Cambo wrote:

Since we'd owned this car it always made a bit of a whining sound from the engine, I just figured it was the ridiculous gear drive set up on the Volvo engine. But after fixing the alternator pulley, and replacing the aux drive belt and tensioner pulley, the sound was gone! It just sounded like a nice, quiet, normal engine. I was really shocked!

Cambo wrote:

So this happend this morning....
<snip>
Lesson learned....

Walter,

Its on the list

Less common repairs
I. Starter motor - typically fails at 100,000 miles or 10 years
II. Blower Resistor
III. Front Brake calipers refurbished
IV. Loose bolt on alternator pulley
V. Overdrive clutch pulley Alternator
VI. Overdrive clutch pulley READ drive (Serpentine Belt)

Note: if the Overdive pulley on the alternator fails then it will back out the bolt

For me I just replaced the pulley and I Ignore the Loctite recommendation

For this application what you need is clamping force and it the bolt backs out a very small amount then you lose clamping force and the pulley will just spin. The Loctite may not be enough to stop this from happening.

For my Time and $$$ I replace the Overdrive pulley



And you will need a tool like this to remove it

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge

Hopefully this stays on my proactive to do list and gets completed there!

p_gill wrote:

Its on the list

<snip>

Actually you should but the whole kit

Walter,

I would do the two jobs on separate weekends the Alternator is accessible when you remove the intake manifold (which I think you did when you replaced the Thermostat)

The serpentine belt and the other overdrive pulley requires the removal of the AC compressor from the bracket and the removal of the power steering pump.

If you want to you can check the pulley for the serpentine belt by trying to move the belt with the engine off. It will move easily in one direction and then it won’t move much in the other direction.

If the belt moves as described then you could wait a little longer to replace the serpentine belt and tensioner and pulley and overdrive pulley.


I am very curious to know if your serpentine belt will move.

Good luck

Paul

p_gill wrote:

I am very curious to know if your serpentine belt will move.

Your pulley is worn out but not seized yet.

I agree with you approach to prioritize the Wheel bearing.

Note: the idler pulley can seize and break the belt, if that happens the water pump stops and power steering assist is lost as well. So I wouldn’t take a 1,000 mile road trip until replacing the belt and pulleys but a short drive should be fine. If the power steering stops working, pull over and shut down the engine (the head gasket is at risk if you keep driving)

For my new pulley it moves easily in one direction

Good luck

Paul

I never touched this bolt when I swapped out the alternator prior. Why would I?

Lesson learned....[/quote]

Very interesting. A few weeks ago, I had a brush stick in my alternator. We checked the pulley wasn't loose and that the bolt was still tight. All good. Five weeks later, the pulley came loose, the car left me stranded (for the third time!) and it was back in the workshop. For the life of me, I can't work out why the pulley came loose when we did no more than check it (the bolt never moved).

Even stranger: a friend tidied up the taper on the pulley and we lapped it onto the shaft to ensure a close fit. Used a very strong Locktite compound to ensure it never moved, Locktite on the bolt (and a new alternator because who knows what might have been wrong to cause this?). 12km down the road, the pulley came loose again, made a whirring sound, battery light on etc. Having been stranded for a week, I did a little shopping and drove home. Oddly, the battery light never came on and the sound went away. I stripped it down last night and that pulley is dead tight. In fact, it will need an extractor to remove it!

I am baffled. Time to buy a simpler car. Shame I can't get the audio/screen to work. It won't be worth that much...

Quote:

.....I am baffled. Time to buy a simpler car. Shame I can't get the audio/screen to work. It won't be worth that much...

That was very nice of you to reply so comprehensively, Paul. Much appreciated, so worth a response, I believe. Maybe something in here will help other owners? Note that I am not the sort of person who would offload something on somebody else because it has become a problem, so I will either replace the pulley or make sure the buyer understands what has happened. Nice of you to worry about the future owner but it's really my meagre bank balance that will suffer here.

I'm a long time Land Rover fan, have owned dozens of Rovers, Land Rovers and Range Rovers over the years. I am also a big fan of in-line six cylinder engines, so a Freelander 2 has been on my radar for a long time. I don't want to be negative about the car because there is a lot to like. It's smooth, quiet, decently comfortable and roomy, has a reassuringly solid feel to its build, the engine makes all the power you could ever want, the off-road ability is far better than you might expect and they have a reputation for hanging together pretty well over many miles. For its weight and engine size, even fuel economy is good.

