help/advice wanted on engine thats breathing

Hi guys, i own a 2007 Freelander 2 with 112,000 on the clock, after investigating an oil leak it was found that my Turbo was the problem, however I have also been told that my engine is "breathing" and that potentially my engine is knackered, my question is what is the cheapest option, to replace with a recon engine or have my engine repaired (i am presuming it will be piston rings or valves) ? i cant afford to replace the car at the present so need to work out the cheapest option for me. I appreciate we are talking maybe £1k plus to repair but if I get another 100,000 miles out of it I think it would be worth it - what you the experts on here think ??

Claire0208 said:

Hi guys, i own a 2007 Freelander 2 with 112,000 on the clock, after investigating an oil leak it was found that my Turbo was the problem

Click to expand...

Really? Is the oil leak visible on the plastic at the top of the engine?

Claire0208 said:

however I have also been told that my engine is "breathing" and that potentially my engine is knackered, my question is what is the cheapest option, to replace with a recon engine or have my engine repaired (i am presuming it will be piston rings or valves) ? i cant afford to replace the car at the present so need to work out the cheapest option for me.

Click to expand...

What a crock of ****e.
A well maintained Freelander 2 engine is good for at least 250,000 miles. At 112k the engine is hardly run in, and should be good for a long time yet.

When I replaced the piston on mine (someone dropped a nut in the intake) the engine showed absolutely no wear to the bore or piston, other than the damage, and mine probably had missed servicing and has 120k on it.

Claire0208 said:

I appreciate we are talking maybe £1k plus to repair but if I get another 100,000 miles out of it I think it would be worth it - what you the experts on here think ??

Click to expand...

I think someone is after making some money at your expense, dreaming up a fault that doesn't exist.

I'd find a different garage, that aren't on the make.

the guy looking at it owns several landcover's and is doing me a favour, he's not looking for any work as he is a fulltime breakdown technician where I work, having said that I am not convinced by what I am being told as like you say at its current mileage its hardly run in, its been in the family for 9 years and has been serviced regularly with an oil change every year so am I struggling to understand how there can be so much wrong with it. A new turbo has been fitted and I am currently waiting for it to be rebuilt to see what he says, I'm just thinking worse case scenario what to do for the best.

I wouldn't rebuild anything without a second opinion. These engines aren't known to wear, and definitely not at such low mileages. The only real issue is the port flaps can break, which then get ingested by the engine. These can be removed in a couple of hours, which then eliminates a potential future issue.

I can't see the turbo failing at such low mileages either, so what symptoms did you have that lead to a failing turbo diagnosis? What's being rebuilt? The turbo is a 2 hour job to change, although I don't think it's needed so soon.

What makes the person working on it think it's suffering blow-by?

It's not uncommon for the breather pipes to leak a bit of oil, but that's the clips on the breather pipes not clamping, and nothing to do with blow-by.

Does it start and run ok?
Does it use execive amounts of oil and smoke through the exhaust?
It has an absorbent mat built into the sump guard which sugests landrover could not stop the leaks. I replace mine with industrial "Oil Spill Absorbent Pads" once a year, keeps the drive clean.

Get this so called breakdown technician to put the car back together, then drive it and see how it is, from where did he say or did you see the turbo leaking, was it blowing out smoke or something which alerted you to the problem?

If it was from here it was leaking nothing tightening up of the clip wouldn't solve.
1

same at the top end, change the clip from a spring one to a jubilee one.
2

3

If it was leaking at the throttle control, intercooler pipe then it may need the hose changing.
4

I would be more worried if the car as not yet had its belts changed but only by time 10years or 150,000 miles whichever comes first, get someone else to look at it for you, do not say to them what this guy as said and see what they say.

Hi Claire,

i'm not a FL2 guy, but I agree with what;s been said above, get it reassembled and reassessed by another garage, or at the very least ask us lot ofr some more opinions on what the fault is, including some information on the symptoms, as for...

