Freelander 2 Cutting Out

Evening all,

I’m having an issue with my 59 plate Freelander 2 TD4.

Intermittently it will cut out whilst driving. I usually receive a ‘Reduced Engine Performance’ warning as it looses power; then it may or may not restart. So far it has restarted after a short period, but the issue repeats. There appears to be some correlation between how long it’s left standing and the repeat of the issue i.e. if it restarts within a couple of minutes, the issue will repeat within minutes; if it’s left overnight it will run for 10-15 mins without issue.

I’m not getting any error codes on the CANBUS. Although, if it’s relevant, the ECO mode doesn’t appear to be kicking in either.

So far I’ve replace the fuel filter and checked the fuel rail connectors for any signs of corrosion, but no joy.

I’m thinking the issue may be the fuel rail sensor and/or rear fuel pump.

My question is which would you guys suggest looking at first? And/or should I be looking elsewhere?

Many thanks in advance.

Ascalon57 said:

My question is which would you guys suggest looking at first? And/or should I be looking elsewhere?

Click to expand...

If you are getting no error codes, then the first thing to replace is the crank sensor. These are known to fail and don't always show a code.
Make sure you get an OE (febi) sensor and not a cheap Ebay one.

Nodge68 said:

If you are getting no error codes, then the first thing to replace is the crank sensor. These are known to fail and don't always show a code.
Make sure you get an OE (febi) sensor and not a cheap Ebay one.

Click to expand...

Hi, firstly I'm a newbie to Freelander 2's and this forum, but reading this thread prompted me to sign up as a member.

My 2010 td4e 150k on the clock has just had an engine transplant....here's why..
I bought the car as a none starter/runner project and originally attempted to find/diagnose the engine engine fault.
I found the CPS wasn't fitted and the aux pulley under the seat?...plastic covering the ecu in the boot...I immediately bought a new CPS from ebay, but decided to go cheap,,,£14 or so...and an obd2 scanner around the same price..
The car still wouldn't start..mmm..no fault codes reported...then i noticed small lumps of rubber on top of the belly pan?......on further investigation the cam belt had shed a number of teeth....
Got a new cambelt kit and re-timed the car......Still no start.no codes...inspected the hp pump and found metal filings in the fuel pump metering solonoid....replaced the pump and pressure rail...(ebay second hand)...cracked the injectors off/primed the system......2 batteries in parrallell to crank it over.....and not so much as a single frap..
got another scanner ( lr2 icarsoft)...to see what was happening. And that showed a cps intermittent signal code amongst others..however the cps is new so could be wiring, ecu, timing?.....Mmmm.....(from here things went rapidly down hill during a timing reset after the crank refused to turn and I persisted with a breaker bar on the end of the crank) ...The crank was/is now stuck in the block because the floating cam gear want float no more or slide off....Time for another engine...

Got a complete donor engine with pump and injectors, which is now fitted with the new cambelt kit off the old engine and starts fine....but cutting out at about 50 degrees c or around 12 minutes running time, no codes found other than swirl flap runner open circuit as this engine has none..

But a very similar symptom to Ascalon 57......then after Nodge68's comment about a new CPS I remembered I have a new CPS on the engine I had removed.......so I fitted it today...........and the car refused to start......ohhhhh dear......as the penny dropped.

I removed the ebay CPS and put the old one back on after giving it a good clean with a clean cloth........and bingo the car starts and touch wood,,,, no longer cuts out,,,,,

Hope this helps owners who might fall into the cheap CPS trap currently set on ebay as highlighted by Nodge68

Absolutely spot on!

New crank sensor installed and issue completely resolved.

Thanks Nodge68!

