Freelander 1 Misfire when warming up the engine

Dear freelander owners. I bought a 2004 freelander 1.8 petrol. Yes I know it is the wrong one.
Anyway it has a misfire especially when under load when the engine is warming up. As soon as the engine is up to temperature it runs fine. It has also been converted to run on Lpg, however the Lpg has been switched off to try and help diagnose the fault.

A compression test has been done 180 on all cylinders.
New camshaft sensor, plugs, leads and coil packs.
I have taken it to 3 different garages and the first 2 couldn't diagnose the fault.
However the 3rd garages seem to think the head gasket is failing.
There is no oil coolant contamination in the engine, which is what I would expect.
When I plug in the obd2 code reader it tells me p0300 and also on occasion p0301, p0302, p0303, p0304.
These do vary and are inconsistent.
Do you think it is the head gasket?
Or have an idea of what else it could be
Current mileage is 100k and head gasket was changed 4 years at 65k
Thanks for you help

Lushman

It it could be something as simple as a knackered HT lead.

you can rule out head gasket as if it was it would run fine..warming up..crap when hot...if its fine when warmed up whats the prob..just leave it idle for few mins..could be a lamba sensor that was feeds ecu with engine temp and tells it it needs more fuel/air..and ecu adjusts setting in accordance with requirments

so when cold lamba sensor detects gases temp passing over it sees its to cold and enriches the idle and acceleration mix...so its poss its faulty and not feeding ecu with correct mixture when cold..hence rough idle.. the garages should have checked this out

could be its not getting quite enough fuel for a cold engine

jamesmartin said:

could be its not getting quite enough fuel for a cold engine

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and that could be a lamba sensor ...

jamesmartin said:

could be its not getting quite enough fuel for a cold engine

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sure i just said that..lol

Duplicate post.

I'd check fuel pressure. It should hold 65 Psi even when at full throttle on the road. It's not uncommon for the tank mounted filter to miss it's 60K miles change.
You can discount the HG if it's not loosing water. Burnt valves aren't an issue with your compression readings.
When the were plugs changed were the the correct platinum type fitted?
The lambda sensor can fail but it sounds like this misfiring is occurring during open loop period when cold. During open loop operation, the O2 isn't referenced by the ECU. I'd still have it on the list of suspects though. I'd be monitoring it's live data through the warm up cycle to check what it's up to.

The scary thing about this thread is that....its been to 3 diff garages ..now either there non Land Rover ..or land rover are crap at sorting there own brand ..hence them being in bott ten of worse 200 cars on the planet earth....but if 3 garages cant sort it..what chance has a forum...theyve had all the test gear available

Thanks for the replies. I am thinking fuelling issues or lambda sensor.
I did order a replacement sensor but I have been sent the wrong one. So I will get it changed and try that.
The 3 garages are just run of the mill local garages. We spoke to the Land Rover dealer in Peterborough and they offered to look at it, but there hourly rate is £150. I was concerned that they wouldn't be able to diagnose the fault after a few hours and that would cost me a fortune.

If the lambda sensor is failing
Would it show up on the obd reader?

lushman said:

If the lambda sensor is failing
Would it show up on the obd reader?

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You can see the live data which will show you what it's doing.

are you sure 150 hr...wow...ide ring around...any views on these charges

Ya gotta love these garages which put any fault on a K series down to HGF, I'll bet if the exhaust was blowing out they would say it was rust caused by water from HGF. Yes you bought the wrong one but then so did many of us including me. Twice!
At least the first two garages were being honest even if they were useless, avoid the third bunch of cowboys like the plague.

I know you said the plugs and leads were changed but how many times have the leads been off and on since they were changed. I only ask as I had a similar issue with my daughters Fiesta, I changed plugs leads and coil pack in that order and when still faulty I took it to a mechanic who replace the coil pack again and said it was fixed. Well it was a bit better but not fixed so I took another look at the leads and plugs and one of the leads came apart leaving the connector on the plug, It was a cheap lead and I paid for it twice plus a coil pack and mechanics fees.
So I suspect the original fault was coil pack, by the time I got round to changing it the lead was damaged giving a new but similar fault and because they were new the mechanic didn't change them.

The moral is
1st don't buy cheap crap parts. They're cheap for a reason, did you use good quality or crappy cheap parts.
2nd When chasing a fault like this you can accidentally introduce a new fault, I was once told before to always change plugs and leads at the same time and now I know why.

Alibro said:

Twice!

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True dedication! Bring on Roy Castle.....

I had a plug lead go on a Escort 1.3L once many moons ago. That was a 'new' car on a lease that I used to thrash around the motorway system installing and supporting computer systems. It had been playing up a bit but the last straw was coming back down from Thorntons the chocolate people in Belper Derby to my home near Croydon. By the end of the trip the car wouldn't go above 40 and it took ages to get home, the car was right sick. Unfortunately, I'd stocked up at the staff shop before heading home and the journey took so long, I'd demolished my stock pile of chocolates and felt as sick as the car!

Bumping this as I have the same issue, a long shot but did the OP find a solution?

I have bought a 2004 1.8 Freelander on LPG. It has 85k on the clock which appears genuine. When I bought it, it ran very rough, it would not move over to LPG and drank petrol on the 100 mile trip home.

The following day, having cooled down, it started nicely and moved over to LPG OK it still had a misfire although the consumption went to be a reasonable 150 miles on £15 of LPG.

Intravenus di milo said:

Bumping this as I have the same issue, a long shot but did the OP find a solution?

I have bought a 2004 1.8 Freelander on LPG. It has 85k on the clock which appears genuine. When I bought it, it ran very rough, it would not move over to LPG and drank petrol on the 100 mile trip home.

The following day, having cooled down, it started nicely and moved over to LPG OK it still had a misfire although the consumption went to be a reasonable 150 miles on £15 of LPG.

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I'd do a compression test first thing, and check the plugs. The compression needs to be over 170Psi and even on all cylinders.

I've done a compression test and all is OK. The OBD says there's an open on the injector of cylinder 3 as well as a misfire. I've put in a new injector into Cylinder 3, new coil pack and new spark plug (platinum) still the same error?

Intravenus di milo said:

I've done a compression test and all is OK. The OBD says there's an open on the injector of cylinder 3 as well as a misfire. I've put in a new injector into Cylinder 3, new coil pack and new spark plug (platinum) still the same error?

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Only one new plug??? Shouldn't they all be changed at the same time?