Land Rover Freelander Cylinder Head Gasket Failure – A tale from Botswana

In September 2003, my wife bought a second hand 2001 Land Rover Freelander through Lesedi Motors, the Land Rover agents in Gaborone. The vehicle has a 1.8 litre,  ‘K’ series, 4 cylinder petrol engine.

On Sunday 11 September, 2005, with 74,000 km on the clock, it blew the cylinder head gasket, and sustained much other damage to the engine, at Lose which is about 17 km north of Mahalapye. I was driving the vehicle and had, as one of my passengers, a chartered mechanical engineer.

I learned to drive in the bush, so I never start a vehicle before I have checked oil and water levels, tyres and other fluids. It can be a matter of life and death, so the habit is deeply ingrained. That day, the water was clear but I added about 250 ml of water to the header tank to bring it up to the “Max’ level. The car started fine and we drove the 200 km north to Mahalapye without incident or problem. We were running at 120 km/h. We stopped in Mahalapye for about 45 minutes to do a little sightseeing and to fill up with petrol. There was no hint of trouble with the car at Mahalapye as I changed a camera lens in the car and my passengers sat in the car while I refuelled. There was no sign of boiling or overheating.

As we set off from Mahalapye, I ran my eye over the instruments – all seemed well. We were cruising at 120 km/h and about 16km out of Mahalapye, I noticed that the vehicle seemed a bit sluggish so I checked the instruments. As I did so, I saw the oil pressure warning light come on so I immediately pulled over to the side of the road and checked the other instruments. The temperature gauge was reading very high. I stopped and released the bonnet catch.

When I opened the bonnet, the cap of the header tank blew off the threads and most of the water blew out after it. The lower part of the engine was smoking and when I pulled the dipstick, it was smoking and there was a deposit of carbonised oil on it. There were globules of emulsified oil in the remaining water in the header tank. It took the engine about 45 minutes to cool down, during which time I hitched a ride into Mahalapye and hired a mechanic to come out and look at the vehicle and tow it back into town.

When I got back to the vehicle, it had cooled down sufficiently to be possible to re-start it but it sounded very unhealthy and we stopped it at once. We towed the vehicle back into Mahalapye and left it in a safe place and returned to Gaborone by train. On Monday morning we informed the agents of what had happened and that we were going to go back to Mahalapye to tow it in ourselves. The agents, Lesedi Motors, told us we would sustain severe damage to the transmission if we did that and that they should bring it in on a low bed, for which they charged us P1,700 (= US$350). Subsequent reading of the owners manual suggests the vehicle can be towed if the transmission is put in neutral.

After the vehicle had been brought back to Gaborone, the engine was partly stripped and we were informed that the steel sleeves had moved in the alloy cylinder block and that, as a result, both the cylinder block and the cylinder head are beyond repair and we require a new engine, at a cost of around P46,000 (=US$9,500). Land Rover South Africa have offered to pay 55% of the cost of the new engine and other parts (about P24,000) while we have to meet all labour and recovery costs as well as the balance of 45% on the engine and parts.

We consider this offer mean, for three reasons. Firstly, a well designed and manufactured modern engine which has been properly maintained and driven sensibly, which this one has, should last for at least 300,000 km before it requires major repairs. I will revert to this point later. Secondly, and in consequence of this first point, the Freelander is a potential death trap in Botswana conditions and is not fit for its purported purpose. Thirdly, we had a precursor of this incident in July 2005 and the vehicle was sent to Lesedi Motors to have the problem rectified.

Early in July 2005, my wife (who is the regular driver) noticed that a mixture of oil and water was leaking onto the floor of the garage where the vehicle stand overnight. I was away, so she asked her brother (a mechanic) to look at it. He saw a film of oil on the surface of the water and on the inside of the header tank, so she took it in to Lesedi Motors. They diagnosed a faulty water pump. Before Lesedi Motors could obtain and fit a replacement water pump, she had to travel to Tsabong. She was advised to drive carefully and stop and check water regularly. They drove to Jwaneng, 170 km, without incident and checked water and refuelled. About 10 km from Jwaneng they stopped at the roadside and the vehicle started to boil. After it cooled down, they drove on to Tsabong (370 km) without further incident and came back to Gaborone a few days later, also without incident.

The trip to Mahalapye was the first long journey with the vehicle since the water pump was replaced in late July.

Conclusions

Reading the numerous postings on the internet on Freelander cylinder head gasket failures as well as Land Rover’s Freelander Technical Bulletins 0026 of 22 August 2001 and 0036 of 18 June 2004, it seems to me that there was some obstruction in the cooling system following a stop on a long journey. It is possible that either the thermostat jammed closed or that a hose pinched closed, preventing the circulation of coolant and causing very rapid overheating. In both incidents with our vehicle, the engine overheated in less than ten minutes following an intermediate stop. I presume the greater time needed to warm the engine to operating temperature when starting from cold allowed the system to unblock itself before severe overheating occurred.

I have always preferred Toyota’s before this. Our previous forays into other makes having been less than happy. I have two Toyota Land Cruisers as I write.

One is a 1974 pick-up with over 500,000 kilometres of very hard usage behind it. The odometer has worn out but it is very reliable and runs like a bird. It did 327,000 km before it needed any attention to the engine at all. When we stripped it, there was no red metal showing on the mains or big ends and the mechanic who worked on the engine estimated they still had 80,000 km to go when we replaced them.

My other Toyota Land Cruiser is a 1989 station wagon which has done 435,000 km. I bought it in 1997 with 335,000 km on the clock, having been used as a site vehicle by a civil engineering contractor. I reconditioned the engine after I bought it.

I have had two other Toyotas which have exceeded 300,000 km without needing an engine overhaul, a Corolla and another Land Cruiser, so I think one should expect engines to run for 300,000 kilometres before they give trouble. The ‘K’ series engine falls down badly in this respect.

In Botswana conditions, where you can drive for hundreds of kilometres through waterless and largely uninhabited country, the Freelander is a potential death trap and is not fit for its purported purpose as a “go anywhere” all terrain vehicle. As a yuppie plaything in town or on the tarmac roads linking the main towns it might be acceptable but it should not be taken into remote areas where road conditions often require 4WD. An owner could pay with his life in a Freelander – so the moral is: “Buy a Toyota”. We will be buying another one. 

Regards Richard White