Freelander 1

Well i've bought a very cheap Freelander, problems were known before hand and not lots of money changed hands. The problems are vibrates like hell when starting, on the road vibrates but not too bad, rear window don't work (cable snapped) needs new rear door handle and front window and downhill descent control don't appear to be working, now looking a the price of a decent one, i can put some money in to this and still have a bloody good car.
Question where do you start with the vibrations i've read about vcu's ird's and the like, it does appear like the brakes are binding in reverse, but can these parts be rebuilt or do you have to replace full units, your assistance would be appreciated, by the way 2.0 diesel 98 reg 5 door.

Hi m8. Sounds like you got a decent deal if you got it real cheap. If your VCU,IRD and rear diff are knackard then your looking at around a grand to fix the lot properly yourself. Thats if you got a bit of engineering savy. If not then your looking at a bit more in hourly rates.

There are so many different reasons you could be getting vibration.

Firstly i would do the tipex test on the VCu ( search tipex test), just to clear that one up. If VCu is siezed then chances are IRd and rear diff and maybe rear cv joints have gone too. Doesnt really take alot to bugger them up. Im now in the process of rebuilding my own IRd and rear diff. It is easy if you know what your doing. The parts are not cheap to rebuild though so recon parts might be the way to go if you dont know what your doing. You can pick up VCU's recon for around £300 inc bearings and damper. Recon IRD's go for around £450, but alot of people are selling them as recon units when all they have done is have the old unit bead blasted to look like new. I would never buy a recon unit myself hence the reason i am rebuilding my own. Rear diffs go for about £150 recon, but again you dont know what you are getting. There are alot of dodgy people out there breaking landers .

If the tipex test turns out ok and the VCU is not siezed then i would be inclined to remove the front and rear props to see if the vibration is coming from somewhere else ie: drive shafts, rear diff. If the vibration stops then i would say its the VCU bearings or even a badly balanced VCU damper. Just by moving the damper round a bolt hole can make alot of difference.

To find the cause of the problem takes patience and alot of time spent under the car. I know, ive been trying to sort my car out for ages.

There are alot of threads on this site that you can search for that will help you out.

I hope this helps.

Cheers, Mark

Thanks mark, yes it was really cheap

How cheap, give us a number?!

I've been looking at them go on eBay recently, and the diesels still fetch a fair amount even for basket cases.

lanmjdun said:

How cheap, give us a number?!

I've been looking at them go on eBay recently, and the diesels still fetch a fair amount even for basket cases.

Click to expand...

I think if he wanted us to know he would have said in the first post.

Couple of hundred plus a pint

That sounds about right - something crazy happens on eBay to make people pay over the odds.

Good luck with your rebuild.

I've seen ebay prices, went to local scrappy he has 3 freebies in and prices he has quoted are less than ebay, he also has some dicoverys and a couple of 90 series which to me look half decent. First job is to get it through the test, small niggles, and then on with the rebuild would like to have it as a Camel trophy lookalike but we will see.

Graham