Freelander speedo problem

I have a T rag Freelander XDi. A few weeks ago I was driving along at about
70mph and I put the headlights on. The speedo dropped back to zero and the
odometer reading disappeared. The next morning as I set off for the
dealer's it was all working fine again, except that the trip odo was
registering zero and the odo had not counted the miles from when the speedo
switched off. Turning the lights on had no effect.

The dealer tested the car and their computer said that the ABS Modulator was
failing and it would cost £1800 to replace. My credit card company has deep
pockets so I agreed.

The day after it was fixed I drove a 12 mile round trip twice and as I got
home the second time the speedo switched off. I drove immediately to the
dealer whose computer now refused to acknowledge its connection to my car.
They spent the next day driving the car around and retesting it, with the
speedo etc. working fine. On Land Rover's advice they checked (broke and
remade) a number of the electrical connections. They could not replicate
the fault. I spat blood at the £1800 but agreed to drive the car around
through the Christmas period and observe carefully when the fault occurred.

Late one afternoon I was nearing the end of a 30 mile trip when it happened
again. The headlights were already on and I had been about to turn off the
heater which was cooking my feet. A few days later I drove to London (200
miles) with no lights and no heater; from London to Maidstone with heater
and no lights; and from Maidstone to London with lights and no heater. The
problem did not recur. I drove home with the heater on the windscreen and
after about 100 miles took a break. I set off again with heater on my feet
and headlights on and after 15 miles the speedo stopped working.

The next morning it was all working fine again and the dealer could not
diagnose or replicate the problem.

It seems completely irrational that cooking my feet (usually actually my
wife's feet) whilst having the headlights on should affect the speedo.

Has anyone seen this problem before? Does anyone know the cure?

Ar'll sithee
DaveT
In Sunny South Yorkshire

Isn't this a great advert for buying a Series III

Electronics - None
Heater - On or Off
Speedo - Cable driven from g/box
70Mph - Only Possible Down hill with a strong following wind

Mind you to survive the rigors of driving to Tesco's the Freelander wins
every time!!!!

In <[email protected]> DaveT wrote:
> It seems completely irrational that cooking my feet (usually actually
> my wife's feet) whilst having the headlights on should affect the
> speedo.
>
> Has anyone seen this problem before? Does anyone know the cure?

I don't know of anything specific without wading through the hundreds of
service bulletins but there have been recalls in the past for
Freelanders to fix, among other things, faults in the loom relating to
shorts caused by the heater.

At a guess I'd suggest looking at the heater flaps and control cables -
maybe one of the direction flaps has cut into the loom and is causing a
short circuit, perhaps between the headlight circuit and the speedo
signal ?

If I were you the first thing I would do is demand that the dealer
refits your old ABS module and credits you for the work and parts that
they conned you into buying because they were too incompetent to fix the
problem. Then take the vehicle to someone who knows what they are doing
and get it fixed properly.

It is a sad fact of life that the LR dealer network have, time and again,
proved themselves to be completely useless when it comes to fault
diagnosis on electrical systems.

RCV are in South Yorkshire (Doncaster) and I've heard very good reports
about them though have no first hand experience, Maddison 4x4 near
Thirsk are good too but may be a bit far away for you to travel.

http://www.rcv.co.uk/Frameset.htm

or

http://www.maddison4x4.com/

HTH

cheers

Dave W.
http://www.yorkshireoffroadclub.net/