Freelander 1 Helo Folks - Switzerland calling

Hi Folks,
Greetings from Switzerlands East End.
British bloke tucked up in a valley above the city of Sank Gallen here
I am usually found on the Series forum here.
However as my S3 is currently in the workshop and i need a daily driver ..I bought a Freelander1 1.8 petrol.
It's a 5 door version.
140'000km but half of that on an exchange engine.

Has (I guess) all the usual problems:
Very low travel on the clutch pedal (but no problems except some crunchy reverse changes)
Hanging headliner
Heater control lamps all out
Rear wiper not working
Read door window not working
Drivers window not working
Interior light cluster not woking

So what is in store for this Freelander?
I live just on the 1000m above sea level so we get snow and lot's of it from any time soon.
Proper 40 or 50cm covered roads at 5am when I have to drive 12km down to the main line station to commute to Zürich.

My Son and I also compete in the Swiss Orienteering offload championships so maybe we will put the Freelander to one of the Challenge stages this coming season ( there are 8 stages in a season but only 7 count - you drop the lowest score - or you can sit a stage out - also gives you a chance if you have a mechanical fail on a stage , to catch up)

Please please feel free to now jump in and give me some advice

Regards from the Alps

Simon

Good luck with the jobs all diy
Don’t get the freelander paranoia it’s only metal and plastic

Simon Perks said:

Hi Folks,
Greetings from Switzerlands East End.
British bloke tucked up in a valley above the city of Sank Gallen here
I am usually found on the Series forum here.
However as my S3 is currently in the workshop and i need a daily driver ..I bought a Freelander1 1.8 petrol.
It's a 5 door version.
140'000km but half of that on an exchange engine.

Has (I guess) all the usual problems:
Very low travel on the clutch pedal (but no problems except some crunchy reverse changes)
Hanging headliner
Heater control lamps all out
Rear wiper not working
Read door window not working
Drivers window not working
Interior light cluster not woking

So what is in store for this Freelander?
I live just on the 1000m above sea level so we get snow and lot's of it from any time soon.
Proper 40 or 50cm covered roads at 5am when I have to drive 12km down to the main line station to commute to Zürich.

My Son and I also compete in the Swiss Orienteering offload championships so maybe we will put the Freelander to one of the Challenge stages this coming season ( there are 8 stages in a season but only 7 count - you drop the lowest score - or you can sit a stage out - also gives you a chance if you have a mechanical fail on a stage , to catch up)

Please please feel free to now jump in and give me some advice

Regards from the Alps

Simon

Click to expand...

lol, 1,000m that's high, we've got some decent lumps of rock here, but not many people live at that altitude. The only places up that high are the ski fields, DOC & farming huts. You don't get resorts/towns up at the ski fields here - just precarious gravel tracks up to them (their bases tend to be at about 1,200m/1,300m)

I'd be a bit careful about the clutch. They have a sealed 1 piece master/hydraulics/slave pack. The slave clips onto a bracket on the side of the gearbox which pushes a release arm that swivels through the bell housing. The release arm tends to seize in the bell housing - so its is worth dropping a few drips of oil onto it to lubricate it (and repeat at services). As it tightens up it puts to much pressure on the slave bracket which can bend so the clutch does not operate well and usually fractures with total loss of clutch.

I used some spray glue on the drooping headlining of my Disco - the results were...... terrible! I think if you want to do the job properly you have to remove the panel the lining is fixed to, clean all the loose stuff off, glue it up and lay the liner over the panel - so you don't get palm prints all over it from where you've pushed it up

The heater lamps were not working on mine when I got it. They're still not working 9 years later - but I think its not that difficult to fix them.

There's lots of stuff on here about rear windows/wipers not working. As they've both failed, presumably its something in the loom/earth point that's failed. Drivers window is presumably the regulator and dunno about the interior light, fuse would be the first check I suppose.

What might be useful to you is the LR Rave Workshop Manual. There's info here on how to download it. There's 2 versions for Freelander, an early one for cars up to 2000 and a later ones for cars 2000+...

https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/rave-disk-maintenance-manual.260227/

FYI, if there's no pics, then you ain't got a Freelander and you live in Peckham

What Grumpy said about the head lining, clutch issues -from what you said mine is similar, I found a g'box oil change helped reduce the reverse gear grind a lot and try not to do fast racing changes between gears... as to clutch replacement no experience [-yet], heater lighting = easy. Pull knobs off there are 2 cross head screws on the outer 2 shafts - remove and you'll see the 3 small bulbs. They are a simple push fit... Interior light - bulbs? or possibly an earth/connection issue somewhere [ clean the contacts... Driver's window motor / regulator is not so hard either - see parts on eBay... Rear door - check wiring connections in the rear luggage area.