Come on - own up...

[Gordo]

...who's been talking behind my back?  [-X

Just been trying to get the LR booked in to have the rear diff. propshaft seal replaced and nobody will touch it. "Normal" garage that the family's used for years ("We don't do Land Rovers") and a LR specalist won't either ("We don't do Freelanders").

Now should I be paranoid? Is this normal? Should I buy a Defender instead...?  :-k

<grumble>

[V8MoneyPit]

That's crazy  :shock: The only justification I can think of is if it needs special tools to do the job that they don't have. Otherwise, they are obviously so busy, they can't take on extra work....... and I find it hard to believe a garage turning away business!

[dxmedia]

I can well belive garages turning away freelanders. Nearly everyone I know in the trade keeps away from them if they can.

[Gordo]

I can well belive garages turning away freelanders. Nearly everyone I know in the trade keeps away from them if they can.

Any particular reason? They're not all that different to other cars; 4x4 or otherwise.

[dxmedia]

Just a pita to work on. Other minor things like the head gaskets being a service item on the 1.8's

Not the kinda car you want coming in on a regular basis since once a reputation is built up then all the pig jobs (jammed torque convertor, head gasket, that problem with the bushes at the rear end) start to come through.

Since people are keeping their cars on the road a little longer at the moment (recession or something) a load of garages round here are flat out and can pick and choose jobs. Best keeping the garage filled with the easy stuff rather than leaking about with the niggly ones.

[carbore]

I seem to remember my old next door neighbour, who was a back street mechanic, saying he diddnt do Freelanders. I think they have a lot of problems Re HGF's, partly becuse a lot of people dont understand why they HGF in the first place so dont fix root cause. Also the VCU stuff is a bit of a black art so again they end up with grumbly owners who dont accept the costs.

Also A lot of freelanders get abused as people think they can drive them like hatchbacks, my LR dealer once commented on how good  my brakes looked after 40k miles as most people had trashed them.

[Gordo]

Just a pita to work on. Other minor things like the head gaskets being a service item on the 1.8's

Not the kinda car you want coming in on a regular basis since once a reputation is built up then all the pig jobs (jammed torque convertor, head gasket, that problem with the bushes at the rear end) start to come through.

From what I've done so far, they're pretty easy to work on - my problem here is not being able to get it up high enough.

But each to their own, I suppose. It's good to hear that garages have too much work - economy must be picking up.

[richo]

Did you try Rj landrovers at Sawtry

[Gordo]

Did you try Rj landrovers at Sawtry

No - I'm still waiting for them to sort out something from a couple of months ago and don't want to complicate things.

[Little-Green-Machine]

The only difficult thing is the rear bushes,
 the diff and the props are easy unless the viscous unit is seized onto the shafts which can be solved with fire and lots of it :twisted:
i suppose usual newish landies need specialist tools so they think Freelanders are the same?

[wizard]

I had the same problem when i needed the clutch changing on the Disco.
I called 7 or 8 different place's before someone wanted the job. They all said roughly the same thing"its to big for our 4 post lift".
The guys that eventually did the job said that most garages dont want to tie up their 4 posters doing jobs like that because they can earn a lot more just by doing MOT's with it.

wizard :twisted:

[Suvvey]

A good friend of mine in the trade has told me that they try and turn away anything that isn't a straight forward tyre exchange or matbe the odd exhaust as they are so quick to do and easy money. Also in plentyful supply as even the DIY mechanic doesn't do there own tyres. He is now in the process of looking into starting his own tyre centre off the back of it :roll:
So if the good old independant mechanic doesn't want to get involved anymore, how long will it be before main dealers are our only choice :shock: :shock: :shock:
I'm lucky enough to have a ramp at work so spend a lot of late evenings (sometimes through to morning too :'() attempting stuff myself but if I didn't have access to that I'm sure my pockets would of run dry long before now :?

[wvanman]

I recently started looking for a second car to replace my Galaxy  and the Mrs wanted a Freelander    but was swayed away from them by my local mechanic/garage (who do lots of Landrover servicing and repairs)  His words were "stay away from them unless you want it more times in the garage than on the road"    and he knows best (20 years in the trade)   so im looking at Audi A4's       or passat's

[TDi90]

...who's been talking behind my back?  [-X

me  :|

[ChrisV8]

Local garage does loads with them ............................................. but at a cost  :roll: :roll: :roll:

He specialises in Land Rovers and is kept very busy with farmers 90's as well as Freebies !! Problem is he is way up in Northumberland, he hates Freebies with a vengeance but they are good for turnover as they always have at least one in usually with the engine out  :'( :'(

Probably would collect if you paid for him coming down with trailer behind his 4.6 V8 90 tow vehicle God knows what he charges per mile for that though !!

[Gordo]

the Mrs wanted a Freelander    but was swayed away from them by my local mechanic/garage (who do lots of Landrover servicing and repairs)  His words were "stay away from them unless you want it more times in the garage than on the road"    and he knows best (20 years in the trade)

This is something that I find a lot of people saying, but when pressed they can't actually offer a rational explanation. The early Freelanders did have issues, especially the 1.8 petrol, but BMW solved most of that and they're pretty good now.

From asking around, people who've owned them love them; people who haven't, hate them because other people say they're bad. :?  When I take mine off road, people expect it to get stuck at the first sign of mud and seem surprised when, of course, it breezes through.

Get a good condition Td4 and you'll be fine. After all, it's a Land Rover and they have character :)

[carbore]

Freelander pre thermostat move on the K-series were HGF prone (almost a certainty). After that, not that bad, I had people tell me every car I have ever heard of is a bag of trouble.

Jap= Bits are expensive mate
German = Nice mota, try to find one for the right price though
British = Rover was rubbish, unisons on strike all the time never finished a car properly
American = Thirsty and no good on corners
Italian = rust
Frenh = made of tin cans
etc
Etc
etc
etc

[Disco Matt]

I often suspect that Land Rovers get better as they age.

See, when my parents bought the Disco (that has now passed on to me) the magazines were full of 300 TDI cam belts failing prematurely. I can remember asking the dealer to check whether it was one of the affected chassis numbers as LR issued a repair kit. But now all I see mentioned is "check for rust and general wear". The dodgy ones have either been fixed or broken for spares to keep the good ones alive. I suspect that the same goes for P38A Range Rovers with their infamous electrics and cylinder liners, and Freelanders with their IRD/viscous coupling/electrics.

I'd give a Freelander serious thought, although I'd want a softback turbo diesel with an auto gearbox and hill descent control, along with a lift kit, a load of underbody protection and the biggest A/Ts that would fit!  :lol:

[Range Rover Blues]

We looked at buying a freebie before SWMBO got the TDi, my mates in the trade warned me and TBH everything they said came true.  The awful droning in the back that can never be fixed, the ride quality, the dubious tyre wear, I just didn't like the ones we could afford and the TD4s were stupid money, only to have one go the same way before we could hope to pay for it.

So we bought another RRC and now we have junior we're damn glad of it.