To buy or not to buy??

Theres nothing wrong with the auto or torque converter. It's the gearing of the auto compared to manwell that makes the difference. When torque converters "lock up" theres no loss across them. The loss at lower revs/speed is there due to the way they work so not a fault as such. One thing the auto dun't need is a clutch change which is about £700 in a garage on a FL1.

Yeah I get ya, once it's locked it may as well be a manual in gear.. ilI' have to have a drive of both I guess. Nearest one to me is advertised as 2wd! Still be good to get an idea of the overall feel of a Freelander though..

Personally I dun't like the way they feel/drive int 2wd. Some do some don't. Int 4x4 they feel more stuck to the road and confident. Even at low speeds. It's hard to describe.

Yeah I can imagine, I would never buy one as 2wd, unless it was so cheap I could replace the VCU and IRD and still be no worse off.. the cheeky swine still wants £2895 for it!! Not a chance.

What sort of mpg do you get from the V6?

Karlos28 said:

What sort of mpg do you get from the V6?

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If you need to ask, the answer is "to low"!

Karlos28 said:

Hmm, so the mpg may be more than 30 in a manual?

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The manual TD4 should do 30 to 40 MPG.

Karlos28 said:

The V6 would be nice, but I think again mpg would be the killer there, what is your experience of it? I only do a 44 mile round trip to work and back (either motorway or 50 roads), then the off jaunt if I'm going to Wales or the lakes on my bike.

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My TD4 auto does 28 MPG on my Cornish road commute. My V6 did 20 MPG on the same commute.
However as petrol is almost 10% cheaper, this closes the pence per mile gap between the TD4 and V6, to about 6 MPG in the TD4's favour.

Ahh well those Cornish roads aren't exactly ideal if you are looking at mpg are they!

40 is perfectly reasonable though I would say. I get 50ish in the 1 series and think that's amazing haha

Karlos28 said:

Ahh well those Cornish roads aren't exactly ideal if you are looking at mpg are they!

40 is perfectly reasonable though I would say. I get 50ish in the 1 series and think that's amazing haha

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Our family Ford Kuga gets 35 to 37 MPG on the same Cornish roads. The Kuga has a 182 PS diesel with AWD and manual 6 speed box.

Really anything that's big and heavy is going to use more fuel than something that's small and light, so it's all relative.

I'm looking at getting another FL1 in the spring. It'll be a hardback for the daughter, but I'll probably go for the 1.8.

I presume the 1.8 will be the most under powered of the engines?

Karlos28 said:

I presume the 1.8 will be the most under powered of the engines?

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No, the TD4 holds that accolade. The 1.8 is 100 Kgs lighter than the TD4 and more powerful. So it's got pretty brisk acceleration by comparison. It's not as fast as the V6, but not far behind. The 1.8 isn't great as a tow vehicle, as the engine lacks the low end torque of the TD4 or V6. The 1.8 does 28 to 35 MPG, depending on driving conditions.

Hmm.. interesting, not fussed about it towing as I can't tow anyway!

Think I had better also drive the 1.8 aslo then. Possibly better car for the money?

Is there much scope to gain any more power from the td4? I notice some shocking intake pipe routing/angles under the bonnet.. (the engine seems the wrong way round to me coming from defender, then rwd cars since!)

Hippo said:

Int 4x4 they feel more stuck to the road and confident. Even at low speeds. It's hard to describe.

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+1

Will be interesting if there are TD4 performance mods other than a tuning box - dunno if the engine (crank) is strong enough to take much more power.

The L Series diesel can definitely be pimped to knock it up to about 150hp and the gearbox should be good for it because its the same spec as the Tomcat PG1s (although lower gearing might add stresses). The 1.8 K Series can be turboed - quite a trickey job though but results in more power than the V6 I believe and not sure if the standard PG1 gearbox can taker the strain - meaning you may need to take the gearbox from the turbo doner which will result in 2WD.

There are threads on all these mods which will give more info.

Karlos28 said:

Think I had better also drive the 1.8 aslo then. Possibly better car for the money?

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Generally the 1.8 is better value for money. However it's got a bit of a reputation for popping head gaskets. For me this isn't an issue, as it's easy for me to fix that for good.

Karlos28 said:

Is there much scope to gain any more power from the td4? I notice some shocking intake pipe routing/angles under the bonnet..

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The TD4 can be remapped and have breathing mods carried out to improve things. The only downsides are more likelihood of reliability issues, such as injector failure, high pressure fuel pump failure and crank failure.

When you say easy for you to permanently sort, is that one, or just you? I hear a lot about k series as it's a common fit into the midget.

Well I went and had a hands on poke about on the one for sale down the road:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201811102310554?atmobcid=soc3

I have to say, I really liked it. The build quality seemed reasonable to me! Seats were very comfy and driving position felt great (didn't get to drive), puff of smoke and a chug on start up, but I noticed ever was still fitted also the breather filter may never have been locked at, guessing maybe glow plugs, but not arsed if it starts! Had some nice features like heated seats. Also on the RHS of the dash between the binnicle and the door was a switch with a picture of a Speedo with an arrow on it, is this cruise control? Next to the PDC switch.

The interesting thing was the 2wd business.. pinion drive still fitted in the IRD, but entire prop and vcu removed. Which suggests it may have been removed because the VCU had issues or they didn't want 4x4.. meaning the IRD could be good? No sign of any leaks suggesting the case isn't cracked?

One annoyance was the rear seats not folding very flat.. another vote for a bike rack I guess but I think it will still go in.

Karlos28 said:

When you say easy for you to permanently sort, is that one, or just you? I hear a lot about k series as it's a common fit into the midget

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The K series can be repaired by anyone who knows it's peculiarities and how to overcome them.

It's a really good engine, that was years ahead of its time. Sadly at the time it was manufactured, the production standard wasn't high enough and the materials used weren't quite good enough for the job in hand. Add this to the fact that the motorist of the day were getting rather lax about checking things like coolant (There's only 4 litres of coolant) and oil levels, and disaster wasn't far away.

There's better head gaskets about now, and better understanding to do weekly checks on coolant. This minimises head gasket problems and associated breakdowns.

Nodge68 said:

better understanding to do weekly checks on coolant. This minimises head gasket problems and associated breakdowns

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If I recall the facelift 1.8's had a coolant level warning light in the display to help with this too, the pre facelift did not.

After a read through a bit of the sticky thread about the bore liners slipping ect, the k series doesn't sound like something I want to get involved in right now! It'd be alright if it was in a 2nd car that didn't do much mileage but as this is being the workhorse I could do with a trusty steed. Il stick with the td4 I think. Just need to have a drive of an auto and a manual now I guess.

Juzza6720 said:

If I recall the facelift 1.8's had a coolant level warning light in the display to help with this too, the pre facelift did not.

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If it's driven by the later level switch on the reservoir then it can't really be trusted. The switch was too low down to give early warning. More a case of bit too late.

Then again, I anticipate diesel prices will sky rocket soon making the MP£ a very different comparison!