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Which is the worst Freelander?


Garythesnail

Which Freelander is the worst second hand option?  

70 members have voted

  1. 1. Worst drivetrain

    • 1.8 petrol manual
    • 2.5 petrol auto
    • BMW diesel manual
    • BMW diesel auto
    • Rover L series diesel Manual
  2. 2. Ugliest face

  3. 3. Wrong number of doors



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16 minutes ago, twosmoke300 said:

Tomorrow - which is the best sexually transmitted disease?

Syphilis.  It's a lot like a K-Series.  It'll show symptoms, then seem fine.  Comes back a bit worse a few years later, problem goes away again.  Then it comes back and permanently dies suddenly.

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I drove one as my first ever job. A 1.8 3 door. It was a 1999 T reg and had two gearboxes before 2001 and 40,000 miles. 
 

A friend of mine, who did the same job and drove the same car, still owns one. I think he’s trying to convince himself, 19 years later, that they’re not all shit. I actually don’t think they are, but I’d not trust one as my only transport on unlit, rural roads for example!

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I remember a mate had a  5 door sport Freelander.

On low profile tyres and "sporting" suspension it managed to be Roly poly and jiggly at the same time.

The time that sticks in my mind was after a night out drinking like eidjets and crashing out on a mates sofa, I got a lift home next morning in the Freelander, 50 miles enthusiasticly across bumpy fen roads.

I've never been so sick in my life.

 

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I've never owned or even driven any type of Freelander 1, popular internet wisdom says an L series manual with a working rear diff is actually quite a useful off roader with the right tyres. Didn't Dave- numbers have such a beast as a workhorse?

MrsN owned and loved a Freelander2 for about 5 years and it was about as good off road/ in snow as the Chrysler 300 or BMW 5 series I had during the same time.

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SWMBO has a TD4 and loves it. As it was cheap and hasn't caused too much trouble that's alright by me. I think that they're actually quite good around town. They don't care about car park scrapes or speed humps and I have towed a pretty heavy trailer full of concrete blocks and it did well.  The traction control is actually quite advanced for offroading and you can buy a cheap diagnostic tool for them, from me. 

http://pscan.uk/features/freelander1.html

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Many years ago when the internets were young, the year was 1998 and we were all innocent we lashed out on two cars for the new company. The plan was to have a pair of three door petrol Freelanders but at the last minute I decided not to be so silly and had an MGF instead. IIRC they both did about 65K in two and a bit years and apart from a minor* HGF from the Freelander which was repaired under warranty both cars seemed pretty reliable despite the abuse I meted out to the MG. I always thought the Freelander was a likeable little thing not least because it was probably the last airy, clothy, glassy interior that Land Rover ever did.

Speaking personally I would have said the worst Freelander was one which ran on diesel.

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I have driven a 1.8 petrol, SWMBOs TD4 and a mates V6 automatic.

I don't like the clutch in the 1,8, the TD4 has a much nicer clutch, however as standard the are a DMF and the "pull" type release bearing and when the slave cylinder goes (which it will) then it's a gearbox out job.

SWMBOs one now has a solid flywheel conversion that I bought on ebay from a guy that bought one for a diesel Rover 75 but never fitted it, and it also has a metal slave cylinder from Poland (might have been Tazu). These were fitted two years ago and have been great.

The V6 auto one was nice to drive but obviously juicy.

The viscous couplings suffered on the early ones because the front and back axles had slight different ratios which made the coupling work all of the time.  From 2001 they fitted the same ratios front and back and this means that the coupling has an easier time.  On SWMBOs one the viscous coupling is fine but the bearings that support it have now failed leading to prop shaft vibration.

A colleague have a Freelander 2 that ate it's rear Haldex, and this seems to be common and painful.

Also the Freelander 1 seems a bit smaller which is better for SWMBO.

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Thanks for the replies, guys - it's kept me entertained?

I haven't bombed too badly. It's a 2003, 3 door V6 automatic with 45k on the clock, full cow and, ecxept for 'AC needing a regas', everything works (or at least it has until I made that bold statement). It's also 4WD - must be as it's managed a huge* 1:5 slope on gravel and is therefore a proper* Land Rover. All bits of undercarriage are present and reasonably correct.

It drives nicely, the auto changes smoothly and it seems quite good at being a car.

Collection involved a hire car, 400 mile round trip, FTP (or more accurately FTS) by the FL, undeclared damage (a 'dink the size of a 10p piece' was bigger than my fist), a little white lie about the cambelt (yes, they have been changed but you neglected to mention that it was 9 fucking years ago) (*edit to add that an invoice has been found for the second cam belt change in the vehicle's life in 2019 - winner),  the purchase of a new battery to get it started..... and I was still stupid enough to buy it, leading to a completely uneventful 200 mile journey back home.

Here it is.

20190924_145734.thumb.jpg.6542203c15dbad3081b977125504eb52.jpg

I am undecided on a name but shortlisted to Ollie, George or Gazza.

I actually quite like it.

 

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...I still have a bucket of bolts in the unit from helping a mate break freelanders; he had one himself and used to buy the odd one or two, which were cheap as breakers; the pitch n thread of nearly every bolt that comes off them; ive never found a use for apart from the odd BMW; in many ways they seemed massively over-engineered n in other areas very half arsed- eg the viscous couplings; he had some china contact n he used to remarket the 'recon'd couplings, even tho his own had the 'fwd only' viscous coupling delete; he had a few plates made up n used to sell them - they were  needed after the rear prop delete...

...anyways they were 7 or 8 year old cars at this time but he used to managed to sell everything off the breaker ones; especially the diesel LWB ones; I though he was mad when he first got into them, but he used to make good coin off the breakers; I didn't think irish folk were masochistic enough to keep them going, but I was proved wrong - a big seller was the auto window rear tailgate...

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