wish I never bought a freelander.

you need to get this in perspective a little, the faults are all relatively minor on a vehicle that is now NINE years old. The way the dealer behaved was wrong, but that is the way with many dealers, both LR and independent.

I'm not defending the vehicle at all, but they all have their little issues, especially by this age. I've an 03 td4 auto, 109k on the clock, still as good as gold. A little juicy at times with the fuel consumption but it is a heavy vehicle and an auto. I've owned it 7 years now, only had 36k when I bought it. Use it for work all day every day without a hitch.

mfp2gosling1 said:

What you've got to remember about car forums is that a lot of people post on them because they have problems with their cars so someone reading the forum can get the impression that the type of car in question is problematic.

I got my TD4 in December and had a few issues, I didn't want the independant dealer to service it because I new if I did it it would be done properly. My wife uses it as her everyday transport for work so it has to be reliable.

Once you get over the paranoia that that somethings going to go wrong you'll start to enjoy driving it.

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This is spot on. You only ever read horror stories on forums which gives a very one sided view. For every poster on the forums with a fault you can bet there are hundreds of trouble free Freelanders running about!! I've had 3, 2 being 1.8 K's and a V6. The 1.8's were trouble free in 60,000 miles. The V6 has been the worst of the bunch especially considering is low mileage, but even it's faults were caused by owner error and faulty parts. But if I was asked if i would I have another? The answer would be yes!!

Ok maybe I was a little harsh before maybe due to frustration and being worried that I was getting screwed over!

I have used it alot in last couple of days and especially in this terrible weather and if I am honest it has been excellent now that its fixed.

Maybe I will learn to love it but only time will tell.

Nodge68 said:

This is spot on. You only ever read horror stories on forums which gives a very one sided view. For every poster on the forums with a fault you can bet there are hundreds of trouble free Freelanders running about!! I've had 3, 2 being 1.8 K's and a V6. The 1.8's were trouble free in 60,000 miles. The V6 has been the worst of the bunch especially considering is low mileage, but even it's faults were caused by owner error and faulty parts. But if I was asked if i would I have another? The answer would be yes!!

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Yep my 1.8 K is lovely ...its sad how many people say stay clear of them when they probably haven't had one themselves, "hear say" as judge judy says..mines standard cooling system anorl.

Mine seems to be ok with the EWP now, though I think that a well maintained upgraded K would do just as well. Problem is that garages don't understand these engines at all and cock it up constantly - surprising seeing as they are such a ubiquitous engine.

There probably a handful of garages that know exactly what to look for on a K hippo - I'm starting to suspect that most of the knowlege lives in the DIY communities like ours.

It is scary for anyone who buys a car and it goes wrong from the start, often people discover LZ after their purchase and then start to read the horror stories and they get even more worried ...but like nodge says theres plenty more Freelanders running round trouble free ..hats off to you Will for trying new things, you've got guts to do that ..me I'll just keep standard and see what happens, if the HG goes I'll post it up straight away but for now its been trouble free for nearly a year of ownership so Im not worried about it ..never have been

My 1.8 k series is 13 years old and apart from 2 hgf and the front brakes needed changing all has been well so I'm 1 happy chappy!

Plus I know this cause I've had it since new!!! Shes a 1 owner with 51k on the clock

I bet there have been more issues with the td4 than the k series???

Garboy88 said:

I bet there have been more issues with the td4 than the k series???

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I've been saying this for yonks, but no-one believes me

K-Series rule

Freelaner said:

I've been saying this for yonks, but no-one believes me

K-Series rule

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My family has had a few rovers and mg's and we have never really had any major issues they are good engines if there looked after!

And if you don't look after your car, your car won't look after you!

My old man even had a rover sterling with the kv6 we had that from new and it had 70k on the clock be4 selling it and it didnt have any issues at all!!!

Garboy88 said:

My family has had a few rovers and mg's and we have never really had any major issues they are good engines if there looked after!

And if you don't look after your car, your car won't look after you!

My old man even had a rover sterling with the kv6 we had that from new and it had 70k on the clock be4 selling it and it didnt have any issues at all!!!

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We've had a Rover Metro 1.1 Gta and a Rover 214 in the family over the years with no issues either - I dont remember the cooling set up on those though it might have been a better set up than the Freelander

I believe you Freelaner - What was it you said, oh yeah K series fine little engine, shame they blow up sometimes but Td4 seems to need 24hours/day attention - I may have said that last bit.

Anyhow, petrol heads, stop apologising! Doozals are smelly and don't rev!!

My father left me his Rover 416. Cracking car, quite fast and never any probs with it until an accident on the M25 wrote it off - sad day as had been Dads.

Anyhow, this forums mental. Same questions day in day out. Peeps joining to ask one question should be auto directed to search. And this constantly trying to convince each other that we made a good choice in our car gets on my tits - bleddy group therapy!

Can someone please tell me that I'm not a moron for buying a Fleabag 5 years ago - please! Not an invite to answer - I know the answer:hysterically_laughi

To distill what DD3 just said: if you is a ####wit who never lifts the bonnet between services then most cars are going to develop issues for you. K series is a great enginhe when looked after. Just because it is not ####wit proof doesn't make it a bad engine - it just proves your a bad owner!

TD4 has its problems clearly, these int japanese cars that sacrifice performance for relaibility - have you compared the weight of Jap 1.8's to the K?????? It's mental.

Don't matter though, the more people knock the K the more the prices get despressed which means more DIY folks can get their hands on one dead cheap and we get to make more friends .

