Over the years ... 2002-2008, My wife and I have personally suffered all of the pains of Freelander ownership. My 2002 SE Freelander was a lemon, as are many others out there.
Mine finally broke down a month ago. She was sold for a measly $1400 USD.. for parts, despite the fact that the car looked brand new from the outside, under the hood live the sinister "Freelander" minions and gremlins.
Have read somewhere that the basic design flaw of the Land Rover motor in the Freelander has to do with the Cylinders and mixing oil and coolant. Something about epoxy and cylinder sleeves failing if the engine overheats. I babied my engine and got 83K before the camshafts broke apart. Maybe I should have let the car overheat under warranty, I never let that happen, even though they returned my car to me with the coolant expansion tank Bone Dry....
Guess my mistake was taking the ultimate care of my Freelander. I should have let her break down all the way while under warranty. I used to see 1 year old Freelanders with the motors pulled and the transmissions dropped. I asked the Service Advisor and he said that it was due to 'improper use'... another distractive comment of the dozens I had from these guys over the years.
The Jatco transmission is also very buggy. They will fail in several intereting ways, solenoids, flashing F1, F2, F3 or F4... another No Problem found. But as soon as the warranty ran out, I found out what that F1 was back at 30kmiles.... and it was not a loose wire as LR had put on the repair bill, it was time for e new Jatco... and they carefully disguised this fact from me.
Coolant leaks from the Heater Core, Head Gasket and Thermostat are almost mandatory in 2002 Freelanders, with little hope of a solution, they will leak and leak and leak.
Freelander Sunroofs break often, the rails fail and you are lucky if a piece of flying metal does not hit you in the eye, mine almost.did, and it hurt.
The side view mirrors were repaired several times, plus the front speakers would come in and out when the driver's door is opened and closed with the radio playing.
Leaky intake manifolds that are $1800 a piece will crack and the out of warranty costs are staggering.
A very long list of repairs, work orders with the repetitive "No Problem Found", I feel a bit sick thinking about the day I bought my Freelander. My first oil change.... they used Pennzoil 10W-30 $.99 cents a quarts of Oil. My motor sounded like a sewing machine, they claimed that they did not hear any difference..... I had to drive home, park the car and go to Pep Boys for 6 quarts of 0w40 Mobil 1. Plus the trip back to the LR to buy a filter and washer... I was furious... this was only 4 month's into the Land Rover experience.
My Hippo had been in the shop twice before even 3000 miles......
All in all, the Land Rover experience has not been any different for thousands of Freelander owners out there, just type in Freelander problems on Google, you will get many hits.
The big question now remains, how will Tata's Land Rover be able to fight off angry owners as their Freelanders run out of warranty. I guess there are many hungry lawyers looking for the next big ****, a nice safari where Land Rover becomes the prey. Ironic... yet only time will tell.