My maiden drive in the project Freel2.
The car drove for 3 miles, with vague steering, a light drone under footwell and another deeper drone from the rear....but quite responsive on the throttle..
The car eventually cut out going up a hill...and would not restart..
Coasted in reverse (luckily) to a safe place...and tried to start car again, which then started, but only on tickover, with battery light on..,that's unusual I thought.....so switched off the motor and waited half an hour for everything to cool down. Car eventually restarted with throttle and no battery light, enough to get 3 miles home to my garage,,,lr2 scanner revealed familiar cps fault codes......( so got a febi sensor on order )
. In the meantime i tried reproducing the fault in my garage while hooked up to the LR2 scanner......with engine running no problem. got to temperature ok and sat for 10 minutes .at idle,,nothing strange while monitoring battery, egr, engine temp etc.....so i got out of the car (left it running) and decided to waggle the cps plug ...and hey presto, a soft press on the cps wiring cut the engine out....at the same time, the scanner showed battery voltage (normally around 12.6v) dropping quickly to 12.1v and falling (14.5v when running/charging,) as if a short to gnd is present...If I try restarting the car it may start but without any charge from alternator and a depleting battery.,.but switch off and come back after a cool down period...and all appears good....?I'm checking the cps plug/wiring today for continuity so hopefully will identify an issue....To fellow freelander 2 owners out there, has anyone come across the charging light on, no throttle response directly after a cps circuit failure/event?? Could this be the BMS (Battery Management System) switching off the alternator charge/demand?..
Any pointers are greatly appreciated.
Cheers

If the CPS plugs isn't connecting correctly, then you'll have issues with it.
The plug connectors are known to spread, giving open circuit which can also cause the sensor to fail.

Sounds like the battery is at the end of its life. The Freelander 2 is very heavy on the battery, which means they're normally at the end of their useful life by 4 years or so.

Thanks for reply. (Nodge68)

The battery is around 6 months old and holds a good charge, but never say never as they say....I disable eco mode on the dash before setting off as its lead acid and not AGM....but I'm thinking (for now) that the heavy current draw from the battery after the ECU looses the CPS signal may be instigated by the cars alternator bms or ECU as the connector itself has no obvious faults/shorts?.....At this point I'm clutching at straws.....

I agree, splayed CPS connector pins seems likely, especially since the car was bought as a non-runner and likely that there were attempts to fix the issue before my ownership ..I can imagine muli -meter probes being stuck in the cps plug pin, while the ecu end of the loom was bell'd for continuity.., and
intended to do just the same today,,,,,,,but first, I'm going to attempt a plug disassembly with help from this youtube video..who knows what i will find?



Then I can clean and pinch each pin for max contact.,,,,,.and if that fails,,,,,, then a possible connector replacement :-

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/22443664...1SE7SWKq/pbyqsnS8MtC9LxH3i|tkp:Bk9SR4iXp9fDYQ

Will keep you posted

The CPS connector disassembly was reasonably straight forward.
as a safety measure I DISCONNECTED THE BATTERY FIRST
before jacking the nearside front end of the car up to place an axle stand under the front subframe, removed the offside front wheeI and inner liner, then popped off the CPS plug.

With smallest watchmakers flat head screwdriver I removed front plug cover, ( the bit with external slide features that makes the plug unique to the crank sensor receptacle Note: the clips are delicate and can snap off really easy.),
then the hinged back cover ( I snipped the hinges to allow the cover to slide up the wires) then :-

To ensure the right wires go back where they came from I :-

a) removed 1 pin from the plug block as per previous video.
b) forced the upper and lower contacts closer together with the small screwdriver until they touched
c) replaced the pin into the plug block then repeated action's a and b for remaining pins

If I had contact spray I would of used that on the plug and CPS for good measure at this point before reassembling plug and plugging it into the sensor..

To test if the plug pin makeover worked

Re - attach battery

I started the car and waggled the CPS wires a little...............and all seems good at the moment...

Concerns...

The Freel2 cps plug seems vulnerable to moisture though, right next to the aux belt and being almost open backed where the wires go into the plug.
solution..?

The Evoque CPS plug appears a much better water tight right angled design, and I believe it could be modified for use on Freel2 sensor by popping off its square front plug cover and swapping it over from your old connector......or alternatively it may be possible to use the evoque connector plug with an evoque crank sensor.on Freel2.(can't confirm this works though)..

I currently have a complete (crank thrown through the block) 2014 evoque engine with wiring loom...( was planning to put good parts on ebay) but a shame to cut off the CPS plug........yet lol

coltron1 said:

The battery is around 6 months old and holds a good charge, but never say never as they say....I disable eco mode on the dash before setting off as its lead acid and not AGM...

Click to expand...

If it has Stop Start, then it should have an AGM battery. The starter on the S S engine is larger than the standard starter, which itself isn't small. So because of the high starting current, most conventional batteries won't cope.

coltron1 said:

The Freel2 cps plug seems vulnerable to moisture though, right next to the aux belt and being almost open backed where the wires go into the plug.
solution..?

Click to expand...

