Hi. Just travelled to Cornwall from Lancashire with no issues at all but light knocking noise started soon after arriving yesterday and now squeaking noise when turning steering wheel to the right. Still driving absolutely fine and doesn’t feel any different. Tried to get it looked at today but no availability at any garages where we are and have to drive to north Norfolk in 3 days time and we are concerned that we will either cause serious damage or worse. Hubby ‘ bounced’ car and knocking noise appears to be coming from right hand side. He has tightened wheel nuts.
New light knocking noise and now right steering squeak in 2004 FL HSE Diesel.
- Thread starter Miss NLD
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J_D
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Is it knocking when bouncing the right hand side? I found it easier to open the bonnet and if you can stand on something, bounce the car from the corner.
Could be anti roll bar link, they seem quite common to fail and easy to change.
Or could be any of the suspension bushes, which would need either a long bar to see if they move or have someone bounce the car whilst looking under for any movement and listening.
Could be anti roll bar link, they seem quite common to fail and easy to change.
Or could be any of the suspension bushes, which would need either a long bar to see if they move or have someone bounce the car whilst looking under for any movement and listening.
Jayridium
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I'm wondering if this is related to the four wheel drive system rather than anything suspension related? What's got me thinking along those lines is that the squeeking on right turn would be consistent with your transmission's Viscous Coupling is getting tight. get your hubby, or a mechanic to do a One Wheel Up test, detailsof which are in the forum. Also get him to check and make sure that the best tyres, with the most tread, are on the BACK of the vehicle. I've also got to ask, how doe the vehicle feel when reversing around a corner, is it like a normal hatchback car or does it feel like it's fighting a sticky handbrake?
These vehicles work with a front wheel drive arrangement like most hatchbacks, power is then transferred from the gearbox to a propshaft, which terminates in the middle of the vehicle, roughly under the cubby box, there it joins into a viscous coupling, which uses really super thick fluid to transfer power from it's input from the gearbox to the back axle via another propshaft. To make these vehicles permanently four wheel drive, Land Rover DESIGNED the front and back axles to have different ratios, meaning the front half of the propshaft and the back half always want to spin at different speeds for the same road speed, causing drag in the viscous coupling, keeping the back engaged. Over time this viscous fluid fails, certain driving styles and vehicle configurations accelerate its demise, one being mist matched tyres with the better ones being on the front, the other being long distance work, and it's my concern that your trip from cornwal to lancashire might have been too much for your poor OLD VCU that was quite happy pootling around the doors, but not really fit for longer journeys.
The reason long distance driving accelerates the demise of the Viscous Coupling is that when the vehicle is doing local work, the stress & strain from the two halves of the propshafts heats the VCU fluid up a little bit, then it stops after a few miles travelling, and has a chance to cool down and unwind any torque from the transmissions mismatched front and back axles. On longer journeys however, it is subjected to these stresses and heat for longer and may cook the fluid, even further diminishing it's ability to disipate the different rotational speeds of the front and back propshafts. Obviously this wasn't a problem when new, but over the years the characteristics of the viscous fluid change, and it gets thicker, making it more likely that the two axles are going to have a fight with themselves because of their different ratios.
Wheel nuts should be tightened to the correct torque, not over tightened.
Does it have 4 identical tyres all round?
The Freelander is highly fussy about tyres, and odd tyres cause AWD system failure.
Andyfreelandy is in Devon, and offers a Freelander 1 repair facility.
Jayridium
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Good shout! Not only is @andyfreelandy in Devon, he's one of our resident freelander experts:
ALW Motor Vehicle Engineering
https://www.alwmotorvehicleengineering.com
Near Meshaw
South Molton
Devon
England
Tel 01884 860094 - Please ask for Andrew
(details taken from the contact page on his website)
andyfreelandy
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