Good positive things about freelanders....

Mine is a decent drive, gives good mpg for what it is, is a great car for driving around towns and cities due to driving position etc.

Can cope with snow and ice easily with the right tyres and sensible driving. Will cope with your off road needs unless you like following challenge spec 4x4s around.

The interiors nice with great seats and decent level of kit.

For your 04-06, buy a TD4 SE/HSE. These have the spec levels you want, other trim levels are available but the 2 above offer the best value for money.

Ignore the tratter folks who bad mouth them, smile at them, and pat their pig on the head as you walk past. They dont bite but they are a bit strange.

My old man had one, a 3 door, and it was fab. Had decent off road ability (was also great in the floods a few years back) and we used to run down to Cornwall for hols with 5 in the car, surf boards on the roof, at 6 in the morning, with the rear roof down and AC/DC destroying our eardrums. It had no problems what so ever for nearly 300,000 miles, until it dumped it's entire drive train all over the M5.... We still made it to Exeter with what I can only assume was 1 wheel drive judging by the holes. Never heard of that problem with any other Freelander though.

Hi ive just had my td4 remapped with an eco mapp it now does better on mpg and goes like stink as now its up to 140bhp and in the snow its brill.

I have a 2001 TD4 commercial. Its had the VCU problem and plenty of other faults in the past, but these were all down to poor maintenance and neglect by previous owners. I bought it very cheaply from a clearance auction and am happy with it - Will be happier once I have a working VCU though!

It can carry all my work tools no problem, tows 2 tons if needed, and gets me where I need to go. I am not into off-roading as a hobby at all, but my work is on various country estates where fields and forest tracks are the norm. My old work 2wd Citroen van just did not have the traction to keep going up a muddy slope, so the Freelander is ideal for me. I also live somewhere quite remote where winters can be harsh, so this car is fine.

I have had a Discovery and a Defender in the past as well as a few Jap 4x4's and they have all had their plus points and their drawbacks, and I will not say that the Freelander is the best - just that this one at the price I paid was the ideal solution for me at the time.

Phil0114 said:

Hi ive just had my td4 remapped with an eco mapp it now does better on mpg and goes like stink as now its up to 140bhp and in the snow its brill.

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Who did the remap for you?

What did it cost?

They burn well!!!!

TRXnMe said:

Who did the remap for you?

What did it cost?

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Mate of mine does it he charges £175 its money well spent you can have all economy or an eco map or all power its entirely up to you mine used to sup diesel now its great he has also remapped his dads td4 and thats great now good mpg and goes like stink if you require it doing he is located near to jun 30 on m1 tel no supplied if needed.

Phil0114 said:

Mate of mine does it he charges £175 its money well spent you can have all economy or an eco map or all power its entirely up to you mine used to sup diesel now its great he has also remapped his dads td4 and thats great now good mpg and goes like stink if you require it doing he is located near to jun 30 on m1 tel no supplied if needed.

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I might be interested later in the year, got to work out how it's performing as standard before spendin any money, also after buying it and fixing its problems the wife has to save up some money

J30 M1 sounds good, a long way from me, but near my parents so we could combine a dutiful visit with adding fun to the freelander

Hi TRXnMe have you done the EGR conversion yet as this also helps as the egr valve is a noose around the Td4s neck.

If they are cleaned out regulary they have no affect on the engine.It's only when they're full of gunk they cause problems.

