Freelander 1 Return of the (Land) Rovers: Kilo-Hippo-Delta

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If that's the case, you may as well pull into a petrol station and check the tyre pressures :rolleyes:

The idea of the tyre monitor is to give the driver an indication of tyre loss between pressure checks. Not to eliminate pressure checks altogether, or that's the way I see it anyway.
 
I've only come across manufacturer fitted tyre pressure systems. Most seem to need 3 psi drop from normal to trigger a warning. It's interesting to see where the tyres are running from cold ok but trigger a warning once warn as they expand a bit. Also the opposite.. alarm when cold and clears when warm.

I think these systems are more to warn the motorist of a slow puncture, say ont motorway. Or a flat when first driving it. Most drivers wouldn't know or feel it happening if there was a slow puncture. Only had one puncture and it had to drop near half way before I felt there was something wrong.
 
Here are the potential locations I’ve been thinking of putting the monitor screen:
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Down by the gear lever in the lower switch panel. Out of line of sight, but still readily visible from the drivers seat.


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This is the location of the switch black under the instrument panel - but it’s obscured from view most of the time :(

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Or next to the clock - easily visible, but maybe the hardest location to insert it?
 
Keep the screen out of sight the best yer can. It will save yer windows if someone thinks it's a sat nav or phone when it's parked.
 
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Good advice! The screen on this is the size of a window switch, so I doubt it’ll be a problem wherever it goes (likely the first option shown above) :)
 
After some low life had hacked off the catalyst - I've now replaced the down-pipe/catalyst and mid-section of the exhaust and fitted a new post-catalyst O2 sensor.

I also took the opportunity to perform an oil-change service and replaced the air filter (the old one probably okay, but starting to look a bit grubby)

Two new problems, and one problem I have been meaning to fix for some time:

New problems:
  1. The tail gate handle is no longer attached to the tailgate. All the mounting points have broken around their plastic bases. Not sure whether someone had tried to gain access to the car this way? It has exposed the full extent of rot in the rear door skin though: this will be a biggish job to sort out...
  2. The offside rear diff seal appears to have a leak - will need sorting: will read up on how to deal with this - but I guess this involves dropping the rear subframe? I see this as opening a huge can of worms!!!
Old problem:
  • I still need to replace the coolant rail. While waiting to source a replacement exhaust and find time to fit it, the header tank has completely drained itself through the leak. This needs urgent attention...
 
I still need to replace the coolant rail. While waiting to source a replacement exhaust and find time to fit it, the header tank has completely drained itself through the leak. This needs urgent attention..
I wish I'd known.
Sent a complete coolant rail off for scrap with the remains of my MGF recently. :(
 
I wish I'd known.
Sent a complete coolant rail off for scrap with the remains of my MGF recently. :(
Oops! D'oh!

I think the problem is corrosion on the inside of the rail, particularly around the O-ring. I shall have a look to see whether it will clean up, and if not, I'll replace...
 
I decided to clean up a spare water rail before tackling this task:

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I replaced the cable ties as you can see.

Even on this replacement rail, there was rust on the inside of the pipe where the O-ring sits. I cleaned this, finished with fine grit paper and gave it a light coat of smoothrite paint...

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No idea whether this is a good idea or not - guess I’ll find out!

Getting the old rail out was quite a phaff. Much easier if the inlet manifold were removed, but still doable. I cut the cable ties holding the engine wiring harness first (there are for to remove) then I unclipped the coolant hoses (after first draining the coolant reservoir).

This frees up the coolant rail, and then it was a case of removing the two retaining screws (both 10mm head screws). Pulling the coolant rail from the thermostat housing was the most challenging part - partly because of a slight lack of space, but mostly because it doesn’t want to come off! Needed a fair amount of patience and wriggling while pulling; it eventually came free.

This is what the inside of the pipe looked like:

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It looks worse than it is I think. The old O-ring had expanded and felt spongy in comparison to the new one that I replaced it with:

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It’s all back together now. It was quite straightforward but I had to clean the thread on one of the M8 screws with a die, but once I got the mounting holes lined up, it all came together smoothly.

Fingers crossed this is the coolant leak fixed! :)
 
Fingers crossed this is the coolant leak fixed!

I find a smear of plumbers silicone grease will keep the O rings sealed and healthy for years. But fingers crossed, it's fixed.

On a slightly different note. I've found a new MGF radiator (pattern part) in my garage, if you're after a spare, I've got one going cheap.
 
So far, so dry...

Annoyingly the 3 amigos are back. I was furious because I thought it likely to be the recently replaced sensor playing up again, but no. It’s the left front this time. Telemetry to follow, but looming at the numbers, the sensor is dropping out intermittently. Looking at the earlier telemetry print outs, this behaviour was there before, but clearly now getting to the point that it’s upsetting the ECU.

So, another hub-off,old sensor mashing extraction process on the cards. Such fun :rolleyes:
 
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Telemetry trace from the ABS ECU. The new replacement right front wheel sensor is working fine, but the left front is causing problems, with frequent drop-out of signal - note the spiky appearance of the orange trace. This will often drop to 0 (the y-axis is kph).

New sensor is on order - but as others have suggested, might be easier to replace the wheel hub with a second hand sensor that is good...! We shall see... ;)
 
Yes - but Freelander projects have stalled a bit recently owing to work commitments, family and competing my MGF in a national sprint championship: not much free time of late!

I have a replacement sensor for the nearside front. I was going to soak the old sensor with penetrating and engine oil in an attempt to avoid having to remove the whole hub (which I had to for the other side). This may be a forlorn hope: we shall see ;)

I also have the rear door to repair (planning to weld in some plate repairs - something I've not done on a body panel before: exciting!) and then repair the rear door handle. I've also got a rear diff seal to replace and also the passenger door lock needs replacing, as it has the typical Bosch door lock motor failure... So quite a few jobs to do: just need a clear run at it to get it all done! :)
 
Excellent. Well, perhaps that's a poor choice of word. Still plodding on, though and that gives me some well needed encouragement.
Can't help you with the door motors. Mine have been behaving. I can however offer some insight into the rear door handle. Mine failed on the handle itself rather than as a result of the panel rusting out. 2 of the 3 stud mountings on the plastic housing had snapped clean off. I'm amazed it was still attached and functioning. Only removed because I read it was a common problem and thought best to check. Ended up doing something similar to @Alibro (can't find the post, sorry) and stuck it all back together before grinding back the rust and giving the panel a paint.
 
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