Freelander 2 (LR2) 2007 Rear Diff Issue...Nasty

Well, the wife had an interesting time in my FL2 the other day....

Driving to her parents with the kids (100 miles - 98% of it on the motorway/fast A roads) and she reports there was a violent jolt - like someone had momentarily jammed the brakes on and then a release followed by grinding and a smell of old oil...

She limps the final half a mile to the in-laws with a sensation of dragging and the sound of grinding....

I initially suspect maybe it has thrown a brake pad, or the handbrake shoes have disintegrated in the drum...

I head down to the in-laws in the FL1 with a bunch of tools and jacks etc...pull off the rear wheels, take apart the calipers and remove the discs...nothing amiss and all looks fine...damn

Go to rotate the hubs, and they grind a little....if you held the pax side and rotate the drivers, it locks up, then releases, grinds and locks up again....similar story for the pax side when you hold the drivers side...

Bugger, i have to get this thing the 100 miles back home.

I remove the driveshafts and stupidly don't put the out CV cups in place to hold the bearings in firmly...still i mmanage to get the 100 miles back home again, albeit the rear end is wandering about.

So up on the hydraulic Quick Jacks, wheels off, exhaust off, propshaft off, drop the diff and here is what I find....



I shudder to think of what would have happened at motorway speeds if the diff had locked up rather than just given it a hefty whack and taken a chunk out of it....with the kids in the car too....I wince and i pray to the Gods for their mercy in this event!

@Nodge68 had the rear diff lock up, see his thread and rebuild story.

At the time the comments were that LR should take this seriously and do a recall before someone gets killed or injured.

Overtight diff pinion bearing was the conclusion along with lack of lubrication due to the design. Have a read!!

Glad no one hurt.

Saint.V8 said:

I shudder to think of what would have happened at motorway speeds if the diff had locked up rather than just given it a hefty whack and taken a chunk out of it....with the kids in the car too....I wince and i pray to the Gods for their mercy in this event

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I had a rear diff lock momentarily, but I thought it was the parking brake, as it freed off after it was parked a while.
I was able to drive it onto my neighbours beaver tail.

I replaced all the brakes, as they were in a dreadful state, with the shoe material hanging off the backplate.

Hoping I'd found the issue, I pulled away from my house and noticed the rear diff was more noisy than it was.
I got up to 45, then while rounding the next corner, there was a huge bang from the back, and the wheels locked as before, although this time I was sliding sideways across the road, until it stopped.

I had no choice but to get out the road, so drove forward in 1st, with the rear wheels dragging behind me.

The RAC loaded it up, and while it was being dragged up, it was obvious the rear diff pinion had locked, as one rear wheel rotated forward, but the other side rotated backwards.

I got another diff, as on stripping it down, the gears were blue from overheating, as there was no oil in it, except for a small amount in the bottom of the diff case.

Thanks @Nodge68 and @andyfreelandy ....

Just been reading about your diff failure and subsequent rebuild - you will have noticed my post on Freel2 aswell....as I posted there also.

Sounds like we have suffered similar failure and through your research found other similar failures too, chiefly down to lack of lubrication and excessive pre-load leading to overheating and premature failure....

We (the misses i mean) and you have been lucky that it didn't lead to a nasty accident, but the design is flawed, clearly.

Query, just spit-balling here - would packing the outer bearing with a high temp grease be permissible or help keep it lubed in some fashion, or would that be considered not possible due to potential cross contamination?

Wow! Glad everyone is safe (of course) through this tragic failure.
Can you please confirm for the worried masses though that in fact the doors did in fact manage to stay on?
This is very important to know, especially for prospective Diff-testers and door aficionados.

Saint.V8 said:

Sounds like we have suffered similar failure and through your research found other similar failures too, chiefly down to lack of lubrication and excessive pre-load leading to overheating and premature failure..

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I believe my issue was down to poor maintenance.
My seized diff had absolutely no oil in it, which leaves me to believe that it wasn't filled when it was fitted. I also noticed that the Haldex was full with gear oil, which isn't correct.
I believe that my rear diff was a replacement, and whomever filled it, didn't and filled the Haldex instead.

Unfortunately I don't know the history of my FL2, but I do know most of the work done on it was substandard.

So far I've had to partially rebuild the engine, as there was a nut in No2 cylinder.

I then had to replace the rear diff, which I rebuilt before installation.
Now I've got a Haldex judder issue, likely caused by the oil that was put in it.

Mine does have a new PTU, which actually has oil in it, but that's the only part that seems to have been done correctly.

Saint.V8 said:

We (the misses i mean) and you have been lucky that it didn't lead to a nasty accident, but the design is flawed, clearly

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I've read of another seizing on a motorway at speed, but he also managed to avoid hitting anything too.

Saint.V8 said:

Query, just spit-balling here - would packing the outer bearing with a high temp grease be permissible or help keep it lubed in some fashion, or would that be considered not possible due to potential cross contamination?

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The grease would simply dissolve into the oil.

Before rebuilding my replacement diff, I noticed that I couldn't turn the pinion by hand. I put a torque wrench on it and recorded 40 Nm to start it turning, which means the pre-load was way over the factory pre-load of 1.2 Nm odd it should have been.

When I set the pre-load, I did it by feel, which I know will be way better than the factory setting.

The design isn't great, as it's too shallow for there to be a proper oil supply to the tail bearing, but having the pinion set at a sensible pre-load, and making sure there's quality oil in it, should help prevent it from seizing in future.

DanClarke said:

Can you please confirm for the worried masses though that in fact the doors did in fact manage to stay on?

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Yes the doors stayed on, although the sunroof screens did retract as the body was shake was violent when the wheels stopped turning.

Yet another lucky escape, i thought Freelander, Evoque & Discovery Transmission Repair | Bell Engineering had sorted something out about this happening ?

Jeepers, that unit is in a right 2 and 8 !

Can't believe how dangerous these F2 diffs are.

andyfreelandy said:

@Nodge68 had the rear diff lock up, see his thread and rebuild story.

At the time the comments were that LR should take this seriously and do a recall before someone gets killed or injured.

Overtight diff pinion bearing was the conclusion along with lack of lubrication due to the design. Have a read!!

Glad no one hurt.

Click to expand...

Ok so do Landrover fully know about this situation ? and they have not done a recall i wonder if they are waiting until someone gets hurt.

It was comments from the group, probably mostly me!!

I think it is worth reporting it formally to LR.
I think this group should head it up!!