Engine warning light but no error code

This site contains affiliate links for which LandyZone may be compensated if you make a purchase.
D

diybilko

New Member
Posts
21
Location
Atherton, Manchester
Hello,

I have a Freelander V6 2.5 2001.
The engine warning light has been on since January, which from memory is around the same time the auto gear box started to play up and not go into fourth/fifth gear, and needless to say I haven't used the car since the gear box issue.

Does the gear box report faults in the same way as the engine does and use the engine warning light, or does it report any faults using the lcd display only?

I need as much info as possible to help me decide whether to replace the box or not, hoping that the light goes off and my problems are solved.

Any help would be most appreciated.

thanks, Darren.
 
As above but you can't read them with a standard OBD 2 reader. The only way is with a Hawkeye type reader or take it to someone that can read the fault code.
 
Hello,

I don't suppose there is someone out there that has one of the Hawkeye code readers, that lives near Atherton, and could perhaps check it out for me?

Please reply, as, if I cant get it diagnosed within the next week or so, and depending on the reason for the warning light, I will be selling it on for spares/repairs.... any takers???

Darren
 
I asked a land rover mechanic to check and to see why the warning light was on, and he told me that it was due to a catalytic convertor malfunction, and that it would cost £700 to fix, and that in his opinion it wasn't worth doing, due to the fact I have a V6 2.5 petrol and no body wants them.
He said that the gearbox wasn't reporting any faults, so I asked him if the catalytic convertor malfunction could be the cause of the gearbox not wanting to shift into 4th/5th gear, he said yes it could be that the car wont change gear because its like being in limp mode and the fault with the converter is restricting the performance of the car by not allowing the gearbox to change up a gear over 30 mph.

Does all that sound plausible??

As always thank you for any feed back.

Darren.
 
matt1295 said:
i have had a older ford where a cat dying did cause a car to not pass over a certain rpm when driving

added a link of a cat from ebay and its not 700

90871H CATALYTIC CONVERTER / CAT LAND ROVER FREELANDER (LN) 2.5 11/2000-09/2006 | eBay
Click to expand...

My brother in law had a similar issue with his Peugeot, took it to the garage and had it looked at, the mech said it was his cat converter that was on its way out, but because it was an intermittent fault he didn't bother to have it replaced.

What im curious to know is, if its possible that the converter is the culprit, why have I not seen any posts from people having the same issue as me? everyone in the posts ive read with similar issues found it to be the gearbox at fault..... which leads me to think either I have found a one in a million fault that displays the symptoms I have, or it may not be the converter and it is the box.

Is there a way of checking/testing the converter and its sensors?

Thanks,

Darren
 
matt1295 said:
my fav test take your cat out and go for a drive yes its bloody noisy but you will soon find out if your cat is at fault
Click to expand...

Is that the only way? are there no ohms/electrical tests that I can try to determine if its the sensors that are faulty?
ive just looked under the FL and the bolts on the flange joints are very rusty, and I don't want to risk ballsing the bolts up to do the test to later find out I cant put it back together after.

I did ring a local garage (Not Land Rover) to ask for a quote for a replacement converter, and they quoted me £180 fitted, but depending on the condition of the bolts etc when removing it, the cost could go up.

If anyone knows of any alternative tests please let me know.

thanks for your help.

Darren
 
matt1295 said:
my fav test take your cat out and go for a drive yes its bloody noisy but you will soon find out if your cat is at fault
Click to expand...

Also, wouldn't removing the converter and its sensors not just result in the same issues that I have now, especially if the sensors are disconnected... wont that cause the engine light to come on and the car go into "Limp Mode" or whatever it is?


Thanks,

Darren
 
the times i have done this it has worked for me.

it is not recommended but when it didnt cost me anything but new exhaust nuts and bolts i was prepared to try it and it worked.. plus the peoples faces when ya drive past makes it my fav test lol

and if it is a cat problem all your doing is getting rid of the car

again i only say it because i have done it on previous cars and its worked so thats why i say its an option to test
 
some with other cars with this problem just decat either by a short pipe or pull out the internals many mg 1.8i cars evan pass the mot with a decat fitted
cost nothing
Ron
 
diybilko said:
I asked a land rover mechanic to check and to see why the warning light was on, and he told me that it was due to a catalytic convertor malfunction, and that it would cost £700 to fix, and that in his opinion it wasn't worth doing, due to the fact I have a V6 2.5 petrol and no body wants them.
He said that the gearbox wasn't reporting any faults, so I asked him if the catalytic convertor malfunction could be the cause of the gearbox not wanting to shift into 4th/5th gear, he said yes it could be that the car wont change gear because its like being in limp mode and the fault with the converter is restricting the performance of the car by not allowing the gearbox to change up a gear over 30 mph.

