IF the Freelie is not covered by warranty AND the engine does need replacing then beware any garage that follows the Landrover workshop manual Topix.
Not only will you get a huge bill for the engine you will get an equally huge bill for dismantling almost the entire front workings which includes all the front suspension, driveshafts, aircon, power steering; the list goes on and on.
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If the cams have broken the damage may include wrecked pistons, valves ets so a second hand engine may be a lower cost option.
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On the Auto the engine is very easily and quickly changed by unbolting and lifting out the top with none of the mega LR front end dismantling. You dont even take the bonnet off. I can assure you of this because I personally did it my Freelie to change a wrecked engine.
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I sincerely hope your friends Freelie is covered by warranty.
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Kind regards from Fred.
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So does this mean that post Feb 2008 cars are not imune to the dreaded exhaust cam failure??

My comments above related specifically to keep costs down by fitting a replacement engine and the fact that Topix provides a crazy very very expensive way of changing an engine.
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My 2010 Freelie I bought at auction being clearly sold as having engine with suspect big end knock. The engine was actually wrecked by the previous owner omitting to have it serviced in nearly 3 year motoring. I suspect the bonnet probably had never been opened from new. The main dealer who recovered the car stated that there was no oil showing so its hardly surprising that without oil the bearings and crank were wrecked.
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So don't look at my situation as having any link to the main thread which deals with cam failure.
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Kind regards from Fred
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Fred,

I was commenting on the post before yours from Nij about a 2011 Freelander with a wrecked engine due to a broken camshaft.
All previous reports of this have been in models up to Feb 2008 before LR changed the camshaft design.
This is the first case I've heard of involving a later model.
So maybe there's no benefit in changing/uprating the camshafts and there's something else going on. Like failure due to lack of aligment with the fuel pump drive as someone has suggested.

Regards

Chris

The camshaft is broken and the connector to the diesel pump when't into 6 pieces.
5 was close to the camshaft but the last is gone.
I have open the oilsump but nothing there.
Anyone that now about where it could be ???

This has been a long and expensive problem

Arild

It could be inside the crankshaft balancer assembly which is viewed from the bottom of the engine with the sump removed.
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Under the cast iron block is an aluminium sandwich plate to which the sump is bolted.
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The balancer unit is fitted before the sandwich plate is fitted,
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On my engine with the balancer unbolted although it was very loose I could not jiggle it out of the sandwich plate.
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You may be able to power file corners off the balancer and sandwich plate to allow the balancer unit to drop out.
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Do read up first as the balancer shafts are installed with correct rotation position relative to the crankshaft so you will need to 'time' the shafts on refitting.
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Hope this helps. Kind regards from Fred.
. 2010GS Auto ex Celeb, Santorini Black, 2011 facelift , spoiler, spats, mudflaps, LED footwell lamps, Witter detach,
Other cars:-
1958 & 1959 Austin J40 Pedal Cars under restoration (I make many J40 parts)
If you have an Austin J40 or Pathfinder Pedal Car looking for a new home pls PM me.
2009 Meriva

hi

Thanks for your replay .
We have removed the balancer, but nothing there
This part is about 1 cm x 1 cm, any change that it cold be stuck'ed in the oil channel.
We have tried to use magnate but could not find anything.

The car was moved from on garage to another ( 40 km ), with the high pressure diesel pump removed saw it was open into the motor. We are looking into that as a possibility ??

I'm a little desperate now, and we are thinking of putting it together and try

Arild

Hi

First post, so greetings to all. My 57 TD4 HSE FL2 recently broke down with what has eventually been diagnosed as a broken exhaust camshaft. The independent where it was recovered to had never come across the problem, and when they contacted the local LR dealer, they said they had never know it happen either(!). I did a bit of googling and soon ended up here!

So the good news is my fault is not unique, but on the negative side, I don't know what to now do about it. The garage where it currently is recommends a recon engine at around 4k fitted) and says that replacing the camshaft is not something they can/want to do, the main LR dealer is not inspiring confidence and a local 4x4 specialist I contacted also said it would need a new engine and that they only fitted LR reconditioned ones that would cost 11k!

Can anyone recommend someone preferable not too far from Norfolk/Suffolk who would be able to repair the engine, should I go the replacement engine route, or is the car scrap? I should add it has done 130k miles and has been otherwise completely reliable.

Any thoughts welcome!

Have you contacted LR? If it is a manufacturing fault then I would have thought you would get some assistance, it should last longer than 130k. The camshaft should show signs of manufacture defect if this is the case, make sure you get this from the garage as this is your evidence if this turns out to be the issue.

Thanks for the reply.

I didn't want to make my post too long, but I did have a supplemental question of whether anyone had any success with getting Landrover to accept any responsibility for this? My priority is sorting the car out one way or another - but I can certainly have an argument with LR later, so it's good advice to keep the bits!

Wrong thread

maybe I can add some thoughts to the primary problem of needing to change engine. I went through this 3 years ago, my Freelie was bought at 34k miles with the big ends wrecked by the previous TV celebrity owner not having it serviced ever and run clear out of oil, I bought via Ebay. I then searched Ebay and bought a 'new' engine for circa £1850. Reading the LR manual about how to remove an engine brings about a totally ridiculous technique of removing all the suspension, aircon, power steering before removing the engine/box unit by lowering out complete with the front subframe. The man hours must be mind blowing. I left all ancilliaries connected with its pipework and undrained, didnt even take the bonnet off, didnt even take the radiators out. The engine will slide out sideways and lift vertically out , leaving all the gearbox installed, just like the 'old days' - Its all documented by me elsewhere on this forum. I then sold my old engine in parts on ebay and got circa £1000 back. So there are low cost alternatives. the biggest point is to make sure that the mechanics do not follow the LR route of dissasembly otherwise you will be in for chassis alignment, steering re-tracking, filling the aircon, filling the power steering, the list goes on... I would not consider rebuilding the installed engine, its too expensive and you dont know what debris might have fallen inside. 2010GS Auto ex Celeb, Santorini Black, 2011 facelift , spoiler, spats, mudflaps, LED footwell lamps, Witter detach,
Other cars:-
1958 & 1959 Austin J40 Pedal Cars under restoration (I make many J40 parts)
If you have an Austin J40 or Pathfinder Pedal Car looking for a new home pls PM me.
2009 Meriva

That's the sort of advice I was hoping for, thanks. Very helpful. How did the ebay engine work out? I would have thought buying one like that would be risky, especially for a non-expert like myself. Did you get yours of a dealer or a private sale? Any pointers would be useful.
Another thought: If I go the recon engine route, it would surely be sensible to get one with the upgraded parts. How idea how you would go about ensuring that?

Question is: in which place is the camshaft broken?
Because they tend to break near the high pressure fuel pump.
Indeed some had broke before the last valve, but then the valve rocker fail first when the valve is hit by the piston.
Very few need to replace the engine.
So, if only the camshaft is broken, the fix is quite easy and relatively cheap, in no way near those figures.

How often did you changed the oil and which one did you used?
Which fuel did you used?
I am trying to grasp if the failure is because of the high pressure fuel pump....

I haven't seen it myself, but apparently the very end - the castellated part that engages with the pump is completely destroyed, like the one in the top right image at the start of this topic.
As I understand it, changing the camshaft isn't too hard (although the garage said they didn't have the tools to pin the cams to keep them in sync(?), but finding where all the broken bits have gone is difficult if not impossible.
This is my problem - some say "engine is a write off", others say "I got mine repaired for a few hundred plus parts". Much as I would like the latter to be true, I haven't yet found anyone nearby who claims to be able to do it!