Freelander 1 Freelander woes

Richjc4 · Feb 5, 2020

Hope someone can give me some pointers.

I have just recently purchased a 2005 1.8 freelander with some running issues. Possible head gasket problem was my thought.
It was running and driving when I picked it up, but the next day it's barley ticking over. Could the HG of completly failed and is preventing it starting
The coolant is clear.
Pressure tested from cold and it's 150psi on all pots.
Temp guage goes straight to max when you turn it on.
I have fuel and a spark. Looking at the oil it does look milk chocolate so I am thinking head gasket 100%, was also high on the dipstick. Plugs are sooty but not wet.

Nodge68 · Feb 5, 2020

Richjc4 said:
Possible head gasket problem was my thought.

It's not the first thing I'd be thinking.

Richjc4 said:
It was running and driving when I picked it up, but the next day it's barley ticking over.

Does it rev up and hold a steady speed, if you hold the throttle pedal down?

Richjc4 said:
The coolant is clear.

Presumably it's a pink or red colour?

Richjc4 said:
Pressure tested from cold and it's 150psi on all pots.

That's a bit low, it should be closer to 175 Psi on all cylinders. So it's either your pressure gauge is out, or the cam timing is out (surprisingly common).

Richjc4 said:
Temp guage goes straight to max when you turn it on.

Even when cold? If so then I'd suspect a fault on the temperature sensor circuit.

Richjc4 said:
Looking at the oil it does look milk chocolate so I am thinking head gasket 100%, was also high on the dipstick.

Not necessarily the HG, but if it's been done in the past, then was a liner moved in the process? Keep an eye on coolant levels, and if coolant drops, and oil milking continues, then it's likely to be a liner seal.

Richjc4 said:
Plugs are sooty but not wet.

Not wet is good. Sooty is pretty normal tbh, especially if it's not been fitted with the correct platinum plugs.

Richjc4 · Feb 5, 2020

Thanks for getting back to me

It will some times tick over which is very lumpy, and will not rev. No power.

The coolant sensor goes to half way when you turn the ignition then shoots up to red with the light illuminated once the car has been started.

The coolant looks clear possibly not much antifreeze in it., Previous owner may have topped it up before I purchased it?. However the coolant hasn't gone down.

I have taken the covers off the cambelt and with the crank pulley lined up to the bottom cover the top cams look spot on.

Its just a mystery why it was running the previous day. I also tried spraying a little brake cleaner in the inlet to rule out a fueling issue.

I have an engine management light up with an exclamation mark but not giving any fault codes on 2 machines I have used.

Nodge68 · Feb 5, 2020

Richjc4 said:
The coolant sensor goes to half way when you turn the ignition then shoots up to red with the light illuminated once the car has been started.

What colour is the coolant sensor plug? It's possible it's had the wrong one fitted, as there are 3 different types, depending on the year.

Richjc4 said:
Its just a mystery why it was running the previous day. I also tried spraying a little brake cleaner in the inlet to rule out a fueling issue.

The IACV can go sticky, so it's worth cleaning that.

Richjc4 said:
I have an engine management light up with an exclamation mark but not giving any fault codes on 2 machines I have used.

If the MIL is on, then it's logged a fault code, which should be readable by a suitable OBD2 code reader.

Richjc4 · Feb 5, 2020

I'll check out the above suggestions and report back. Cheers

Richjc4 · Feb 5, 2020

Right I have a tinker around with the wiring and cleaned the IACV as suggested.
It's now running (sort of)
It will idle and rev all be it lumpy.
The coolant sensor is now staying on cold and not shooting up to max.

The engine management light has gone out however there is lots of steam or unburnt fuel.

Nodge68 · Feb 5, 2020

Richjc4 said:
It's now running (sort of)
It will idle and rev all be it lumpy.

Are all the plugs clean and correctly gapped at 1mm?

Richjc4 said:
The coolant sensor is now staying on cold and not shooting up to max

What cure was used?

Richjc4 said:
The engine management light has gone

How did you get that cleared? Any codes worth knowing?

Richjc4 said:
however there is lots of steam or unburnt fuel

The K series does make a lot of steam at this time of year, so that's probably normal.

Richjc4 · Feb 5, 2020

They were a used set of plugs I had in my garage, I did clean them up and the gap was set to 1mm. I will get a new set tomorrow.

I swapped a few relays about and also made sure the wires to the ecu were home. Since doing that the coolant sensor has been ok.

The management light also went off. I did disconnect the battery and put the pos and neg lead together as this normally does a reset on most cars I believe.

