Buying a Freelander, TD4 - 2000-2003 - Any pitfalls?
Discussion
Hi, I am about to buy my first Land Rover freelander. I won't be paying more than £4,000 and I am trying to get one with less than 80,000. Up to now I understand I should avoid petrol because the engines are underpowered and the head gasket gowes at about 40,000.
Any advice please? If I get a petrol with a replaced head gasket will it be a good bet? Should i really avoid petrol?
Thanks
Gordon
Any advice please? If I get a petrol with a replaced head gasket will it be a good bet? Should i really avoid petrol?
Thanks
Gordon
The petrol is ok as long as the head is done properly, too many arent done right and fail again.
The td4 is faster and does more mpg and has better reliability so i would go for one, fit an EGR blanking kit and its a good engine.
The bodies dont rust unlike other landrovers so you dont need to worry about that, the interiors are hard wearing but check everything works and there are no leaks from either the sun roofs or the rear door as the seals can fail on them.
Spec for your age is S, GS, ES. The S is the base model, the gs has alloys and air con. The ES has heated leather seats etc.
Manual or auto is down to your own preferance, both are good. The VCU can fail and this can kill the IRD, this usually costs about £800 to replace with new parts. Google a vcu check and you will see how to test it. Also make sure the propshaft is in place as they can be removed and made into front wheel drive if the vcu has failed.
That should do you for starters. 3 door or 5 door is down to your own needs. I have a 3 door, 04 facelift SE as i dont have kids etc, i find it a great car, all year round and not just when the rest of the country falls about on its arse with snow.
The td4 is faster and does more mpg and has better reliability so i would go for one, fit an EGR blanking kit and its a good engine.
The bodies dont rust unlike other landrovers so you dont need to worry about that, the interiors are hard wearing but check everything works and there are no leaks from either the sun roofs or the rear door as the seals can fail on them.
Spec for your age is S, GS, ES. The S is the base model, the gs has alloys and air con. The ES has heated leather seats etc.
Manual or auto is down to your own preferance, both are good. The VCU can fail and this can kill the IRD, this usually costs about £800 to replace with new parts. Google a vcu check and you will see how to test it. Also make sure the propshaft is in place as they can be removed and made into front wheel drive if the vcu has failed.
That should do you for starters. 3 door or 5 door is down to your own needs. I have a 3 door, 04 facelift SE as i dont have kids etc, i find it a great car, all year round and not just when the rest of the country falls about on its arse with snow.
We bought a 2003 TD4 five door Freelander when it was 3 years old and had 30,000 miles on it; my other half needed a tow car for the horsebox and her A3 1.6 couldn't really cut it!
It's now on over 120,000 miles on it and it's been a good car. It only failed once when one of the intercooler hoses blew whilst I was driving it. This is quite common so I had one in the car as a spare - undo 2 jubilee clips and put in the new pipe (which I added a sacrificial reinforcing panel to) and carry on.
It had a new clutch around the 100,000 mile mark, but we have a LR-trained independent guy a mile from us so he looked after that. Obviously towing puts more strain on the clutch than normal use; ours is a manual, apparently the autos clutches are better for towing but hey ho - didn't know that when we bought.
Things to look for are rear electric window winders (both sides) on the 5 door - they wires can fray. Replacement parts are around the £80 mark; one of ours is getting a bit slow to wind up & down, but there are only 2 of us so no-one's ever in the back. Electric sunroofs also can give problems closing - usual cure is to pull the fuse out so it can't open and use the aircon!
Check the cubby in the boot floor for damp on any model - 3 or 5 door. It's not always caused by leaks though - the exhaust runs under the cubby so can cause condensation problems if you store damp stuff there. The door seal for the rear door should also have cut outs in the bottom of the seal to ensure any damp in the door drains outside not inside the car!
Our car did develop a lumpy idle around 95,000 miles. Dealers will tell you this is caused by blocked injectors and try to sell you new ones. At around £250 each, plus labour, this is not what you want to hear - especially as they are sods to get out on some higher mileage engines. I did some searching and found on a LR equivalent of PistonHeads that a guy had cured the problem on his by using a £15 fuel conditioner/injector cleaner from Halfords (has to be the £15 one) - I tried it & it worked a treat; it’s STP Diesel Complete 500ml.
Regarding the transmission wind up between front & back wheels, this was cured to a large extent on the ‘01/’02 onwards cars with revised ratios. LR did issue instructions about how to deal with the earlier models (e.g. always put new tyres on the back first due to diameters or some such!).
As mentioned, be aware that some unscrupulous sellers completely remove the propshaft to the rear wheels when the reduction drive breaks! The car still drives, but is 2 wheel drive only on the fronts – allegedly this is most often seen at auctions but check anyway.
As you know, loads of these don’t go offroad so things like the HDC (hill descent control) don’t get used and, like anything, it needs to be used now & then to ensure it works. I take ours round the fields on fence checks etc. so it gets to crawl down grassy slopes – it’s interesting trusting the ECU & ABS to work out the braking etc, but it works (Freelander 2 models are even better) – just make sure it works on the model you look at.
I just had the whole propshaft off and replaced the VCU support bearings and all 3 UJs - they were the originals with 120,000 miles on so not too bad going!
For winter it's wearing OE 15 inch wheels with Yokohama winter tyres and is very good in the snow & ice.
Have fun!
Steve
It's now on over 120,000 miles on it and it's been a good car. It only failed once when one of the intercooler hoses blew whilst I was driving it. This is quite common so I had one in the car as a spare - undo 2 jubilee clips and put in the new pipe (which I added a sacrificial reinforcing panel to) and carry on.
It had a new clutch around the 100,000 mile mark, but we have a LR-trained independent guy a mile from us so he looked after that. Obviously towing puts more strain on the clutch than normal use; ours is a manual, apparently the autos clutches are better for towing but hey ho - didn't know that when we bought.
Things to look for are rear electric window winders (both sides) on the 5 door - they wires can fray. Replacement parts are around the £80 mark; one of ours is getting a bit slow to wind up & down, but there are only 2 of us so no-one's ever in the back. Electric sunroofs also can give problems closing - usual cure is to pull the fuse out so it can't open and use the aircon!
Check the cubby in the boot floor for damp on any model - 3 or 5 door. It's not always caused by leaks though - the exhaust runs under the cubby so can cause condensation problems if you store damp stuff there. The door seal for the rear door should also have cut outs in the bottom of the seal to ensure any damp in the door drains outside not inside the car!
Our car did develop a lumpy idle around 95,000 miles. Dealers will tell you this is caused by blocked injectors and try to sell you new ones. At around £250 each, plus labour, this is not what you want to hear - especially as they are sods to get out on some higher mileage engines. I did some searching and found on a LR equivalent of PistonHeads that a guy had cured the problem on his by using a £15 fuel conditioner/injector cleaner from Halfords (has to be the £15 one) - I tried it & it worked a treat; it’s STP Diesel Complete 500ml.
Regarding the transmission wind up between front & back wheels, this was cured to a large extent on the ‘01/’02 onwards cars with revised ratios. LR did issue instructions about how to deal with the earlier models (e.g. always put new tyres on the back first due to diameters or some such!).
As mentioned, be aware that some unscrupulous sellers completely remove the propshaft to the rear wheels when the reduction drive breaks! The car still drives, but is 2 wheel drive only on the fronts – allegedly this is most often seen at auctions but check anyway.
As you know, loads of these don’t go offroad so things like the HDC (hill descent control) don’t get used and, like anything, it needs to be used now & then to ensure it works. I take ours round the fields on fence checks etc. so it gets to crawl down grassy slopes – it’s interesting trusting the ECU & ABS to work out the braking etc, but it works (Freelander 2 models are even better) – just make sure it works on the model you look at.
I just had the whole propshaft off and replaced the VCU support bearings and all 3 UJs - they were the originals with 120,000 miles on so not too bad going!
For winter it's wearing OE 15 inch wheels with Yokohama winter tyres and is very good in the snow & ice.
Have fun!
Steve
Thanks Steve,
It's down to the generosity of you guys that I have firmed up on what I want. A TD4, 5 door, top spec and as late as my £4,000 will get me.
I guess if I go to £4,500 I might just get a 2004/5 but that will be after the snow goes probably. One dealer actually told me he'd put £500 on all his Freelanders as soon as the snow was forecast.
Question for me is whether my money burns a hole in my pocket and I go for a 2001 with 86,000 in a colour I wouldn't have chosen otherwise, OR do I do the wise thing and wait for the weather to lift and the market settles to normality.
I am grateful, thank you.
Gordon
It's down to the generosity of you guys that I have firmed up on what I want. A TD4, 5 door, top spec and as late as my £4,000 will get me.
I guess if I go to £4,500 I might just get a 2004/5 but that will be after the snow goes probably. One dealer actually told me he'd put £500 on all his Freelanders as soon as the snow was forecast.
Question for me is whether my money burns a hole in my pocket and I go for a 2001 with 86,000 in a colour I wouldn't have chosen otherwise, OR do I do the wise thing and wait for the weather to lift and the market settles to normality.
I am grateful, thank you.
Gordon
I have a td4 freelander gs that I bought 9 months ago cost just over 2k with 110k miles on it but it does have a bmw diesel engine had the air con re charged but for got to check weather the heater worked now it's winter😊 I have found it takes ages to warm up so now I know why I got it quite cheep the work needed to change the thermostat takes about 4 -6 hrs so that's got my Xmas work sorted out
peterz3
peterz3
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