Freelander 1 I Surrender

The so called "Mechanic" says "I do not understand call me", What should I tell him that should not have been evident in the months that he had the auto as a daily driver around town?

$3800 for a 2005 Freelander 1 with 133,000 miles. Man! that a good deal. I want a Jeep CJ but the non rust ones are hard to find for under $10,000.
Mechanic #1 I wont work on it.
Mechanic #2 $3000 all tires,brake fluid, Light bulb etc etc etc I left there with no work $35 for inspection.
I figured I would need to fix something on any used auto. Like tie rod end that once fixed stopped most of the vibration. $129
The bracket on the gas tank, Overseas item worth about a pond in gold. refabrication Shop and labor $800.
Mechanic #3 said "Get rid of this vehicle"
Time for that regularly scheduled maintenance; $2000 for all belts. Pulley, waterpump.

Mechanic #4 politely implied "Get rid of this vehicle"
Fine Mist of grease glazing the rear end. Metal filings in the rear end
I replace the 2 front tires as they could not be ballanced. Fix most of the vibrations.
Mechanic #5 The ones made prior to 2010 are very expensive for parts. The Older Land Rovers are awesome.
Land Rover will not release information like the gear ration on the rear end. I found 2 different ratios from the junkers $600 plus $300 labor.
Meanwhile the antifreeze disappears. Looks like I will be visiting Mechanic #4 do as little is required to drive it to a car lot and try for a trade in at a fraction of what I have in it.
OR
I now see this autos on Craigslist for $2000 - $4500 but I be most could be had south of $2000. There are NO! parts for these in the us and those bastards at Land Rover are intentional killing the Freelander 1 in the US. Perhaps I could part this out in my workshop, I just need to plug into a good used auto parts website.

Put the new tyres on the back, it will save your rear diff !

freelance said:

Put the new tyres on the back, it will save your rear diff !

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and the rest of the drive system

It's a sad but all to common problem with international Freelanders. There are few people who can actually fix them correctly or understand there maintainance requirements. Fitting new tyres to the front is a prime example of this.

This FL has been to several mechanics that either want silly money for shoddy work or don't want to work on it at all.

Nothing listed is particularly expensive here in the UK where parts are plentiful. In the states, things may be different. $800 for a fuel tank cradle is a joke. They can be bought new as a pattern part here in the UK for under £80 and it's an hour to fit.

There's only one ratio diff and here they are plentiful and cheap at £50 or so.

It's sad but often FLs are parted out, simply because of a lack of cheap parts or lack of expertise to keep them working correctly.

Parts are stupid expensive over here in NZ as well - for all Land Rovers. Owners (I suppose just the enthusiast owners) all get parts in from the UK.

It is more difficult for bulky or heavy items (like the fuel tank cradle) as the shipping fees become expensive but not necessarily a show stopper - I think @htr has now had 3 radiators for Freelander shipped from the UK. Presumably the US, being 1/2 the distance, would be cheaper shipping costs than here.

Only 2 radiators but loads of other things including a VCU and bearings. I generally wait a while until I have several things it makes the overall freight cost a bit easier to take!

htr said:

Only 2 radiators but loads of other things including a VCU and bearings. I generally wait a while until I have several things it makes the overall freight cost a bit easier to take!

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Thought they sent the wrong one on your original replacement, so had to send you another 1.

You are right, I'd forgotten about that!

what engine is it?
Worth getting a workshop manual and do the stuff yourself. they are not difficult to work on. there is lots of info here and members will help.
also do some reaserch on them and study the drive train components and related faults and indicators and tackle 1 prob at a time. Parts may be the problem over there so better to know how to diagnose a problem and will avoid replacing parts un necessary.

as for vibration check if your drive shafts have been replaced with aftermaket ones s they are known to cause vibration issues and may damage output bearings if left.

*Cough* LR didn't kill oft the Freelander 1 in the US on purpose. Reliability upset the Merkins (sales fell sharply) and when rover failed they ran out of v6 engines. There was a stock pile of them but that wouldn't of lasted to keep export sales going. Diesel was never offered to the US in the FL1 so sadly it stopped. FL2 was in the horizon.

I guess back street mechanics don't have the time to learn the ins and outs of a car they'll only ever see once in a blue moon.
And Stealers want to empty your pockets til they've bled you dry.
Best option is spend a few weeks here reading everything you can and do it yourself.
BTW if the fuel tank cradle arms are OK but just the plates rotten do like I did and replace just the plates. I did this on a couple of cars and used metal on one and alloy on the other.