I just bought a freelander.

Hi, John from Harwich in Essex. Just bought a 2003 1.8 freelander.
Much to the other halves annoyance, and my brother's advice to not buy it. Clean and tidy, no funny noises from the drive train, drives nice, good tyres, nothing leaking.
Seemed like a good buy for £880. It's got 106k miles on it, long MOT and the seller said the previous owner had had the head gasket done properly. No proof but hey ho. Is there a way to tell just by looking ?
It didn't overheat on the way home, the temp gauge got up to about half way.
Gonna give it a service next week, in the mean time I'll post any problems I find with it, there's bound to be some

11redrex said:

Hi, John from Harwich in Essex. Just bought a 2003 1.8 freelander.
Much to the other halves annoyance, and my brother's advice to not buy it. Clean and tidy, no funny noises from the drive train, drives nice, good tyres, nothing leaking.
Seemed like a good buy for £880. It's got 106k miles on it, long MOT and the seller said the previous owner had had the head gasket done properly. No proof but hey ho. Is there a way to tell just by looking ?
It didn't overheat on the way home, the temp gauge got up to about half way.
Gonna give it a service next week, in the mean time I'll post any problems I find with it, there's bound to be some

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Sounds like a decent find. First things to check are the ird + vcu. Search on the forum for the one wheel up test. Have a look and see if the rear prop is present or if it has been removed. Thatll tell you if its still got 4wd capability. if it has been removed there is more than likely a good reason for it either the previous owner wanted to improve mpg slighty and didnt go off road or there is an issue with the ird/vcu.

The prop's still there, and the VCU isn't leaking. I may remove it myself as it looks like an easy process. Can you remove the rear diff as well ? Les weight = more MPG, and I bought it for the ground clearance, not the 4wd !

:welcome2:to the mad house

Hi there and welcome

Hello and Welcome

hello there

Thanks for the welcomes ! Been having a good look over the engine bay this afternoon. Got a split hose on the camshaft cover to throttle body breather - I can't post in the wanted section, so if anyone has one they would like to sell......
The battery is fubar, got a spare but can't get the old one out because the bolt holding the clamp is spinning, any hints there would be helpful
The coolant needs changing - doesn't look like there's a drop of antifreeze in it -
The windscreen washer isn't working, just a fuse I hope,
and there's a bolt missing from the spark plug cover.
Apart from that little lot it's bloody freezing and I worked last night so it can sit on the drive for now !

Hi ya bud. Welcome to the mad house of 1.8 Freelander buyers, you don't have to be mad but.........
I just bought one with 103,000 miles and the first thing I had to do was remove the drive shaft. Failed the rear wheel up test miserably as the wheel wouldn't turn at all, so do it as a matter of urgency, yours has the same miles as mine.
Good luck with it
Ali

hello & :welcome2:

Cheers, gotta get the effing thing started before I do anything else. That's 2 batteries fubar, third one seems to be charging but my charger is a bloody liar. I'll find out at 530 tomorrow morning.
Edit : 3 Batteries.

Welcome to the forum.