WLJayne said:

To distill what DD3 just said: if you is a ####wit who never lifts the bonnet between services then most cars are going to develop issues for you. K series is a great enginhe when looked after. Just because it is not ####wit proof doesn't make it a bad engine - it just proves your a bad owner!

TD4 has its problems clearly, these int japanese cars that sacrifice performance for relaibility - have you compared the weight of Jap 1.8's to the K?????? It's mental.

Don't matter though, the more people knock the K the more the prices get despressed which means more DIY folks can get their hands on one dead cheap and we get to make more friends .

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Yes, what Will said. And can we have partitions in the forum, so you have the petrol section, doozal section and then common to all. I suspect the doozal section would be biggest - but then there are more doozals on the forum. Also all first time posters directed to search initially, then if they still have a question, it's placed in a nubi question section and finally (for this rant) don't come on here saying O, poor me I bought a Freelander boo hoo, bugger off and go and see a shrink!! And don't respond with, my Fleaby is wonderful every time someone is critical of the bleddy thing!!

Agree wiv all the above

keep on keepin on

Brack said:

We've had a Rover Metro 1.1 Gta and a Rover 214 in the family over the years with no issues either - I dont remember the cooling set up on those though it might have been a better set up than the Freelander

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The cooling system on the K series was designed to keep the engine at a constant temperature. The system does exactly that too. My V6 engine temp stays between 98 and 102°C while on an average A road. The problem comes at warm up, the engine temp climbs very quickly before the stat opens, at this point things go astray as the stat's opening is delayed somewhat which allows the engine to get over normal temp before it dumps a rad full of chilled water into the water jacket!! This sudden cooling causes the alloy to contract starting at one end of the engine working it's way to the other. The HG is made of stainless steel which is thermally stable at engine temps with elastopolimer seals bonded on. After a while the moving alloy surfaces against the stable stainless HG causes the elastopolimer to unstick and cause a water leak which can get overlooked if weekly checks are missed so the cooling system airlocks. Result instant HGF!!

DD3 said:

Yes, what Will said. And can we have partitions in the forum, so you have the petrol section, doozal section and then common to all. I suspect the doozal section would be biggest - but then there are more doozals on the forum. Also all first time posters directed to search initially, then if they still have a question, it's placed in a nubi question section and finally (for this rant) don't come on here saying O, poor me I bought a Freelander boo hoo, bugger off and go and see a shrink!! And don't respond with, my Fleaby is wonderful every time someone is critical of the bleddy thing!!

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Ok bought a haynes manual for the motor, so will squiz through that and try and do any of the easyish diy stuff should it arise.

Since posting this thread I have driven my hippo quite alot to and from work and also in heavy traffic in edinburgh city centre and I have been very impressed with it.
It is now running nice and smooth and not idling like a heap o shiiiite like before, fuel consumption has been pretty excellent too.

The td4 seems ok, suppose I just need to keep on top of checking it regularly and use the haynes manual to get familiar with it.

As for k series engines, I think they were poorly designed especially the 1.8 as most engines in the last 15 years dont have a infamous rep for hgf.
I have also got a 2.5 v6 rover 75 so I know all about the k series powerplants, the 2.5 is definitely the engine I would stick with if I had to stick to k series.

Metallica85 said:

As for k series engines, I think they were poorly designed especially the 1.8 as most engines in the last 15 years dont have a infamous rep for hgf.
I have also got a 2.5 v6 rover 75 so I know all about the k series powerplants, the 2.5 is definitely the engine I would stick with if I had to stick to k series.

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Td4 isn't covered in the Haynes I'm afraid. K series was badly built out of the factory, poor casting leaving internal stresses in the head, ****ty plastic wobbletastic dowels and a tinfoil headgasket. How they never saw the thermal shock problem coming is beyond me. Once you've dealt with the ****ty Phoenix Consortium cheap-outs they are not anywhere near as bad as people think. But I'm starting to sound like a broken record, hope your Hippo continues to run well .

WLJayne said:

Td4 isn't covered in the Haynes I'm afraid

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Haynes Manual 3929 covers TD4

WLJayne said:

Td4 isn't covered in the Haynes I'm afraid. K series was badly built out of the factory, poor casting leaving internal stresses in the head, ****ty plastic wobbletastic dowels and a tinfoil headgasket. How they never saw the thermal shock problem coming is beyond me. Once you've dealt with the ****ty Phoenix Consortium cheap-outs they are not anywhere near as bad as people think. But I'm starting to sound like a broken record, hope your Hippo continues to run well .

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Thanks pal, as for haynes manual the one I have is for the td4 engine if you look on ebay there are a few for sale cheap. I got mine for £9 which I think is quite a bargain

WLJayne said:

Td4 isn't covered in the Haynes I'm afraid. K series was badly built out of the factory, poor casting leaving internal stresses in the head, ****ty plastic wobbletastic dowels and a tinfoil headgasket. How they never saw the thermal shock problem coming is beyond me. Once you've dealt with the ****ty Phoenix Consortium cheap-outs they are not anywhere near as bad as people think. But I'm starting to sound like a broken record, hope your Hippo continues to run well .

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What do you mean, mine is WONDERFUL!!!

Well not really but I have to drive about in it anyway, cos the wife has the other car.

Now, something wise Nodge said caught my ear. What would be the effect of removing our PRT from the circuit altogether, so no thermostat. It might take a while to warm up but no thermal shocks - my thermals are shocking!!