Land Rover Freelander

[Richard_K]

No, I'm not a trader. But I also know "needs" doesn't require an apostrophe and I'm not obsessed with blaming others for my inability to maintain a car

Type ANY car maker into google with head gasket failure and you'll finds loads of hits. As for people not buying Rovers, maybe you need to look at the sales figures and the number of K-series powered Rovers on the road; Rover going out of business has almost no connection with the K-series; apart from anything else, if the engine was that bad, maybe you should be taking issue with Ford

But, since you know so much about the Freelander, when was the design finalised? What were the project codes during development? What car was the original prototype based on? When did the project start?

I'll give you a helpful clue: The Freelander's engine was decided upon in 1994.

Which models of MG has the K-series been successful in? And what about the Rover R8, R3, R6, HH-R? Badly maintained K-series engines may suffer HG failure, but that could be said of any engine.

Traders 'not touching' the Freelander is a bit of a red herring, too - they're popular used sellers, but if you mean they won't touch a V6, that's nothing to do with reliability and everything to do with fuel consumption and market forces. They also don't want 4.0 Jeeps, or petrol 4x4s of pretty much any flavour.

The only 2 vehicles in which the k series has been successful are the Caterham & some models of MG. In all others it has failed. The Rover Group who manufactured it through Power Train fitted it to their saloon cars & it was such a success that people stopped buying Rover Cars.

Just this one quote - just this - is sufficient to demonstrate that your grasp of tabloid editorial is much greater than your grasp of logic

[Richard_K]

Originally Posted by JonCris

It was supplied & fitted to the KIA Seconda & was a disaster. (trawl the net if you want confirmation) Lotus also stopped fitting it because of the cooling problems.

I think you mean the Kia Sedona. Kia had input on the 2.5 V6, it is 'related' to the Rover unit - but I can find nothing to suggest it was anything other than merely a poor choice of engine for the workload, being a quad-cam 24V V6 more suited to revving and underpowered for the weight of car. Despite this poor application, it seems to be quite happy to lug the Sedona around for a while without failing...

Lotus stopped fitting the K-series engine because it wasn't federalized; they couldn't sell cars in the USA with the K-series, so opted for a Toyota unit.

[Richard_K]

Originally Posted by JonCris

I have highlighted my responses in your message

Why do you insist that I have some connection with LR? I SELL ADVERTISING. Not buy it. If I worked for LR, I would be BUYING, not SELLING, advertising.

I work in the photographic press. No connection with LandRover whatsoever. However, the valuation of my Subaru had no bearing on Glass' - very few traders use Glass' Guide, they use an online system which incorporates some basic HPI checking and validation provided by Equifax. Glass' valued my Subaru at £4,600 - the computer put it at £2,350. That's with FSH and assuming the car was in good condition.

The seller referring to 1/3rd of Freelanders having head gasket failures; again, no clarification if this is 1/3rd of all (in which case, which engine should be taking the blame here?), and the original post in this thread wasn't about head gasket failure, but throwing a rod. That's in the bottom end of the engine, in case you weren't aware.

With roughly 30-60,000 Freelanders produced/sold each year almost since introduction (including 33,000 sold in the US), that's a lot of Freelanders - I'd guess around 400,000+ worldwide (LandRover sold nearly 200,000 vehicles in total last year). So 1/3rd of those have suffered head gasket failure have they?

Have 1/3rd of the 33,000 KV6 powered Freelanders in the US suffered problems? And of the ones that have, how many are due to dealers being unused to the KV6 engine?

Of course, if you knew some traders, they should have told you that Glass' is pretty much nonsense these days

On your 6th top of the range Discovery? They've been in production since '89, I guess they can't last all that long...

I wish you luck with your lawsuits, but I hope that if I ever have to join a class action against a car manufacturer, it is organised by people with sufficient mechanical knowledge and perspective to actually be credible.

[dominikgabriel]

My response is to Richard_K and JonCris.

It is really simple, this forum is for the promotion of understanding. It is not for the toiled up ego of useless pety arguments. Whatever the first statement made was that inspired Jon or Richard to begin responding with a ridiculous/argumentative line of prodings meant to portray the accurser as superior was not worth the air breathed during the typing.

If you want to flash portray yourself on an internet forum, please reconsider, this is not the place to make ur political debut. If you really want to be respected and have an opinion worthy of respect read and ponder closely the words of your peer, before you disregard their value as they aren't spoken in your prefered voice, listen to them for what they are. Learn to see the value in what is said not the disvalue, when you catch (if lucky enough) yourself comparing what one is typing to your superior writing and thinking skills stop yourself immediately, you are not learning or promoting any production of further, merely playing devils advocate to yourself, and unfortunately, others.

Intelligence is often measured in silence, patience and restraint.

[Richard_K]

Originally Posted by dominikgabriel

Intelligence is often measured in silence, patience and restraint.

