Freelander Oil Cooler Pipe Rupture

The missus came home from work yesterday complaining that the oil light on the dash was 'flickering'. I went out to look and the front drivers side wheel was covered in engine oil. I pointed this out and she corrected me; "No, that's just road grime."

Well upon closer inspection, it appears that this 'road grime' has come from a corroded oil cooler pipe which just so happened to spring a leak that sprayed the entire front hub in oil!

Here's the slimy remnants:









I have ordered new pipes, new front discs and pads, new oil filter and new oil. I'm not going to enjoy getting messy with this one, I just know it.


Update 1 (31/12/10)

I managed to get the removal work done today. I multi-tasked by draining the oil, then soaking the messy drivers side hub with degreaser whilst setting about removing the passengers side brakes.

Here's a picture of the oily side soaking with some degreaser that had a lovely citrus smell!!



Passenger side hub with caliper removed. This was incredibly difficult to remove partly due to the wear lip on the edge of the disc and partly because the car is old and everything was very tight.



Old pads.



The old disc proved very reluctant to budge. I had to resort to violence and even then it took a good 5 minutes.



The dust cover was badly corroded and had to go.



Having cleaned everything, I reassemble whilst I'm waiting on parts arriving in the post.



I then repeated the procedure on the drivers side. This was more difficult as two bolts holding the caliper in place had rounded off. I had little option but to take a slightly smaller imperial socket and fit it over the rounded bolt using the sledgehammer. Luckily they both came free and I managed to clean things up and put it back together again. I left the imperial sockets in place for now.





Now I removed the oil cooler pipes. These were very stiff too. Once removed I cut the ends off, crimped them then put them back in place to stop any debris getting into the oil system.





And finally here's a shot of the offending piece of pipe with the two small holes clearly visible.

Freelander Wiper Motor Bodge

I'd recently cleaned a load of snow off the screen on my girlfriend's Freelander, and after this the wipers stopped working. I changed the fuse but it kept blowing. I disconnected the motor and this stopped the fuses blowing. The problem therefore had to be within the motor unit.

So...I went outside to find this had happened overnight...!


Once cleaned off, I started taking things apart. Once the scuttle was removed, I could see the motor assembly. At this point I disconnected the plug and tested the circuit - no fuse was blowing which showed the problem was within the motor unit.


I removed the motor assembly and took it to my workshop. I drilled out the rivets and opened the gearbox.


Aha! My previous solder job had melted and repositioned itself under high current load whilst shifting heavy snow.


I got the soldering iron out and put it back where it should be. This is not ideal, but as the car is on its last legs, and I promise not to use the wipers in an aggressive fashion again, it should hopefully suffice.


Put cover back, rivet in place.



Reinstall, put everything back and test. I don't know if the movement comes across in this photo but it all works as it should do now.

Freelander Track Rod End Replacement

This winter has already taken its toll on my girlfriend's Freelander. Lots of clunking and a wobbly wheel led to the discovery of a borked track rod end. I got a replacement today so took a few pics whilst changing it.

Unfortunately my girlfriend is in Brazil and I could NOT find the locking wheel nut key ANYWHERE! So, I had to leave the wheel on and fumble about like a cock!

Here's the old one:


Removed the bottom nut, and used my trusty ball joint splitter to make a lovely clunk noise.


Once loose, I had to remove the clamping bolt - an unusual feature that I've not seen on a track rod end before. Using a screwdriver to loosen the assembly. Once loose, it simply unscrewed. Well, it was damn tight but it came eventually! I counted the number of turns it took to come off.


Here's the obligatory old vs new shot.


Clean up the hub and track rod.


Fit the new one turning it the same number of turns that the old one had.


Got the car booked in to get the tracking done now. I'm concerned there's something else wrong with it as it's still making funny noises, but these cars are notoriously unreliable and this is a 12 yr old example....