I hope the forum management don't mind. But I want to create a quick bio for my Land Rover that I can send the link to potential buyers, which has not got the feedback comments.

Would admin mind if they locked this thread?

Thanks in Advance

This post has been locked by the site administration team
Please contact admin/mods to edit Freelander 2 HSE Lux 2013MY - Barolo Black with Ivory Leather. Alpine DVD - Privacy -Evoque 20" Dynamic Wheels and more to come.........

Last edited by Mav71 on 7th Nov 2013 8:59 pm. Edited 2 times in total

August 20th 2007, we walked into our local LR dealership and this was sitting in the showroom :-

December 2006 Freelander 2 HSE TD4, in Stornaway Grey, Privacy Glass, Adaptive Xenon Headlights and a full size spare.
8 month old EX LR car with 10400 miles.







After a decent test drive, the deal was done and we PX’d the Audi. One good thing about the Audi, is that we only lost £3000 on it from when we bought it new.

We had agreed to pick the car up on the 1st September 2007 so we didn’t lose a months road tax.
So in the 11 days we had between buying and collecting, it enabled me to buy the first pile of parts and fitted them soon after delivery.

Clear side repeaters



Front & Rear Mudflaps



Side Steps



HST Exhaust Finisher



Bodyside Mouldings



Body Colour Door Mirror Caps



HST Grill



This was the end result of the first 6 weeks of ownership. I also had a genuine LR detachable towbar fitted as well within the first couple of months.

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March 2008

I also decided to fit the i6 exhaust rear silencer along with the style pack exhaust tips. So the parts were ordered and I was only charged £35 to modify the existing centre section to match the two up.



Here is how it looked.

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Things stayed like this until around April 2010! When I decided to update the exterior of the car to HSE Premium spec which, as you know had fully colour coded body trim.

I didn’t want to paint over the original textured panels, so I ordered four new door panels, front wing panels, and rear bumper from a 2010 MY car.

I didn’t buy the front bumper though as the black sections were very small and as the whole bumper was being painted, it would all be smooth.

At the same time, the towbar electrics were change to 13pin Euro style.
Here was the end result!




November 2010

After a tip off from a fellow member on here, I was given a link on ebay to a lady selling 2011MY facelift front bumpers. So it had to be done, although at the time, knowone knew if the facelifting the older cars would be straight forward. So I thought, what the hell.

So I went and picked up the bumper and did a trial fit!

Strip down complete!





With the exception of one very small modification, it all went straight on and everything plugged in and worked fine!
So I then went to my LR dealer and ordered the following from the 2011MY car.

Both Rear Light Clusters
All three new style Land Rover Badges
Rear Boot Handle
Rear Third Brake Light
Front Bumper spat/splash guards

January 2011

All the parts arrived, so I took the front bumper and rear handle to the bodyshop to be painted.
Here is the facelift in pictures.

Apologies for the picture quality for the first few pictures, I forgot to take my camera and these are from my phone.

Front Bumper Assembly (TD4 or SD4, I have chosen the SD4 version)
Rear Lights
Third Brake Light & Rear Handle
New LR Badges
New 3rd Brake Light.

Firstly I changed the badges.





Here is the bumper all freshly painted.




Then onto the rear handle.

We Removed the rear handle by taking off the boot trim and removing the nuts from the handle studs, unplug the switch and remove from tailgate.



Then remove the switch and number plate lights from the original handle and re-fit into the new handle.

We then used special strips of plastic with a lug on them, these locate into the screw holes on the new handle and stick out top and bottom as you can see.

Only two of the original handle holes can be used, these are the two with the locating lugs for the new handle.



You then remove the handle and it leaves the plastic strips behind but in the right location for drilling.



Here is another view of these strips in place so you can see the lugs that you use as a jig for drilling.



I didn't do the drilling, so my friend John who works in the Vauxhall bodyshop I use did it for me as he has a very steady hand at this sort of thing!



For the two outside screws, we needed to make a new hole each side on the inner skin so we could fit the screws, so we used a hole saw and made new holes just big enough to fit the socket through. We then fitted grommets to cover the holes once the screws were in place, although the whole thing is cover by the boot trim. Then the new handle could be fitted perfectly.

I also used my touch up stick to paint around the new holes and allowed to dry.

These two pictures also show the new 2011 rear light clusters, and new 3rd brake light.




This completed the rear end conversion for the 2011 Facelift. Freelander 2 HSE Lux 2013MY - Barolo Black with Ivory Leather. Alpine DVD - Privacy -Evoque 20" Dynamic Wheels and more to come.........

Then onto the front.



