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Joys of Landy ownership

"And on the 7th day, God created Toyota's"

Thank Christ for that!!

""Now that I have traded my 2000 Freelander (for $10,000 or $3,800 net

- after repairs) I would like to add my story to the long list of outraged Freelander owners. Firstly I would say to any prospective Landrover buyers...Don't ! For any Freelander owners ... get rid of it NOW! My 1.8lt petrol Freelander blew its head gasket right on queue at

60000kms. I was told by a mechanic that the problem was a design fault in the cylinder linings, and there is no repair procedure. My only option was an engine replacement. The car was "off road" for 6 weeks and the ordeal cost me $6,200 in repairs and I lost another $17,000 in depreciation over 5 years. The re-sale value of this car is appalling. I asked a Landrover dealership mechanic if this is a common fault with this car..he said "no more common than any other car". I then spoke to a salesman in the same dealership and asked for a trade figure on my Freelander in it's current state and he said.."The trade value will be low because the engine in this model has some reliability issues". Landrover Australia washed their hands of the problem saying that the car is out of warranty and they will not cover ANY repair costs. I have been told by several mechanics that the 1.8lt engine fitted to Freelanders has a life span of between 50000 and 100000 km's. Because of the design flaw they will ALL fail and the only option is replacement. Landrover should face reality and take responsibility for this poorly built motor car. I am now rid of my Freelander, but I had to take a personal loan of $10,000 which will now take me years to pay off ..... all thanks to Landrover !! I recommend anyone with the same Freelander story should contact the ACCC. They are building a profile for this issue. If they receive sufficient complaints indicating a pattern, they will take action.

I would like to add that after further investigation it seems the replacement engines supplied by Land Rover Australia to their dealerships at a cost of over $5,000 (to the vehicle owner) are exactly the same engines as fitted at the time of vehicle manufacture. This means that even repaired Freelanders will suffer the same fate at between 50,000 and 100,000 kms. I called Land Rover Australia and asked if the engines they were selling as replacements have had and modification to overcome the cylinder lining problem. The representative said there was no product recall in place and there is "no problem with this engine". This is despite mounting documented evidence to the contrary, including Land Rover's technical own bulletin 0036 issued 18 June 04 which was distributed to its dealerships worldwide. This trading practice is incredibly dishonest given that the problem is widely known. Land Rover is the only winner in this whole mess, as they get to sell even more of these engines to the unsuspecting public. If you are living the "Freelander nightmare" right now, I urge you to bring your story to the attention of the ACCC. Those affected by the Freelander Head Gasket problem should visit

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and
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formore information and advice. Let Land Rover know how you feel bywriting to The General Manager, Land Rover Australia, Locked Bag 2214North Ryde NSW 1670. You should also complain to the ACCC and theOffice of Fair Trading in your state.

08/08/05: It is widely accepted by 4WD mechanics that Freelander K- series 1.8lt engines are known to drop the cylinder liners into the block. Because the liners are steel and the block is alloy, the liners being harder, work their way into the block. The bad news is; If the liners are too low, the engine needs to be replaced - this is fact, confirmed by Land Rover. In some cases engines have been replaced several times, at average intervals of only 50000 km. That's not just bad luck, that's a design fault. Just a reminder to all "Land Rover Freelander Head Gasket Failure" victims in Australia. If you have made a claim against Land Rover Australia and are unhappy with the response, you should put your concerns in writing to the ACCC office in your state. Go to
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postal addresses. The ACCC is now collecting data on this issueand will pursue the case if there are sufficient complaints indicatinga pattern." T Edwards
Reply to
AUS
Loading thread data ...

On or around Sun, 03 Jun 2007 22:53:07 -0700, AUS enlightened us thusly:

[rant in deletia.]

Y'know, you're hardly likely to win friends and influence people in this group starting off like that.

yes, the Freelander 1.8 was crap and had several issues. All vehicles have issues, even Toyota are not perfect, amazingly.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

"beamendsltd" wrote..........

It's no excuse to pass off a problem because others are not perfect either. I don't know anything about the Freelander 1.8 but surely they could have machined out the blocks on the faulty engines and their replacements and put in liners with a step, only a few thou' would do, but I've not heard any complaints about other models.

By the way, as you never replied to my query about CSW 110" side stripes, I have purchased them elsewhere.

