small whine at about 50mph..

I've had a slight whine on our TD4 for ages now (prob for 10k) at around 50, which for some reason was made noticeable after fitting Pirelli Scorpion STRs.
If you drive it through it through 3rd 4th and 5th at 60 you wont hear it, its more noticeable if driven gently, mainly in 5th, a tiny bit in 4th and not in 3rd.
VCU has been changed, oil in IRD and trans changed about 5k ago and nothing out of the ordinary was found.
When we first got it at 6 years ago at around 35000 it made a very faint whine when shifting into 5th which immediately disappeared once in 5th and never got any worse and never was a problem.

It has the gear selector issue that vibrates at about 1500rpm which I keep meaning to sort out, do you guys think its just transmission sounds being amplified by worn gear selector parts, or am I being optimistic about something more sinister.....
Oh and was there a modified gear selector mechanism that could be fitted which helps this vibration etc?? I remember reading somewhere that someone had fitted a revised selector mechanism and it transformed the car??

Cheers..

my td4 (manual) has a vibe right at 1200 .. just prior to the turbo smoothing things out
to me it's just part of how the engine is .. accousticaly/mechanicly ..
i.e. that's where the peak naturaly aspirated fuel detonation will be ..
befor the turbo starts to kick in ..
in accoustic terms .. probably 'peak resonance' ..

if i touch the gearshift lever whilst driving .. at any rpm ..
yeah i can feel it vibrating ( doesn't cause any noise though .. )
but to me .. resting hand on gearshift whilst driving is a 'no no'
'cause it can cause premature wear of certain bits in the gearbox ..

have no idea what that's like in a brand-new LR vehicle ..
or what the hippo1 was like fresh from the factory

'whine'.. .. mine does .. has always done .. ( but it aint loud )
i suspect it's the rear differential .. ( and/or maybe the vcu bearings .. )
mainly in 5th gear when there's little load on the drive-train ..
like .. coasting downhill .. or cruising at 70mph on a slight M-way downgrade ..
( i.e. not applying much go-pedal .. just enough to maintain speed .. )
and sometimes .. when depressing the clutch pedal between 4th 'n 5th gear ..
can't say what it were like before changing the vcu bearings .. ( and rear diff. mounts )
as i had that done the first week i had it ..

( 37k on clock when i bought it feb'12 .. now has 51k )

.. can't remember if it ( the whine ) changed between the old 'syncrones'
and the the new pirelli str's ..

to me .. it's just how the vehicle is .. given the drivetrain construction ..
i'd be amazed if it were perfectly quiet ..
every vehicle i've driven with a rear differential has had some 'gear whine'
( though .. have never owned a brand new vehicle ..
( nor .. ever driven a Rolls.R. .. or similar ..

Regarding the gearstick vibration mine is pretty much the same, as soon as the engine smooths out its fine, I believe there is a technical bulletin saying it can be cured by cutting the weight in half, the one thats found on the selector shaft as it enters the gearbox..

Glad how you describe yours as I don't think there is anything majorly wrong, when I changed the VCU the movement in the output flange was about how Bell Engineering described it should be, about a 1/16th of an inch either way I think from memory before it started moving the internals, rear diff also felt ok.

I did own a Toyota Celica GT-Four that was 4wd, and whined at around 50, had a viscous coupling also but inside the gearbox. I did drive a Bentley Turbo R a while back ( a 1992 one that is..) and no noise what so ever, just a lovely V8 warble as it moved off..

Hopefully nothing wrong anyway...

I'm just over 50 and other half says I never stop whining - but that's what an LR does to you - on and makes mechanics of ordinary peps. Sorry, could not resist, bored post hols!

DD3 said:

I'm just over 50 and other half says I never stop whining - but that's what an LR does to you - on and makes mechanics of ordinary peps. Sorry, could not resist, bored post hols!

Click to expand...

