I'm sure this could be a very niche topic as to the most part, all people really care about is their car getting them from A-to-B. I personally find the Freelander 2 and how it works extremely fascinating, so much so that I made a video that's over an hour long talking about what I think is happening with the Freelander 2 when it's off road.



The one thing that I find most fascinating is how the Haldex is working both on road and off. I did post up a thread a while back to see if there is a way to get Haldex data from the Freelander 2 but I'm guessing it gets jumbled up with the terrain response data: https://www.freel2.com/forum/topic40768.html

Luckily, VAG cars and in particular our Skoda Yeti doesn't seem so difficult to get this data. For those of you that don't know, the drivetrain of a Yeti is very similar to a Freelander 2 with a PTU (known as a bevel box in the Skoda world) which sends power down the car and into the Haldex.

I personally don't think the data in the following video is going to be too dissimilar from what the Freelander 2 would produce on a normal drive. This video is just Alana and myself going about our normal weekend business, I've then plucked out a few of the bits of footage from the drive, synced up the Haldex data and spoken through what I think is going on. For me I feel like it's answered some questions but also given me some more questions. I think this video answers a big misconception that I've seen which is that some people believe that the Haldex is either off or on and not in-between.



I thought this video could be interesting to a few of you that might be interested in what is going on with the Haldex while a car is being driven. If you want to see the Haldex footage from when we took the Yeti off-road, you can see it in the following video but I feel like this would be less relevant to the Freelander 2 as the terrain response I feel would have a much bigger part to play when off road.

 https://www.youtube.com/@scottandalana4x4

Thank you for the videos. I watched both to the end. I actually barely watch any 4wd videos.

The haldex engagement is interesting. I personally believe the angle of the steering has some input. We have a sharp left turn uphill intersection. Never once has the car spun a wheel.

Previous cars which were 2wd we always had to be careful. Even more so with a wet road.

In outback Australia unless it was absolutely necessary & or forget, we basically left the car in normal on road mode. Another reason is that the car used less fuel.

We were regularly doing back of the envelope calculations because it can be very long distances between petrol stations especially doing adventures off to the side.

Fuel consumption will go up a lot. We even had an extra 50 litres which made remote travelling less stressful knowing we had much more range.

On a corrugated dirt road with tyres at 24PSI we factored in 14 litres per 100 km. The car was as its maximum payload with stuff on the roof. All things which knock fuel economy around a lot. It's great to have a tailwind across the Nullarbor!

One of the reasons we got a Freelander was that it has a proper automatic transmission. So that factor alone removed a lot of cars from our shortlist.

No issues with automatic Freelander crawling very slowly up or down goat tracks which are often quite stoney & chew your tyres away.

A lot of outback dirt roads are closed when there is more than a bit of rain as the roads get destroyed too quickly with the tyres chewing the roads up. There are heavy fines if caught using the road if closed.

I like the single word terminology 'wellie' Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!

Acoustic insulation ARB TPMS 3xARB air compressors After cooler Air tank On-board OCD pressure air/water cleaning Additional 50L fuel Carpet in doors ABE 2x1kg Waeco 28L modified fridge Battery 4x26ah Solar 120w Victron MPPT 100/20 DC-DC 18amps 175amp jumper plug Awning 6x255/60R18

I really appreciate anyone taking the time to watch any part of our videos so thank you for that Lightwater . On another forum I'm on, between me and another member it has caused some interesting conversation regarding the Haldex and how it operates. If anyone wants to know more about how the Haldex operates, check out this document that's full of information... https://www.billswebspace.com/HALDEX.pdf

It might just be a Skoda/VAG thing, but it doesn't look like it does actually take a feed from the steering. Although seeing as the Freelander 2 does have a steering angle sensor fitted, it might be different. When it comes to turning out of junctions, someone once said that VAG cars wait for wheel slip/spin before reacting. Where-as Land Rovers are more proactive and shift more drive rearwards in anticipation.

