The Faithful Freelander has now departed to pastures new (not before time many would say). It had completed 310,000 miles which is half a million kilometres and done a superb job as a willing workhorse for my 10 years of ownership. This post summarises some of the history of the car…
2007 Land Rover Freelander 2 with 2.2 litre diesel engine and 6 speed manual gearbox.
We bought the car in March 2010 (from Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s Land Rover specialist mate in Dorset). It was a one owner company car with a full Land Rover service history.
Half leather trim, electric seats, cruise control, air con, terrain response system, hill descent control, alpine stereo with sub-woofer, Sony GPS/satnav, 4WD.
French registered upon import to France in 2010.
Land Rover rubber floor mats fitted so the carpets are in great condition. I have the original RHD headlights which will go with the car in case you ever want to register her in the UK – or flog them on ebay!
I have now owned her for over 10 years, with almost all servicing and maintenance carried out by me. My habit has been to buy an ex company car at 3 years old and sell it when 10 years old, but I seem to have stretched it to 13 years this time! Car is used every day and I seem to rack up about 15k miles per year.
The recommended service interval is 15k miles, but I change the oil and filter at 10k miles as a precaution. Oil used is the (very expensive) fully synthetic 5W-30, meeting the required Ford spec.
Timing belt, water pump and transmission/axle fluids changed at 150k miles (schedule is 150k miles or 10 years) – this was done by Land Rover Limoges.
I changed the timing belt, auxilairy drive belt and water pump at 300k miles at the start of the lockdown, so is next due at 450k miles.
All brake discs and pads changed at 150k. New brake pads fitted all round May 2018 – discs are fine.
Air filter and fuel filter changes done as per schedule – now fitted with a K&N filter which can be cleaned and re-oiled.
Rear hatch opening switch and handle replaced (a common problem).
Rear wheel bearing replaced.
Clutch replaced in May 2017 – old clutch was fine but the slave cylinder packed up and it’s inside the bell housing, so clutch changed at the same time.
New steering rack fitted in May 2017.
Tyres are top quality Pirellis and are in part worn condition with plenty of tread remaining all round – fronts are almost new.
To avoid any problems with the EGR valve, I have fitted an EGR blanking plate – no issues with the emissions for the CT.
Car has always been run with 2 stroke oil additive in the fuel as this lubricates the high pressure injection pump and helps mpg a bit.
She returns high 30s to the gallon which is amazing for a car of this size and weight. A gentle run to Blagnac and back, crusing at 110km/h will get 40 mpg !
She has a detachable tow bar but has only been used for towing a small motorbike trailer.
She has roof bars which were not a standard fitment.
Aircon works OK, but seems to need recharging every few years – probably will need doing for next summer -c 65 Euros.
Cruise control also works fine.
All electrics working OK, apart from the park distance sensors which have never worked – a weak point on this model. But the high seating position and being able to see all the corners makes this a non issue.
In my pre CT inspection of the car for the last CT I noticed one of the rear dampers was leaking – both of them now replaced.
Control technique…
Passed in March 2019.
Only advisory was some rust underneath, but this is only surface rust on the chassis/subframes and not the body which is perfect. The chassis components are massive and could have come off the Forth bridge so not an issue.
Issues
Some minor car park dings and scratches, as expected. The most noticeable is a dent in the left hand driver/passenger door from brushing against a tree in my drive – Doh !
Mileage 310,000 miles, but it’s a diesel and still going strong. Peak torque is at 2,000 rpm so it doesn’t need to be revved. Top gear is 25 mph/thousand revs so motorway cruising is only 3000 revs.
Rear axle has developed a slight whine – it started five years and 80k miles ago and hasn’t got much worse over time. There is a known problem with the rear axle nose bearing. No rush to fix it but it may need doing eventually – a recon diff is £200. Not a difficult job as it just unbolts after removing the propshaft connection and pulling out the drive shafts.
The manual gearbox works fine but is a bit “notchy” – racing gear changes not advised.
There was an issue with the crank sensor, but after trying two cheap and useless replacements from ebay it turned out to be dirty contacts. It’s now fine and I have a spare OEM sensor just in case.