Hi all,

I've recently acquired my Freelander 2 (picked it up two days ago) and already I'm having troubles with it (my own fault though)....

Its a 2012 TD4 S Automatic 2.2 150HP.

When I collected it, fuel light was on, but didn't seem drastically low, so I drove home, parked it on an incline nose up (I know!), and left it for several hours. Later that evening, it wouldn't start. My assumption is that because of the low fuel level coupled with the slope, it didn't allow the fuel to be delivered to the injectors. Which then put air into the system, and which I now cannot get rid of.

Attached is a picture of my fuel pump, which looks different from all the others I've seen. Not sure if that is an issue or not. I've searched in the forum about how to bleed the system, and I've followed that all as best as I can, but the car still won't start. I've even tried easy start, which gets the engine going, but stops as soon as I stop spraying. Obviously I do not want to put absolutely more in than I have to. When the engine was running whilst spraying, I could see fuel going through the pipes, but with lots and lots of air, even after attempting to bleed it. Applying the throttle had no effect whatsoever whilst the engine ran with easy start.

So, I've got a little hand pump, placed it on the bottom right outlet that goes to the HP Pump and pumped fuel through, then I reconnected the HP pipe on the filter, and filled that with fuel using a funnel (not ideal, but I don't have a connector to attach to the HP fuel pipe) at the HP Pump end and then reconnected it.

It's Saturday, and here in rural Italy there are no shops open, nor mechanics until Monday. Oh, and my other car decided to blow the head gasket yesterday too... So if anybody could provide some tips/pointers as to what I'm doing wrong and how to fix this with limited resources, that would be lifesaving!

Thank you all!

Have you put anymore fuel in the tank?
If not, get a couple of cans and put some fuel in the car.
If you can see some fuel plus air in the fuel lines, chances are once there is more fuel in the tank the pump with pull it through. Now at the point when I learn something new something old is lost out the other side !
Now retired so it doesn't matter anymore.
Freelander now gone.

Thanks for your reply gasman... Yes I put in 12 liters or so, which I had assumed would be plenty. I have a 15 litre jerry can and saved some fuel back just in case I needed some extra.

The car isn’t still on the incline is it ?

No, I removed it from the incline and it is now on a level bit of tarmac.

JLR recommends you prime by inserting the hand pump between the line coming up from the tank and the filter (its in their free/downloadable workshop manual)- so you push fuel through the filter and onto the HP pump.

Keep pumping until you hear no more bubbles returning to the tank and the balloon goes firm.

Ive never had an issue priming the FL2 since first acquiring one in 2007.


OP - no pic was attached Jules

Hi Jules,

Ah ok. My problem is that I don’t have a connector to go between the incoming line and the filter connection. But the filter needs to be changed, so I’ll make something up/buy something once it gets changed so that this situation is avoided next time. I do also have the Haynes manual due to arrive next week, so hopefully that’ll help me out in the future.

Also, apologies about the missing picture, this is my first post and I thought I had attached a picture 😆 It is uploaded now 👍🏼 I think it’s a Bosch filter. Whether that meets LR standards, I’m not sure. But I’m also not sure how old the filter is, so it’ll get changed regardless.

Thanks for your help

ALWAYS Treat 1/4 tank on fuel gauge as empty, Land Rover design is not the best 🙄

Last edited by Jack frost on 4th Nov 2023 5:45 pm. Edited 3 times in total

That’ll definitely be the case going forward, along with a full jerrycan in the boot at all times 😂

Jack frost wrote:

ALWAYS Treat 1/4 tank on fuel gauge as empty, Land Rover design is not the best 🙄

Funnily enough for one reason and another mine went down to 14 miles remaining the other week before I filled it up.

MrRW wrote:

Hi Jules,

Ah ok. My problem is that I don’t have a connector to go between the incoming line and the filter connection. But the filter needs to be changed, so I’ll make something up/buy something once it gets changed so that this situation is avoided next time. I do also have the Haynes manual due to arrive next week, so hopefully that’ll help me out in the future.

Also, apologies about the missing picture, this is my first post and I thought I had attached a picture 😆 It is uploaded now 👍🏼 I think it’s a Bosch filter. Whether that meets LR standards, I’m not sure. But I’m also not sure how old the filter is, so it’ll get changed regardless.

Thanks for your help

Something like this, but without the electric pump, that was just an experiment.

 Now at the point when I learn something new something old is lost out the other side !
Now retired so it doesn't matter anymore.
Freelander now gone.

Nodge68 wrote:

Jack frost wrote:

ALWAYS Treat 1/4 tank on fuel gauge as empty, Land Rover design is not the best 🙄

When the tank transfer pump is working, you should be able to take the gauge or miles remaining to 0, I can in mine, but it's not recommended. If the transfer pump isn't working, then ¼ tank is essentially empty.

jules wrote:

I used the connections (cut them off) from an old fuel filter to make an adapter for a generic hand pump bought from Amazon

That's what I plan to do when I can purchase a new filter tomorrow