Newbie with a couple of questions

Hi All,
Just got hold of a 2001 1.8 Freelander, I have never bought a car where the head gasket is a servicable item...No, not sure why I have bought this car either. Anyway, it is overal in good nick and my wife likes it.
Just a couple of quick questions:-

The air bag light comes on and stays on, any ideas? Is this common?

The clutch pedal is heavy and very 'dead' feeling although I have just found a question about this on the forum regarding the push rod so will lube this up.

The off side front bottom ball joint is worn out, where is the best place to get one or do I need the whole suspension arm?

Is there any better than a Haynes for an owners manual?

The handbrake is useless, is this common or do I need to get adjusting and checking?

Thanks for all your help and I love the forum. Will be changing the head gasket and doing the mods in about 1 months time (fingers crossed it doesn't happen before then). Where is a good place to get parts to do this?
Ta Truff.

Welcome to the forum Truff,

Hopefully you'll stay pleased with your 1.8k, i'm more than happy with mine.

I've never had to fiddle with airbags or electronics too much, so you might want to wait for someone to give you an answer on that.

Lubing the activating arm on the clutch is a good idea, but check your slave cylinder bracket isn't starting the bend/corrode distort as these tend to break over an amount of time. It's only a cheap item to replace (£10 off ebay).

You can get hold of the whole wishbone to replace the balljoint for about £45, however you'll want the rear bush already in the housing to save you messing with pressing the bush (very awkward task). The housing with rear bush already pressed in is available from dealers for around £60 i think. In total around £115 and it only takes about an hour given the old bolts come off easy enough.

You can download the RAVE disk which is a lot more complex than the haynes, search the forum for 'freelander rave' for the download link.

The handbrake cable can be adjusted easy enough, but you might want to check your rear brake shoes if it's not doing too much of a good job.

Good luck with changing your head gasket, but make sure you get the genuine updated landrover head gasket or branded PAYEN, some of the ones on ebay can be inferior. And if you're replacing the bolts make sure these are genuine as well.

freebiker,
Thanks for getting back to me. I remember being at the launch day of the k-series engine (a long time ago now) and thinking, why have those long bolts for the head, that's never going to work....
I think if you go into Freelander 1.8 ownership with your eyes open it shouldn't be such a bad experiance.
Great hints, I will take a look at the shoes at the weekend and order up a wishbone with housing. Can't be bothered to start working with my press!
Also been reading about the viscous coupling for the centre diff, any views on when this should be replaced (I am 99% sure it is fine at the moment but the car has done 70K miles)?
Cheers, Truff.

Dont know if this is the same on freelanders but this was a problem i had with my Peugeot. Have a look under the drivers seat and see if there is an electrical connection. This may have come undone causing the airbag light to come on.

The RAVE is indeed a useful manual. Go to LR4x4 - The Land Rover Forum and search for RAVE for more details.

Land Rover Series Website is a good supplier IMO, I use them to supplimemt my local LR factor and local LR franchised dealer.

Cheers

Blippie