I wonder if the porous ducting could be replaced with something non-porous to reduce the likelihood that water leaks in through the ducting... The waiter drain in the in the air filter housing is a one-way valve so I'm not too worried about that.


Does anyone know of anything else to watch out for around 500-600mm? IE, where are the locations of the breathers for the diff, transmission and gearbox that Andy131 is talking about? Installed a hitch, stock roof rack, mantec skid plates, General Grabbers AT2 255/60/R18, and a rear access ladder. Also made a hitch-mount for the winch. Looking to install a front hitch, rooft-top basket, and lift kit.

Tracking modifications and off-road experiences here: http://sam.odio.com/lr2/

The breather tubes have a quite ample "?" shape ending on the upper part and therefore doesn't pose a threat/danger of water entering. The static pressure will not let the water enter.

I just noticed this was previously discussed here: http://www.freel2.com/forum/topic600.html

I'm mainly just interested in knowing what the actual limits are and what it is one should be worried about when approaching (and exceeding) 500mm. Ie, at 505mm, what floods? It seems like the air intake is good up until about 700mm.

I personally have no interest in going swimming  Installed a hitch, stock roof rack, mantec skid plates, General Grabbers AT2 255/60/R18, and a rear access ladder. Also made a hitch-mount for the winch. Looking to install a front hitch, rooft-top basket, and lift kit.

Tracking modifications and off-road experiences here: http://sam.odio.com/lr2/

alex_pescaru wrote:

The breather tubes have a quite ample "?" shape ending on the upper part and therefore doesn't pose a threat/danger of water entering. The static pressure will not let the water enter.

Hm, it looks like the transmission is already fitted with a remote breather. http://www.landrover.com/us/en/lr/about-la...rover-lr2/

Now going to try to research its location. Installed a hitch, stock roof rack, mantec skid plates, General Grabbers AT2 255/60/R18, and a rear access ladder. Also made a hitch-mount for the winch. Looking to install a front hitch, rooft-top basket, and lift kit.

Tracking modifications and off-road experiences here: http://sam.odio.com/lr2/

There's a transmission breather that reaches up past the transmission and is found near the engine (1). There's also a rear diff breather (2) though I couldn't find a diagram of its exact location. It looks like it's that would be a pain to get to. Finally there's a breather in the fuel line (3). The fuel line breather snakes up to the fuel intake.

1: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/281/lr2/Transmissi...cation.pdf
2: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/281/lr2/rear%20diff%20breather.pdf
3: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/281/lr2/fuel%20breather.pdf

Not sure about the electronics... Installed a hitch, stock roof rack, mantec skid plates, General Grabbers AT2 255/60/R18, and a rear access ladder. Also made a hitch-mount for the winch. Looking to install a front hitch, rooft-top basket, and lift kit.

Tracking modifications and off-road experiences here: http://sam.odio.com/lr2/

Further to my previous post on the routing of the air intake, another view from the front with the plastic cover removed. The red clips hold the ECU in place, so this is as high as it could possibly be installed. The rectangular aperture behind it, is the air intake to the ventilation system.

Click image to enlarge

Admin note: this post has had its images recovered from a money grabbing photo hosting site and reinstated

That's helpful, thanks.

It's still not clear where the 500mm comes from. It seems like an arbitary number. This weekend I'm going to have a look at all the intakes and measure their ground clearance. Installed a hitch, stock roof rack, mantec skid plates, General Grabbers AT2 255/60/R18, and a rear access ladder. Also made a hitch-mount for the winch. Looking to install a front hitch, rooft-top basket, and lift kit.

Tracking modifications and off-road experiences here: http://sam.odio.com/lr2/

rchrdleigh wrote:

According to LR the Defender and Freelander 2 both have the same wading depth of 500mm.
However, one of them can wade deeper and it doesn't necessarily begin with a D?

rchrdleigh wrote:

SRO, the answer to your question can be found in the comment I made above. 500mm came from Land Rover. It is not an arbitary number it is carefully selected to match that of a Defender.

Yah, thanks for your post. You're right that the number came from Land Rover. However I'm trying to reconstruct their decision since right now it feels arbitrary. It's not good enough for someone to tell me "that's just the way it is."

For example, why is it 500mm and not 550mm? If I wade through 550mm, what do I risk damaging first? Installed a hitch, stock roof rack, mantec skid plates, General Grabbers AT2 255/60/R18, and a rear access ladder. Also made a hitch-mount for the winch. Looking to install a front hitch, rooft-top basket, and lift kit.

Tracking modifications and off-road experiences here: http://sam.odio.com/lr2/

sro - pm sent

The wading depth won't just be the height of the various breathers, inlet, outlets and electrical components. It also depends on the speed that the vehicle is travelling at, vehicle load and if the engine is running. If the water might be deeper than 500mm the accepted way to deal with this is to set up a bow wave and try to stay in the shallower water just behind the crest. You also need to check out the water you're aiming to drive through for a suitable route avoiding the deepest spots and obstacles that might cause problems. The other rule is to not off road or wade alone.

sro wrote:

For example, why is it 500mm and not 550mm? If I wade through 550mm, what do I risk damaging first?

I believe the 500mm can also be quite a marketing number and allowing for a decent margin. If 500mm would be the actual limit and a LR2 owner would go through a 510mm water damaging something, it would get into quite a dispute with LR over the 10mm extra, if it was really there or not... Therefore, I would expect a 10% or even more margin allowed by LR when setting this limit.

As I (think I) mentioned, I read somewhere that one of the problems after 500mm is not really in parts being damaged, but more in a risk of the Freelander starting to float. Which would REALLY be a problem.

started to float and scramble at about 16sec in  Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis