Had a wheel off yesterday and a proper look around. There are some areas of rust that to me look a little worse than ok, but as it’s my first Land Rover and first car I’m getting stuck into wrenching on myself, I don’t know what acceptable and what needs replacing like yesterday So second opinions are welcome !

Photos below. IMO the wishbone could be better, and the arm down to the wheel hub looks pretty bad, and is that a hard brake line that looks like it’s going?

(Apologies it seems to have uploaded the photos rotated!)

All pretty normal for suspension components and not much to worry about there. Give them a clean up with a wire brush and apply some wax based product of you choice.
Rear subframe is probably the area you'd be better concentrating on as rust can take a hold there (must do my own one of these days!). Clean down and a little grease on the brake pipes will protect them.
You could remove the wheel arch liners and give it a good wash behind them while yourr at it. 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)

Nothing to worry about. Suspension components always rust. The rust hub carrier (top picture) is irrelevant, as it's a hugely over engineered component.
The wishbone isn't rusty enough to cause concern, and will need replacing due to a worn ball joint, before wishbone is weakened.

On these vehicles, a rusty body and subframes are far more likely to give issues than rusty suspension components. Hyundai Ioniq 5 Ultimate. The replacement for the SE.
2009 Rimini Red SE TD4. Almost sold.
2006 Tonga Green i6 HSE. Gone.

This is a minor rust issue!

 Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!

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Haha thanks guys. I spend some time for work under 2014+ vans, which are generally pretty clean, so just changing my mindset a little! I got a few cans of waxoyl, so will get it up on the axel stands and give it all a good check, brush and wax.

I had big dreams of upgrading the shocks and then I saw the Freelander aftermarket options, or lack thereof..

After 14 years, just replacing the worn shocks with new standard will improve the ride.

Yea that’s what I’m leaning towards now (athankyou). I’ve noticed it’s a bit too bouncy round the corners, and a few noises going over bumps. So would probably benefit from a full set of OEM shock swapout. I’m guess just change the shocks and leave springs and other bits alone?

Bear_24 wrote:

Haha thanks guys. I spend some time for work under 2014+ vans, which are generally pretty clean, so just changing my mindset a little! I got a few cans of waxoyl, so will get it up on the axel stands and give it all a good check, brush and wax.

I had big dreams of upgrading the shocks and then I saw the Freelander aftermarket options, or lack thereof..

Bear_24 wrote:

Yea that’s what I’m leaning towards now (athankyou). I’ve noticed it’s a bit too bouncy round the corners, and a few noises going over bumps. So would probably benefit from a full set of OEM shock swapout. I’m guess just change the shocks and leave springs and other bits alone?

jules wrote:

I replaced my rears in 2023 with Bilstein B4 shocks from Autodoc.

I suppose the question is, what were you hoping to achieve by "upgrading" ?

IanMetro wrote:

Have you checked the Roll Bars, even if they are all tight, the Drop Links can become loose and noisy.

As regarding being bouncy around corners, if the dampers are going you should notice it in a straight line as well. (and, most likely, fluid leaks)

There is an art to achieving anything like smooth, medium-quick, cornering in a FL2, so be wary.

I'd be interested to drive another FL2 to compare it to as I have no point for comparison. And would also be good for an experienced owner to give mine a drive and see what they think.

I'll check the drop links. I found one source of clunking which was a loose rubber dampener that had come free, glued it back in. The rest of the noises sound a bit quieter but mostly from the rear. I've not noticed any leaking fluid tbh.

Bear_24 wrote:

Can you recommend? They don't look too expensive. Wasn't wanting anything extreme, or to do anything major off-road, I just wanted something that might handle a bit of light off-road a bit better than I'm used to with OEM parts. But it is a Land Rover, so maybe a fresh set of stock shocks and a small riser kit is all it needs.

Just to add my 2 pence into this seeing as you mentioned "off road" . Alana (my partner) and I own a Freelander 2 and I'd say we do soft to mild off roading in it. We put our adventures up on our YouTube page (https://www.youtube.com/@scottandalana4x4).

Our car had done about 150,000 miles. My thought process started off as, "why put brand new fresh shocks all round on the car and pair them up with worn springs that could then need replacing down the line." That thought process then turned into, "well if all the shocks are coming off to be replaced, we may aswell fit a lift kit on the car at the same time and save going into that area twice."

So short of the long, we brought 4x KYB Shocks and 4x Sachs springs from Euro Car Parts. We did think about Bilstein B4's, but A, they were out of stock at the time and B, we didn't really see the great advantage to them. We then booked the car into MuddyMods, they then fitted their 40:50 lift kit and the shocks and springs onto the car and we have loved how capable it is now when it heads off road.

If you do want an upgrade, you could get Bilstein B6's which is what I think Joel Self has on his Freelander 2 (https://www.youtube.com/@JoelSelfOutdoorInstructor). I think I remember him saying that they are alot firmer and he likes them because it reduces some of the body roll in the car. To us, we quite like the soft and squigyness of the Freelander 2.  https://www.youtube.com/@scottandalana4x4