Hello From Newport

Hi.

I've been lurking for a while due to the wife deciding she wanted a 4x4 to tow our caravan with. As Freelanders had made the short list (Td4 diesel only) I had a good look around for reliability experience etc

Well, she bought one last night, from the local auction, Freelander Td4 Kalahari, in BRG, it's an auto with 74,000 miles on a 52 plate, checked the MOT history and it looks legit.

It's now sat on the drive awaiting her selling her current car so I've got a week or so to give it a good going over, looks like the oil needs changing, so I'll do that and all the filters.

From the time I've spent under the bonnet on it, it looks much better for engine access than my 75 diesel, so bonus there.

Besides the oil service and getting the 4 mismatched tyres swapped for the new of the same brand ASAP is there anything else I should be planning to do?

mis-matched tyres is a worry as the 4x4 system uses a vcu, and always put new tyres on the rear if only fitting two. Check the rear prop is there, check the vcu is not seizing (search for the test , its on here somewhere) a quick check is if the rear tyres are worn in a saw-tooth pattern its knackered. If the vcu is knackered maybe the ird is aswell again do a search.

I'm 'The wife' :nothingtoadd:
Ooooh except that to say hubby has already been pricing tyres, towbars and made me buy the haynes manual on my way home from work tonight. He has also named the car umph because in his words 'it has the umph to tow our caravan'...... Mmmmmmm

Looking forward to having a drive of the said Td4 but at the mo it's all I say..... LET ME AT IT :crazy_driver:

:welcome2:to Loony Zone both of you ... good to see a double act arriving to entertain us

Well we've had a closer look at 'umph' today, got down and dirty and checked out her undercarriage. Bad news is the entire prop shaft is missing :5bwilly_nilly:

Hubby has spent the afternoon pricing the missing parts and drilling me on what it might cost..... poor Umph, being canibalised like that.

I'll ask before hubby does..... any advice??

Wot she said Dunno what I thought I saw on Friday night, in my defence it was bloody 'orrible weather.

No nasty noises when I drove it, plenty of powere, but no VCU, no front or rear propshaft, eBay hs been good to me today, hoping to get a barely used second hand unit on Teusday. If I get it I'll do the Bell Engineering test, as per youtube video, before fitting.

Hopefully it's a recent thing because all four bolt holes are clean as a whistle under the car, I'm guessing it's failed recently and that's why it's been sold.

Even with a recon VCU to fit, it will still be a very cheap car, off to the Freelander bit for now

PS, as it's the missus' car, does that make me 'the ballast'?

yu could , of course, do the Landyzone test - a much superior method, even if I am somewhat biased. its all in the FAQ section.

I'll have a look tomorrow night, when I googled "vcu test" the Bell Engineering video came up, as I have a weight and a vice it looked pretty simple

Thanks

which newport are you from.Local auctions collingbournes by any chance???

Newport, South Wales, not sure if they are collinbournes? The trade as Newport Auctions

The car was entered by a dealer, so I'm guessing it's been traded in when the repair bills started to look nasty.

The IRD looks to be very clean, hardly any road dirt on it at all, the more I see of the car the more I think someone has started to get it fixed and got fed up with the size of the bills.

TRXnMe said:

Newport, South Wales, not sure if they are collinbournes? The trade as Newport Auctions

The car was entered by a dealer, so I'm guessing it's been traded in when the repair bills started to look nasty.

The IRD looks to be very clean, hardly any road dirt on it at all, the more I see of the car the more I think someone has started to get it fixed and got fed up with the size of the bills.

Click to expand...

Yep wer in the same ****ty city work not far from auctions.If your looking for parts dont use the breakers in chepstow no fear i think ther trading as also have an address in monmouth took a lot of people for a lot of money with no parts arriving they sell thro ebay

Cheers for that.

I've got my eye on two complete drive units, front / rear prop shaft and VCU on eBay, neither are in Chepstow.

Considering it's a £75 quid premium for an exchange unit, if I don't have a VCU to exchange, I'm happy to buy the shafts and a vcu of unknown provenance for around the £75 quid mark

I've not had to deal with a breakers for years (that'll jinx it), so don't know where any of the local ones are, I may be back later to ask for suggestions

OK, re read this, apologies for a pretty cr@p introduction.

