Freelander 2.0DI loss of power!

First of all... someone please tell me why I bought a bloody Freelander!

The Freelander is a new car to me. I bought it about 5 weeks ago with full LR service history, 70k miles on the clock, 2 carefull lady owners and was what I thought a good buy for the money, after all its a LR and there reliable right... Wrong!

1, Its a pain to start in a morning (had help from Darmain and others thanks)

2, It's just been in the garage again to have the u/v and c/v joints replaced.

3 This is a new one!

What happens now is this....

When you are driving along you have a sudden loss of power. If you keep your foot still the engine dies down but dosent stop all together. If you accelerate it will pick up again but then sounds like its missing and you kangaroo down the street! Also when at idle it suddenly revs up to anything around 1500-2000rpm without touching it. When this happens the engine management light comes on aswell.

I personally think it may be the Diesel filter but need a second opinion please.

Cheers

Luke

check the wire that goes to no1 injector

Thanks Ste, will have a look. Do you think it could be fuel filter aswell or am I just hoping for a quick fix...

Doubt its the fuel filter as this would only cause real issues on high throttle demand. My money is on the throttle position sensor. The L series is fly by wire so there is no throttle cable. The pedal position is electronically sensed and relayed to the ECU. Do a search on throttle position sensors. They are easy to replace and are not that expensive. Good luck

Hi Darmain,

Thanks for the help again. I have searched on TPS and got a quote from my local independent LR parts specialist and there coming up with around 250.00 pounds. Does this sound too expensive to you?

Thanks
L

Crickey, that much. I'm sure someone got aTPS for a tenth of that recently.

Is this a 2.0 TD you're talking about (Not the BMW Engine)?

Yes its the Rover L series 2.0ltr Turbo Diesel not the BMW TD4 in later models.

Just to add on a different "problem" The drivers side foot well is soaking wet, as is the floor locker in the boot. Has anyone fixed this and how do I do it?

Thanks

Humm, drivers side foot well wet and the throttle position sensor, which is in the vicinity of the drivers side foot well, is under suspision. I'm thinking this other problem may be the same one.

Hmmmm. You may be correct there but looking at the position of the TPS I doubt there has been suficient ingress of water to get anywhere close to it.

Also, the wet stops just below the top of the pedal pads so higher up near the TPS is bone dry...

Does anyone know how this is getting in? Maybe through the steering collum hole in the body??

Door seals is one place to look, where the water tracks under the carpet. Do you have a sun roof? Another good place for leaks. TPS failure is probably a coincidence but it may have ingressed moisture over time The steering column hole in the bulkhead should be well sealed and is in the engine bay, so unless you've been takig your hippo into the swamp then its unlikely to be coming from this location.

Hi Luke,
I am new to this site and forum, but i for some reason bought a Freelander 1998 2.0 XDi, i bought it in August last year, it has been running perfect since i bought it, i did a full service on it when i got it including all oils, filter and belts.
I took it to France at the beginning of February, ran perfectly there, but on the way back, it started to hesitate a bit and when we stopped for fuel the revs went up on its own and down again, and like your problem when driving at about 30mph and feathering the throttle the MIL light comes on the revs drop to idle, but if i put my foot down it goes as it should.
I was a motor technician, job change now, but i thought it would be the throttle position sensor, as it felt like there was a break in the sensor. I took it to my friend who has a Diagnostic scanner, it diagnosed the TPS, so it looked good, like you i was quoted £250, found one on ebay for £20, bought, fitted, still got the fault!!!!!!
I am going to check all the connections and remove and clean the crank shaft position sensor, i have a copyof RAVE which says that will effect the idle if faulty, from previous experince, if they are dirty they can give false signals. I will let you know, if you find any thing different i would be glad to here from you.
hope that helps. Oh there is the chance that the second hand TPS that i bought could be faulty, but i checked the original one with a mulitmeter and if showed a steady increase when moved, with no breaks, to show a break in the sensor film wire.
Hope someone else can help us.
Any way i have decided to change the Hippo for a P38, as we bought a bigger caravan and it is close to the weight limit.
regards Richie.

That was supposed to be a quick reply, sorry!

Mine leaks into yhe cubby hole. I was palnning to replace the door seal using LR's tech bulletin to re fit. Helpfull young bloke at LR dealer said if itsnot leaking from the top of the door (and ruining the headlining) he would leve it alone. My headlining is fine si decided to take his heed. What I have done is remove the rear carpet, then refit all the trim, cubby hole cover etc. I,ve also removed one of the plugs from the bottom of the cubby. To be honest it looks fine as the boot area is not large - also had an annoying creak from trim which seems to have gone, so will see how it goes - it is certainly better than nasty wet carpet. Hope this helps - still loves me FL.

Er sorry to butt in but did the ****lander have any power in the first place?

Hi Richard,

Mine is exactly as you described however my local LR specialist has charged me 435.00 pounds to fix it and its exactly the same. I have requested he fits my original TPS and send the 235.00 pounds part back. He seems to think it may have thrown the programme or something but I wasnt aware you had to program these things. I thought they were plug and play thing.... I could be wrong. Have you got any further with yours?

Thanks

Surely we cant be the only ones to have this problem, Richard.

Can I ask if anyone else has had this problem and had it fixed please let me know. It's in the garage again!

Thanks

Hi Luke, been a bit busy, anyway, still got the Freelander and after fitting the second hand TPS it did clear its self and had been running for about three weeks without fault, a friend said the computer does need to be reset or sometimes it learns the settings on the new sensor and resets its self accordingly. anyway last weekend it started playing up again. Canged the fuel leak off pipes as they were a bit old and brittle, thinking it might be getting air in the system. It started playing up on a long journey after an hours driving, the same as when it first started playing up, but once the fault is there it stays. will let you know if i find a fault, unless you know anything different. Regards Richard

If the engine is reving up by itself then the fuel system must be advancing the amount a fule injected. that is assuming that the engine isn't burning something else, like lubrication oil due to a failed turbo oil seal. You'd see smoke so I doubt its that. Other reasons that come to mind that could do this are:

Coolant temperature sensor - Low reading increases fueling, a bit like the choke on an old carb based petrol engine, so to keep the engine happy until its warmed up. This is taken advantage of on some of these 'tune up' gadgets to increase the power delivery by deceiving the ECU that the engine temperature is lower than it actually is, so to increase the fuel delivery. If this sensor was intermittent then this will undoubtidly affect the idle speed.

Air conditioning - The air conditioning puts in a throttle demand when the compressor clutch is engaged. Is this system misbehaving? Make sure the air con is switched off. Mine is a dog to drive round town with the air con on. Engine power control is a nightmare.

Just a couple of ideas.