Freelander 1 How easy and smooth should it be to engage gears

Quick question
How easy and smooth should gear selection be on a td4?
I expected it to be a bit firm, but it can be quite difficult some times to engage 1st in particular, though each gear requires a very firm push into place. It's almost obstructive.
Is that normal? My last car was an Audi A4 Quattro which just clicked into place smoothly, could do it with your fingers and no effort, my Freelander requires a good hard shove!
Should I be having something looked at?
Thanks!

(oh, and sometimes first will just push in with no effort at all...)

Speaking from experience.....
I'm guessing you have a clutch pedal that feels that it is FULL..
by that, I mean the pedal returns right up to the top and feels normal?
When I say "speaking from experience" - I had exactly the same issue.
A new clutch worked for a short period of time - prior to me owning the car... but when it was handed to my by my dad the clutch was goosed again.
Even when I fitted another brand new clutch,new genuine master cylinder and an LUK Slave the clutch pedal felt the same and was hard to push into 1st gear.
In my case, the crank shaft would move about 0.5 to 1.0mm over to the water pump side of the engine.
For me, it wasn't great news.... It ended in sourcing another engine, although - I could have gotten away with fitting a new set of crankshaft shells - especially No.4 shell as it has the THRUST race - this stops the crank shaft from moving to and fro. - something which I intend doing before selling the engine. (very frustrating, because the engine purrs like a kitten)
Anyway.... if you can manage with it for now, it may be worth consider fitting a clutch in the future - when you do, I would strongly suggest having the crank shaft end float checked before building it back up.
A word of advice - always start the engine (TD4 especially) in neutral and with the foot OFF the clutch - the pressure on the clutch adds to the wear of the thrust race on the crankshaft shells.

Oh! That sounds worse than I expected to hear! Yes, the clutch feels full with feel all the way through its travel back to the top.
The engine is great, had hoped it would be some kind of minor adjustment!

I may have jumped the gun.....depending on the gearbox you have fitted.
If you have a GETRAG gearbox (the slave cylinder is inside the bellhousing and not visible with the exception of two pipes from the top of the box)
then my statement remains.
If you can see the clutch arm on the box, this will be the PG1 gearbox..... if it is the PG1, there is a repair kit and bracket that may say you from an engine rebuild.

I'm alarmed!

I can imagine...
others on here will probably give you different advice - of which I have accepted and used in many cases...
I give my opinions and advice on real-life experiences..
one thing I would suggest...
get the gear oil changed prior to doing anything else (and that includes worrying)
Have a search around on here - someone may have recommended a better brand to that in the RAVE manual.
I don't know what the mileage is of your freelander, but again, you don't mention that the oil has been changed in the gearbox either.
Always start with the cheapest (in my opinion)
have someone do a full drain of the gearbox and oil change - it may help.

I'll have a go with the getting the oil changed this weekend...
My freelander has done 79k. I really like it but if it's going to be disastrous will sell cheap it and try another!

79k.... low mileage really.... try to keep regular oil changes of the GBOX / IRD and Rear diff..

my clutch seems close to the floor to me but it engages easily 2004 model, just come from a landrover indi and he says lowish pedal is normal for these.
did tell me that a new clutch and hydraulics (slave cylinder I think, one inside the housing anyway) would cost £480 to replace, didn't think that was bad TBH.
mine has done 125 thou.

£480 that's cheap for a job that is booked at 8hrs.

xpuser8334 said:

£480 that's cheap for a job that is booked at 8hrs.

Click to expand...

yeh and I trust the guy as well, programmed my 2 key fobs to the car today for £30, yes I know its a 5 min job but.......it works

How easy and smooth should gear selection be on a td4?

Click to expand...

should be easy 'n smooth .. imho
mine has bee since i bought it with 37k miles ( now has 109k miles )
only exception was for a time 1st and reverse could be difficult IF the vehicle were tilted somewhat ..
e.g. nearside wheels on curb .. offsides on road ..
one day while doing some rust prevention underneath ..
i sprayed some grease on all the gear linkage bits ( silicone grease on the rubber bits directly below the gear stick )
never had an issue with 1st or reverse when 'tilted' again

gearbox and ird oil were changed at 91k miles .. when the clutch and slave cylinder were replaced
before .. when i asked the LR techie 'how often to change gearbox oil'
the reply was .. 'LR never change the gearbox oil' .. ( i sort of question that .. having run 'trucks' previously )

Well here's the odd thing... the more I drove the car the easier the gearchange became. Have just sold it (so I can buy an auto) and by the end it was a lovely nice smooth drive, first still occasionally a bit squidgy but engaging fine. No idea why it was so difficult before, but the car had hardly been used for a year or so, maybe it wasn't happy about that!

I guess low mileage isn't necessarily a good thing. Especially if driven by a house wife on very short journeys.

Funny how Land Rover say never change the oil as most oils have a shelf life of 5 years, it's always a wise move to change all the oils especially on pre owned vehicles as you don't know what has been put in before.