Martin

Reply to
Oily

The K-Series in the Freelander was acknowledged by LR as having a problem and ISTR they changed the head gasket to a different type. However, MG who also used the engine DID NOT acknowledge an issue from what I understand.

Reply to
Neil Brownlee

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for postal addresses. The ACCC is now collecting data on this issue> and will pursue the case if there are sufficient complaints indicating> a pattern." T Edwards>

Try getting Toyota to admit there was problem withe 2.8 Surf Engines, or there is a current problems with Land Cruiser fron suspension collapsing. An as for Mitsubishi sticking all their warranty claims in a cellar and pretending they didn't happen. LR may not be perfect, but then neither are the others.

Richard

Reply to
beamendsltd

And Lotus IIRC with the Elise.

Reply to
Ian Rawlings

Maybe they could, but trying to make out Toyota are perfect doen't help his cause, right or wrong.

Good for you - I never recieved your enquiry.

Richard

Reply to
beamendsltd

On or around Mon, 04 Jun 2007 10:03:02 +0000, beamendsltd enlightened us thusly:

not to mention the 2.4 turbos. I think it was the 2.4.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

They were (and are) a problem. I've replaced more cracked heads on them then I care to think about.

Reply to
EMB

I wasn't supporting his idea that Toyota are 'perfect', I was merely suggesting that Landrover could possibly improve the reliability of the 1.8 Freelander engine thereby keeping their customers happy rather than ignoring the problems.

Enquiry was tacked onto the end of a recent post of yours that I replied to, no problem, I needed them in a hurry.

Martin

Reply to
Oily

and your still not sure which motor your talking about........huh ????

Reply to
jonz

In news: snipped-for-privacy@desktop.tarcus.org.uk, Ian Rawlings wittered on forthwith;

ICBW but I thought Lotus virtually rebuilt most Elise engines anyway, so the problem isn't as common with the K-series Elise as everything else.

Reply to
Pete M

That engine in the elise still has a reputation as far as I can remember, I was looking into buying one some years back and there were warnings about making sure modifications had been done. Perhaps it's like the 300TDi mods, a known issue that was fixed at service time.

Reply to
Ian Rawlings

Ian Hi,

Lotus did the best thing of all. Instead of trying to rectify the problems of the K-series engine they simply changed the engine and started using a Toyota one.

The 1.8 engined Freelander is the best selling LR vehicle is Land Rover's history in Greece. And the main reason that Land Rover now is considered as a hugely unreliable car maker by new car owners who paid top money for a Freelander only to find themselves in a "money pit".

It would be good if the Freelander had troubles only with its K-series engine. Those vehicles also suffer from locked viscous coupling units, unreliable IRDs, broken or damaged diff groups and/or diff mounts due to the VCU being permanently locked, damaged sunroofs, unreliable ABS system (developing faults to sensors), faulty wiring on the HDC (a wire being shorter than required and coming undone with time) etc.

It IS accepted by people in Land Rover that the Freelander 1 (along with the RaRo P38A) was BMW worst "gift" to Land Rover. Someone may even think that they did it on purpose so as to damage Land Rover's name after they sucked out if it all they wanted to have (know how on how to make a decent SUV, because BMW never actually learned on how to make a good offroader since they do not care for that market)

Take care Pantelis

Take care Pantelis

understand.

Reply to
Pantelis Giamarellos

Err yeah, after about a bazillion years of using the K-series.... "simply" changed the engine! What crap. They used the K series from

1996 and "simply" changed to the toyota engine in relatively recent models. They spent almost 10 years using the K-series without significant issues, some models, the 111S IIRC, had a tuned version of the engine that was reputed to be fragile but the Elise has a reputation for being a reliable everyday sports car despite having the widely used K-series that people wail about and splutter on about it blowing up every 5 minutes....
Reply to
Ian Rawlings

On or around Tue, 5 Jun 2007 12:15:27 +1000, "jonz" enlightened us thusly:

learn to read mate. *I* wasn't sure which engine 'cos I've never had toy-motors and they're relatively uncommon here. EMB lives in ennzed where they are common and is a mechanic who's worked on lots.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

"Austin Shackles" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

try a bit of comprehension this is what i was commenting on............. .o0o.

not to mention the 2.4 turbos. * I think it was the 2.4*.

ergo and your still not sure which motor your talking about........huh ????

ok with you ?

Reply to
jonz

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