Simply remove the front bumper, and re-fit the new 2011 bumper, it is as simple as that, just make sure you remove the central locating lug behind the grill as it won't fit the existing slam panel.



The 2011 bumper still only has two screw holes for the splash guards, so the 3rd hole still needs to be drilled and screwed.
The finished pictures.




September 2011

Now the car looked exactly like the 2011MY facelift. I felt a little more tidying up was needed as the car was fast approaching 5 years old.

So it went in to have the stone chips taken out of the front wings, along with all the wheel arch trims replaced as they were suffering from the usual peeling away problem.

Once back, I gave the car a full detail both inside and out.











July 2012

I saw one of the lower st st bumper trims on ebay for silly money so I thought what the hell, so bought it and on it went!

 Freelander 2 HSE Lux 2013MY - Barolo Black with Ivory Leather. Alpine DVD - Privacy -Evoque 20" Dynamic Wheels and more to come.........

November 2012

4 Years of the 19’ shadow chromes and I fancied a change. So after a lot of thought I decided to go for a set of 20” wheels from the Evoque.

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December 2012

An interior upgrade was needed as the aluminium effect dash trim was looking very dated. So I decided to upgrade to the latest Piano Black dash and streering wheel trim.

I picked up the Piano black trim from my LR dealer and set about fitting it.

Just got to wait until the 7th December to collect the piano black steering wheel controls.
Anyway, here's a few pics with it all fitted.






I think it has bought the interior up to date, the silver trim that mine had was the original type from launch in 2006 and was starting to look very dated.

Then on to the steering wheel controls.

First, disconnect the battery for safety reasons.



Here is the old set up.



I now have a LR airbag removal tool, which helped alot!



Then simply insert the tool throught he slot in either side of the steering wheel until you feel the metal clips.



Then when you feel the clip, gently pull and that side of the airbag will release.



Then the other side.



Then pull the airbag away from the steering wheel. The plugs for the airbag can then be disconnected.



Then disconnect the white plug, which is the steering wheel controls.



As the FL2 doesnt have a spline on the steering wheel column, it's best to put a dab of paint on the matching sides to ensure the steering wheel goes on the same way it came off. this will ensure the wheel will be straight when driving along.



With the steering wheel removed, you will see two torx screws either side with hold in the control panels. Simply remove the screws.



The controls will then pop out of the steering wheel. The loom locates around the top of the steering wheel, so care should be taken when pulling them out. But it is unlikely you will damage the loom.



Here are the new controls along side the old ones.

The new controls have the later graphics on the switches for the cruise control settings which is another updated touch.



Then fit the new controls in the same ay the old ones were removed.



Then re-fit the steering wheel and re-build.



Job done!




I think it really brings the dash up to date, and this was easier to do than the dash trims!
All in all from start to finish, the job took about 25 minnutes.

Another few items were bought this week.

2013MY Front Fog surrounds & Bumper spat/splash guards

Fog surrounds are very easy to replace, so I’ll let the pictures do the talking.






The new bumper splash guards are quite a bit smaller than the 2011MY versions, but apparently they are more effective!






So complete, and this is how the car is now! I have some plans for the future, but I would imagine it will stay like this for a while.

But I will update the biography as time goes on.

So, after nearly 5 1/2 years ownership and the car itself being 6 years old this week, how have I found the car from a reliability point of view.

Well, it has never broken down so far so thats a good thing. All the above tells how things have progressed, but I thought I would right about what has needed to be done to the car from a service and maintenence point of view.

While it was under warranty, the following items were replaced.

Front Seat Belts due to the originals marking the B pillar trim, a common fault apparently on early cars.
The usual recall's that all Freelander 2's have had.
Both door mirrors. Not because they failed, but because the folding mechanism was juddering, and the dealer replaced them as a precaution.

I have had both keys replaced as the first failed and I took the decision to replace the second.

Since the warranty has expired, what I have I spent.

Boot latch failed to work which cost me £17.26 to replace.

Clutch was replaced in May 2011 due to the 1800rpm to 2200rpm clutch slip fault.

But that is it.

The car has just turned 56000 miles and has been a dream to own. She has never let us down, drives perfectly and I would imagine will be with us for at least another couple of years to come.

I have always had her serviced at my local Land Rover main dealer every year on the dot, and ran on shell V-Power. Has all this helped with reliability? Who knows but it can't be doing it any harm.

Considering mine was one of the first 4000 cars built, it is not a bad record. Freelander 2 HSE Lux 2013MY - Barolo Black with Ivory Leather. Alpine DVD - Privacy -Evoque 20" Dynamic Wheels and more to come.........

Mrs Mav kindly picked up the grab handles this morning. So I set about fitting them.

