There will be rust..Can Hippo the 21 year old Freelander pass the MOT…?



Every year the MOT is a nerve wracking test…what has failed unseen or rotted quietly, but this year I made a special effort to check Hippo the Freelander extra carefully before the test…how bad can a 21 year old, cheap Freelander be….? What do you think?

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40 thoughts on “There will be rust..Can Hippo the 21 year old Freelander pass the MOT…?”

  1. That's a great win for you Matt I did send you some information and a link about the Rover V8 Transmission I don't know if you saw it I added it in a comment when you were a little perturbed with the car as always best regards Andy Allen.

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  2. Great video. Stuff in the back of the car catches all kinds of moisture, dust and sand because if the vacuum which exists during driving. Cleaning, decreasing and re-lubrication can solve these issues.

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  3. A bit of rusting on a 21 year old car? That strikes me as fairly good going. Back in the 70s cars seemed to disintegrate far more quickly that modern day ones. My first car, a 7 year old Vauxhall Viva HB had huge holes in her wheel arches which I spent a lot of time 'repairing' with the aid of chicken wire and filler. Contrast to my Scottish-based 2004 Skoda Fabia that had virtually no body rust (but admittedly a fair bit on underbody things like the suspension and rear axle) when we parted company in 2021.

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  4. Owners of Classic land Rovers and classic Minis were so used to grabbing the metal door pockets to shut the door that chances were high they would break your plastic door pocket if you gave them a lift in your car. Happened to me twice.. once with a Land Rover owner and once with a Mini owner…

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  5. They say kids never get tired of the same story being read to them over and over again when they are being put to bed.

    Well I can confirm you rust adventures have come to hit the same warmly familiar spot for me as well. Something comforting about how in a changing world, some things always stay the same, I guess a psychologist would say. Expect rust, get rust. All is right with the world.

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  6. Great work as always Matt! 😄 Congrats on a MOT pass on Hippo! ✅ Door lock issue might have been it being dry of Oil as had that once on a boot lock on a Fiesta.
    Hippo needs a good pressure wash underneath and a wire brush and a good coating of Bilthamber UX in the summer.

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  7. When I worked in parts, at a very large and famous classic & modern Land Rover parts specialist, the Freelander was the butt of many a joke.
    It was never really considered a 'real' Land Rover by anyone from customers, to garage techs, to parts advisors.
    I guess the runt of the litter always has a certain charm to some.

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  8. At least the door latching issue was found and fixed before the MOT. You were lucky that you had the bungies with you as well. It's good that it's sorted along with the greater than expected metal moth fixes. It's nice to get tome good news with Hippo passing the MOT. Thanks for sharing.

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  9. My T30 xtrail tailgate latch did the opposite thing where it wouldn't open. Turned out to be the outer handle sticking from dried grease on the handle pivots and on the tailgate latch mechanism.
    Hammerite is another example of a product where the marketing hype doesn't live up to the reality. I stopped using it years ago because it was expensive and it really isn't that good. Much better products out there.

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  10. I had a similar problem with the boot mechanism on my Honda HRV. The locking was intermittent, but the opening was by a cable, which had stretched. I solved it by fabricating a bracket to screw on, to which I attached the suspension spring from an old radio controlled car! The rust on Hippo looked almost as bad as what I discovered on my old MX-5. I saved myself the welding and sold it to someone else!

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  11. I hate door latches . They’re confusing and it’s never obvious why they don’t work. Back in the day one rear door on my dads new Montego wouldn’t latch closed. We poked about at it but to no avail. In the end we drove to the Austin Rover dealer with me holding the door closed , (luckily he’d specified rear seat belts as an extra). They poked around at it then it worked and never caused a problem again…..

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