Freelander 1 Possible engine failure imminent, or maybe not, I'm not sure

Hello there!

I recently bought a 2004 Freelander TD4 with 63000 miles on the clock. It had service history up to a point of the previous owner taking ownership of it a few years ago, he said he used to be a mechanic and dealt with servicing himself. Sadly I believed him. I feel like a twonk for a number of reasons, see if you can spot why!?
Since getting it home, I noticed blue smoke on start-up which clears after a few seconds which I hoped was value oil seals. It also has a tapping sound during acceleration as low RPM which I hoped was the tappets.

I decided the try adding some redex fuel additive, on the off-chance this would help with something…. anything.

I then checked the oil and (after mis-interpreting how much was in there), decided it would be ok to wait until I had saved up the £50 for the new oil and filter.

So a few weeks later and 100 miles or so of driving, I decide to drop the oil and put fresh in.

I put it up on the ramps (front end up), added the redex engine additive to do an engine flush, ran it for 5 minutes as per the instructions, then removed the sump plug. Out gushed 1 litre of oil/redex, that was it, no more, nothing!

So now I’m getting worried, “it hardly had any oil in it, but I checked it, did I check it properly? But it was running ok??”
So after a few hours I popped the sump plug back in and added 6 litres of 5W-30 fully synthetic and took it for a run. All seems normal, blue smoke and tapping as expected.
A few days later and after a few miles of driving I noticed a bit of a ruffness in how its running (Hard to explain, you know, when it just doesn’t feel or sound quite right) and blue smoke when revved out of gear…… which is new.
So, I was wondering if any of you had any thoughts….
- Is my engine worn and need replacing?
- Has the engine flush worked now after adding more oil into it (I’m hoping the flush was not drained out as it didn’t mix as there was almost no oil to mix with) and it just needs changing again (clutching as straws I know)
- Did I not drain all the old oil (it was on ramps that was on a sloped driveway, was the front end too high?) and I added 6 litres to what was left thus overfilling it?
- Any other thoughts?

Please don’t hold back, I’m prepared for the worst. I’d really appreciate any feedback, Cheers!

Have you replaced the filters. Oil and Crankcase Breather at the rear. If you have less oil it would burn hot and become thinner. Having it lifted front end and oil filler cap off would allow oil to drain but residue still remain in oil filler. First find a flat part to do a clean dipstick check and check thrice. 1 to clean the dipstick 2 to check level 3 to confirm. As you have done an oil change once either redo but with fresh Oil filter and crankcase breather kit.

Ok, this sounds bad, but it might not be.

Get the car on level ground, check the dipstick - if the oil goes off the top of the dipstick it was probably the incline of the drive doing a lot of it.

If it had completely run out of oil, the warning lamp would have been on, sit on level ground, turn the ignition on without starting the car and see if you can see the oil can red warning lamp. Start the car and check it goes out. I'd have expected this to be on if you were driving without oil.

If it doesn't come on, check the sensors around the oil filter housing and see if something is unplugged, if it is I'd be going back to the seller and burning their house down.

Change your crankcase breather, swap it for the BMW Part (I forget the number) Made a huge difference to me with what you are describing.

See here

http://forums.lr4x4.com/index.php?showtopic=30982

Oh and if that doesn't do the trick, try a new maf sensor, as that also caused me a headache!

Thanks for taking the time to respond. So my oil burning woes and rough running could be resolved by replacing the crankcase breather? I ordered one last night. I’ll look into changing the maf sensor also, is there a recommended part number for this?
I look into this before I panic too much. Unfortunately my mechanical skills in the past 15 years extends to tie wrapping a cable (or at least it will be when I get around to it.. .and this oil change)

I’ll update you when I’ve done it and how I’ve got on. Really appreciate you all taking time to respond!

KC54 said:

Thanks for taking the time to respond. So my oil burning woes and rough running could be resolved by replacing the crankcase breather? I ordered one last night. I’ll look into changing the maf sensor also, is there a recommended part number for this?
I look into this before I panic too much. Unfortunately my mechanical skills in the past 15 years extends to tie wrapping a cable (or at least it will be when I get around to it.. .and this oil change)

I’ll update you when I’ve done it and how I’ve got on. Really appreciate you all taking time to respond!

Click to expand...

Did you order the BMW part or the LR one? If the BMW one, chck the fitment before panicking if it doesnt fit, as on some modles a little notch is required in the bottom of the plastic housing. There is loads of info on this if it is needed. Mine fitted directly without any modification required.

Hope all goes well, let me know

Where did it all go wrong? I decided to take it to a local garage and after a compression test, I've found out that the compression is down on 1 cylinder. So according to the mechanic the next step is either an engine strip and rebuild or fitting a refurbished engine, neither are a cheep option. Not happy!!

Sounds exactly what I have just gone through exactly the same symptoms thought at first it was injectors which after having them all pulled and checked they were fine had a few sensors changed turned out to be stem seals and a very badly carbonded up head which has ment a total top half rebuild costing nearly 900 quid but runs sweet as a nut now

Well, I got a call from the garage yesterday, and it turnes out it was the injectors. 2 needed refurbishing but the other 2 were beyond repair. The injector in the misfireing piston was allowing a constant flow of fuel through and the other has a random spray pattern. Apparently the engine was suffering from bore-wash (I had to google it and still don't understand it 100% ). So after the injectors being refitted and an oil change done, it's running sweet. I've been told that the other problems i.e. blue smoke on start-up and the tapping sound were caused by one of the faulty injectors. Total cost of repair £699 for cash