2013 FL2 SD4 - Noise accelerating

Hello all

We have a FL2 SD4 2013 with just over 49,000 miles on it, FSH (maindealer) until we bought last spring (2019) and I've done the oil changes myself on it since.

I've searched this forum and google for a problem experienced out of nowhere this morning. The car has been perfect since we bought it and a great vehicle to own.

Went to drive this morning, I always let it run 1-2 mins before driving off from start, always drive gently for 7-10 mins until warmed up. Then its only driven normally.

Accelerating gently this morning, within 500 yds of the house, 1500-2000 rpm and above, a scraping type noise coming from the front, seemingly in the engine bay behind the centre console, though hard to pinpoint. Me in the driver seat said left, passenger seat occupant said coming from right.

Stopped immediately, had a good look for any debris or anything obvious, nothing. Turned around and drove it straight home, 500-600 yds.

- No noise with slight acceleration below 1500rpm.
- bit of pressure on accelerator noise increases.
- sounds "metallic" like scraping but could be "whooshing".
- No noise unexpected noise or concern when back on the drive and just revving the engine to 2500-3000 rpm.
- No noise when attempting a quick short reverse to build rpm.
- Only noise when moving forward.

Seen the posts which would point possibly to a split hose, about to go and give them as much of a good look as I can. But it didnt sound like air gushing, though its hard to say for sure.

Could it be / likely be transmission, prop or diff? It wasnt a heavy metallic clunking sound, more so a constant scrape.

Break discs and guards all look fine. Nothing obvious, can is in daily use apart from the last 1.5 weeks where it has sat due to being off work.


Any advice / pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Vin

Just driven it 200 yds up road, very slowly and gently, sound is only when moving forward. It sounds like someone trying to badly play a trumpet, but metallic sounding for sure. Like something is rubbing against metal as another part rotates.
I've made some recordings which seem to amplify the sound, which is helpful, it sounds terrible in the recording, not great in the car, but the recording has really captured it.



The noise stops when lifting off the accelerator when the vehicle is in forward motion. It also happens under braking. There was zero hint of any noise or issues in anyway before this morning. Nothing building up, no humming, whirring nothing in advance of this.

When reversing, the noise doesn't happen. It seems to be a moving part, not air. Also, when driving very slowly and foot lightly on the brake, that seemed (and i cant be sure) to make the sound until the vehicle stops and the sound stops, though on 2 occasions, continued momentarily, for maybe 0.5 - 1 second, its almost like its a spinning moving part rubbing.

Ive put it up on ramps, taken the pan off and had a good a look as possible at hoses, none appear to have a split. The one on the turbo, the elbow unit looked a little bulged at the joints, but nothing of concern. The intercooler downpipe had a bit of oil dripping from the lowest point, where the plastic pipe joins the flexible pipe.

The driveshafts, I noticed the left hand side shaft (at the point most central where it comes out the transmission I think) did not have a rubber boot on it and had some mild'ish surface rust.

is it the exhaust heat shield, or even the metal undertray that has come loose.
may be wrong but just a guess.

Ouch I can't help other than to say that it it was a gearbox or summat that was that bad, then it would have failed completely you would have thought. So more likely to be something rubbing where it shouldn't.

Would be interesting to see if it did it on a lift in a garage. Probably the best place to diagnose where the noise is coming from to.

However, if you're going to scrap it, I'd love those seats

ian mitchell said:

is it the exhaust heat shield, or even the metal undertray that has come loose.
may be wrong but just a guess.

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Hi Ian, any ideas are helpful. From what I could see of the heatshield, it looked to be in the right place, though it could have a loose bolt or screw as didnt check for that. Ive spent probably more time than I should scouring the internet for what it might be and there is literally all sorts. I think the noise sounds more external to any component that internal, but thats a guess. As soon as it started, i thought that sounds like something caught underneath and rubbing, not an internal whirring or humming type noise. But so far I cannot identify. I'm just hoping its not IRD/VCU (VCU wouldn't be front end noise from what I can tell from what ive read) or anything transmission or diff related, reading some of what I have, I dont know. Will have to find an indy close by I think.

