VCU slipping at a higher rate than which it was designed for. The extra rotations cause the VCU to heat up and become stiffer ,which is what they are designed to do off road if the wheels start to slip and this transfer drive to the the other wheels, but as this is happening while driving in a straight line on a road it has the same effect has an old stiff VCU and transfers extra load to the entire transmission line, eventually resulting in IRD failure. "

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saxavordian · May 23, 2016

When you think about it with the drivetrain issues with the freelander 1. Landrover must have been laughing knowing how they can fail from simple abuse. To me if you design a system to be broken from mismatch tyres forcing owners to pay outright for all four or two, then you have no respect to your buyers. Freelanders by right are built to be tough in most condition an designed not to be a frippery like some eastern bloc reject.

tonksy1974 · May 23, 2016

Thanks guys

potus · May 23, 2016

Just wondering, the F1 is well documented with this problem but does the F2 suffer similar issues with regards to new tyres on front?

GrumpyGel · May 23, 2016

tonksy1974 said:
Sorry for being ignorant but I'm new and no mechanic. I'm just wondering what the issue is with two new tyres. I have different tires on the front of my disco.. Should I be worried?..

There are a lot of people that say you shouldn't have mismatched tyres on a (permanent) 4WD such as Discovery as it will chew the center diff. Then there's others that say they'e done 500K kms without worrying about the tyres and there is no problems with it. It definitely will matter in diff lock as your are forcing wheels to slip more - but you don't have that problem with D2.

GrumpyGel · May 23, 2016

potus said:
Just wondering, the F1 is well documented with this problem but does the F2 suffer similar issues with regards to new tyres on front?

F2 has a Haldex unit rather than VCU - so it is different - eg it has the ability to 'turn off' the Haldex and completely disconnect the rear axle from the engine/box/front axle (making it fully FWD). It should be a bit more forgiving or tyre differences, but given the rear diff's fragility, I'd say its even more important to run matching tyres. Some Haldex implementations monitor axles speeds to detect tyre size mismatches and will throw a warning light and turn off the Haldex if differences are detected - I don't know if F2 does this.

Nodge68 · May 23, 2016

GrumpyGel said:
F2 has a Haldex unit rather than VCU - so it is different - eg it has the ability to 'turn off' the Haldex and completely disconnect the rear axle from the engine/box/front axle (making it fully FWD). It should be a bit more forgiving or tyre differences, but given the rear diff's fragility, I'd say its even more important to run matching tyres. Some Haldex implementations monitor axles speeds to detect tyre size mismatches and will throw a warning light and turn off the Haldex if differences are detected - I don't know if F2 does this.

The Discovery 3 can throw a warning if tyre sizes between ends are extreme.
My wife's new Ford Kuga handbook states quite clearly that the tyres front and rear need to be kept at similar tread depths, giving a figure of 5mm maximum difference between front and rear treat depth. It also suggests rotation of the tyres to keep wear even and also advises replacing all 4 at the same time. The Kuga uses the Haldex coupling, much like that of the Freelander 2.

GrumpyGel · May 23, 2016

So all the s**t that gets thrown at Freelander 1 is just standard characteristics for today's AWD cars!

LUKBENPHI · May 24, 2016

GrumpyGel said:
So all the s**t that gets thrown at Freelander 1 is just standard characteristics for today's AWD cars!

It was 20 years ago too with the cavalier and calibra 4x4 systems they need all tyres replacing at same time too to avoid wind up

Freelander 1 Avoid this one if for sale elsewhere

LUKBENPHI

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