I learnt something new today.

If you want to change the oil & filter on these things you need a 36mm metric socket.

Not an easy thing to rustle up on a Saturday afternoon...

Actually there is a special tool (of course!) for these Volvo engines;



But a regular 36mm socket also works, if you can find one...

 

Next job is retrofitting the factory bluetooth phone system. And it's now installed and working perfectly with my iPhone 6

I just priced up the parts needed new from a UK supplier, LR002775 install kit & LR027985 phone module, an eye-watering $1333 AUD (or £625 + VAT = £750) so god only knows what local dealers here in Australia would charged, plus install costs....

Between buying the install kit NOS from Canada at a reasonable price, & picking up a 2nd hand module off eBay, this cost about a 3rd of the retail, not counting whatever install costs the dealers would ask.

And if I had to do it again, the install kit could be put together for peanuts, turns out that the connector for the phone module is the same one as Jag X-Type, S-Type, X350 XJ and XF, which I have a small collection of. The rest of the wiring has also been reverse engineered now. The fiber optic loop can be extended by splicing a blanking loop in, which are $18 off Alibaba... you'd still need to buy the microphone and steering wheel controls, but they turn up on ebay at a reasonable price now & then.

So the install kit:



Phone module power cable (same connector as the Jags, splices into the power connector of the amp, could be hard wired:



Fiber optic:



The loom for connecting the microphone was actually pre-wired in this vehicle, wasn't needed.

Phone module:



Few little tricks & traps to deal with though. Fitting the module in the boot with the wiring from the kit was straight forward. And as it turns out my car already had the microphone cable pre-wired to the roof console. Only tricky part is this is not a Plug-n-Play setup like the older Jags, the phone module needs activating via the CCF, took just as long to get the CCF right as to do the physical install....

No pics of fitting the module in the boot, it's pretty straight forward anyhow.

Steering wheel controls need some "modification" to the plastic trim.





Cut the slot in the steering wheel cover, using the template that comes in the installation manual. I took my time with this and went through three templates, to get it just right. Used a Dremel.




Looks like it was meant to be there...






Getting the roof console out was not so easy. It was damn tight. But lo & behold, the wiring for the microphone is already there....so I didn't need that loom from the kit.



This metal frame is actually attached to the roof lining. It came out with the console and was badly bent in the process. Had to straighten it out and re-fit it before putting the console back in.

And then trying to get the thing working...

In the CCF there are two options for bluetooth, you need to activate both. And there is also a setting to turn the microphone on/off. Took a while to figure it out, but got there in the end.





In the process of trying to work out why the module wouldn't activate, I reflashed the entire Audio system. The SDD said there were updates available for all the modules, so why not.

After getting the CCF right everything was working fine. Had to delete the pairing of the previous owners phone, and then paired mine...




And it's working.





It automatically uploads the phone book and call history from the phone, which is nice, and you get your own ringtone through the system as well.
Not worth $1500+ but for ~$450 I reckon it's not too bad...

 

I put the Evoque's on today, terrible photo's but it's too hot to be outside taking pictures.











Hankook 255/50R20's, 104 load rating

The online tyre size calculators said these would be about 1" in diameter bigger than the stock 235/60R18's and yeah that's about right, That's means it's only sitting a 1/2" higher than before but the height is somehow quite noticeable from behind the wheel.

The offset of the 20's being 10mm less than the 18's compensates for the wider rubber, same 1-fingers-width clearance to the struts on the inside.

And they buldge off the rim by about an inch so I hope that'll keep the gutter rash at bay.

Looks alright I reckon.

And just for a laugh one of the 20" BBS wheels from the Jag, they fit too

 

I had previously retrofitted the factory Bluetooth phone system (phone module, microphone and steering wheel controls) but to be honest it wasn't all that great. The caller at the other end had trouble hearing me. The module I put in was one of the earliest ones from 2007 (it was dirt cheap) but I picked up one of the very last ones from 2011 at the right price so I put it in.



I also got the VIN of the donor car, so I was able to check the CCF settings used in that car, and I realised that there was a 2nd phone field that needed activating, in addition to the one I selected, and the microphone.

