Project: The impossible utopia - Freelander S TD4 3 door (2002)

Hello all.

Another project fred for you, 'ere. Freelander S TD4, 3 door from 2002.

Don't get too excited, though. I have some theoretical knowledge and it will likely test my practical skills and toolkit to their limits. It's for posterity mostly and your general bemusement, horror and occasional enlightenment (not guaranteed).

Those of you who read my intro post will know the missus and I are well aquainted with this vehicle already. We love it so we're keeping it.

Point and laugh at any time.

No laughing here! Just genuine interest! Remember green laning with a bloke in a very modified V6 one years ago. It was very capable and looked the dogs danglies...
Believe he was from near Manchester somewhere and wen by the name of Doobrey Dog on LRUK....
Anyway, look forward to your progress...

Thanks for the support @callisr
Oh, it'll be interesting alright. I don't have a plan. Just keeping it running as a daily driver is enough work for now.

In the extreme, the future might behold something like this:



But first, I've got to decide whether the prop shaft bearings are serviceable. What d'yer reckon?

weemac said:

Thanks for the support @callisr
Oh, it'll be interesting alright. I don't have a plan. Just keeping it running as a daily driver is enough work for now.

In the extreme, the future might behold something like this:

But first, I've got to decide whether the prop shaft bearings are serviceable. What d'yer reckon?

Click to expand...

I bet that was noisy

Could have gone another turn though

Looking forward to regular updates on this, such a smashing little thing to make a little better in the rough

dieseldog69 said:

I bet that was noisy

Click to expand...

No idea. Prop was in the back of the truck when I bought it.
Previous owner had a go at separating the VCU and cutting the bearings off. He gave up apparently after knicking the UJ with a cutting disc.
The chalky white patch tells me it's been very hot then likely brayed on. Hard.
Shafts look OK so I'll [probably] pull the VCU off for inspection and replace the joints to be safe.

Stay tuned

can't wait for more..

I like the V6 FL1 in silver with LPG

Yours looks nice..

prefer the 2 door.

Henry_b said:

can't wait for more..

I like the V6 FL1 in silver with LPG

Yours looks nice..

prefer the 2 door.

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Churs. It's a great truck when it runs well.
It's debatable whether the older TD4 is any better than the L Series, though. Perhaps would have been more sensible to get a facelifted one (after LR/BMW ironed some of the issues) or indeed the V6. But as I said, we love it so I'm going to give it a crack.

Good to see a Hippo project thread!

Would be good to check out the condition of the IRD: change the oil and see what colour it comes out. If the oil looks like the contents of a snow globe, that may be the other reason why the VCU was removed... although the prop bearings are slightly beyond their use-by date by the looks of things

rob_bell said:

Good to see a Hippo project thread!

Would be good to check out the condition of the IRD: change the oil and see what colour it comes out. If the oil looks like the contents of a snow globe, that may be the other reason why the VCU was removed... although the prop bearings are slightly beyond their use-by date by the looks of things

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Yep. Bearings are finished Might be able to recover something for tool making. PO didn't report any other noises or evidence of wind up so think it was just removed because of the knackered bearings. He was a Land Rover mechanic.

IRD oil change on the cards for end of the month. Waiting on new filler/drain plugs and an opportunity to grind down a couple of sockets so I can get old ones off without a struggle. It's weeping a tiny bit but a cursory inspection tells me it's fine for now. It's smooth and quiet but, with no thrust on it, I won't know 'til it's loaded
Someone has definitely been in it before, beads of Hylocil around the casting joints. PO claims it wasn't him. We'll see I suppose.

I wonder why someone's been inside the IRD? May be a bearing replacement, but might be worth a look at the condition of the gears while you're at it...

rob_bell said:

I wonder why someone's been inside the IRD? May be a bearing replacement, but might be worth a look at the condition of the gears while you're at it...

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My thoughts exactly when I first viewed it. Adopted a positive mindset at the time and [dangerously] assumed someone had rectified something or at least done an inspection of the bearings and pinion, etc. It was always my intention to get hold of another, break it down for inspection and fix any problems before pulling the old one off and sticking the recon in its place. I really need to keep this Hippo on the road as a commuter so any down time must be kept to weekends. I'll report back any findings, former f**kmuppetry as well as my own knuckle scraping activity

Look forward to it! My project thread is here (https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/return-of-the-land-rovers-kilo-hippo-delta.304131/) - had the pleasure of replacing the coolant rail last weekend, to fix the coolant leak that likely lead to the first head gasket failure, then the bad re-dos and the failed cylinder head that I've also had to replace! Still, it's been a lot of fun fixing all the bad stuff, and laughing at all the f--kmuppetry (which is weirdly therapeutic!)

rob_bell said:

Look forward to it! My project thread is here (https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/return-of-the-land-rovers-kilo-hippo-delta.304131/)....

