My Wife drives the 2007 Freelander 2, 2.2 Diesel. The other day she drove it home parked it in the driveway and the next morning it would not start. All the usual low battery weirdness started. Hazard lights, windscreen wipers, flashing displays. As Freelander 2 owners', I guess we are all used to that.
Now this has happened a few times in the last 6 years so I believed that I would be either a) disconnecting the negative terminal for 30 seconds and then be back on my way or, b) if her highness had left the lights, on recharging a battery. But not the case!
The battery was a little low but the car also wouldn't crank on jumpers leads to a good battery and recharging the battery to full didn't work. With jumpers there was a clicking noise but not much else. I anticipated the starter was on its way out, (it had recently been cleaned up so it got the blame, and was replaced. Still no dice.
Bench tested the old starter as an afterthought and it was also working. Anyone want a second hand starter (-;
Took out the new starter and, of course, it was working, put it in the car...again and used the fuse box relay inputs to bridge the connection to the solenoid. The solenoid clicks strongly but the engine does not turn over. With a jumper it can just manage to turn over very hesitantly.
It seems odd to me that the engine would seize after a drive without any telltale signs. It is very hard to turn the engine with my ratchet spanner by hand but I don't really know what is usual.
I have inspected the direct positive power cable to the starter and it looks to be in good condition. Checking the voltage between negative terminal on battery and lead at the starter gives the same voltage as the battery, so I am pretty much stumped.

Could something on the utility belt have seized and be making it hard for the engine to turn over? I'll have check this (difficult as it is parked on our steep driveway,
I am really at a loss. Any suggestions welcome and appreciated. I have loved this car but I'm getting more afraid it's engine is dead.

stupid me

Last edited by bomeo on 14th May 2021 9:15 pm. Edited 2 times in total

Can't imagine it's seized , put your yourself at ease , just turn a little by hand with a socket on the crankshaft pulley bolt.
Check good volts , you can feel the solenoid pull in if you get someone else to hit the button. Then follow the volts. The solenoid connector may have corroded up inside and reducing the current to the solenoid. Chasing the volts will tell you. Just to make things harder, you can get the feel on the solenoid pulling in , but not sufficiently to engage the main feed. Which is the classic failure , but as you've swapped the starter that should be eliminated ....

If you can turn the engine from the crank pulley bolt ( it will be hard as it is a compression engine) and it does not stop it will not be seized.
Connect a temporary wire from the the starter solenoid connection then touch it to the battery positive. See if that turns the engine over. If it does its your solenoid feed that is at fault. 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 everyone for your replies. I'm in Brisbane, Australia and apart from the dealer there are only 3 workshops in town that seem to want to work on these. The one near me can't even look at it for 2 weeks.
I can turn the engine although its really tough. So I was glad to hear you say, Gasman, that compression engines are hard to turn.
I've already sanded and cleaned the terminals that are connected to the band new starter and also the main ground/chassis connection and battery terminals.
I closed the circuit controlled by the starter motor relay, and the solenoid clicks strongly but the engine only turns a bit, so I'm pretty sure that the lead to the solenoid is fine. Gasman I believe that doing this should achieve the same thing as attaching a temporary lead to the solenoid and touching it to the positive battery terminal but I'll try your suggestion tomorrow. If the engine only turns only a bit while doing this then for completeness I have to check the permanent positive starter motor lead to the battery even though it looks fine. So I will make up and attach a new direct lead. As a note to anyone with the same problem reading this in the future, there is a high amp fuse on the factory starter motor lead that can blow and cause a no crank issue. It looks like a square plastic block up on the lead up near the battery terminal. This has been removed from my lead so is not the cause, but it should also be checked if you are having this issue.

Bad ground conection, bad cable from batery minus to engine block. Bad battery. Bad starter. Can you measure the voltage on the battery while trieng to crank ? Test the battery and ground conection under load, while cranking. Check the voltage plus cable to the strater while cranking.

OK i feel a bit stupid now. Absolutely everything tested fine, the battery, leads, all connections and I have a new starter motor.
But although the battery tests 12.6v on the multimeter and is only 1 year old, I don't have a load tester to completely rule it out as the cause.
So today, for giggles, I removed the battery from the car and connected it to the old starter motor on the bench. It would't even turn it over when it wasn't trying to crank the fly wheel!
So back to the battery shop ...and it is kaput.
I was trying to turn the car over with a second battery jumpered in so I had stupidly ruled out the battery as a cause when the car wouldn't turn over. But now I am thinking that because the battery in the car was contributing nothing under load, more than likely the second battery just didn't have sufficient CCA.
Obviously I get a new battery under warranty. When it comes in fingers crossed, the problem will be fixed.
But I wonder if my alternator has kill the battery? I'll test that next.

Good to know you have found the problem.  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. The battery was the problem, even though it was new and battery and tested 12.6v. Load tester has been ordered and lesson learned. Battery replaced under warranty.

Taking on a few projects with respect to this car so I will try to post in a new thread about them.

1. The thermostat housing may be cracked. These is a leak around there even though the hoses look good.
2. When the battery was out I noticed that the bolts holding the compartment in place have almost corroded off.

3. The rear shocks are leaking and will be replaced .
4. The throttle body needs replacing.

5. Thinking of taking on the timing belt change We just clicked over 200000km.

6. There is a little bit of diesel pooling on top of the engine so I maybe the leakoff pipes need to be replaced.

“4. The throttle body needs replacing.”

What makes you think that?

“5. Thinking of taking on the timing belt change We just clicked over 200000km.”

Should have been changed 4 years ago! (Now Sold). 2008 Freelander 2 (Nazca Sand) SE TD4 Auto. Statutory write off & on WOVR for hail damage but still road legal.
171037Km as of 09/05/22
Superchips Bluefin Flash
Nanocom Evo II (also sold)

1. last time a real mechanic saw the car he said the throttle body was throwing up a code.
2. yes timing belt is overdue. Just tossing up whether I do it or get it done at the shop this week. Feel pressured now!

“ 1. last time a real mechanic saw the car he said the throttle body was throwing up a code.
2. yes timing belt is overdue. Just tossing up whether I do it or get it done at the shop this week. Feel pressured now!”

1. Would need more info but wouldn’t be too concerned unless it’s very noisy on shut down.

2. Changed mine at 10 years & lower k’s than yours & it still looked like new! (Now Sold). 2008 Freelander 2 (Nazca Sand) SE TD4 Auto. Statutory write off & on WOVR for hail damage but still road legal.
171037Km as of 09/05/22
Superchips Bluefin Flash
Nanocom Evo II (also sold)

1. There is no throttle body noise or anything that would concern me. At the time the engine was rough on cold starts and I had asked the mechanic what I should do, I was expecting him to say I had a bad glow plug. Unfortunately he just hooked it up to his machine and wanted to change the throttle body because a code was thrown up. I put two bottles of injector cleaner in the tank and the problem went away. I guess this was going to be some preventative maintenance but it just went to the bottom of the list thanks.

2. The timing belt was worrying me. I don't know that I'd get any warning before it went, but on the other hand I don't think they fail very often in the real world. I tried to book it in to be done today at the main land rover workshop here in Brisbane (a city of 2mil) and got this reply word for word:

"We have never done a timing belt on a Freelander but are now getting requests for them to be done so have ordered specialised tools from UK which should be here in about 6 weeks (we hope).
I am sorry we cannot help you at this time. Will cancel you for tomorrow.
If we can help you with anything else please call us."

So I may take this on myself. I'm not sure what the specialist tools are. A flywheel lock maybe?

No special tools they’ve just sent for some decent beer because it looks like a bloody big job mate