Well done you, amazing determination and a lot of new skills learnt. You can sit back with a glass of wine and be proud of your hard work 👍 Landrover - turning owners into mechanics since 1948

2014 Orkney grey Freelander SD4 GS.
2004 Zambezi silver Discovery 2 Td5 (Gone)
1963 Surf blue Morris Mini Minor Super de Luxe (my little toy)

Never mind the Olympics, that certainly deserves a gold medal for sheer determination. Jules

...FORTIS...
......FORTUNA......
.........ADIUVANT.........


Simple translation = "Fortune Favors the Bold" but in this case Fortune is actually referring to the Goddess of Fortune.


If you prefer something a bit less Latin and a bit more American.

................Tough times never last...........
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.................But tough people do..........


Emma you may not think of yourself as a tough person but the facts are undeniable.

And Seventeen Thousand people read your post, I think that they all owe you a drink, myself included. Collect it any time you find yourself in San Jose California (or Silicon Valley if you prefer). Just tell my wife that you are LR2 Emma and she will understand.

Don't worry too much about bleeding the cooling system there is a small hose from the cylinder head to the reservoir and another from the Radiator to the reservoir. The system will bleed itself. To speed up the process I climb and descend a large hill keeping the RPMs high to get out the last bit of air.

Take care

Paul

Awww thank you Paul, actually thank you to all you guys for your support and encouragement. I know that this will probably sound like some cliché but you really did make the difference. All your bits of advice and direction, really made a difference. You guys never patronised or made me feel like an idiot, you are all part of something special.

Thank you too for the suggestion of lifting up the front of the car, I’m taking her back to Blighty, (UK) on Tuesday for an MOT/fitness certificate and will need to trailer her. I did as you suggest Paul and put the front wheels about halfway up the ramp. The heater was on full and was giving out lots of heat. I left things on tick over, just the occasional rev. The level did go down a little so I’m confident that the system is free of air. I had replaced the coolant reservoir with a new one, (probably a Chinese copy) after using a wire staple as a shunt across the plug, the message disappeared.

I took a drive yesterday, to Montluçon, (centre of France) it was a beautiful day and honestly, I was absolutely in heaven, so smooth and sweet!








I know that the front dam looks a bit weird, but the replacement centre piece was a bit shorter. In any case i thought that I would have it wrapped with carbon fibre, I also have the rear one too but not yet fitted but I'm not sure about it because I don't want it to look like a, 'Chelsea Tractor'! It would also reduce the height for some gentle off road. I do have the original wheels and I am torn between off road and winter tyres, the latter would be much more useful but probably not as much fun

As for sharing a drink with you in San Jose, that too would be wonderful!

Would it be very bad if I said that whilst in Montluçon, I went into Burger King and got an XL Bacon Double Cheese burger as a special treat. No witnesses therefore no calories!!

Emma LR2 2009 Jaguar XF 3.0
2011 Jaguar XF 3.0
2007 LR2 i6 3.2 HSE
1980 Moto Guzzi 850 T3 California

Well done, the burger was well earned.

Such an exciting few days!

After getting back to the UK, I booked her in for an Mot and she passed! Yayyy!

Click image to enlarge

Hello darling friends,

hope you're all well, wherever you are?

Back in France for a few weeks....

I should start a new thread... "The great British/French workman"....

Grrrr!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I took Freedeux back to Blighty, did everything properly, as she had no MoT, I put her on a trailer and brought her back. Went for an MoT test, passed with flying colours except one advisory on a cracked rubber gaiter on a ball joint and the hidden warning light...

I had of course replaced the ac condenser so the ac system was dry. I went to have it filled. The garage said that the clutch on the compressor wasn't working but he had filled up the system...

I looked at the car, switched on the ac and the compressor was working, switched ac off and it stopped spinning... Grrrr2!

Anyway, no problem, It has been filled so I just won't use the ac....
Started on the return journey, which these days is a bit of a faff when Going from the UK to the EU...

Got to just east of Paris, slowed down to go through toll booth... Smoke and funny smell... Gauges all ok, but immediately pulled over.... ac compressor burned out and seized and had burned through the serpentine belt... Grrrr3!