Indeed. Congratulations on speaking up, reviving a dead thread, and thereby proving the rule

[flowers]

hi guys & gals,
can't reveal my real name as i worked for land rover for 7 years up till not so long back. Unfortunately the petrol freelanders were a disaster from launch. I have even been in a deaters who replaced the engine if a 1.8 for head gasket failiure with a genuine L>R recon unit, it didnt even get off the ramp befor the head gasket on the new engine blew. also early models had problems with the rear silencer snapping, pointing upwards and melting the bumper etc.. this was rectified be retro fitting a plate to deflect the exhaust when it snapped. would have thought recifying the exhaust would have been a better option myself. IRD units in early models were out of balance leading to all 4 tyres scrubbing off in as little a 10,000 miles, heater matrix would go at about 80,000, sunroof mechanisms also, and water leaks galore. the kv6 wasn't mutch better, head gaskets, auto gearboxes were the worst problems. td4, great untill the fuel system goes down, ingectors, fuel pumps etc, and dont think about putting on a tow bar as clutches do go. however I did buy my wife three consecutive td4 freelanders brand new, ran to about 14,000 and changed, with only one incedent over all of them which was a flat tyre. (i dont blame land rover for that, just my wife)..

as i nolonger earn as much as i did I changed the last freelander for a 5 year old range rover v8, and I have a 16 year old classic range rover, I am expecting more problems with my wife's range rover as a matter of course.

in the real world unfortunately all cars go wrong, just some more wrong than others. I do hope people with 1.8 freelanders do get some justice as they have got a bum wrap out of the deal, however those who bought towards the end of the run of this engine shouldn't be too eager to blame land rover entirely. a quick google search would have prepared them with all the info they would need to make an informed choice on which car to buy, and that goes for all manufacturers.

last note, couldn't bear not to own a land rover now, despite all their flaws, like the wife, once you get used to them you just can't do without!!!!

[clanger]

I've just been informed i need a new engine on my T/1999 Xi Freelander which has done 52k miles.................at a cost of £2660!!!

The guy on the phone asked me if they should go ahead with fitting it as they had one in stock?

Are they for real???

Went straight into the dealership and started screaming and shouting in their main showroom what a ****-poor service they were providing blah blah................surpr ise surprise the Manager is now trying to get me a 'goodwill payment' from LR as my vehicle is over 6 yrs old and LR will only consider any help if it is within this timespan..............JOK ERS!!

Once i mentioned the 'Sale Of Goods Act' which covers faulty goods up to 6 yrs from the date of purchase (i bought it in 2001) the Manager ushered me into his office, made me a coffee and said 'lets discuss this!!!'

I am now waiting for a call on monday morning before taking legal action.

[steve_n]

Hi all,

Just talking in general about Landrovers, I own a Discovery TD5 (from new) now clocked 60k miles and it has been perfect, now problems whatsoever - am I just lucky, or have the owners above just been 'unlucky'
I appreciate the Disco is a completely diffrent car to the Freelander, but the company I work for runs all types of LR's most work very hard, especially the Defenders often clocking well over 300k miles and we rarely get real problems, and thesea re vehicles that are thrashed day and night in all weathers and all terrains (I work for a large electricity company)

So . . . I'm certainly ok with LR and would certainley buy another one !!
Steve

[JonCris]

Originally Posted by clanger

I've just been informed i need a new engine on my T/1999 Xi Freelander which has done 52k miles.................at a cost of £2660!!!

The guy on the phone asked me if they should go ahead with fitting it as they had one in stock?

Are they for real???

Went straight into the dealership and started screaming and shouting in their main showroom what a ****-poor service they were providing blah blah................surpr ise surprise the Manager is now trying to get me a 'goodwill payment' from LR as my vehicle is over 6 yrs old and LR will only consider any help if it is within this timespan..............JOK ERS!!

Once i mentioned the 'Sale Of Goods Act' which covers faulty goods up to 6 yrs from the date of purchase (i bought it in 2001) the Manager ushered me into his office, made me a coffee and said 'lets discuss this!!!'

I am now waiting for a call on monday morning before taking legal action.

Don't just mention the SOGA mention also that you are now aware that the problem is a known problem & has been since the vehicles inception.

[clanger]

Just updating .................My dealer have wiped their hands of my car and so has Landrover.

Landrover claim that any vehicle over 6 years old wont get any goodwill payments, irrespective of how low the mileage is!!!

Strange then that i know someone who has a freelander that is 3 MONTHS newer than mine, is over 6 years old,has over 60k on the clock and Landrover have confirmed they WILL foot the entire bill of £2000+!!!!!!

I'd say that i'm being discriminated against................La ndrover obviously make the rules up depending on what day you phone them!!!!!

Legal action on the way!!!!

[Bedouin]

JonCris / Clanger / Anyone - is there any legal happening v Landrover over this? - my wife's Freelander has just died with the same problem.

peter_graham@hotmail.com if you have any news / suggestions.

Thanks.