What to look for on a freelander 2

Hi Chaps my dad is looking at the landy in the link but as I don't have any knowledge on them
so im asking you lot for some advice (please & thanks)

https://www.gumtree.com/p/land-rove...warranty-12-months-mot-service-his/1322042668

Looks like 48 people in the freelander section don't know anything about them lol

There are quite a few Freelander 2 buying advice threads that get little response. Although the numbers of F2 owners are increasing quite fast now, it is still predominantly F1 drivers on the forum.

There have been some threads with response, eg...

https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/buying-advice-please.322662/
.
https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-ro...-of-buying-a-3-4-year-old-freelander2.331920/
.
I think the general summary is that they are fantastic cars. Performance and comfort wise etc they are awesome. But they are only awesome while they run well - then it can turn into a bit of a nightmare.

The main mechanical issues to beware of are the rear diff and haldex unit - early diffs are made of cheese. If the car's pre 2010/2011 see if its been replaced. The haldex units can cause more troubles than the VCU on F1s. and while the VCUs are a simple bolt on of a recon unit - haldexes are complex units. It may be that regular fluid changes will keep them sweet - but I think the original advice from LR was that they never need their fluid changed - that would be very wrong going by threads on here.

Biggest issues are the electrical problems though. There's a common "steering column locked" message which appears to be getting very common as the cars age, it'll stop the car from starting and is a right PITA to sort out - unless you just throw lots of cash at it and replace all the possibly faulty parts. There's numerous other issues that diagnosis just won't resolve because the electronics are spuriously corrupted. Can be a minefield and expensive - even if in the end its just a cheap part at fault.

There are some other things that I find absolutely mad. For example, you can't buy support bearings for the prop shaft - you have to buy a whole new prop shaft.

Many of these issues may be common to all "modern" cars.

GrumpyGel said:

There are quite a few Freelander 2 buying advice threads that get little response. Although the numbers of F2 owners are increasing quite fast now, it is still predominantly F1 drivers on the forum.

There have been some threads with response, eg...

https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/buying-advice-please.322662/
.
https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-ro...-of-buying-a-3-4-year-old-freelander2.331920/
.
I think the general summary is that they are fantastic cars. Performance and comfort wise etc they are awesome. But they are only awesome while they run well - then it can turn into a bit of a nightmare.

The main mechanical issues to beware of are the rear diff and haldex unit - early diffs are made of cheese. If the car's pre 2010/2011 see if its been replaced. The haldex units can cause more troubles than the VCU on F1s. and while the VCUs are a simple bolt on of a recon unit - haldexes are complex units. It may be that regular fluid changes will keep them sweet - but I think the original advice from LR was that they never need their fluid changed - that would be very wrong going by threads on here.

Biggest issues are the electrical problems though. There's a common "steering column locked" message which appears to be getting very common as the cars age, it'll stop the car from starting and is a right PITA to sort out - unless you just throw lots of cash at it and replace all the possibly faulty parts. There's numerous other issues that diagnosis just won't resolve because the electronics are spuriously corrupted. Can be a minefield and expensive - even if in the end its just a cheap part at fault.

There are some other things that I find absolutely mad. For example, you can't buy support bearings for the prop shaft - you have to buy a whole new prop shaft.

Many of these issues may be common to all "modern" cars.

Click to expand...

Thank you sir I will have a read through & do a bit of research I certainly don't want him to end up with a lemon

Theres a lot of stress to owning a FL2 which is unnecessary. Bit like FL1's and the endless problems they have which ain't massive problems and easily fixed. The web magnifies problems.

The heldex issue... Blocked pump due to clutch dust blocking the filter... Easy solution by many FL2 owners worldwide... Change the fluid in it. Eggsperienced FL2 owners change the fluid every 20k miles. Take haldex apart and clean it and pump and change fluid agiain every 40k miles, if yer want to keep it int good service. Cleaning out the filter at the same time. If filter blocks then the pump is under more pressure and fails as a result.

Power steering fail... At the beginning there was left over weld splatter from manufacturing (little bits of metal) left in the steering fluid, rack etc and ended up blocking the filter in steering fluid reservoir. LR sorted it after a while but the fault would have shown up long ago on a high mileage FL2... All yer need to do is change the power steering fluid reservoir which contains the filter. Again regular service of wear and tear ccomponents.

Software and auto gearboxes trashing 2nd gear by not pulling away int 1st gear... Solved years ago with software update so it will be long gone now. That's not to say an auto may not fail due to 2nd gear fault or solenoid/sensors fail like on any other auto... Happens to all models. Software updates added to production vehicles thereafter but there's always someone who'll think the last FL2's had the same fault when it was sorted years ago. The web and history...

Electronics are a nightmare... On the FL1. Electrons running up and down wires causing kayos everywhere they go. Buying a diagnostic which reads ALL computers gives yer access to fault codes and live data. No different for the FL2 which has a kind of dual power cycle n drive self healing option for some of the settings/computers. Again diagnostics is available. Lots more computers so a diagnostic which can read ALL computers is needed. Yer can have upto 20 depending ont model/spec. Faults are logged against mileage and/date+time which is helpful. A lot of daft faults pop up due to low battery volts when starting. Run it fer 20 seconds to boost the battery and restart and warning messages dissapear. New battery = new set of electrons.

Freel2 has been looking after their FL2's fer over 10 years. Some of them getting to high miles. Most faults have been covered before. More FL2 owners overseas post video help on FL2's than I have seen for FL1 world wide. That's a real shame but it's how it is. It's getting to the stage where owners have come up with their own successful repairs/fixes and put up videos.