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athingofbeauty

New Member
Hi All, I could do with a bit of advice regarding my 55 plate TD4 Freelander please. Recently it has developed a fault. After being parked up, if we try and reverse it off the drive and it wont go backwards until you go forwards a bit. Something releases with a shudder as though the hand brake is stuck on. After removing the rear hubs and backing off the auto adjusters there is no difference. I guess they went straight back but now I'm unsure if the issue is from the rear or the front.

At the same time as the above issue, a rumbling noise at low speed has developed from under the car. I thought this was a wheel bearing so changed the nsf but no difference. When I got the car at 70k about 15 months ago I had a recon vcu fitted to make sure I didn't experience any other transmission issues. I wanted piece of mind - there was no apparent issue with the original vcu but I'm a belt and braces type!
I wonder if the 2 issues are linked and are indeed one issue. The noise at low speed disappears as the road noise takes over. Does this sound like a diff bearing issue or similar and is it a job a novice could do with a couple of ramps or is it a mega bucks job for a main dealer??
Any help would be appreciated as its getting louder and so is the noise from the wife. Its her motor. :confused: Cheers in anticipation.
 
athingofbeauty said:
Hi All, I could do with a bit of advice regarding my 55 plate TD4 Freelander please. Recently it has developed a fault. After being parked up, if we try and reverse it off the drive and it wont go backwards until you go forwards a bit. Something releases with a shudder as though the hand brake is stuck on. After removing the rear hubs and backing off the auto adjusters there is no difference. I guess they went straight back but now I'm unsure if the issue is from the rear or the front.

At the same time as the above issue, a rumbling noise at low speed has developed from under the car. I thought this was a wheel bearing so changed the nsf but no difference. When I got the car at 70k about 15 months ago I had a recon vcu fitted to make sure I didn't experience any other transmission issues. I wanted piece of mind - there was no apparent issue with the original vcu but I'm a belt and braces type!
I wonder if the 2 issues are linked and are indeed one issue. The noise at low speed disappears as the road noise takes over. Does this sound like a diff bearing issue or similar and is it a job a novice could do with a couple of ramps or is it a mega bucks job for a main dealer??
Any help would be appreciated as its getting louder and so is the noise from the wife. Its her motor. :confused: Cheers in anticipation.
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I would almost think this was a delaminated rear brake shoe if you hadn't removed the hubs. The same thing happened to me. It would go forward, but not backwards.

VCU/prop shaft support bearings after being stood for a while can suddenly start rumbling completely out of the blue. Again, that happened to me after not using the car for a month. GKN bearings seem to have stopped that.
 
Thanks for your comments. A mechanic I know says it may be front diff bearings? £700 + vat. Is that possible? I don't want to have that done and the noise stays!
 
athingofbeauty said:
Thanks for your comments. A mechanic I know says it may be front diff bearings? £700 + vat. Is that possible? I don't want to have that done and the noise stays!
Click to expand...

I don't personally think so. I would go for some decent VCU bearings initially.Some times recon VCU's come with crappy Britpart etc bearings that don't last 5 mins.

Diff bearings make on hell of a row. A deep metallic sound you just wouldn't want to drive the car any further once heard (been there)

Have you physically removed the cover off the rear brake drums?.
 
With the front diff (IRD) it is usually the bearings for the rear pinion that go first. If you remove the prop shafts this removes the stress from the pinion - so the noise would stop. Its only about a 30 minute job to remove the props (as you probably know).

Recon IRDs are about £650 (last time I checked). If you know someone who can push bearings, rebuild kits are about £130 inc bearings, seals and a new oil cooler - this assumes the actual gears are still OK (which as it hasn't gone bang in a big way, they probably are).

You appear to know about the pitfalls of the Freelander transmission - but I'll just put a nudge in to make sure you're running the same tyres all round and have you checked their pressures recently - pressures out of balance will give wind up that usually manifests itself in wind up but will stress things so possibly create noises in places.

As for not being able to reverse before going forward, if it is only after the hand break is applied, I'd double check your strip down of the rear brakes. I can't think of anything other than brakes that would cause this (I'm not Ninga Mechanic though!)
 
+1 on that Grumpy.

And it does sound like brakes to me. The being parked for a while bit is indicative. But again, No Ninja Mechanic here either. :)
 
When the bearings went in my IRD, they went over a short period of time due to us being on a road trip so were putting on lots of Ks in a short time - and had a tyre with low pressure. The bearings going didn't make any noise at all - I had a rattle that I thought was from the exhaust for a couple of miles (actually probably less than a mile) then BIG bang when the bearings were so far gone that the gears slipped and started shredding teeth.

I'd agree with Longbolt, its probably something other than your front or rear diffs.