However, like any car, things do go wrong and maintenance is needed and, as this thread has covered so well, many of those tasks are far more difficult than they need to be. I've done most of my own servicing and repairs over the last 45 years. That includes full engine stripdowns, major work on gearbox/diff/power steering boxes/alternators/starters etc. etc.. Even speedometer repairs and some electronics. In all that time, I have never encountered a vehicle which is so unfriendly to work on. Even my little Mercedes SLK was a doddle by comparison. I have spent a fantastic amount of time trying to fix quite simple problems. Hence my comment that I should get something else. It's a car for someone who can afford to pay someone; or someone who is skilled at and enjoys working on challenging vehicles (and I take my hat off to the latter).

In the case of the alternator, the oddly-placed coolant hose above the manifold had a tiny weep. So tiny I didn't worry too much about it but a drop or two were evidently reaching the alternator. Consequently, it ended up with a sticky brush and stopped charging. An easy fix, but a few weeks later it stopped charging again and the pulley (which I hadn't touched) came loose. Interesting what you said about the free-wheel (clutch?) on the alternator. The new alternator clearly has that but the old one feels completely solid. A frozen free-wheel? That may explain how the pulley came loose, so thanks for that.

I bought and fitted a brand new alternator (and didn't forget to make sure the blue wire was fitted properly!), got the pulley machined and carefully reassembled it (see post further up the page). It's all back and running for the third time, the pulley is still tight and everything is as it should be, bar my confidence! The engineer who worked on it and the mechanic who okayed the repair are highly experienced in their fields and know their stuff. I trust their point of view. Incidentally, the 12x1 thread in the pulley doesn't appear to connect to anything on the shaft. The engineer suggested it is there for removing the pulley and you would certainly need to do that now. Time will tell but I can't believe it could come loose again.

The screen on the dash flashes the "Land Rover" page and the radio doesn't complete its start up routine. However, I know that is because of rodent damage to fibre optic cables under the front of the rear seat. I can't fix that or find someone who can and don't want to buy a new loom. Can't blame the car for that! A giant pain anyway.

Finally, my starter motor also packed in - at 85,000km (a little over 50,000 miles). It essentially vaporised it's brushes, leaving me stranded in a remote, rural area out of cellphone range. Ironically, that was actually a very easy fix!

Deep7,

Very well said.

I think the example that you gave about the tiny coolant hose is exactly how to think about the LR2. If small inexpensive things like that hose are neglected and allowed to leak it will lead to significantly more expensive repairs. As you have seen.

When I replaced my Thermostat I didn't initially replace that hose but when I saw it leaking I immediately replaced it.

https://www.freel2.com/forum/topic32245.html

As for your comment about the drive pulley having M12 Threads and being held in place by a M10 bolt that passes thru these threads...............this is invaluable information. I can't tell from the pictures of the parts and I haven't taken mine apart.

Now that I know that, I still recommend replacing the clutched pulley on the alternator which I did for my LR2, but I now have a different recommendation for the M10 that hold the drive pulley.

The requirement for the fastener is to apply clamping force for an extended period and I do have experience with this. Overtime the Bolt will stretch (Creep if you prefer) and the clamping forces will become lower. When this happens the pulley may slip.

Because this fastener has a very short unsupported length it is very susceptible to loosing clamping force this way.

A long bolt with a cylindrical spacer would significantly mitigate the loss of clamping force over time.

However there is another solution that I have used successfully in the past that I prefer for applications like this.

Belleville spring washer can be used to provide a more consistent clamping load.

The next time I am in there I will add some Belleville washers to the M10.





As for the Chewed Fiberoptic cable it may be possible to cut and polish the cable and patch the broken link using male and female loop backs. Search YouTube this may not be as impossible as it seems.


Take care

Paul


PS For electrical applications that supply a significant number of amps (i.e. over 1000 Amps continuously) a loss of clamping force will increase the resistance of the joint and this will result in the connection getting very hot and failing if the clamping force drops enough. So as cars become powered by electrons failures due to a loss of clamping force will become more common. So at some level the LR2 is just ahead of its time.