GrumpyGel said:

Ouch I can't help other than to say that it it was a gearbox or summat that was that bad, then it would have failed completely you would have thought. So more likely to be something rubbing where it shouldn't.

Would be interesting to see if it did it on a lift in a garage. Probably the best place to diagnose where the noise is coming from to.

However, if you're going to scrap it, I'd love those seats

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That's what my thoughts were, I'd have had indications leading up to a failure like that, and it well it drives fine for the short attempted journey yesterday in it. Will have another look around it shortly and see if theres anything I missed yesterday, failing that it will need to go to a garage.

It should be 100k+ miles off needing to be broken or scrapped, its in very good condition! Not sure it would be economical to send the seats to NZ anyway

You don't have an IRD or VCU - they are Freelander 1 tech.

You have (what must be) similar to an IRD up front and a Haldex bolted to the rear diff. The Haldex is electro mechanical wizardry replacing a simple viscous coupling that needs servicing every 20k miles, a service which costs about the same as a VCU on an F1 that should last 5 times that

Not very forum-friendly of you not wanting to ship those lovely seats over here for my motor.

GrumpyGel said:

You have (what must be) similar to an IRD up front

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It's called the PTU or Power Take Off, which is actually pretty similar to the IRD in design, although it doesn't contain the front diff, as the IRD does.

Stupidly the PTU doesn't have a drain plug, so oil needs to be sucked out. Also the fill plug isn't the level plug. The correct oil level is filled to the fill plug, then 120mm removed again. Bit silly really, it is a Ford design.

Well, its sorted, kind of! So as I tried to explain the sound was metallic and sounded like rubbing. I was taking a look again this morning and did a couple of short runs up and down the road. The sound started the same then rapidly changed/progressed but not in a manner that I was really worried about. It started to sound more and more like a heat shield rattle/vibration or exhaust rattle and vibration, perhaps internal baffles or something, but also was only apparent when accelerating and braking as previously described. If you let off when accelerating it stopped or would reduce significantly.

Then... after a couple of gentle runs up and down the road, on/off the drive and kerb a couple of louder rattles and a "crunching" noise twice, it sounded like something dropped into the exhaust and moved along it, the noise seemed to move from the engine compartment behind the centre console, back to about mid car, then nothing, other than the most minor sounding vibration which may well have been there before, but almost inaudible over the engine noise. No evidence of anything dropping off the car either and where it was, outside the house Id expect to see it.

Took it for a 10 minute drive, was as it was prior to this issue. But something caused it, so will get it into the local indy asap and have them see if he can tell what it was, if external to the exhaust. Very weird one, I took another couple of vids this morning and it sounds bad before disappearing. Re-checked the brake shields, intact so don't think it was them with anything trapped or rubbing. Before it "resolved" itself, it sounded increasingly like something fouling a spinning part like a drive shaft, but they looked clear upon inspection yesterday. Odd one.

For informational purposes, here's two recordings from this morning, the bottom one at about 30 seconds is as bad as it sounded.

Vinny73 said:

Before it "resolved" itself, it sounded increasingly like something fouling a spinning part like a drive shaft, but they looked clear upon inspection yesterday. Odd one.

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Could it have been the parking brake shoes dragging. When was the parking brake assembly last stripped, cleaned and readjusted?

Nodge68 said:

Could it have been the parking brake shoes dragging. When was the parking brake assembly last stripped, cleaned and readjusted?

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Not since we've had it in 18mths. Where does that assembly sit (if its not part of the braking system)? I checked the parking brake works and it does. Is the parking brake assembly anything to do with Park mode on the autos? At low speed and low revs, there was no audible noise and the car didnt feel like it had any locked on brakes.

Did you find the problem? I have an SD4 and it has a similar noise!

I had a weird noise that only occurred under acceleration and above 2k rpm. Turned out to be the turbo discharge down pipe. There’s a mounting bracket welded on the downpipe bolted to the back of the engine (sod to get at). Very hard to see in- situ, but the bracket had broken allowing the broken ends to rub, creating the noise. Took the downpipe to a local engineering workshop and they welded it up for me FOC.