I think the smoke is too excessive to be just steam. I'll give the new spark plugs a try tomorrow and see how that goes. I presume if it was a cam/crank sensor or coil pack it would stick a light up on the dash?

Nodge68 · Feb 6, 2020

Richjc4 said:
They were a used set of plugs I had in my garage, I did clean them up and the gap was set to 1mm.

Ah. Definitely got the correct plugs for it, as the K series has a really high compression ratio, so is very fussy about plug temperature and design.

Richjc4 said:
I will get a new set tomorrow.

Try to get the correct platinum plugs, which really do make a huge difference to the K series engine.

Richjc4 said:
I swapped a few relays about and also made sure the wires to the ecu were home. Since doing that the coolant sensor has been ok.

That's an interesting one.

Richjc4 said:
I did disconnect the battery and put the pos and neg lead together as this normally does a reset on most cars I believe.

It shouldn't make any difference to a Freelander, as codes are stored in non volatile (don't need battery power) memory. But obviously something the ECU was detecting has gone. Reading the codes might well help though.

Richjc4 said:
I think the smoke is too excessive to be just steam. I'll give the new spark plugs a try tomorrow and see how that goes.

Like I said, steam is normal, even lots of steam under certain atmospheric conditions is normal.

Richjc4 said:
. I presume if it was a cam/crank sensor or coil pack it would stick a light up on the dash

Any of those would cause a MIL and code, or a total failure to start.

Richjc4 · Feb 6, 2020

Right I've changed the plugs over today and it's still running poorly.

The coolant light has come back up again so I'm picking one up tomorrow. I found the fault code for it inside the instrument cluster. I have re-checked the compression which is 16psi on each pot

I did notice on one cylinder that there was a little mist coming out of the bore. All the plugs looked the same that I took out. Dark black. I'm still not loosing any coolant

I have a fuel pressure tester I'm going to rig up tomorrow to see if I'm getting the correct fuel pressure.

The inj timing on idle is 6.9. When it really starts bogging down before cutting out the inj timing goes up to 18.

Richjc4 · Feb 9, 2020

Right I've come to the conclusion the engine is beyond repair and will prob just scrap it now. I don't think a HG change will sort it.

When it does start bogging down after a few minutes of idling it can be improved by removing the breather going back to the inlet manifold. Reading up it seems the piston rings could be to blame due to the high crankcase pressure

Nodge68 · Feb 9, 2020

Richjc4 said:
Reading up it seems the piston rings could be to blame due to the high crankcase pressure

Unlikely. The K series engine is very tough (head gasket excepted) and the rings aren't generally a problem. In the freelander, the engine isn't running anywhere near its maximum capability, so has a very long life.

I'm still inclined towards cam timing, which is easy to get slightly out. Or it's got some sort of air leak into the manifold, or even a fuel supply issue.

You could find out more if you did some live data analysis.

Richjc4 · Feb 9, 2020

I have checked the fuel pressure which was ok 3.5 bar on idle
Changed the inlet gasket in case of a leak

I've since removed the cam cover, lots of mayo type deposits under the cover. So water getting in somewhere although coolant not going down which is strange.

Alibro · Feb 12, 2020

How much do you wanna bet some ape worked at it before you and cocked up refitting the timing belt, as Nodge says it is very common for them to be refitted badly.
If you can't check it out yourself, take it to an old school mechanic who you trust. They will have replaced loads of head gaskets in K series engines so will be aware of probably issues.

Richjc4 · Feb 12, 2020

Alibro said:
How much do you wanna bet some ape worked at it before you and cocked up refitting the timing belt, as Nodge says it is very common for them to be refitted badly.
If you can't check it out yourself, take it to an old school mechanic who you trust. They will have replaced loads of head gaskets in K series engines so will be aware of probably issues.

Hi Alibro, having gone through the service history the HG was done around 15k ago and was apparently running well until it lost power.

I have taken the cam cover off and aligned the top pulleys.
I have then checked the bottom pulley which seems the line up ok. I haven't removed the crank pulley, Just gone with the markings on the cover.
I will recheck it again tomorrow just to be sure, if the rings have gone is there anyway to check this? I don't want to throw money at it if it is the bottom that's at fault.

Alibro · Feb 12, 2020

The two cam pulleys should be exactly pointing at each other when the crank pulley is lined up. It's very common for them to be 1/2 tooth out.
It is possible the HG has been done again since the last known 15k ago. If so and not recorded it may have been badly put back together, I've done it myself but figured out what I'd done and sorted it.
Because of their bad publicity for HG failure this is often blamed when the fault is else where.

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