Freelander speedo problem

I have a T rag Freelander XDi. A few weeks ago I was driving along at about

70mph and I put the headlights on. The speedo dropped back to zero and the odometer reading disappeared. The next morning as I set off for the dealer's it was all working fine again, except that the trip odo was registering zero and the odo had not counted the miles from when the speedo switched off. Turning the lights on had no effect.

The dealer tested the car and their computer said that the ABS Modulator was failing and it would cost £1800 to replace. My credit card company has deep pockets so I agreed.

The day after it was fixed I drove a 12 mile round trip twice and as I got home the second time the speedo switched off. I drove immediately to the dealer whose computer now refused to acknowledge its connection to my car. They spent the next day driving the car around and retesting it, with the speedo etc. working fine. On Land Rover's advice they checked (broke and remade) a number of the electrical connections. They could not replicate the fault. I spat blood at the £1800 but agreed to drive the car around through the Christmas period and observe carefully when the fault occurred.

Late one afternoon I was nearing the end of a 30 mile trip when it happened again. The headlights were already on and I had been about to turn off the heater which was cooking my feet. A few days later I drove to London (200 miles) with no lights and no heater; from London to Maidstone with heater and no lights; and from Maidstone to London with lights and no heater. The problem did not recur. I drove home with the heater on the windscreen and after about 100 miles took a break. I set off again with heater on my feet and headlights on and after 15 miles the speedo stopped working.

The next morning it was all working fine again and the dealer could not diagnose or replicate the problem.

It seems completely irrational that cooking my feet (usually actually my wife's feet) whilst having the headlights on should affect the speedo.

Has anyone seen this problem before? Does anyone know the cure?

Ar'll sithee DaveT In Sunny South Yorkshire

Reply to
DaveT
Loading thread data ...

Isn't this a great advert for buying a Series III

Electronics - None Heater - On or Off Speedo - Cable driven from g/box

70Mph - Only Possible Down hill with a strong following wind

Mind you to survive the rigors of driving to Tesco's the Freelander wins every time!!!!

Reply to
Ian

I don't know of anything specific without wading through the hundreds of service bulletins but there have been recalls in the past for Freelanders to fix, among other things, faults in the loom relating to shorts caused by the heater.

At a guess I'd suggest looking at the heater flaps and control cables - maybe one of the direction flaps has cut into the loom and is causing a short circuit, perhaps between the headlight circuit and the speedo signal ?

If I were you the first thing I would do is demand that the dealer refits your old ABS module and credits you for the work and parts that they conned you into buying because they were too incompetent to fix the problem. Then take the vehicle to someone who knows what they are doing and get it fixed properly.

It is a sad fact of life that the LR dealer network have, time and again, proved themselves to be completely useless when it comes to fault diagnosis on electrical systems.

RCV are in South Yorkshire (Doncaster) and I've heard very good reports about them though have no first hand experience, Maddison 4x4 near Thirsk are good too but may be a bit far away for you to travel.

formatting link
or

formatting link
HTH

cheers

Dave W.

formatting link

Reply to
Dave White

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.