Does all that sound plausible??

As always thank you for any feed back.

Darren.
Click to expand...

Something doesn't sound rite to me. If the cat was malfunctioning the MIL would be on but it WILL log a fault code too. Don't forget there are 3 cat's fitted to a V6 Freelander!! Unless the rear cat is blocked and causing a lot of back pressure which could reduce engine power, the gearbox should still select all it's gears. The engine ECU does NOT have a limited operating strategy (limp mode)
 
The cat is easy to check if it's blocked. Simply unbolt it from the manifold and look at the matrix. If it looks like a mass of tiny tubes it's fine. If it's started to break up then it should be possible to knock the innards out leaving an empty casing. The car should even pass the Mot as the 2 pre-cats are generally up to the job.
 
Nodge68 said:
Something doesn't sound rite to me. If the cat was malfunctioning the MIL would be on but it WILL log a fault code too. Don't forget there are 3 cat's fitted to a V6 Freelander!! Unless the rear cat is blocked and causing a lot of back pressure which could reduce engine power, the gearbox should still select all it's gears. The engine ECU does NOT have a limited operating strategy (limp mode)
Click to expand...

When the Land Rover mechanic looked at it for me, he did connect to a computer to check the code, but I dint ask what it was, he turned the light off, and my short journey home didn't turn it back on...why is that if the cat is malfunctioning?
Also when he said its like being in limp mode, he did explain that Freelander's don't have limp mode, but it was like limp mode.

The cat looks to be part of a "Y" branch exhaust... if that makes sense. I will have to unbolt the flanges from both down pipes and the middle box to remove it, and im not sure I will be able to see inside the cat once it has been removed, unless the cat will separate from the pipework after removal? as it looks to have some kind of flexi joint where the two pipes meet and go into one, just before the cat itself.

Are there other tests that I can do without removing the cat?

Thank you for all your help.

Darren.
 
The front and rear manifolds join together directly before the main cat (there are 3). It should be possible to unbolt the 3 bolts and look down the pipe at the cat matrix. If the cat is blocked I still can't work out why the MIL is coming on as the O2 sensor will still monitor the exhaust gas getting through. It's more likely that the O2 sensor is playing up but this wouldn't stop the engine giving full power. Like I said it's very odd. I'd be looking at the cat matrix first. Have you felt how much exhaust gas comes out the tail pipe while a helper revs the engine?
This is what a good cat looks like.
 

Attachments

  • 2012-07-05 21.56.08.jpg
    2012-07-05 21.56.08.jpg
    288.4 KB · Views: 382
Last edited:
Nodge68 said:
The front and rear manifolds join together directly before the main cat (there are 3). It should be possible to unbolt the 3 bolts and look down the pipe at the cat matrix. If the cat is blocked I still can't work out why the MIL is coming on as the O2 sensor will still monitor the exhaust gas getting through. It's more likely that the O2 sensor is playing up but this wouldn't stop the engine giving full power. Like I said it's very odd. I'd be looking at the cat matrix first. Have you felt how much exhaust gas comes out the tail pipe while a helper revs the engine?
This is what a good cat looks like.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply.

The engine seems to have full power (but cant be 100% as I cant go over 30) it does rev high when not in gear, but when in gear doing 30 it revs high, but looses drive until the revs are lowered and then engages drive again until I try to go faster than 30.....and it starts all over again....its a viscous circle.

When you say "It should be possible to unbolt the 3 bolts and look down the pipe at the cat matrix" do you mean as if looking from the rear end of the cat? as my pipe appears to be a full unit from the downpipes to the cat.


As always, thanks for all your help.

Darren
 
As nodge ses there's 3 cats. Check each one has a wire connected to it. There's 1 just below the gear lever, 1 at the back of the engine and 1 at the front of the engine low down - will need the sump guard off to see this one. You'll spot all 3 from under the car.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Rank Amatuer
Freelander 2 (LR2) Engine warning light
Replies
0
Views
708
Rank Amatuer
Rank Amatuer
J
Freelander 2 (LR2) Engine warning light
Replies
5
Views
846
Arctic2
Arctic2
A
SRS warning light Pretensioner problems
Replies
6
Views
963
Anan
A
MonkeyLander
Freelander 2 (LR2) FL2 Reduced Engine Performance + Engine Warning Light (4 error codes)
2
Replies
29
Views
4K
MonkeyLander
MonkeyLander
andyfreelandy
Freelander 1 Three Amigos WITH engine light (Solved)
Replies
4
Views
1K
andyfreelandy
andyfreelandy
Back
Top