Freelander OBD Error codes help?

Dear all

My 02 Freelander TD4 auto has been totally reliable for 2 years. Last week I reversed up onto a low kerb and the HDC and TC lights came on and have stayed on. The car is now really sluggish to set off, dangerously so really, and the gear indicator lights on the gear selector don't light up. It feels like it's trying to pull away in top.

So, I've searched the forum extensively on the 'three amigos' topic. I checked the brake light switch-working well-has a sticker on it indicating it was an upgraded part fitted in 2014. I've had the wheel off that I originally reversed over the kerb and nothing is obviously hanging off.

Today I had the codes read on an OBD machine and the following errors came up

C1146 Historical CAN signal gear info error
C1154 Historical CAN Signal engine speed error
C1148 Historical No Can message from engine ECU
C1149 Current

Would be grateful for any help as to what these messages indicate?

Does the dash LCD show F4 where the gear selected is normally displayed?

There's no Dash gear display sorry if I wasn't clear-what I mean is the indicator panel by the auto gearstick usually shows a red lcd by the selected mode. Therefore no F4. Mine is a non face lifted Freelander perhaps this helps?

The dash LCD shows what gear is selected, regardless of year. It should show P, N, D, R, Sport, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. The red LED next to the lever should also light, next to each of the main gear positions.

If you aren't getting any gear selection shown, then it sounds like the TCM has either gone wrong, has a bad connection or the ABS ECU has gone screwy. The ABS ECU has been known to cause CAN problems.

ah ok, didn't know that, dash display must never have been working. The gearstick LEDs did work-but went off when the TC /HDC lights came on.

thanks for the suggestions-what would you suggest as a next step? Other than checking for loose connections. Is it unlikely to be a problem at the wheel?

Fergalant said:

ah ok, didn't know that, dash display must never have been working. The gearstick LEDs did work-but went off when the TC /HDC lights came on.

thanks for the suggestions-what would you suggest as a next step? Other than checking for loose connections. Is it unlikely to be a problem at the wheel?

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First things to do are disconnect the battery for a few minutes and cycle the ignition while it's disconnected. This will clear down any spurious problems any of the ECUs have. Also while the battery is disconnected, remove and reconnect the ABS multi-plug and the TCM multi-plug.
Then reconnect the battery, recalibrate the rear window and set the clock. You'll also need to re-synchronise the fobs and enter the radio code.
Then see if the problems have gone. If if the problems persist, things get more complex.

I think going up the curb could have upset the ABS ECU, possibly when TC kicked in?

ok I'll give that sequence a go before taking it to a mechanic/specialist. It's a shame because my wife (who drives it every day) really likes the car but it would be difficult to justify spending £££'s on the problem, particularly if it's difficult to identify. Thanks for the pointers really appreciate it

Fergalant said:

ok I'll give that sequence a go before taking it to a mechanic/specialist. It's a shame because my wife (who drives it every day) really likes the car but it would be difficult to justify spending £££'s on the problem, particularly if it's difficult to identify. Thanks for the pointers really appreciate it

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The car is still worth spending a few £ on as it's far from worthless. You try replacing it with an equivalent vehicle, and you'll quickly see what I mean.

Oh I agree. My wife is taking the opportunity to 'look' at all kinds of much newer and more expensive vehicles so I'm hopeful of a repair before she gets her heart set on anything. The Freelander is a three door kalahari model in British racing green with relatively low miles and we are quite fond of it. It's the head scratching that's the worst part

Fergalant said:

Oh I agree. My wife is taking the opportunity to 'look' at all kinds of much newer and more expensive vehicles so I'm hopeful of a repair before she gets her heart set on anything. The Freelander is a three door kalahari model in British racing green with relatively low miles and we are quite fond of it. It's the head scratching that's the worst part

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Keep in mind that the Freelander is a simple vehicle technologically speaking, by comparison to modern vehicles. The Freelander technology was actually quite a bit behind other manufacturers of the time. So it's actually easy to fix compared to modern vehicles. These modern vehicles are very complicated to repair, when they go wrong generally requiring dedicated code readers. So as technology gets added to vehicles, the head scratching only gets worse and repair costs rise as a result.