Freelander - bumps and grind in the nite

[garrycol]

Hi,

Driving along at 110kph in my L series Turbo Diesel Freelander and a slight squeal starts from the front of the car. Within 500 m loud crunching and vibration from the front develops - like a flat tyre.

On stopping and finding there was no flat tyre and moving the car slowly there is loud thumping and collapsed bearing sounds from somewhere in the drive mechanism. After towing the car home on a trailer, I have run the vehicle in gear up to a speedo speed of 100kph with all four wheels off the ground. With no load there is no thumping or bearing noise. I have discounted the propeller shaft and there is no slack in the front wheel brearings. This leaves the inner CV joints or collapsed bearings in the Intermediate Reduction Box or even the gearbox. I have no experience with landrover CVs but heaps with Subaru CVs and all the bashing and crashing is a lot like a busted inner CV on a Subaru.

Any ideas, or any known faults in the gearbox or transfer case before I start pulling things apart. I know this is going to get expensive and as I am good at pulling things apart this will save costs when I have to pay to have someone to possibly rebuild the gearbox or transfer case.

Interestingly whatever the problem, there was virtually no warning as I had just driven over 600km the previous day and on the trip I had already covered 100km of my journey.

[Spikes]

Hi,
From your test result (no load on the suspension I presume), it sounds like a CV joint. Hang on a while S.Striley will probably also reply. Otherwise post a query on the UK L/R Freelander homepage
Best of luck
Spikes

[garrycol]

Thanks Spikes - I am hopeful but it will still be an expensive exercise - in Aust outers can be sourced aftemarket or reconditioned but it looks like inner CVs (the likely culprit) can only be sourced from Landrover and of course are very, very expensive. $800 aud or about 350 pounds

Hopefully will have the actual problem ie CVs or transmission worked out this weekend - I am dreading what the magnetic drain plugs in the transmission will show.

Gazzz

[garrycol]

I have worked out wht has happened to my car.

The viscous coupling failed so as I was driving along at 110kph on the freeway, windup developed in the axles and transmission. This led to an overstressed Intermediate Reduction Drive (IRD) unit which then failed in a big way- I am making an assumption here as I am informed the IRD is weaker than the gearbox.

There was no warning before failure

My maintenance schedule will now have included - check viscous coupling when doing oil change each 5000km

I am told neither unit is rebuildable - will start a new thread on this aspect.

Thanks for everyones help.

Gazzz