The ignition light came on and I lost power steering as I pulled up and reverse parked in the hospice car park.
It's been one of those weeks: my mother has terminal cancer and I’d just “sprung” my father from hospital where he’d been admitted following a fall.
I’d pressed the Freelander into intensive use over the last month: it’s been doing at least 200-500 miles a week - miles it has taken into its stride. It had been making an odd noise on full lock when manoeuvring and there has been a couple of times when I thought it was a little down on power... but otherwise just faultless and frankly I haven’t had much time to investigate what had been only mildly annoying issues...
Then the ignition light and loss of power steering. The engine sounded fine as I switched it off.
I popped the bonnet and the lack of charging became obvious: the crank pulley was on the squint. The retaining crank pulley screw had worked itself loose.
I called a friend who very kindly came out with his tool box. We had the road wheel off and the screw re-tightened in a jiffy. But all was not well.
I started the engine it sounded like a cross between a diesel and a bag of bolts being churned over in a metal bucket.
We worried that the cam belt may have jumped a tooth. But then we noticed something very odd: the power steering and alternator belts were becoming loose then tight as we manually turned the engine... the crank pulley seemed to be turning eccentrically.
There’s a certain black humour to note that the car died in a hospice car park, but I fear something very bad has afflicted the bottom end of this K-series. Maybe the crank or the crank carrier have cracked/ failed...?
Sensible thing would be to scrap it or break for spares, but I feel like I don’t wish to be defeated here. And I have a “spare” 1.8 bottom end from an MGF in my garage to get the plucky little Freelander back on (and off!) the road.
I’ll get the car recovered back to London for further investigation and possibly an engine replacement. If anyone has any other thoughts as to what may have happened, so let me know!
It's been one of those weeks: my mother has terminal cancer and I’d just “sprung” my father from hospital where he’d been admitted following a fall.
I’d pressed the Freelander into intensive use over the last month: it’s been doing at least 200-500 miles a week - miles it has taken into its stride. It had been making an odd noise on full lock when manoeuvring and there has been a couple of times when I thought it was a little down on power... but otherwise just faultless and frankly I haven’t had much time to investigate what had been only mildly annoying issues...
Then the ignition light and loss of power steering. The engine sounded fine as I switched it off.
I popped the bonnet and the lack of charging became obvious: the crank pulley was on the squint. The retaining crank pulley screw had worked itself loose.
I called a friend who very kindly came out with his tool box. We had the road wheel off and the screw re-tightened in a jiffy. But all was not well.
I started the engine it sounded like a cross between a diesel and a bag of bolts being churned over in a metal bucket.
We worried that the cam belt may have jumped a tooth. But then we noticed something very odd: the power steering and alternator belts were becoming loose then tight as we manually turned the engine... the crank pulley seemed to be turning eccentrically.
There’s a certain black humour to note that the car died in a hospice car park, but I fear something very bad has afflicted the bottom end of this K-series. Maybe the crank or the crank carrier have cracked/ failed...?
Sensible thing would be to scrap it or break for spares, but I feel like I don’t wish to be defeated here. And I have a “spare” 1.8 bottom end from an MGF in my garage to get the plucky little Freelander back on (and off!) the road.
I’ll get the car recovered back to London for further investigation and possibly an engine replacement. If anyone has any other thoughts as to what may have happened, so let me know!
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