So swapped out the modules



And then edited the CCF so the phone options were the same as the donor car.



And then...



The updated module shows you the carrier, and gives you an indication of the signal strength.

The call quality is far superior now. But I can't say for sure how much of that is because of the updated module, since I had the CCF set incorrectly...

Every day is a learning day...

Actually what kicked this off was I helped out a friend to upgrade the Meridian system in his 2015 Freelander from the High-Line to the Premium Surround system.





While looking into the CCF settings in more detail, I twigged where I had gone wrong on the Bluetooth settings. We also activated the TPMS in his car, and a few other tweaks...

 

Well this happened to me. Radiator fans not working, A/C gone warm, car running hot when not moving.

After reading a number of posts on some other forums, predominanty in the USA and Australia where the 3.2 is more common, it seems that the fan motors themselves actually wear out. Well the brushes at least.

So I bought the "hot climate" twin fan assembly as a replacement, according to JLR hot climate is the Middle East only, I guess for the LR boffins Australia and South Africa is "nice" rather than "hot" LOL. And as it turns out the twin fan is quite a bit cheaper than the single one. Work that out...

Single fan assembly p/n LR026078, GBP £357
Twin fan assembly p/n LR011905, GBP £289

(these are UK list prices btw, you will probably pay different, as I did)

You used to be able to buy the fan control relay module for the single fan assembly as a spare, but not anymore. I guess Land Rover got sick of people buying modules when the fan motor crapped out, and then complaining that it still wasn't fixed.

The twin fan assembly comes with a new module anyhow.

While doing the fan I was planning on replacing the thermostat and the accessory drive belt (it's due in 20k), but i'm a bit time poor this week and the wife wants her car back on the road, so i'll leave that all for the next service.

So instead of pulling the intake manifold as per the workshop manual, i decided to swap out the fans using the bumper off method instead (had been recommended down here in Oz)



Headlights and bumper off, ducting removed.



New twin fan vs. old single



New fan assembly in. Honestly this was a struggle. To get the old fan out
you have to remove the control relay module, and move the bottom of the radiator forwards and backwards as you pull the fan out. The locking tabs on the fan also get caught up in various hoses. With a bit of patience and struggle, I got the old one out. The new one did seem to go in a bit easier.



And all back together

The single fan is a 500W unit according to the workshop manual, with the twin fans being 750W. The twins certainly shift a lot more air.
I reckon finding a replacement fan motor would be easy enough, maybe someone down the track could benefit from a rebuilt unit.

All back together now, wife has her car back again, running cool.

 

So this happened this morning....


Wife called me 5 minutes after she left the house "car just made a loud whizzing / whirring noise" no warnings on the dash and after she pulled over the sound had disappeared. No idea at the time what had happened.

She got another 15 minutes down the road, called again. Dashboard had lit up light a Christmas Tree, every possible warning under the sun flashing in the instrument cluster; Gearbox Fault, Traction Not Available, HDC Not Available, etc... she had pulled over somewhere, shut it down and it would not start again.

I figured the Haldex had just crapped itself, so I set off to swap cars with her, and deal with it. Off she went in the XJR, I hopped in the LR2 and wow, the battery is completely dead. I have Alex' updated instrument cluster so I was looking at the voltage on the trip computer. 11.6V, then with the lights on 10.5V, hit the starter and it fell to 6V-something before the dash blanked out.

Get it towed home, hook up my 40A power supply and bam! Starts up immediately, no warning messages, no funny noises, just running perfectly. So I leave the battery charging for a bit, come back and start it again, watching the voltage in the instrument cluster it's dropping pretty quickly as the car's running. Not charging and running everything off the battery.

So I have a closer look and the alternator pulley is not spinning. But I can just see the shaft that the pulley mounts to, and it's spinning away. So the pulley on the gearbox for the accessory drive is loose...


Funny that there's no warning on the dash about the charge...

Anyhow, I recognise the problem, but it's a ******* to fix... having just swapped out the alternator only months ago I remember it too well...

So straight in, rip it all off...


Funny how it's much faster/easier the second time...

Alternator, once the intake manifold is gone.


And there's the pulley, the bolt is totally loose not even finger tight.

