^^^^ that's why I asked for a photo guide  Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

I was hoping it was so simple it wouldn't need photos!  Black MY2013 SD4 GS Auto, Wood Company Armrest, Freel2 sticker.
Gone MY2010 Freelander 2 Manual TD4.e S, Alaska White.

Stevie5tapes wrote:

How hard a job is it to fit a earth strap? Do you have to go underneath the engine or is it something you can do with the bonnet up?

I did mine years ago, I used starter motor cable and large eyelets

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge

How long is the earth lead? Black MY2013 SD4 GS Auto, Wood Company Armrest, Freel2 sticker.
Gone MY2010 Freelander 2 Manual TD4.e S, Alaska White.

I bought 2.0 mtrs of cable and used about 1.5 to route it nicely so it didn't look like a bodged extra Jaguar x-type sport gone
Jaguar x-type 2.2d sport one of my best cars ever sadly gone
Freelander 2 GS auto 2008 most unreliable ever ! gladly gone
Freelander 2 GS manual 2013 only time will tell !

duckworthparts wrote:

as Paul said, 3 shown on catalogue all look same length

so will let everyone know which is correct and price Wedneday

I have recently aqquired my Freelander and slowly working through the faults and niggles that I have with it. I`m fairly sure that this will have been covered already, but its such a good fix that its worth mentioning again.

Symptoms:
If left overnight, in the cold for a few days, my car sounds like its going to struggle to start - it turns over very very slowly, all the dash lights dim and just at the point you think, "Oh Hell - Flat Battery" it bursts into life and for a split second will display an HDC fault on the dash info display. It has never failed to start, and when the car is warm, it fires up on the button - but there is always that niggle in the back of my mind as to will it start in the morning again - and yes, I do have a "Mahoosive" and fully charged battery.

The Fault:
The fault is down to a very poor engine to bodyshell earth, and it can deteriorate in the cold and the damp giving a high resistance and therefore less volts to the starter motor when needed. Because the starter is then drawing as much juice as it can from the battery, the other circuits start to fail as they do not have enough power, one of the first to complain is HDC. There is no fault with the HDC system, its purely that when starting, there isn`t enough voltage to power this as well as the starter motor.

The Cure:
You could try to clean up the earth terminals, but its a never ending job and the car will have bio-degraded by the time you locate the troublesome one. Or, you could do what I did, and visit your local motor factor or battery specialist and ask them to make you up an earth lead. Notice I said "make" one and not simply buy one off the shelf. If they can make one, I would suggest a lead 31" long with an 8mm ring at one end and a 10mm ring at the other - off the shelf ones are 30" and same size rings at each end which is no good. This lead cost me £6.50.

Fitting:
Remove the air box so you have clear visability of the starter motor top bolts, the uppermost one is a 13mm headed bolt and obscured by the thick wiring loom - Its difficult to see this bolt, and the loom is hard to hold to one side whilst you do, and if you seem to be initially struggling to get a socket and extension bar on it, then you have the right bolt. Remove this bolt, pass it through the 10mm ring terminal of your lead and refit it, remembering to apply sufficient torque to the bolt. Just to the left of the battery box is a large clump of wires that poke through the plastic scuttle plate and drop down at 90 degrees through a square shaped grommet. You can try to pass the cable thorugh here, although I confess that I gave up and drilled a small hole underneath it in the flat plastic face which was fairly accessable with the Battery top plastic cover removed. Once the cable is through, connect the 8mm terminal to the spare threaded post on you Battery Negative terminal and secure with a 10mm nut.

Conclusion:
You will now find, as I did, that even in the coldest of weathers that the engine now spins at a significantly higher speed when cranking, starts very quickly, and the HTC fault has never displayed since.

Hope this works for you



Last edited by Dave DND on 9th Nov 2013 9:59 am. Edited 1 time in total

Good job, great write up.

I will make some cables up next week! Paul Redding
+44 (0)23 8052 2760
Order Parts Online at www.advancedfactors.co.uk

Excellent write up however before making up a lead it is worth checking the bolt size on the negative battery terminal as I have a 6mm thread and not an 8mm.

Well spotted, but the reason I went for 8mm is that most of the 6mm rings I have seen are generally too small to fit on a substantial size earth lead - you have to make a small compromise somewhere. Decent washer and 10mm nut, and no one would be any the wiser.

Just ordered one of these at 31" with 10mm hole ring terminal on one end and 6mm hole ring terminal on the other end. I did try to get one from LR but unfortunately no joy.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/221309910122?ssP...1438.l2649

Well Spotted



Let me know how you get on

Nice why and how to!

http://www.freel2.com/forum/topic17710.html
http://www.freel2.com/forum/topic16694.html

Great post by the Dave DND . I've been thinking about doing this for a while. Just got a couple of questions....

Ive seen the earth cables on Ebay, what size is best ampage wise? 110 amp, 240 amp??

What torque is required for the starter motor bolt? I think its 40 Nm but just wanted to double check.

cheers again!  Black MY2013 SD4 GS Auto, Wood Company Armrest, Freel2 sticker.
Gone MY2010 Freelander 2 Manual TD4.e S, Alaska White.