freelander poss headgasket - derek
i have a friend whos £10000 y plate 2.5 50000 mile v6
has been back to the main dealer he bought it form twice in a week

car overheats, opens the bonnet and the engine is full of mayo

the first time it went in the told him its the thermostat, is that possible?

also this time theyve told him " we dont know"
imagine that!!!!!!!!!
does anyone have any ideas

ive told him to get his moneyback but hes not as pushy as he should be,

he traded in a perfectly good one to but this lump
i know 1.9 is a no no for headgaskets but i m beginning to wonder if v6 is getting a reputation and theye trying to cover it up. can anyone help please
freelander poss headgasket - derek
come on someone must know
freelander poss headgasket - Ford Dagenham
Hi

I thought it was the 1.6 that was the problem. The V6 is a problem because it has a small water jacket around the cylinders. If the water is allowed to get low this causes cracking.
--
(iam not a mechanic)

Martin Winters
freelander poss headgasket - madf
Simple test but take care.
Leave engine until cold.
Open radiator cap. Leave off.

Start engine.
Peer carefully into radiator cap hole with torch - avoiding roatating objects.
Any bubbles? Rev it and see.
Yes - gasket/head gone.
Any oil? Yes head or gasket gone...

Switch off and replace cap..

madf


freelander poss headgasket - blank
derek:

madf is right, but TELL him to take the broken car back to the dealer he bought it from. If he wants the car give them one chance to fix it (or given your thermostat comments he's already done this). Otherwise demand a full refund.

No, I don't see how the thermostat could be the cause, unless the car is used for lots of short journeys, never gets warm and the thermostat is jammed open.

Andy
freelander poss headgasket - Aprilia
Overheating + mayo doesn't sound like t/stat to me - more like head gasket or head or block crack. I assume its losing some water?

Wave a four-gas analyser probe over the header tank and see if it detects any HC - that will confirm the diagnosis.
freelander poss headgasket - derek
great thanks for the info
freelander poss headgasket - DL
KV6 gasket failure is indeed rare, this was confined to the Rover 825 - what a liability that car was!

But upon the evidence, I would say the engine was suffering from HGF - a pig of a job in a Freelander. Probably why they don't want to touch it ;)
--
groups.msn.com/honestjohn - Pictures say a thousand words.....
freelander poss headgasket - Dave N
The KV6 engine is as prone to HG failure as the K series inline 4 on which it's based is. It's just that there's less of them around so you don't hear about them so much.

One thing's for sure, if it is/was the thermostat, then it will certainly be at least one head gasket, if not both, maybe one or both heads as well. As DL says, it's a pig of a job, and after going once, it's simply a matter of when, not if, it does the same thing again. When engines get cooked, all sorts of other things get stressed, and that's the last thing you need on an engine that's already fragile.

Why people keep buying these dogs, heaven only knows. It's not like Land Rover ever appears anywhere other than bottom of every reliability survey going, and it's hard to miss the reporting of these surveys in the media. The best thing he can do is get his money back and walk, no run, to his nearest Hyundai, Honda, Toyota or Nissan dealer and buy something a little less flashy and a little less hyped by a superb marketing department. At least he won't be on 1st name terms with the service department, nor have the manufacturers customer care number permanently etched in his memory.
freelander poss headgasket - Aprilia
Why people keep buying these dogs, heaven only knows. It's not
like Land Rover ever appears anywhere other than bottom of every
reliability survey going, and it's hard to miss the reporting of
these surveys in the media. The best thing he can do
is get his money back and walk, no run, to his
nearest Hyundai, Honda, Toyota or Nissan dealer and buy something a
little less flashy and a little less hyped by a superb
marketing department. At least he won't be on 1st name terms
with the service department, nor have the manufacturers customer care number
permanently etched in his memory.


Well said Dave N.
These vehicles are a triumph of style over substance. I really feel sorry for the people that get suckered into buying them. I suspect that many don't know a lot about cars and get taken in by the 'green welly' image.
freelander poss headgasket - DL
I certainly wouldn't say the KV6 is prone to head gasket issues - nor would I tarnish the K4 with such a sweeping statement.

Infact the KV6 is very reliable, even more so since the 75 was introduced back in 1999

The people I do (or did!) feel sorry for were Rover 825 KV6 owners.....they were terrible and perhaps spoiled the KV6's reputation for good.
--
groups.msn.com/honestjohn - Pictures say a thousand words.....
freelander poss headgasket - blank
Why people keep buying these dogs, heaven only knows. It's not
like Land Rover ever appears anywhere other than bottom of every
reliability survey going, and it's hard to miss the reporting of
these surveys in the media. The best thing he can do
is get his money back and walk, no run, to his
nearest Hyundai, Honda, Toyota or Nissan dealer and buy something a
little less flashy and a little less hyped by a superb
marketing department. At least he won't be on 1st name terms
with the service department, nor have the manufacturers customer care number
permanently etched in his memory.

fwiw, I reckon people really don't know about the apalling reliability. Totally agree with you though and I think you partially answer your own question by reference to the superb marketing of the product.
freelander poss headgasket - brianrh
The story goes that after Lotus did the ride and handling developement on a sporty Astra a few years ago for GM, the PR guys at GM didn't think it look very 'cool'. So for the press test sessions they had bigger diameter wheels fitted with different profile tyres and of cause the ride and handling was diabolical.

If you didn't know better you might imagine that some motor manufacturers even give their press cars special preparation before they are lent out for testing.