If you remove the props, give the pinions on the diffs a wiggle - there may be some rotational play, but there shouldn't be lateral play. If there is, that's a sign there's problems. You can also change the oils, if they come out with a greyish colour, thats your bearings being ground to a pulp.
 
Thanks for all your comments so far folks. I think I need to determine whether or not I have one problem or two. I'll start leaving the handbrake off overnight on our level drive and see it the grab dissappears. Regarding the rumble from under, it's not a metallic sound. It could be the bearings which came with the vcu I suppose. I think I might have a go at taking the front to rear prop shafts off and go from there. Cheers.
 
Whoever designed the transmission on the Freelander should be hung, drawn and quartered. If tyre pressures can do so much damage Land Rover should have put pressure sensors on all 4 corners. It's a joke in this day and age. Out with the spanners again...
 
They don't need pressure sensors - they have wheel speed sensors for the ABS and that's a better indication anyway - because it will also detect mismatched tyres.

Other manufacturers (maybe even the FL2?) have a warning light for this very thing.

If the FL1 was ODB2 compliant you could write a pretty simple app (eg for a phone) to monitor it - but it ain't.
 
Ok on the wheel sensors. Could my problem be anything to do with the hill decend function? We used it recently.
 
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HDC does have a tendency to overheat the brakes if its not just a short use - so might have damaged the shoes.
 
I have had this on both of our Freelanders and it was the brakes sticking on both needed new handbrake, cables but I do not think it was those, it was a build up of brake dust on the shoes jet wash into the drum solved the issue for a while and then I decided to do the rear brakes as the hand break was not holding properly, and it was then I decided to change the cables as well and we have not had the problem since .hope this helps
 
I didn't get the chance to whip the rear prop shaft off over the weekend as the car was always in use. The noise doesn't seem to have got any worse. I crawled under after a 20min drive and the vcu was slightly warm but no where near hot. I think that is fine. there's no play in the bearings either side of the vcu. No play at either end of the front to back drive shafts either. The more I think about this, the more I think its actually brake related, although saying that, neither corner is silly hot to touch after a drive. I'm an engineer and can usually 'feel' a bearing grinding itself to pulp through my right foot if you know what I mean! Interesting comments from you Teddy and grumpy - thanks. I'm hoping it is the brakes so I may start with the rear drums and perhaps new shoes, although they do look fine.... Cheers and will report back once I get the car off the wife for long enough to have a proper look. Hopefully this weekend.
 
athingofbeauty said:
I didn't get the chance to whip the rear prop shaft off over the weekend as the car was always in use. The noise doesn't seem to have got any worse. I crawled under after a 20min drive and the vcu was slightly warm but no where near hot. I think that is fine. there's no play in the bearings either side of the vcu. No play at either end of the front to back drive shafts either. The more I think about this, the more I think its actually brake related, although saying that, neither corner is silly hot to touch after a drive. I'm an engineer and can usually 'feel' a bearing grinding itself to pulp through my right foot if you know what I mean! Interesting comments from you Teddy and grumpy - thanks. I'm hoping it is the brakes so I may start with the rear drums and perhaps new shoes, although they do look fine.... Cheers and will report back once I get the car off the wife for long enough to have a proper look. Hopefully this weekend.
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Had a FL1 for years and 60k miles. No matter what you do, it seems that the rear brakes will stick occasionally, especially after wet weather. I've lubricated the handbrake linkage and cables, copper-greased the handbrake mech and attacked the shoes with sandpaper and the drums with a wire wheel. It still sticks now and then. It's a FL thing.

My rear shoes are slightly delaminated at the moment, but you can only tell by sticking a small screwdriver underneath the lining and prying. New shoes may help you, but I suspect they'll go the same way soon enough. If only they made decent riveted shoes for it...

As for the rumble, my money's on the front VCU bearing - I've done three changes. Get under the car and thump the front prop where it joins the VCU - you might hear a click as you do so, which indicates play in the bearing. When I'm not sure I put the car up on four axle stands, start the engine and engage 4th or 5th. You can then use a screwdriver or similar as a stethoscope. Take care.
 
The only time my rear brakes have siezed up has been after I've launched/retrieved the boat. Brought the boat back to camp site and parked up overnight with hand brake on and in the morning the brakes have siezed up.

I don't put the hand brake on overnight after being out on the boat now, give the brakes tie to dry out properly, and all's fine.
 
GrumpyGel said:
The only time my rear brakes have siezed up has been after I've launched/retrieved the boat. Brought the boat back to camp site and parked up overnight with hand brake on and in the morning the brakes have siezed up.

I don't put the hand brake on overnight after being out on the boat now, give the brakes tie to dry out properly, and all's fine.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a healthy Freelander-coping mechanism!
 
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