Awesome repair to boot tailgate proble

hi,

As everyone here is always there to help me with my car issues I felt I should share this.I have been having issues with my Freelander's rear tailgate . You lift the handle to open it and it opens but it doesn't re engage when you try and shut it.

I tried the usual , slamming it ( a hammer etc etc ) It was initially a random issue sometimes it locked other times it didn't But then it got more frequent and would take 10 or 12 goes to shut it and I could just imagine letting the dog out at Reading services and never getting it shut again.

So I finally got round to looking at it and thought I would need to buy a new tailgate assembly for the door BUT, when I opened it up I realised there was just a spring missing ( snapped I think with age and fell in the rear door)

The cost of a second hand tailgate assembly thingy was going to set me back £75 from Dodgy Daunters breakers or over £150 new as I got told by several people you can't buy the springs BUT you can and they cost me £8.50 and came with a full sheet on how to fit them and now it works, gave it a good greasing too.

Marvellous!

Diddy

Hello diddy

Good post

I have same issue .... Where did you get the springs from and can you give more detail on the fitting etc

Cheers

Chris

Land Rover Freelander 1 Rear Door Handle Microswitch Repair Springs | eBay
this is what you need both my door spring had broke and now its fine

When this happened to me i found two springs of ideal size in an old walkman - 3 years later they are still going strong

Several years ago I did a temp fix with a spring from a pen. Don't know how long it lasted though as sold the car a few months later but it worked well enough at the time.

Our rear door handle suddenly decided to snap while I was opening her in door precious freelander , I ordered a new part from main dealer in hull I am in South Wales and boy did the local specialist and main dealer want to hit me hard about £140 managed to buy one off the shelf way better than that contacted a specialist to fit it but hes buggered me about so today inbetween the showers I stripped the door after reading all I could 4 screws at the bottom of the inner door panel and popped off the trim plugs either side of the door and I was in peeled back teh foam liner (not plastic sheet ) turned the power on and put teh rear window to max height and removed two bolts the third one was a bugger because it had snapped off but eventually done unplugged the two wires for the numberplate light and unplugged the 4 pin connector and removed it from the door there is mo real mention on how to remove the key barrelso after cutting off the real rubber seal from the old handle simple you just squeeze two lugs together right at the end of the barrell housing and the barrel slipped out to my surprise there wasnt any pins in the barrel so how it works beats me but there we go markedwith a t for top of barrel and slipped it into the new handle reassembloed without over tightening the 3 bolts and while I was in there I silicon sprayed the window mechanism as tehy are known to get dry and snap you have to re synchronise the door window just a matter of fidling and suddenly it goes back into sync checked it locked and opened and then reassembled the inner door job done took me an hour at most the local garage quoted me £120 plus vat