I absolutely concur s7gpt.
In the first instance call out R.S.A. (be it EuroAssist - RAC - AA etc) if you yourself are unable to rectify matters, and, certainly before you make expensive and time wasting purchase decisions yourself e.g. for a new battery.

If road side assistance cannot fix the problem or get your own car mobile again within 4hrs most policies have the resort to overnight hotel accommodation, stand-in hire car (or 1st Class train or economy flights) and the repatriation of your own vehicle back to home base.

so, after the RAC claimed they were too stretched to assist in the mountainous areas and as the car was drivable of sorts, they asked if I'd start my journey and hopefully if it did breakdown I'd be in an area where they had more resources and hire cars! The nearest LR dealer (Annecy) couldn't even look at the vehicle for two weeks and the local garages were stacked with work because of the extreme freeze so we set off on our 700 mile trip home. After a pretty cold and reduced power hour, the car started to behave and we got home safely and it started and drove fine to the shop this morning at minus eight. It is a lovely comfy car and I will get it checked out this week to see what's gone wrong. I love the car but it's really let me down, time will tell if I have the confidence to keep it and take it away again.

Thanks to all those that offered advice, much appreciated, I had no choice but to buy a battery as the old one was four years old and wouldn't start the car and the new one would. Also for the heads up on the freezing fuel and battery charger, I'm not a mechanic and was in a spot and it was good to ask fellow owners rather than admit defeat immediately and have the car dragged back to the uk on a low loader to the snigger of the neighbours !

Cheers!

P. S. Athlestan, no need for the snide and personal comments, you've made one thousand, four hundred and sixty five posts about a modern SUV? You must spend every night on your own in front of the screen? Step away from the computer, go outside, life is happening. YOU have my sympathy.

sounds like a charging problem that LR should be able to fix fairly easy ( and cheaply ), chin up mate and done let it put you off your ownership of what is otherwise a fantastic family vehicle

Its a landrover after all and they have teething problems at some point or other  freelander 2 SE black and beige - now sold

JXN1972 wrote:

I love the car but it's really let me down,

JXN1972 wrote:

P. S. Athlestan, no need for the snide and personal comments, you've made one thousand, four hundred and sixty five posts about a modern SUV? You must spend every night on your own in front of the screen? Step away from the computer, go outside, life is happening. YOU have my sympathy.

My 08 GS has it's original battery, as far as i know. Last year, i went away and left it in the garage, all locked up etc. After four days, i came home and when going to get the car out, i found there was not enough power to turn the engine. All has been well since i charged the battery, until this last week. With early morning temperatures at about -5c, the engine starts ok, but a HDC fault message appears briefly. Looking around the posts on here, this would seem to be an indication of a battery past it's best, so i may need to buy one soon. Another poster, seems to have cured many spurious electrical faults, by fitting an extra engine earth lead. I have one made up, and will fit it when the weather improves. This seems to be a cheap first action for anyone with electrical gremlins.

I have a 2007 Freelander 2 and a couple of weeks ago when the UK had cold weather my car experianced a similar problem.

When you start it up the car warns you of an HDC fault, and the car is pretty sluggish, If I drive it for 1/4 of a mile though, shut off the engine and then restart it, works fine, no warnings, correct performance.

There was only once the other week when it was minus 14 that the fault came on, I pressed the accelerator and the car totally died, but on the re-start it worked fine.

The Diesel that I put is is from a private garage who only sells high grade fuel and I have never filled it up from a Supermarket as I know these are often .