Freelander rear wheel seized solid.

[bob1179]

Hello.

My next door neighbour has a Freelander with what appears to have the rear offside drum locked solid. It feels like the handbrake shoes on that side have seized to the wheel.

She's asked if I could take a look at it during the weekend and I just wanted to know if anybody else has had this issue? It's a late model Freelander 1, an '05 I think. It is used off road a lot to get to stables and for carting feed and hay about. I was thinking maybe the rear drum is full of crud which has caused it to seize up?

I tried rocking the car using the clutch and throttle in both 1st and reverse in the hope a jolt might free it but nothing worked. It is absolutely solid!

If anybody has any ideas I'd love to hear them!

Thanks in advance.

[camel_landy]

If it is seized brakes, it'll be the usual brute force & WD40 to get the drum off.

• Slacken everything off.
• Remove the countersunk screw bolts.
• Use a copper faced mallet to try & drift the drum off.

Be prepared to replace the shoes & drums.

M

[bob1179]

Cheers for the advice.

After doing a bit of research online it appears this is a fairly common problem. I shall do a quick strip and clean up to keep the neighbour going until some spares can be ordered.

[ismellburning]

Same thing happened to my (non Land Rover) car a few weeks ago. Cylinder leaked into the brake drum, disintegrating the shoes, locking the wheel absolutely solid. Had to be dragged onto a recovery truck and car needed new shoes and cylinder to get it going again.

[bob1179]

Luckily it was a fifteen minute fix. I took the drum off, cleaned everything up, a bit of copper anti seize on the mechanism and put it all back together again. The rear brakes need a full overhaul but it did the job in the mean time.

[ismellburning]

You lucky sod: mine cost over £300 to get moving again.

Well played