Apart from the being the 'ballast / mechanic' in the wife's Freelander I'm an Engineer, I have experience of designing process equipment, fixing process problems (I worked for Sony making TVs for a while) am a 6 sigma bod and recently (lasst 2 years) took up the H&S role part time with current employer.

The user name is due to me being a biker, TRX & Me, I used to own a Yamah TRX850 (it was written off, me damn nearly as well, back 2003) and picked this user name when I bought it in 2000, I'm on several forums with the same name so tend to stick to it now

The wife is Cruiser Angel, scummy stoodent type reading history at our local uni, she took up biking when she met me, got me into caravanning and now into 4x4s.

My current car is a Rover 75 diesel Conny tourer, very good for carrying dogs and towing a caravan, sod all good for the machismo....

Oh yeah, we have two dogs, boxers, both barking mad

Hi TRXnME and Cruiser Angel,

Welcome to the forum. I to am from Newport, but escaped to an even worse hell hole Pontypridd, about 25 years ago. I also tow a caravan with my Freelander TD4, the MTPLM of the caravan is 1460kg and the freelander has no problems at all pulling it. Hope you get yours sorted soon.

Grayo

Finally got to drive the Freelander today, not before I had to push it (we got it off the drive into the middle of the street and it chose that precise moment to run out of fuel)...... we now know the orange light means feed me NOW
After a walk to get diesel I then spent a while polishing and hoovering the interior to get rid of all the ming left in there by the last owner :5bpuke: Put all my little bits in and a new air freshener and we were ready to roll... WOOHOOO
:crazy_driver::crazy_driver::crazy_driver::crazy_driver::crazy_driver::crazy_driver:
Had a little drive and think this is the start of a beautiful friendship.

BEEP BEEP :high5::rofl:

Cruiser angel said:

Finally got to drive the Freelander today, not before I had to push it (we got it off the drive into the middle of the street and it chose that precise moment to run out of fuel)...... we now know the orange light means feed me NOW
After a walk to get diesel I then spent a while polishing and hoovering the interior to get rid of all the ming left in there by the last owner :5bpuke: Put all my little bits in and a new air freshener and we were ready to roll... WOOHOOO
:crazy_driver::crazy_driver::crazy_driver::crazy_driver::crazy_driver::crazy_driver:
Had a little drive and think this is the start of a beautiful friendship.

BEEP BEEP :high5::rofl:

Click to expand...

could be worse my old car ran out of feul 6 foot from the pumps at sainsburys (when it was on malpas road )which is ok just a short push!NOT When your towing the caravan:doh:

TRXnMe said:

Hi.


Well, she bought one last night, from the local auction, Freelander Td4 Kalahari, in BRG, it's an auto with 74,000 miles on a 52 plate, checked the MOT history and it looks legit.

4 mismatched tyres swapped for the new of the same brand ASAP is there anything else I should be planning to do?

Click to expand...

TRXnMe said:

Dunno what I thought I saw on Friday night

no VCU, no front or rear propshaft,

Hopefully it's a recent thing because all four bolt holes are clean as a whistle under the car, I'm guessing it's failed recently and that's why it's been sold.

Click to expand...

mmmm i wonder why it was put in an auction to sell lets hope it dont turn out too eggspensive for ya

:welcome2:

easter jokes already lol

wiltshire landyman said:

mmmm i wonder why it was put in an auction to sell lets hope it dont turn out too eggspensive for ya

:welcome2:

Click to expand...

Cheers mate.

There is enough money between our purchase price and the current price for one with a drive train, to allow me to replace the IRD, VCU and rear diff if I have to. Admittedly, if I do have to do all that, it's not such a bargain

I just wish the weather was a bit warmer and drier as it's all going to be done on my back on the drive

TRXnMe said:

Cheers mate.

There is enough money between our purchase price and the current price for one with a drive train, to allow me to replace the IRD, VCU and rear diff if I have to. Admittedly, if I do have to do all that, it's not such a bargain

I just wish the weather was a bit warmer and drier as it's all going to be done on my back on the drive

Click to expand...

You may want to read the latest Land Rover Owner mag as they buy a cheap one like this to do up and it has a prop missing and a blanking plate there. It shows you in depth all the problems they found and the causes.