The best earth route for starter efficiency is a direct connection between battery negative to starter bolt by the shortest route. The earth to body fails on this because it relies on further joints to effect a circuit. i.e. Body to gearbox, gearbox to engine, engine to starter. All of which build in resistance. In addition it has been known for the original earth lead to be poorly made and having its own built in resistance. To prove the point, LR themselves fitted the extra earth lead on later models.

Not sure however why you have chosen the circuitous route for the cable. (Apart from having an existing item) Mine goes the shortest route, direct from battery to starter, following other wiring, above the gearbox.

Bob 10MY (Sept 09) TD4 HSE Auto in Stornoway Grey (Now Gone)

08 FL2 TD4 SE Manual in Rimini Red (Now Gone)

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Not sure however why you have chosen the circuitous route for the cable. (Apart from having an existing item) Mine goes the shortest route, direct from battery to starter, following other wiring, above the gearbox.

Hi Bob.
Once again thank you for your reply, yes the reason I took the route above in the photo's was because I had a cable in my spares box, it is quite long so that route looked to be the tidiest way I will later today now fix it in situ cheers Arctic

Fitted the earth strap today, went for a short ride to the post office, 3 miles the most when I pulled back on the drive there was a burning smell coming from the engine bay, electrical burning smell I need to tack this down asap, surely there is no way adding another earth strap could cause this? I have a feeling it maybe the alternator, hopefully not

New belts. Can the alternator belt be set too tight on a FL2 and stress the belt and bearings ? If so that could throw burn smells. FL2 MY10 TD4 GS traded in at 2 years
FL2 MY13 TD4 GS Current

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New belts. Can the alternator belt be set too tight on a FL2 and stress the belt and bearings ? If so that could throw burn smells.

oldgeezer wrote:

Well, well, well

Glad to see on the new model now LR have now been fitting an extra earth strap from the battery to the starter bolt on the bell housing as standard factory fit !

Strange but true

True! 10MY (Sept 09) TD4 HSE Auto in Stornoway Grey (Now Gone)

08 FL2 TD4 SE Manual in Rimini Red (Now Gone)

Well. I put an earth strap from the battery negative to the transfer box AND to one of the 3 bolts holding the Starter motor onto the engine .... and it seems to be working ..... it got down to -7 oC in the Alps back in April ... and the car stared well .... job done !  Freelander 2 HSE. Santorini Black. Roof Rack, Running Board, Auto.

New to a forum but need help!
My mum has a Freelander 2 2.2 SE 2008 only 38000 miles.
Up until last year she has never had a problem (owned for 6years) it went into our local Land Rover Dealer for common bearing-diff issue and whilst it was in there they noticed an issue and replaced the throttle body hose as it was leaking.
Ever since it has been in the garage it has had an intermittent starting fault. Sometimes it starts fine, other times it takes 10-15mins. The brake pedal goes hard and some times no lights on the dash, some times lights.
They had it back in for an inspection and said it was a soft ware issue as the crash sensor said it had had 200 cashes or something silly. However this didn't fix the issue! It has been back in since saying no faults have come up and there is nothing wrong! I have had a couple of months of it been fine not too bad and now it's starting again and getting worse!

Any ideas?
Also how can they know their was a software issue and say they have fixed it, then it goes in with the same fault and nothing is wrong?

Thank you xxx

As said in this thread if it hasn't got the extra earth strap I would fit it,also they should have checked the battery but maybe get it checked somewhere else,then usual stuff all connections should be clean and tight from battery to alternator.

Back to haunt me again cleaning the seats doors open for around three hours,no lights on flat battery.

Decided to do this mod a while ago. Every so often getting the "reduced traction" message, always seemed to be if the battery was a bit low, e.g. lots of short trips, cold weather, lights etc, or I'd spent some time parked with lights on or doors open and interior lights on. A session with the ctek or a decent run seemed to reduce the problem frequency.

So with a 7 year old battery, that I knew wouldn't be in any sort of decent nick next winter did this in two stages. First second earth lead, from battery to gearbox housing near to starter motor. Amazing how much quicker it turned over, and despite taking the mick regarding battery charge no issues so far.

New battery on now, fingers crossed it's all seemingly sorted.

Second earth strap definitely recommended.

I have the ABS, DSC and brake warning lights on. The display is also show HDC faulty. I've had my 57 reg. FL2 for 6 years. Any suggestions please.

Hello Harry D, had this on mine recently. Turned out to be corroded wiring to one of the rear ABS sensors. I'm sure a fault code reader will yield some further clues if you have a friendly garage or auto electrician. Good luck, Colin.

hi landrover fitted a second earth cable new battery and alternator to try to fix my hdc fault but problem persists. some times when I try to start my freelander StD4e fob docked and cluch pressed the engine brings up HDC fault system failiure, temp gauge goes to top of gauge and sometimes fuel guage stays at the bottom and fuel low alarm sounds, fuel is cut off and hazards are auto put on, landrover say the car thinks it has had a crash, they have tried to fix for the last 3 years ?