Freelander 2 (LR2) Rear Diff Rumble / Judder Just Started

Hi Guys,

I was driving along the other day, came to a junction, set off and when I did I had a strange rumble and slight judder from the rear end when cornering. It felt a bit like when you leave a diff lock engaged and turn on tarmac.

After a bit of searching I found a few things to try and I've just had a poke around. I started by pulling the Haldex fuse and that made no difference so I jacked the back end up and rotated each wheel to make sure the diff wasn't seized. Each wheel turned alright but obviously the path of least resistance was the prop shaft so I got under the car and clamped some mole grips on the prop shaft to stop it spinning. I repeated the process and the wheels turned in opposite directions so that was a relief.

What I noticed though was that when I got close to the diff and rotated the wheels I could hear a strange noise which seemed to be coming from the diff when I rotated the NSR wheel. The sound didn't correspond to the rotation of the wheel, ie it occoured at different points of the wheel's rotation each time. I recorded the sound (I was rotating the wheel at about 30-40RPM) and you can hear it here, there's a pretty loud one at about 23 seconds in, sounds a bit like a diving board wobbling or something.

Has anyone encountered this before? Does it sound like diff trouble or could it be bearing noise travelling up the half shaft and sounding like diff noise? I found it strange that it just started rather than getting progressively louder over time.

Cheers,
CaptainB

The diff is a weak point on these vehicles, with issues often starting at 60 to 80 k miles. There are no fluid changes specified before 10 years or 150k, which is way too long.

Nodge68 said:

The diff is a weak point on these vehicles, with issues often starting at 60 to 80 k miles. There are no fluid changes specified before 10 years or 150k, which is way too long.

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Hi @Nodge68,
Hope you're keeping well. I have read a lot about diff failures on the FL2 and early Evoques. I had the 10 year service about 3 years back and they supposedly changed the diff oil and serviced the Haldex. My car has almost 110k miles so I guess it's about due for a diff! My brother-in-law has an early Evoque with about 125k miles on it and he's had a whining diff for about a year now but it came on progressively. What threw me with mine was that it was fine ... and then it wasn't - as if something had broken rather than worn.

Mine does that. It stops for a while, then when you think its cleared, it comes back. Maybe I just get used to it and don't notice it for a while.

I recon its the Haldex rather than diff.

There's something about a cylinder that get scored and catches what ever slides in it - or summat like that.

Its a costly fix.

Should say, that it may be the Haldex with the problem, but it will presumably do a good job of taking the diff out.

Tha judder at pull-away made me first think of the Haldex ‘scrabbling’ issue that can develop in some. This can be fixed by have the Haldex ecm sent away and reprogrammed - sounds worse than it is… 3 small bolts, takes a couple of days, and costs about £100. Mine had the scrabbling and I’ve had it done, which completely resolved the issue.

BUT, you say you pulled the Haldex fuse and the issue is still there, which does suggest it’s not the scrabbling.

I’d empty and refill the diff oil first.
Then if still an issue, I’d service the Haldex next, and fluid change, being sure to use the correct fluids!

You say the noise seemed to be from one side only - assume you checked the driveshaft/cv for obvious issues when in the air?

Freddie17 said:

Tha judder at pull-away made me first think of the Haldex ‘scrabbling’ issue that can develop in some. This can be fixed by have the Haldex ecm sent away and reprogrammed - sounds worse than it is… 3 small bolts, takes a couple of days, and costs about £100. Mine had the scrabbling and I’ve had it done, which completely resolved the issue.

BUT, you say you pulled the Haldex fuse and the issue is still there, which does suggest it’s not the scrabbling.

I’d empty and refill the diff oil first.
Then if still an issue, I’d service the Haldex next, and fluid change, being sure to use the correct fluids!

You say the noise seemed to be from one side only - assume you checked the driveshaft/cv for obvious issues when in the air?

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Yeah, my first thought was Haldex as I had been going up and down a steep slippy mud/grass/gravel driveway that day so the haldex had probably been kicking in and I'd been using HDC on the way down (not that that any of that should be a challenge for the FL2, it's kind of what it's designed to do!) so I'd wondered if the Haldex had spat it's dummy having been asked to do some work after almost 15 years of sitting mostly idle. When I pulled the fuse and it still had the same symptoms I had all but dismissed it.

I'll give the diff oil a try even though it's only 3 years or so and about 15k miles since it was done. I'm all about starting with the cheapest or easiest fixes first and work my way up from there.

I couldn't see anything obvious on the driveshaft or CV when I was under there. A damaged CV might make sense I suppose. When I get time I might try pulling out the driveshaft and rotating the diff to see if I can isolate the problem to diff, CV, shaft or bearing.

Is it worth getting a stethoscope? Would that help to isolate the problem without pulling the car apart? Or is it a case that you need to have experience and know what you're listening for?

That "springboard" noise is still bothering me though. It's a noise I haven't heard before from any part of any car - not that I'm a mechanic of course, my experience is limited. It doesn't sound like the grinding or graunching that I'd normally associate with bearings or gears but again, I'm not an expert!