What have you done to your Freelander today

Fitted aluminium plate protection to rusty fuel tank carrier plates. Frame perfectly sound but plate protection rusty. MOT pass !!! Fitted to existing frame with electrical earth strap fixings. Saves removal and will do until I can take out full frame by dropping rear subframe and then put the same plates inside the carrier. Both sides for £10 !

Swapped the not very "OE quality" bulb holders and brake light switch for actual OE items, now all my rear lights work (after my mods) and I have TC and HDC back

Word to the wise, when buying electrical just buy genuine

Squared up the VCU support bearings. Whoever had been there before me, just slapped them up. I found the front prop to VCU spline bolt loose too, so tightened that up at the same time. The slight clunk I had when selecting reverse has disappeared. Funny that. I'm glad I checked it now.

Nodge68 said:

Squared up the VCU support bearings. Whoever had been there before me, just slapped them up. I found the front prop to VCU spline bolt loose too, so tightened that up at the same time. The slight clunk I had when selecting reverse has disappeared. Funny that. I'm glad I checked it now.

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Nice spot there Nodge, what made you think it might be loose?
Regarding the VCU bearings, there are lots of peeps complaining about cheap bearings lasting only a few months and I can't help wondering how many of them have been fitted badly. If they are not perfectly at 90deg to the VCU shaft the rubber in them will be destroyed in no time.

Alibro said:

Nice spot there Nodge, what made you think it might be loose?
Regarding the VCU bearings, there are lots of peeps complaining about cheap bearings lasting only a few months and I can't help wondering how many of them have been fitted badly. If they are not perfectly at 90deg to the VCU shaft the rubber in them will be destroyed in no time.

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I only got under the car because I have an annoying knock from what feels like under the driver's foot well area. This led me to take a general glance over the entire underbody. I thought I'd look at anything rubber mounted, including the propshafts and VCU. The wonky bearings were obvious and easy sorted. On grabbing the front prop, the slack bolt securing it to the VCU was obvious too.
Both those issues were sorted, sadly the knock remains
I agree that incorrect bearing fitting will shorten there life. The rubber fails faster and the bearing it's self will be running off centre, again causing early failure.

De-wooded the interior and it's a much more pleasant place to be.

Took a little bimble to test the gearbox and it's back to fully functional if a little rough on a couple of changes

A busy weekend...
Finally got the Scorpion STRs to replace the rubbish Far Eastern tyres it had on there. What a difference. Much quieter and feel much less vague.
With the new tyres on, I was now ready to get it back to being 4WD again. So, firstly I changed the centre diff mount to get rid of the knock when turning right, when the prop was previously on. The existing mount was shot, with the rubber perished. Next on the list was refitting the prop which has a refurbed VCU from Bell. (what fun doing that in a freezing garage!). Took it out for a short test drive and all running well. No more wheelspins pulling away from junctions, and works a treat on the mud. The knock was gone too.
This morning took it in for its first MOT under my ownership, and it passed \o/ - ...it would have been a clean sheet, but for one niggling advisory about the handbrake being too high. I'm quite happy with that being the only advisory though, and easy to sort with a spanner. - Another little job I need to do, is sort the silicon hose out that goes from the EGR to the plastic air intake, next to the battery. Although this was not mentioned on the MOT, I noticed some oil splashes on the bottom of my windscreen, which when the bonnet is open, is in direct line of fire to where the hose is leaking some oil around the clip. I suspect when the did the emissions test revs, it must a sprayed a little out, so need to tighten that up! - I didn't want to overdo, with the plastic being oval in shape. But looking at pictures/clip on youtube it seems this connection is done up tighter than the rest.
Anyway, overall a good start to the week!
Jim

Fitted a new coolant header tank this morning as the old one was looking very much second hand!
It also gave me an excuse to try out the camera on my new phone. I'm impressed with the quality of the £14 tank and the quality of the photo.

Did Full service in Tuesday, but for some reason the fuel filter was wrong. So I'm waiting now for a replacement

Nodge68 said:

Fitted a new coolant header tank this morning as the old one was looking very much second hand!
It also gave me an excuse to try out the camera on my new phone. I'm impressed with the quality of the £14 tank and the quality of the photo.View attachment 97887

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I fitted a cheapo header tank too and like you was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the tank. Not quite as impressed by the cap though, the label peeled off almost instantly and it never felt as tight as the oem one.
BTW what antifreeze do you use? I have the Eurocarparts blue stuff in mine but only realised recently it is not OAT. Thankfully I flushed the system well before using it as I believe OAT and non OAT go like jelly when mixed.

My new cap screwed tighter than the old cap.

I do use red OAT for topping up simply because that's what modern cars are filled with. If I'm replacing coolant, I use Blucol because I have lots of it. I've been using Blucol for years without an issue, even on K/ KV6 powered vehicles.

Drove it to Worcester and back without issue so I can finally sign off on the gearbox faults

Unfortunately it's now going to be for sale

I trial fitted an MGF dashboard dimmer in the blank to the right of the dash. It fits perfectly so now I just need to work out the wiring.

Found a novel way to do the one wheel up test!

Broke it.
Coolant leaking from somewhere, pooling on the floor near to o/s wheel. Plus the fans aren't coming on until 106c ish and keep on going until 110, but it never gets below 102. New thermostat last year and all seemed fine.

Oh well good job I have an ultra reliable 1.8T ZT.

Bought a tailgate dog guard which I was sure would fit because the mounting holes had already been drilled when I bought the car. Went out full of enthusiasm, expecting only to fit the hardware. Unwrapped the fitting kit and instructions only to discover that the halfwit who drilled the holes had drilled in entirely the wrong place. Now have to find a new door card and make two brackets to bridge the dirty big holes in the inner door skin. Don't you love people like that? Anyway, to make myself feel better I fitted a fag lighter socket to the existing loom in the back of the centre console which'll make it much easier to charge a phone or camera batteries.

Let us know how you get on with the dimmer switch Nodge68 i could do with one of them in mine as i like the dash lights to be low .
Trev .

Tempus Fugit said:

Broke it.
Coolant leaking from somewhere, pooling on the floor near to o/s wheel. Plus the fans aren't coming on until 106c ish and keep on going until 110, but it never gets below 102. New thermostat last year and all seemed fine.

Oh well good job I have an ultra reliable 1.8T ZT.

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Water pump?

Had intermittent 2 amigos for the last few weeks which eventually became permanent. Tracked it down to the brake light switch as it had nothing to do with ABS. Removed it and did a general clean up and lube up on it, worked for a time and then the two amigos returned when I had to brake suddenly recently. So a new switch has been ordered and hoping that resolves it next week.

Finally tackled the diesel filter change. The only filter I havent yet got too since buying it. Had read about how much of a bastid this job can be, so was fearing the worst but luckily I got almost no hassle. Mainly down to the fact the old filter was dated 2013! Everything came apart easily and job was done very quickly. Filled the filter with kerosene and gave it a hard drive afterward to see if it has any effect on my lumpy cold start idle. Seems slightly better but could be imagining it. Still, another one down.
Injectors will need checking anyway.

Picked up a pair of drop links, fitted driver side one as nearside looked new. Nice and easy job, with plenty of access. Thumping over potholes is now gone and there isnt a hint of suspension noise now.

Next up, work out why my horn has suddenly decided to stop working. (Thats the one on the car mind)

My horn (car) was mostly dead when I bought Gerty. It worked in a half hearted way once or twice then nothing. I spent a while chasing it and eventually figured out it was the steering wheel slip ring. Found a couple of spare cores in it and after a bit of rewiring it works again.