No worries, I'm now 40 and whine occasionally, maybe it'll get worse I dont know...
Has anyone heard of a revised gear linkage, possibly fitted to later FL1s, or was it a dream where the Landy rolled like a Rolls....

drturbo said:

No worries, I'm now 40 and whine occasionally, maybe it'll get worse I dont know...
Has anyone heard of a revised gear linkage, possibly fitted to later FL1s, or was it a dream where the Landy rolled like a Rolls....

Click to expand...

Sorry cant say I've seen this. Cant be difficult to refurb gear linkage - though never tried it. My motor is petrol - we have a whole set of other issues to you doozal types but gear shift not one of them, not yet I hear you say

Mine does this too. It stops when I leave the other half at home though.

I wonder if the two things are connected? )

Just to add to this thread, I removed the prop today to eliminate some bearing noise I had ( but thats a different story), and the said whine near enough completely disappeared...
As it only whines in 4wd it must be emminating from the IRD, something inside that whines when under load....

drturbo said:

I've had a slight whine on our TD4 for ages now (prob for 10k) at around 50, which for some reason was made noticeable after fitting Pirelli Scorpion STRs.
If you drive it through it through 3rd 4th and 5th at 60 you wont hear it, its more noticeable if driven gently, mainly in 5th, a tiny bit in 4th and not in 3rd.
VCU has been changed, oil in IRD and trans changed about 5k ago and nothing out of the ordinary was found.
When we first got it at 6 years ago at around 35000 it made a very faint whine when shifting into 5th which immediately disappeared once in 5th and never got any worse and never was a problem.

It has the gear selector issue that vibrates at about 1500rpm which I keep meaning to sort out, do you guys think its just transmission sounds being amplified by worn gear selector parts, or am I being optimistic about something more sinister.....
Oh and was there a modified gear selector mechanism that could be fitted which helps this vibration etc?? I remember reading somewhere that someone had fitted a revised selector mechanism and it transformed the car??

Cheers..

Click to expand...

Same as mine - low whine at around 50mph - Pirelli Scorpions fitted too...running gear checked last year all was ok.

update on post no.2

my transmission 'whine' has vanished ( should i be worried ? )

noticed it recently after i'd checked tyre pressures ..
normaly do that every two weeks on average ..

( tyres be pirelli scorp. str's )

this time the ambient temps were much different between 'checks'
previously temps were a tad above freezing .. maybe 3C ..
next time temps were about 12C ..

on the rears i'd have them at 30.5 psi ..
with the fronts at 31.5 psi ..
the idea being that .. as it's an 'unloaded' commercial ..
be a fair bit more weight on the front .. compared to the rears ..
seemed to work out fine as far as tread wear be concerned ..

anyhow .. re-checking them when the ambient temps had risen ..
( done on a cloudy day .. vehicle on a flat even surface )
the rears read 33 psi .. .. so i left them as that ..
then matched that pressure to the fronts ..

after that .. the 'whine' be no more ..

no idea if there's a connection with the different running tyre-pressures
the vcu temp and rear diff temp be the same as before .. after a 30 mile 'mixed road' drive
( vcu runs 23c - 26c .. rear diff at about 27c .. )
vcu still be operating ok .. tested on a slippy muddy slope ..

partly worried about central tread wear with the slightly higher pressure ..
'ride' is a tad harder .. though hardly noticable ..
also .. i take it easy on cornering and outright use of the go-pedal these days ..
and take it very easy on the go-pedal on 'near to' .. or .. 'full lock' steering
( transmission wind-up in mind ) .. .. ain't no unusual braking 'effect' on full lock .. fwd or rvrs ..

*******************************************************************************************

update 12th May 2013 :

anyhow .. re-checking them when the ambient temps had risen ..
( done on a cloudy day .. vehicle on a flat even surface )
the rears read 33 psi .. .. so i left them as that ..
then matched that pressure to the fronts ..

after that .. the 'whine' be no more ..

Click to expand...

well it weren't the tyre pressure ..
took the tyres back to 31 psi all around ..
rides better .. easier on the suspension parts ..
'whine' hasn't returned