Freelander 1 Broken down in the middle of Spain. Help!!!

Have just driven 600 miles today through France and into Spain. Just filled my 2004 Freelander td4 sport to the hilt with diesel and was about to embark on a further 100 miles before stopping for the night. Half a mile out of the Petrol station she starts to sound a bit rough (i.e) rattly in the engine compartment coupled with a loss of power and black smoke coming out of the bonnet where it meets the bottom of the windscreen. Being on the motorway I stopped when safe to do so a few hundred yards down the road. Lifted the bonnet to find smoke coming out where the two plastic top sections meet, with the yellow oil filler cap to the left. Am going to call rescue, but just wondered how bad the news is going to be...my spanish isn’t great but I know what ‘mucho dinero” means!!! Thanks for your suggestions...I think.....

With the info given the guesses are a bit wild but hope it may help you! First, guess the fuel was good and correct? Could be blown turbo hose or from where you say smoke came from perhaps an injector blowing past seal?? Take middle cover off but keep the threaded bits screwed into inlet manifold else you have a hole. Run and see if you can id source? Rattly suggests bad over fuelling or injector. Look over all rubber hoses by feeling for splits. Good luck..

Take your fuel cap off, and make sure it doesn’t smell of petrol !

Indeed. I wrapped that up a bit!

Oh **** it does and it is petrol. The attendant filled it not me. How bad is the damage likely to be?

Excuse my bad language

Damage is unknown until you flush, replace fuel filter, put fresh diesel and try it. You may be lucky. You could change filter and arrange a temporary pipe to the fuel pump with diesel in to try it out. I only have experience of a petrol car filled with diesel and that survived !

Tantalass said:

The attendant filled it not me.

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Where there's blame there's a claim.

Tantalass said:

How bad is the damage likely to be

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You could be lucky. Drain out the petrol, refill with diesel and add 1/2 a litre of engine oil to help lubricate the HP pump, and you should be fine after the next fill up.

¡Dile al empleado de la gasolinera que ha arruinado tu auto!

Before filling up I had about a quarter of a tank left, the smoke/rattle didn’t start until after I was a few kms down the road from the garage.

andyfreelandy said:

¡Dile al empleado de la gasolinera que ha arruinado tu auto!

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Hopefully the knob head hasn’t ruined it!

Look at your filling station receipt, it will confirm Petrol/Diesel and Litres.
Get taken back there and have them pay for a drain and re-fill.

I paid the attendant in cash and didn’t take a receipt....ho hum who’s an idiot!

Your holiday just gets better and better! Got to be worth returning. Maybe a forecourt camera to prove you visited?

El wrongo fuelio. ..el badtardo
.......

Tantalass said:

Have just driven 600 miles today through France and into Spain. Just filled my 2004 Freelander td4 sport to the hilt with diesel and was about to embark on a further 100 miles before stopping for the night. Half a mile out of the Petrol station she starts to sound a bit rough (i.e) rattly in the engine compartment coupled with a loss of power and black smoke coming out of the bonnet where it meets the bottom of the windscreen. Being on the motorway I stopped when safe to do so a few hundred yards down the road. Lifted the bonnet to find smoke coming out where the two plastic top sections meet, with the yellow oil filler cap to the left. Am going to call rescue, but just wondered how bad the news is going to be...my spanish isn’t great but I know what ‘mucho dinero” means!!! Thanks for your suggestions...I think.....

Click to expand...

andyfreelandy said:

With the info given the guesses are a bit wild but hope it may help you! First, guess the fuel was good and correct? Could be blown turbo hose or from where you say smoke came from perhaps an injector blowing past seal?? Take middle cover off but keep the threaded bits screwed into inlet manifold else you have a hole. Run and see if you can id source? Rattly suggests bad over fuelling or injector. Look over all rubber hoses by feeling for splits. Good luck..

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Thanks for that. It’s in the lap of the gods now. I’ve been rescued off the A26 near Burgos and have managed to find a hotel for the night. The recovery guy shook his head and said NO IT’S NOT A CASE OF MISREFUELING. Swore I could smell petrol, hum all those years of 40 woodbines a day has jiggered my sense of smell. I had been f’ing and blinding the poor old repsol forecourt attendant all evening! I don’t know if it’s a relief that fuel wasn’t the problem. Can there be anything worse? Certainly with the oil coming from where it did, I suspected a seal had ‘let go’. I couldn’t check myself - didn’t want to do anything that could affect my recovery from my insurance company. I was tempted to take the cover off, but thought better of it. Bad enough all the agro breaking down on the continent, but if I had invalidated my recovery cover and emergency accommodation I’d be doubly sick. Oh my, I haven’t had so much fun since I owned an old TVR!!!

jedi said:

El wrongo fuelio. ..el badtardo
.......

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Rescue hombre, Pedro he say NO (just like Manuel) off Faulty Towers...lol. Not fuelio.....hopefully nowt worse!

Glad to see you’ve been recovered& safe.
Nothing like taking a Holliday with a green oval.
Keep us informed of the outcome.

Hicap phill said:

Glad to see you’ve been recovered& safe.
Nothing like taking a Holliday with a green oval.
Keep us informed of the outcome.

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Will do. Hope it’s not terminal;-(

Sounds like an hose as split to me, first check the hose going to the turbo, also the seal in the end of the plastic funnel from the MAF to the turbo. then check intercooler hose from the EGR backwards to the intercooler. when was the PCV filter last changed.