new owner needs advice on some prob's

hi,picked wifes 1998 5dr 1.8 peterol up this evening,couple of things i hope you guys can shed some light on,
1 judder on take off in first and reverse,not every time just some times,
2what should the temp guage read,mines around third of way up to just below half ..o.k?
3 does the thermostat up grade work in curing potential head gasket problems?if so will fit a.s.a.p
this should do for now hope you can help,love the car ,for wife and kids ,just hope we don't fall out of love with the car,
cheers
peter

Hi

I had a diesel Freelander and had the same problem with juddering, it was caused by the clutch release shaft sticking as it was rusty. It is worthwhile squirting some oil at the top of the shaft and pressing the clutch pedal a few times. Sorry can't help with the other questions.

Hi Peter,

I've had a 98 1.8 from new.
I've had some juddering in first on pullway, my wife tells me I'm in the wrong gear but I asured her I'm not, it's very infrequent, I mentioned it to my dealer to no avail. Also common on early freelanders is for it not to engage reverse sometimes, my wife tells me to push the clutch in properly as it never happens to her.
The temperature guage reading is similar to mine.
As for the thermostat upgrade, I toyed with the idea but my local 4x4 garage (not main dealer) said "if it aint broke don't fix it". I've heard of some early freelanders having the mod and still have the gasket go. Some later models that have the revised gasket and cooling mods still have H/G go. I've been told by a few other freelander owners that correct maintanance is essential especialy bleeding of the cooling system when neccesary.
You might be interested in this site.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freelanderclub/messages

snap, mines sometimes iffy in reverse,spoke to a dealers technician ,he said the hose mod is a good idea,and also he reccomended a later model reservior bottle and cap ,some thing to do with a lower pressure less temp?only costs £10 all in so i'll fit that too,part numbers,lpcd000090 cap,lpcf000012 tanks ass, while there they took my reg and informed me of a free recall on back brakes which was nice,they do a £99 pounds check and service ,oil ,filter and coolant i think,so i might have that to check for anything looming

Hi Peter,

It's was a very difficult decision for me to make on the mod. Some people have had it done and still had h/g failure and I didn't want a false sense of security, I was quoted about £128 for it, much cheaper than a new head. The advice I was given was keep a close eye on the coolant and don't muck about with the system if you don't have to, there are plenty of 1.8's that have not had headgasket problems, you only hear about the ones that have, and that newer freebies with both gasket and coolant mods still get h/g failure.

I suppose it down to the individual in each case.

Peter this is a thread from another freelander forum,

Having a 99T 1.8 XEi, I was also worried about the head gasket problem and enquired at Merlin (Nottingham) as to the cost of the mod as a precautionary measure.
Although they admitted that there is a problem with the 1.8 gasket, they would only recommend having the mod done after a problem had occured and not before. As mine had covered 46000 miles without a problem, they advised to leave well alone.

Similar to the advice I was given.

hi all, i would have the mod done to thermostat as it will lower engine temp and does help with water flow,it wont neceserily stop head gasket problems but thats down to the idiots that make the engine and crap gasket,not landrovers fault.
the temp gauge should sit just below half way.
there is no revised gasket well it looks the same in every way just steel and rubber,its the silly plastic dowels that hold the head in place that have been changed to metal pins so they dont move and make gasket move,all new freelanders have metal location pins as standard so not many blow also got revised thermostat and coolant bottle.
dont be short sited look what happened to moses.PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE, REMEMBER THAT SAYING.do what you can to stop the rot in the first place.