I know in our Yeti that there's a junction near to where we live that has a camber change with a 90 degree turn to the right out of a junction. In the Yeti there has been a couple of occasions where the inside front wheel has produced a small amount of wheel slip rather than wheel spin. Same junction but in the Freelander 2 and there is no wheel slip. Although there is a few occasions with aggressive take offs from junctions where I have managed to get the front wheels of the Freelander 2 to slip a bit .

Parkers has the Yeti down as 1540 KG. Where-as our Freelander 2 on a set of scales comes in at 1800 KG. Maybe that extra 260 KG helps push the tyres into the road more which is maybe a reason why the Freelander 2 generates less wheel slip...

It's a great point you make Lightwater and not one I'd ever considered seeing as we live on a relatively small island in comparison and are never more than about 30 minutes from a fuel station. I had never thought about the different modes using different amounts of fuel and how critical that could be in bigger, more remote countries. Would you by any chance know of a rough figure the difference in fuel consumption in one/all of the different modes? I'm guessing sand mode could be the least efficient with the throttle being so reactive.

You have to be careful with the word "wellie" because said wrong and you're suddenly describing the male anatomy . https://www.youtube.com/@scottandalana4x4

Thanks for making a very interesting video.

I believe that the actual operation of the Haldex on the Yeti is completely different from the FL2.

The Yeti (from2014) has Gen 5 Haldex, which is a simplified, cheaper version of Gen 4 but with its own integrated control logic.

The FL2 has either Gen 3 & 4 Haldex and its operation is heavily modified by the Terrain Response System which takes inputs from lots of sensors including Yaw and Steering.
The Description is too lengthy to copy here but is in the Repair Manual starting about page 293.

Here's part
Active On-Demand Coupling Control

The active on-demand coupling control module has 2 operating strategies; pre-emptive and reactive.

The pre-emptive strategy anticipates and predicts the locking torque value required to minimize slip and maximize stability. Each Terrain Response program has a different threshold and input criteria for the pre-emptive strategy. For example, a higher locking torque would be applied on slippery surfaces.

The reactive strategy varies the amount of locking torque in response to the actual slip level and the dynamic behavior of the vehicle. Each Terrain Response program has a different threshold and input for the reactive strategy. The reactive strategy improves vehicle traction and composure by eliminating any wheel spin which has occurred after the pre-emptive strategy was applied. The locking response applied is applicable to the terrain program selected. For example, very sensitive on slippery surfaces to provide maximum traction and minimize surface damage.

The locking torque calculations use various signals from other sub-systems, for example, engine torque, accelerator pedal position, selected gear, steering angle, vehicle speed, lateral acceleration, yaw behavior.

The DSC function of the ABS system can override the active on-demand coupling control and reduce any applied locking torque during DSC action.

As a suggestion as to why a little power is always sent to the rear wheels, I have seen that this is done on (some? -example is Mitsubishi Outlander ) electric cars with two motors to reduce gear friction if they decide to idle one axle. FL2 XS SD4 Auto 2010 2012-2017 (21k - 91k miles) (MY2011)
FL2 Metropolis SD4 Auto 2014 2017- (16k - 82k+ miles) (MY2015)
Metro in its 11th Year of (Extended) LR Warranty / Full LR Service History
(Expensive, but Trouble/Worry free - hopefully?)

In western NSW coming from Mutawintji National Park to White Cliffs, about 160 km. It started raining, we had been at Mutawintji NP for 5 days, so decided to get out before the road was closed.

160 km of like driving on a bar of soap. The car often slid off the road many times into the scrub. Then you get traction again. That section of road we were using up to 25 litres 100 km.

Also did about 50 km within the NP.

We last got fuel in Broken Hill, about 140 km to Mutawintji, about 1/3 unsealed road.

White Cliffs to Wilcania 68 km sealed road where we got fuel, then cleaned the wheel arches that night as the mud sets like concrete.

We had an additional 20 litres. But it still makes you be aware of fuel consumption. We also spoke to an experienced couple with serious 4wd who got bogged out here for 24 hours on a previous trip.

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