Stv123 said:

Does it start and run ok?
Does it use execive amounts of oil and smoke through the exhaust?
It has an absorbent mat built into the sump guard which suggests land rover could not stop the leaks. I replace mine with industrial "Oil Spill Absorbent Pads" once a year, keeps the drive clean.

Click to expand...

I like this idea, in general terms, not just specific to FL2's. In the north sea oil industry, I changed innumerate pads used like that - I should of thought on using them for vehicles & must order a packet for the workshop/fleet. Then again, land rovers don't leak oil, they are just marking their territory

The decent absorbent pads reject water and only absorb oil.

Jayridium said:

Hi Claire,

i'm not a FL2 guy, but I agree with what;s been said above, get it reassembled and reassessed by another garage, or at the very least ask us lot ofr some more opinions on what the fault is, including some information on the symptoms, as for...

I like this idea, in general terms, not just specific to FL2's. In the north sea oil industry, I changed innumerate pads used like that - I should of thought on using them for vehicles & must order a packet for the workshop/fleet. Then again, land rovers don't leak oil, they are just marking their territory

Click to expand...

Stv123 said:

The decent absorbent pads reject water and only absorb oil.

Click to expand...

And they are good at it as well, trust me - as a hydraulics tech I know just how effective these suckers are But you are right, quality makes a world of difference with them, I was on a shell rig when, as a stop-gap measure awaiting incoming supplies, we got given rolls of "angel hair" (filter media) style mats, which were useless as they absorbed everything including water, and disintegrated into a wet mess reminiscent of fibreglass paste filler. It was a great relief to us when, a couple of days, later we got the correct white perforated hydrophobic white mats in off a supply ship.

I've also used the opposite, as in oleophobic but hydro-absorbent mats, which were typically pink. We used them for keeping water out of oil, or oil-filled systems. So for example, if you open a barrel of hydraulic oil to pump the into a system, you'd put these pink oleophobic pads around the standpipe of the barrel pump, ie between the pump and the barrel, to stop the rain getting into the barrel and contaminating the oil.

Thanks for all your replies, what alerted me initially was drops of oil on the driveway, so, as I work for a large commercial vehicle repairer I had them look at it to determine where the leak was coming from and was told the turbo, engine was then stripped down and although the turbo itself was ok when running oil was pouring oil hence why I have had the turbo replaced, at the same time I was told my engine was breathing....this is where I am confused as prior to any of this the car was running fine, pulling like a train and not using hardly any oil. I have also replaced the oil separator filter (pig of a job) an oil filler pipe and a few other pipes that had gone soft and were soaked in oil. I got the car back today and apart from my coolant level low warning on (i have topped up) it all seems fine, I know a little bit about engines etc and how they work and as I said no worrying oil consumption, no clouds of smoke on acceleration (only the normal for a 13 year old diesel lol) this "breathing" is really worrying me, i rely on this car for daily use and for towing the wobble box but am now scared that there is something terminally wrong with my engine

Sounds to me like the engine is fine. By "breathing" I assume its getting some blow-by gasses coming through the breather system.
It's completely normal for this engine to have a degree of pressure in the crankcase and so the breather pipes.
I don't believe there's an issue with the engine, other than a slight oil leak.

I don't believe the turbo was responsible for this oil leak, as that would be rare Where was it poring oil out? As there's nothing to leak on there, other than its oil supply, which would be just a 50p copper washer.

However it's not uncommon to see a bit of oil around the boost pipe joints, which simply need tightening of the worn clips. The breather pipes on to of the engine can leak a bit of oil, which again is completely normal, and simply need the factory clips to be replaced with suitable worm clips to solve the issue.

The leak underneath will require investigation, but the most likely causes are the crankshaft oil seals, or camshaft oil seal, both of which are best changed at the same time that the timing belt is done. The other common leak point is from the front of the sump, on the gearbox end, which bizarrely rusts through over time.

If you've had oil changes done on time, with the correct specification of oil, then there's no way the engine needs a rebuild at such a low mileages.