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Feck, Rob. You've been through mill with that one, lad. And I 'aven't even finished reading the whole thread.
Thought my project was risky but you seem to have defined it. Props for your tenacity

So many familiar problems, though

Today's news is the MAP sensor has finally given up after a few successful months of recovery-via-cleaning. Makes for interesting driving. In a dangerous way. No-brand one on order for testing given how much a 'Genuine' Bosch one will set you back. I'm only going to stick it into a dirty hole

Interestingly, the P.M.W (Present Mrs Weemac) reported some sketchy goings on with the battery lamp yesterday while driving over the Severn Bridge. (I had flashbacks of letting the smoke out of the last alternator). Intermittent flashing of the lamp while driving she reckoned. Sometimes illuminated for periods, then going out. No difference in performance, everything works as normal. Hmm.

At home: 12.9V battery voltage, 14.4V on idle, under load 14.35V (fan on full tilt with heat). Returned to a very stable 14.45V when load removed. Alternator fine, then. So, undertray off again to work back from alt to search for a fault. A fault that wasn't even present by the time it got into the garage by the way Not a sausage. After an hour crawling about checking plugs and earths and that, I stopped looking. Took it for a spin... still no fault present.

I'm going to chalk it up to... erm... well... an atmosphere induced electromagnetic disturbance around a massive metal bridge over a body of turbulent water while the Moon was visible in the sky and Jupiter was retrograde.

Yup, mines been quite a ride! And now the 3 amigos gave returned. This time on the left front wheel sensor - sigh. More on my project thread soon!

Keep at it! In my experience, non-Bosch sensors haven’t really been worth the hassle, but maybe worth a punt.

rob_bell said:

Yup, mines been quite a ride! And now the 3 amigos gave returned. This time on the left front wheel sensor - sigh. More on my project thread soon!

Keep at it! In my experience, non-Bosch sensors haven’t really been worth the hassle, but maybe worth a punt.

Click to expand...

I know you're right. False economies and all that. I can get one for seventy quid through work so might just do it.
The manifold still isn't as clean as I'd like it so erring on the side of 'I can wreck this cheap one until I can get the inside cleaner'

Did yours have a dunk in some wet, muddy stuff before your three amigos? I'm betting a good clean will sort you out.

No. To be honest I think this one has been in the brink of failing for a little while - looking at the telemetry data (when sorting the right front sensor!), the front left would briefly drop in signal. It clearly wasn't enough at that stage to cause the ECU any concern. But now it's dropping its signal down to 0 for quite problonged periods (may be upto a second or more), which the ECU definitely does not like!

New sensor ordered. Eventually I'll get this band of merry amigos evicted for good!!!

The joys. Took it off the road after it was wildly over revving without delivering any power on the hills and that. I guess I'll need a new clutch? Got it in the garage with the engine shaking like a defecating dog (took a video but can't put me hands on it). Tells me the injectors are filthy again, then. I got to work on injectors 3 and 4 as they were the problematic ones last time had to pull them. As the turbo ticked itself cool (red flag), I removed the top intercooler hose and manifold to find lots of lovely oil throughout. Particularly around number four cylinder. Bottom intercooler hose off and, yep, more oil. Prised off the turbo to intercooler hose to find more oil just dripping out. Not good. I guess lots of that oil has been blasting through the intercooler, too. As I said, the joys.









Lumpy idle sorted again but the story continues...

You currently find me looking at this mess while waiting for parts again...

So obviously the turbo has cooked and lost oil seal. Vanes looked OK but we have more sideways play than is best. I'm being optimistic and saying that's OK, we've caught it before any major damage occured. (I want to insert the whilstling emoji here ) It's definitley leaking. Ordered a 'remanufactured' one in exchange off the back of a recommendation.

Followed this very simple forum post from a few years back. With a few additional steps because, well, erm... I'm not known for making things easy.

This is what I had to remove to get the turbo bolts out (Step 12 on said post)...



...because the coolant rail was fouling the bolts. It's a rigid pipe, too. Bolted to the block all the way around. In places you can't see or reach. One has to remove the intercooler pipe to get to some of the bolts. And, they're the consistently awesome allen head type. Then remove the heat shield. Then drop the coolant and prise the connection off the water pump to allow some play in the pipe. All that for literally 3mm of movement where it counted.



I could not for the life of the baby jesus get that socket on before. I almost resorted to a hammer.




After a bit more cursing from P.M.W, we pulled the turbo free. Thoughts?





Yeah, fooked.
But there is salvation, in the form of glorious new parts...