The main issue with the plug is its basically just inside the wheel arch so gets all the muck from the wheel thrown at it, same for the PS pipes. For some reason LR couldn't be bothered to add 6" of extra plastic to bottom the arch liner to protect these items.

New plugs aren't that expensive, and the plug can be taken apart carefully and the connectors inside replaced.
I replaced my plug last year, after multiple CPS failures. I've even changed the CPS at the side of the road. I've got it down to under 10 minutes to swap them at the side of the road.

Ha, yeah I can believe it...I will be keeping a spare sensor in the car until I can get a degree of confidence in the engines reliability. I get what your saying re bigger starter for stop start feature, though I believe the AGM's are for regular stop starting scenarios, high charge/discharge cycles ......city gridlock etc, but will see how the battery fairs in the coming months. I wont be forking out for an AGM yet, but will certainly update the post if the lead acid battery fails prematurely with eco disabled...Thanks for comments (Nodge68), Hopefully the " engine cutting out", is now totally resolved and i can move onto drive train issues..

Update on my Freelander cutting out.

Whilst I'm confident the CPS is fine now, the car continued to cut out after several miles, with a, no throttle response and red battery light.
I thought the "pwm wire", ( plug at the back of the alternator ) may be causing the issue so i disconnected it.

The car started ok ( with expected battery light illumination on the dash) and the alternator sat at 13.58v....
Shortly after the car reached operating temp, the car cut out again and on restart had no throttle response, .battery depleting rapidly...12.1v..

I'm now changing the alternator..as the ecu wire was disconnected I think i can safely assume the ecu plays no part in this particular fault.
I will also charge the battery fully before testing the new (off old removed engine) alternator.

Have you checked the throttle butterfly is free to move?
Maybe check the throttle position live values using a suitable diagnostic device?

Mine has a slight hang at 40% and again at 60%, so I expect the gears are on the way out.

Yes the valve opens and closes....no stripped gears...yet , but sometimes doas quite a dance before shutting down...I have the LR2 scanner, which shows absolute throttle, certainly worth a check.....suppose live data record should highlight something?....I've never used that feature before, but will give it a shot......As far as alternator Goss, apparently the diodes can be checked in situ using a DMM set on AC....anything over 0.4v is bad.......I will do that first, to establish failure mode...
Thanks for Throttle body tip....

Alternator tested at 0.7vAC

Replaced the alternator, (with the one from the old removed engine)....and still get the same symptoms ..( maybe 2 faulty alternators, what would be the chances?)
When the car is up to temperature ( diag in battery monitoring mode)......and engine running/charging at 14+ volts.at idle. Instead of waiting for the car to cut out. I turn the car off....and volts stay bout 12.6ish..........when the car is re-started, the batt light stays illuminated and volts start dropping rapidly....
((possible short detected by the bms situated on the negative battery pole, (question?, can the bms open circuit the alternator?))

Figured whatever is draining the battery maybe be getting hot...?.so had a feel around the engine bay components, e.g. throttle body actuator, but no excessive heat determined in that or the relays. I believe the turbo actuator is electrically operated so plan to check it out...I have checked the turbo variable vanes for freedom of movement and they seem fine....No fault codes are detectable by the icarsoft LR2 .....can assume their are none?

(Nodge) The absolute throttle position is reported at around 86% at idle, blipping the throttle momentarily decreases the value, but a proper road test still pending..Thinking i could unplug this as the butterfly valve appears normally open...and see what happens.

Got car too 73degrees c, then switched off engine...........unplugged the throttle body........started up,,,,,,, same battery light on...gonna try this with other components...

I put that the battery light on the dash stays illuminated when the car is started warm.70degrees+..in truth the light goes out for 10 seconds after starting, then comes on....(might be something?)

coltron1 said:

I bought the car as a none starter/runner project

Click to expand...

Well its certainly been that.

Hope you get it sorted.

GrumpyGel said:

Well its certainly been that.

Hope you get it sorted.

Click to expand...

Thanks, Grumpygel.. Yesterday I ordered an AGM battery (as Nodge first suggested)
I,m new to Stopstart cars and maybe, just maybe..the BCM or ECU knows the battery isn,t behaving like an AGM ?.....while I,m waiting for the AGM I plan to investigate the BMS ....will get back as soon as anything relevant pops up

Back to throttle body absolute throttle position..took the car on quick jaunt whilst hooked up to the scanner...
Surprised to see ....max value at 83. Min value 76 percent..? Valve not shutting when throttling off?....?