This is really a very easy job! It took me longer to get them out of the box, than it did to fit them!

Here's the end result!









A Couple of pics with the other Piano Black trim fitted before Christmas.





All in all, a nice easy to fit and cheap upgrade! Freelander 2 HSE Lux 2013MY - Barolo Black with Ivory Leather. Alpine DVD - Privacy -Evoque 20" Dynamic Wheels and more to come.........

So todays job was a little work on the drivers seat.

After 6 1/2 years of use, the drivers seat bolster was starting to get a bit soft. So before it was too far gone and the leather got beyond recovering, I bought a new seat base foam from LR and a new heated seat mat, just in case we could'nt get the old one off.

So here are the new parts :-



Here is the drivers seat before anything was changed. Some will say it doesn't look too bad, and to be fair it didn't look too bad, but I didn't want to wait until the leather had stretched beyond recovery.

You can also see a bit of saggy leather where your backside sits!



So Steve at Classic Car Services set to work on removing the seat base.



The good thing about the FL2, is that the base can be removed without the whole seat having to come out.



So hear is the seat base out, not looking too bad, but the bolster spong had gone quite soft.



Old and new next to each other.

Steve could remove the heated seat element from the old spong, but on the drivers bolster, it had rolled over itself and was not looking tidy, so I decided to go ahead and use the new one to ensure it was all perfect.



Steve then put it all back together, and re-fitted it to the car. The leather cover was cleaned and heated during the re-fit to remove all the sag's in the seat, and about 90% of the creases were removed from the bolster.

So very pleased. But the best bit was sitting in the seat after the work was done, you don't realise how bad the old one was until the new one is in place. It is back to being a very firm/supportive seat!

 Freelander 2 HSE Lux 2013MY - Barolo Black with Ivory Leather. Alpine DVD - Privacy -Evoque 20" Dynamic Wheels and more to come.........

Whilst the seat base was being replaced a few weeks back, the side panel of the seat was bugging me as over the years, a few marks have appeared, and I wanted to clean it up.

So another part from LR ordered and fitted!

I still can't beleive how cheap a lot of parts are for LR cars!!

New Part for the seat.



Then strip off the old one.



Seat controls removed.



Old panel removed.



Old and new.



New panel fitted.



So a nice unmarked seat panel! All for the sum of £18! Freelander 2 HSE Lux 2013MY - Barolo Black with Ivory Leather. Alpine DVD - Privacy -Evoque 20" Dynamic Wheels and more to come.........

A few new pics after an 8 hour detailing session!

I think I must have spent 8 hours over the weekend giving the Land Rover a full detail inside and out, to get the winter crap off!

She has now got just under 64000 miles on it. So she is ageing well!























I think she will keep us going for another year! Freelander 2 HSE Lux 2013MY - Barolo Black with Ivory Leather. Alpine DVD - Privacy -Evoque 20" Dynamic Wheels and more to come.........

After fitting all the piano black trim, I thought the bright silver gearshift surround looked a little out of place, so I decided to something about it.

Here are the pics :-









I think it has just finished it off nicely! Freelander 2 HSE Lux 2013MY - Barolo Black with Ivory Leather. Alpine DVD - Privacy -Evoque 20" Dynamic Wheels and more to come.........

So today was put aside for the brake replacement/upgrade.

This is the kit I bought, M-Tec cross drilled brakes with Mintex Pads.

But I decided I wanted genuine Land Rover Pads, but after a bit of research, I found that Land Rover use TRW pads. So I sourced TRW pads locally and got both sets for just £55 inc VAT.

So I have a full set of brand new Mintex pads if anyone is interested!



So off I went! Although not obvious, I have also replaced my side repeaters with new genuine clear units. My existing clear units were copies and had started to go a bit yellow.



Here is the first front brake complete. I decided to take off the calliper, clean it up and paint it silver just to tidy things up.



I always make a point of washing the inside of the wheels when ever they are taken off.



The Rear stripped. I also cleaned out the hand brake area by blowing out all the dust and top and tailing the shoes.



Partially built up, again the callipers were removed and painted before re-fitting. Of course the copper slip was used.



All done, hand brake adjusted.



Then out for a drive across country and main roads for about 15-20 miles. As I paid extra to have the silver protective coating on the discs, they recommended a good first drive to wear this off the disc face.





So what are my thoughts? Too early to say of course as they are not properly bedded in. But the quality of the discs is excellent, I think they look very good. Freelander 2 HSE Lux 2013MY - Barolo Black with Ivory Leather. Alpine DVD - Privacy -Evoque 20" Dynamic Wheels and more to come.........