Had to be recovered off the toll road to a proper dodgy garage who wanted to charge me over €600 for a new compressor... plus labour... I asked, 'Do you have the special tools to realign the bottom ac bracket and was very aggressively dismissed and told that they were mechanics... Grrr4! Honestly they were idiots and at one point I started filming them trying to hitch up my trailer to a car that was so low that the trailer town bar was almost on the ground.... Grrrr 5, 5 & 7

I have been a member of the RAC since the mid 70's, yes , yes, yes, some of you weren't born then It's one of those things that you pay for and hope that you never need. I have only ever used them a couple of times over these decades so when I called them I expected... Service? Short story, I was in a hotel for 2 days before these maniacs found out that they couldn't repair, what I had already done, (several times), or get the part, a Valeo , (French made) ac compressor for at least a week. So I finally got the RAC/Europ Assist to recover me to my home in France. At Least I felt safe there and actually had the ability to do the job myself....

So I came back to the UK in my little French runabout, bought a new, genuine, Valeo AC compressor from eBay for £265 with next day delivery and went back down to France and took an hour or so to fit it, as well as a new Gates serpentine belt. I found that they had lost bolts and had managed to put the wrong bolt in one place.. The bits that they had removed were just thrown in the back on a new duvet that I had in the back. Proper GRRR! I also noticed that they had marked the front wing...

Is it me or do other people get this sort of treatment... Honestly I mind less about being dismissed if I know that the person doing so isn't full of .

I haven't noticed any leaks in the ac system, no dye anywhere, so later this week am booked into a garage, (Norauto) to have an ac leak check and if ok then a full top up including compressor oil check.

Can I ask if there is anything I have missed?

Click image to enlarge

Post deleted

Emma,

I don't think that I can replace my serpentine belt in under an hour and I've done the job three times.

You are an expert now.

Well done


Enjoy your FREEL2

You've earned it!!!


Thanks for keeping us updated

Paul

Hi Paul,

thank you it's true that I've done it so many times now that it almost falls off!

Of course all the bolts and Torx screws aren't frozen solid and the only real effort is the fiddly bolt at the bottom of the steering pump steady. The other thing is knowing exactly where the 19mm open ended spanner goes and then putting in the 3mm Allen key to keep the tension off. Because the pump had already been removed I had easy access.

In fact the only thing that delayed me was in looking at workshop-manual, the steering pipe oil feed shows it attached to the ac compressor upper steady bracket. The one on mine goes to the bottom left of the compressor in that same image?







The other things that could be amiss are one of the sensors isn't working, a loose connection which could be both pipe or electrical.
Hopefully the Leak test later this week will at least show if it is that?

I do have a question, is it ok to run the car without anything in the ac system, as long as the ac is switched off?

Auntie Emma xx 2009 Jaguar XF 3.0
2011 Jaguar XF 3.0
2007 LR2 i6 3.2 HSE
1980 Moto Guzzi 850 T3 California

Yes. Endlessair use air conditioning compressor for compressing air for pumping up tyres. If you have the room in the engine bay for a second air conditioning compressor.

https://www.endlessair.com.au/55sec.html Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!

Acoustic insulation ARB TPMS 3xARB air compressors After cooler Air tank On-board OCD pressure air/water cleaning Additional 50L fuel Carpet in doors ABE 2x1kg Waeco 28L modified fridge Battery 4x26ah Solar 120w Victron MPPT 100/20 DC-DC 18amps 175amp jumper plug Awning 6x255/60R18

Hi Jonathan,

thanks for your reply. The reason I wanted to know if I can still use the car on a long journey with a possible leak in the ac 123a is because I would like to drive FreeDeux back to the UK. I could get it checked over there either by JLR or more likely an Independent. I guess that if I just use econ mode (orange econ light activated), the ac would not activate and therefore no risk of the compressor seizing.

Click image to enlarge

Emma,

Here is what I would do.

I would remove the Relay for the AC Compressor Clutch

R3 Item 47

Click image to enlarge

Cheers Paul!

Really appreciate your advice, thank you. Belt and braces! It will help make me a lot more relaxed on the journey. Hopefully though, the garage will be able to identify whether or not there is a leak somewhere in the system.

kind regards,

Emma 2009 Jaguar XF 3.0
2011 Jaguar XF 3.0
2007 LR2 i6 3.2 HSE
1980 Moto Guzzi 850 T3 California

Have missed the latest episode to your saga, so is everything back to normal? 11 GS Bali Blue
07 GS FL2. Usually muddy. Gone
Numerous LRs since 1963