Not a trace of any threadlocker on the bolt.


And because there is no keyway on the pulley, it relies on the bolt being tight. Awesome engineering Volvo!

So I need to put it back on. And make sure it never comes off again...

Lots of Loctite all over the bolt and in the socket of the pulley. But there is a problem, I can't torque the bolt because I end up turning over the engine I need a strap wrench or something. Quick look through the toolbox and I find an oil filter wrench. PERFECT!!!

[img]
This thing is never coming off now, well not without an oxy torch...

So that was that. But now that I had half the engine apart, I suppose I should change the accessory drive belt which was kind of due now-ish anyhow.


This turned out to be an absolute ******* of a job, took me several hours which is kind of appaling after I had everything apart and the alternator pulley sorted in less than an hour. But it's done now...

I also changed the spark plugs, and put in a new thermostat. For me thermostats have a very limited life. I expect them all to fail at 8-10 years or from 160'000kms onwards. Not quite at that point yet but while it's all in bits and in the hope that I never ever have to do this again, it's all done now.

Once it was all back together, I had a revelation.

Since we'd owned this car it always made a bit of a whining sound from the engine, I just figured it was the ridiculous gear drive set up on the Volvo engine. But after fixing the alternator pulley, and replacing the aux drive belt and tensioner pulley, the sound was gone! It just sounded like a nice, quiet, normal engine. I was really shocked!

So listen up. If you have an i6 / Si6 Freelander, or a Volvo with the same engine, and you can here a whining sound from the engine, it's probably this crappy alternator pulley slipping. Get in and fix it, despite the awfulness of the job, you'll be happy with the newly quiet engine, and knowing that you won't find yourself without an alternator. AND I must say, you probably won't have to replace your alternator like I did some months back.

Yes in hindsight I think that the slipping pulley probably contributed to the alternator dying. If it's not spinning fast enough then the voltage regulator is probably going to be working overtime to keep the power up. If it gets overworked...

I never touched this bolt when I swapped out the alternator prior. Why would I?

Lesson learned....

 

Latest project is to retrofit DAB+ digital radio.

Have actually done two cars in two days, my mate over in Perth with his 2015 Freelander, and our 2008 model. They are slightly different in the wiring arrangements and the location of the DAB+ module, and the radio system is totally different, but surprising enough the exact same modules are used.

What's cool about what i've done with mine is that JLR only made DAB+ digital radio available from 2013, and i've put it in a 2008 model, which didn't even have DAB available when the car was built. The only digital option they had at the beginning of 2008 was the Sirius system for North America. So i'm pretty sure i'm the first to have done this, ever...

Here's the parts for the 2008 model;



DAB+ module taken out of a 2014 Jag XF, DAB antenna amplifier, mounting bracket for the module, two MOST fiber optic cables, the special double coaxial cable with Fakra connectors, and the power cable to the module. All spare parts from Land Rover, which is nice. The 2015 model needed custom-made coaxial cables. What's missing from this pic is the sharkfin roof antenna, but for Australia where the DAB+ is only broadcast on Band-III, the window antenna is all that's needed, the sharkfin is only for Band-L.



The coax cable, this was all of £2



DAB amplifier mounted in the roof an attached to the window antenna.



The DAB+ module mounted on the bracket and wired up. Unfortunately one of the MOST fiber optic cables was about 3 metres too long. I ordered all the parts blind out of the catalog based on description only. Better too long than too short though...



Had to tap into the rear fuse box for power to the module. I had ordered a power connector that looked like a plug & play thing, but buggered if I could find anywhere to plug it in. In any case it's tapped into the fuse which is for the DAB module according to the owners handbook, so it's semi-legit. I did solder that joint btw before anyone jumps on me...

So, change the field in the CCF to "with Digital Audio Broadcasting" and wow! it's working!





The sound quality is excellent, ****s all over regular FM. I won't say CD quality but it's pretty close to it. The Surround Sound really makes a different now, and the audio spectrum is really full, you can feel the subwoofer shaking the whole car, never got that with FM radio before, only CD.

Mine being an older model it doesn't have the whizzy touchscreen of the 2015 model though. His looks bloody awesome on the screen...