Well I have fitted one to my 40,000 miler and i noticed a big difference it stops the engine breathing its own exhaust fumes gives it more low down torque . The original system allows hot and contaminating exhaust gasses to enter the intake system on the LAND ROVER diesels and mix with the oil causing thick layers of carbon/sludge to build up on the walls of the intake system thus reducing performance. Also the EGR valve that is present in the std EGR body reduces the intake opening by some 40% which in return severly restricts the volume of air reaching the engine this reducing the performance and the power of the engine. The factory fitted exhaust gas recirculation system has been applied to all modern diesel and petrol engines for some years. The basic principal behind the factory part is to allow some of the exhaust gasses to enter into the inlet system, essentially helping to control the emission out put of the vehicle. However, this is not necessary as diesels are not measured on CO2 emission out put, but particulate (soot). There are two main draw backs from having this on your car. One, is that by allowing hot exhaust gas to pass back in to your inlet system you lower the effective combustion achieved, as an engine will always combust better on cold dense air. Secondly, the soot from EGR mixes with the oil vapor produced by the turbo and forms a paste which sticks to the inlet manifold and ports and reduces the flow, in effect causing the engine to strangle itself.

*** Significantly improved air flow.
*** Reduces turbo lag.
*** More torque from 1200rpm till the redline.
*** Smoother engine running.
*** Better throttle response.
*** Prevents carbon build up in the intake system.
*** More power (up to 10bhp).
*** Significant reduction of black smoke under full accelaration
Hope This Helps.

My TD4 HSE was genuinely impressive in the snow over the last couple of days.

It may lack the ground clearance, low ratio box and lockable centre diff of my old 90, but I genuinely think with the traction control it got just as much traction in slippery conditions.

It was also a much nicer place to be, with the FBH blowing hard, Harmon Kardon stereo going and the heated seats on.

we have a 2002 1.8 no major prob's yet just check out the vcu carefully and you should be fine after that, ignore the lads in the bigger land rovers they just dont like getting towed out of the muddy stuf by a FREELANDER

Got a 1.8 petrol and goes like. Dream, ran it to Kent from pompey on Saturday to collect something for my daughter, there and back in 3 hours and 1/2 tank of petrol.... All I have had replaced is the master slave 3 months ago and that's about it, still MOT in a couple of weeks do might have second thoughts

K series much better than a dirty doozle

Phil0114 said:

Hi TRXnMe have you done the EGR conversion yet as this also helps as the egr valve is a noose around the Td4s neck.

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I had planned to, but with the new MOT laws effectively making a missing / modified EGR an MOT fail I'll be leaving it where it is

Hoyt-Protec said:

If they are cleaned out regulary they have no affect on the engine.It's only when they're full of gunk they cause problems.

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That ^^ is what I've been doing to the Rover 75, and will be doing to the Freelander soon.

The money I'd put aside to get the R75 an EGR bypass will go on other goodies for it (or beer for me).

If the anti tampering / MOT schedule turns out to be less problematic I'll do the mods, but I'm going to wait until the guys on the MG-Rover.ord site who have taken the EGR out have their cars MOTd and see what the results are

It'll be interesting to see the outcome of this too.
Apart from the legal issue it makes the engine & turbo run at a higher temp, that can't be a good thing.
Modest gains have been reported when other mods have been carried out at the same time.
Having said that I don't have a doozle i'm happy with what i've got

Mine has passed 2 mots with the EGR blanking kit in place. My mot garage know it's blanked but have not said it would fail because of it. Will never remove it. Such a great bit of kit.

A.J.M said:

Mine has passed 2 mots with the EGR blanking kit in place. My mot garage know it's blanked but have not said it would fail because of it. Will never remove it. Such a great bit of kit.

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Has it been tested this year? If not when is it due?

I know there is a strong school of thought they are a good thing, but the latest I've seen on the MOT test would specifically fail an EGR bypass, I really CBA to swap it out and back in once a year if it does turn out to be an issue.

You may be lucky and have the sort of tester who passes my motorcycle with an non stamped exhaust on it, he reckons it's not excessively noisy (it isn't, I have the kit to do a dBa test ) and passes it as such.

I will await your MOT result, I hope it's positive and the hype is just hype.

Just had my 2003 TD4 MOT today with ATS so no friendly back door job - they are good guys but do it by the book. I have an EGR bypass but took my synergy off to test a small misfire problem.

Passed test with no advisories and when I asked the guy he said its all good - he would have TD me if the EGR was an issue and I watched him inspect the engine compartment.