What have you done to your Freelander today

kernowsvenski said:

I've had a thorough inspection of the rear subframe this evening. The rest of it is rock sold, with only minor surface corrosion in other areas. This may change my approach.

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Welding it up could be an option then.

Nodge68 said:

Welding it up could be an option then.

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Well, since my post I've done more investigating. You were quite right about not being able to weld them for MOTs. I've found someone doing powder coated ones for £375, but I don't want to go down that route as my experience of powder coating is that once damaged (or not) moisture behind the coating can cause rapid corrosion. Anyway some local sand blasting chaps will blast one for me and spray with zinc primer and paint for £60. I can then add what ever coating i want. I just need to get hold of a second hand one somewhere.

Drove it.
For the first time since taking it off the road almost three weeks ago to sort the heater and tidy the Low Voltage junction box.
Everything that could go wrong did but I finally got the heater working and the newly tidied JB should make future upgrades or fault finding much easier.

kernowsvenski said:

Well, since my post I've done more investigating. You were quite right about not being able to weld them for MOTs. I've found someone doing powder coated ones for £375, but I don't want to go down that route as my experience of powder coating is that once damaged (or not) moisture behind the coating can cause rapid corrosion. Anyway some local sand blasting chaps will blast one for me and spray with zinc primer and paint for £60. I can then add what ever coating i want. I just need to get hold of a second hand one somewhere.

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Just get a good one blasted, then paint it with Bonda Rust primer. It's a very tough resin and zinc based primer which doesn't come off blasted steel. It's all I'll use under a top coat, as the stuff works better than anything else I've tried over the last 30 years. It's quite expensive, but it's definitely worth the money.

Nodge68 said:

Just get a good one blasted, then paint it with Bonda Rust primer. It's a very tough resin and zinc based primer which doesn't come off blasted steel. It's all I'll use under a top coat, as the stuff works better than anything else I've tried over the last 30 years. It's quite expensive, but it's definitely worth the money.

Bonda Rust Primer Zinc All Sizes - Stops Rusting & Leaves Surface Ready To Paint | eBay

Leaves a surface ready to paint. from sources of ignition – no smoking. All products will be inspected to ensure they are in aRe -saleable condition. Keep out of reach of children. Use only in well ventilated areas.

www.ebay.co.uk

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Yep. That's the answer for sure. Also, I've found a chap in Liskeard breaking three vehicles. I've messaged him to see if he has a subframe and that I can collect, but so far, radio silence. I'm sure I'll be able to get one at some point from somewhere mind. I visited the local breakers yard but the cars there are all wheel-less and sitting in the mud so that's not an option.

Fixed my jammed rear seatbelt. Yeah!

Had a couple of new tyres put on and was informed by the helpful tyre guys that I had been underinflating. 30psi for the last five years or so, now I'm trying 34psi. Time will tell.

anydrive said:

Had a couple of new tyres put on and was informed by the helpful tyre guys that I had been underinflating. 30psi for the last five years or so, now I'm trying 34psi. Time will tell.

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I run mine at 34. I think the book says less iirc

Adjusted up my back brakes properly, and did another owut

The sticker on the door pillar says thirty psi, but I'm assuming the factory fitted tyres were a bit stiffer.

anydrive said:

The sticker on the door pillar says thirty psi, but I'm assuming the factory fitted tyres were a bit stiffer.

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30 PSI is the revised factory recommended pressure, which replaced the previous 26 PSI pressure when it was first released.
The factory tyres would likely have been Goodyear Wrangler HP or Michelin Latitude XL, IIRC. The side wall stiffness doesn't make a big difference on a 65% profile tyre, mostly just the pressure inside them. I used to run mine at 31 PSI, as I found the outside edges wearing slightly faster that the centre section on the tyres it had fitted.
It's best to start with the factory recommended pressure, then "tweak" it slightly based on the actual wear characteristics of the tyres fitted.

It was the inside edges of the fronts that have been wearing faster on mine. I had the tracking done everytime I got new tyres, so this higher pressure is my bit of tweaking.

anydrive said:

It was the inside edges of the fronts that have been wearing faster on mine. I had the tracking done everytime I got new tyres, so this higher pressure is my bit of tweaking.

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What pressure have you been running them at?

Inside wear with good tracking is normally the lower wishbone bushes going soft, which causes the tyres to toe out under acceleration.

kernowsvenski said:

I run mine at 34. I think the book says less iirc

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Interesting - yes LR recommend 26PSI [ pressure depends on load ...] the tyre shop I frequent inflates to 32psi, [or more!] cold so they run at about 35psi 'hot'. I've noticed in the past that the centre of the tread wears more quickly at that pressure. So now I inflate to 28psi cold which is 31psi 'hot', which still feels good on the road. Yes I have a pressure monitoring system and the tyres are 215/70/15.

htr said:

Interesting - yes LR recommend 26PSI [ pressure depends on load ...] the tyre shop I frequent inflates to 32psi, [or more!] cold so they run at about 35psi 'hot'. I've noticed in the past that the centre of the tread wears more quickly at that pressure. So now I inflate to 28psi cold which is 31psi 'hot', which still feels good on the road. Yes I have a pressure monitoring system and the tyres are 215/70/15.

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The 26 PSI recommendation was updated by a slip of paper between the relevant pages of the owners manual. The revised pressure was 30 PSI, but the paper slip update sheet often went missing.

30psi for 5 + years

Today has been about the rear doors. OSR door would not open neither using the inside nor outside handle. A quick look on here to find this thread https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/freelander-door-stuck.95621/ and 10 minutes later
using a slim rounded knife blade to jiggle lock fully on, then off, and OSR door opens!

NSR Door central locking actuator hasn't worked in my tenure. New (s/hand!) door latch mechanism fitted, and for the first time in five years ownership all five doors work as Land Rover intended!

JSett said:

for the first time in five years ownership all five doors work as Land Rover intended!

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I'm not convinced Land Rover ever intended everything to work,

kernowsvenski said:

I'm not convinced Land Rover ever intended everything to work,

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Not everything does! Next week I'm back to the rear diff supports, replacing the ones I fitted five years ago! Not original but... "Turning Owners into Mechanics . Land Rover, since 1948!"

Unpicked an HSE loom to identify where the LR reverse sensors and module are wired in ready to migrate it to the sport.