What LR freelander should be best to buy ? 2001-2003

Hi there,

I want to buy Land Rover Freelander (2001 to 2003year) but would mainly prefer 2003 year as they have more modern interior and better engines. I did heard that 2003-2004 years have a Jaguar engines am I right ? What's 2001-2003 common problems ? Also as far I have read in google that 1.9 petrol engines are bad.. is it true ?

What's your suggestions ? I want to buy petrol one so later I can add LPG (gas) and save some money. I will mainly use LR for roads and 10% for off road.

I really need your opinions and experience. About what year and what engine should I buy.

Regards,
Ed

The choice of engine is 1.8 K series Rover petrol, v6 Rover petrol or 2.0 TD4 BMW engines. The Freelander didn't use any Jaguar engines that I'm aware of.

The facelift from late 2003 onwards has the redesigned interior and exterior.

Do a search on what to look for. I can't go it from tapatalk. There are some great threads on Landy zone about what to look for. Use the search facility or google.

don't fit it with lpg it will get hot and detonate

That's why I have wrote a thread in here to ask people related questions to Land Rover.

The petrols are unreliable, take this from a v8 owner and not a petrol hater.
Buy a diesel only make sure it has two props and doesn't tighten up in reverse sharp lock

What's your thoughts about - Freelander V6i Es, 2003, 2.5, automatic ? engines and car ?

Nodge will be along soon or Hippo. They both have v6's.

They are great, suffer overheating problems much less than the 1.8 petrol, but you need shares in an oil refinery if you want to drive lots of miles.

Epicuser said:

suffer overheating problems much less than the 1.8 petrol

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really


i didn't know that

eddyyss said:

What's your thoughts about - Freelander V6i Es, 2003, 2.5, automatic ? engines and car ?

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The V6 Freelander is the only version I'd have. They are completely different to drive compared to the 1.8 or diesel. They are much quieter, the engine isn't really audible unless you open the taps!!. Don't expect any form of economy though, performance comes at a price. Don't expect more than 20 mpg.

If I will have V6 freelander I want to install LPG (gas) would that be a good idea for engine ?

No!

unless yu have very deep pockets and dont like driving it.

The 2.5 V6 is from the Rover parts bin. Its also used in the Rover 75 and I believe some Rover 800's and possibly the Jaguar X Type.

When I look at V6 Freelanders and Rover 75s for sale over here a lot of them have overheating and head gasket problems. This would imply to me that they aren't good with heat, so putting LPG on them would presumably not be a good idea.

The thermostat is the main reasons the V6 starts to give trouble. They are cheap plastic affairs sealed to the block by some O rings. Curtisy of BMW!! This is far from ideal as over time the O rings leak. This allows the coolant leak out unseen. It doesn't take much coolant to leak out before the cooling system draws in air. This isn't good as the engine, like any wet liner engine will not tolerate low coolant. The result is head gasket failure.
I still love the KV6, having owned and worked on loads of them, finding them very reliable. Most KV6 engines have well over 100,000 trouble free miles on them now.
And no they have never been fitted to any Jaguar.

Ran my V6 on LPG for 5 years. Ran it on LPG most of the time, usually only petrol when lpg wasn't available - local lpg station could run out for days at a time. It was good to run on petrol occasionally though as it was more responsive.Performance wasn't as good on LPG but only marginally.
Biggest problem was after 5 years it started running lumpy on LPG. LPG fitters would tweak it and it would run fine until the engine was switched off. Then it would run lumpy until hot to the point where the I could only switch to LPG after the engine was really hot. Eventually it turned out to be the valves .They were burnt out - due to the LPG burning hotter than petrol. Had the heads reconditioned but it never ran perfectly again after that. There was always a flutter on tickover that nobody could sort out.

What about then 2.0 diesel engines?

also you can run LPG system for two years and then sell.

I do find it odd that some say LPG damaged the engine. LPG has a lower calorific value than petrol. This in theory produces less heat. If the valves are burning, I'm guessing the exhaust valves? The reason is likely because of the lower burn speed of LPG. Essentially the fuel is still burning as the exhaust valve opens. If the LPG calibration is off and running lean, then the excess head coupled to excess oxygen will burn the exhaust valves.
A correctly calibrated LPG system shouldn't damage a petrol engine, K series or anything else.

Nodge68 said:

I do find it odd that some say LPG damaged the engine. LPG has a lower calorific value than petrol. This in theory produces less heat. If the valves are burning, I'm guessing the exhaust valves? The reason is likely because of the lower burn speed of LPG. Essentially the fuel is still burning as the exhaust valve opens. If the LPG calibration is off and running lean, then the excess head coupled to excess oxygen will burn the exhaust valves.
A correctly calibrated LPG system shouldn't damage a petrol engine, K series or anything else.

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LPG does run cooler, but doesnt have the same cooling characteristics of a liquid (petrol) as it is already a gas. The change of state of petrol induces a cooling effect which is missing from LPG. This then means that the exhaust valves in particular can suffer as a result. Because of this (and the lack of soot with LPG), this in turn leads to Brinelling and Micro-welding which then can lead to valve seat recession ( a common problem of Jaguar and Ford engines.

Anything that can increase the temperature of an engine which suffers from hot spots as the K series (and that includes the KV6) is not to be recomended.

The Mad Hat Man said:

LPG does run cooler, but doesnt have the same cooling characteristics of a liquid (petrol) as it is already a gas. The change of state of petrol induces a cooling effect which is missing from LPG. This then means that the exhaust valves in particular can suffer as a result. Because of this (and the lack of soot with LPG), this in turn leads to Brinelling and Micro-welding which then can lead to valve seat recession ( a common problem of Jaguar and Ford engines.

Anything that can increase the temperature of an engine which suffers from hot spots as the K series (and that includes the KV6) is not to be recomended.

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I understand exactly about the cooling ability of petrol changing from liquid to vapour. However gas / LPG in this instance has the exact same cooling properties when released out of the vaporizer. In fact gas has a higher cooling ability which causes vaporizer icing.
LPG does burn cleaner and will soot far less than unleaded petrol. This soot is more damaging to the engine than we give it credit. So in theory the LPG fueled engine should be clean by comparison.
Exhaust valves could in theory micro weld to the seats due to the zero lead in LPG if no petrol was used for extended periods, however most LPG systems start on petrol so there no extended LPG only running.
Advancing the ignition timing a few degrees while running on LPG should cool the exhaust valves and reduce burning.
I do agree that pumping more heat into a hot spot prone design isn't a key to reliability

Nodge68 said:

I do agree that pumping more heat into a hot spot prone design isn't a key to reliability

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We agree its ****e then

Okay then finally from all of you what have you written I understand that if I want to install LPG the best would be for 2.5 engines or 2.0 diesel (on it's own) if I want to drive cheaper, am I right ?

p.s. what about 1.8 petrol freelander's ? without LPG installation what's your consumption and as someone said the 1.8 engines are not reliable but people still drive them ? How to understand that ?