Awfull vibration..

Hi All.

Got an awful 'through the car' pulsing/vibration in our TD4 Auto. Isn't really noticeable below 60 at any load but above 60 its hugely noticeable and gets worse the faster you go until *really high speed* when it starts to fade again, although it doesn't vanish totally. If when its doing it, you come off the throttle it vanishes.

Land Rover dealer has said both front drive-shafts are massively worn with a lot of play. Not being overly trusting of 'main stealer's' I was hoping for some confirmation from the more mechanically minded on here as to if this sounds like a feasible explanation?


Cheers,

RobBentley said:

Hi All.

Got an awful 'through the car' pulsing/vibration in our TD4 Auto. Isn't really noticeable below 60 at any load but above 60 its hugely noticeable and gets worse the faster you go until *really high speed* when it starts to fade again, although it doesn't vanish totally. If when its doing it, you come off the throttle it vanishes.

Land Rover dealer has said both front drive-shafts are massively worn with a lot of play. Not being overly trusting of 'main stealer's' I was hoping for some confirmation from the more mechanically minded on here as to if this sounds like a feasible explanation?


Cheers,

Click to expand...

Well i would think that any wear on the driveshafts would become apparent over a period of time and would probably be evident under load in turns initially.

Can you feel any play in any of the joints or where the shafts enter the gearbox/ird?

I would remove the propshaft and roadtest just in case it's related to prop and rear drive. Funny how it stops when you lift the throttle, might be gearbox related

Hi.

We've only just bought the car, so it may well have got worse over time on the last owner.

The Land-Rover techie took me under the car and showed me the play in the front shafts. He went over the car and said its all he could find.

I had gearbox judder on my last Freelander (A TD4 sport auto) and it was a different sensation. It vibrated under load irrelevant to speed. It was more to do with load/torque, hence it got really bad at 2k/rpm pulling up a hill. If you roared up a hill quickly using momentum as opposed to torque to get up - the problem wasn't apparent. That was clearly gearbox.

This simply vibrates depending how quick your going providing there is load (on the shafts I assume). Given how much play he was able to demonstrate I can sort of see it being correct.

Anyway - place I bought it from is now paying Land-Rover to replace both front drive-shafts for me, so I am not as paranoid - time shall tell if its a correct diag! It's going in on Thursday.

May as well let them throw some new parts on it anyway as you say .
What mileage has it done?
If costs were down to you i would advise swopping tyres around as well as they can have weird effects on Freelanders.

It's a '54 plate that has only done 34k! I'm amazed they've so much play, but it has done some obvious light/mid off-roading from the mud on the fans etc

Was tempted with the tyres thing - but they're all matched Michelin 4x4 Synchrone's although they look like they've been on it for the full 34k (hard shiney looking rubber) they have indeed got a fair amount of tread left on them. Must be hard as rock compound wise.

It'll certainly be interesting to find out whats wrong given the few miles it's done.

Synchrones do last very well (I have some) and of a quality that shouldn't give any trouble with lumps and bulges etc.

Chaser said:

Synchrones do last very well (I have some) and of a quality that shouldn't give any trouble with lumps and bulges etc.

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Yeah, there is no lumps/bulges - they just looked weathered/old.

Really hoping they replace these drive-shafts on Thursday and it just "works". I can't get past the fact there is indeed large amounts of play in them - they surely have to give a symptom of some kind! Hopefully this is it...

I'd say its your driveshafts. Had a similar problem.

BTW, what kind of speeds are you talking of when you say "really high speed" and are you talking MPH here?

Hi.

Done on my private test track of course...

50MPH it starts to feel like (if you didn't know better) a wheel balancer gone. By 65 the vibration is horrific, by 80 you think your gonna break something - but if you keep your foot down by 90 is starts to fade - but its still very much there. I guess around 70-80 it's just at that frequency when they're going to wobble around the worst!


Regards,

It seems that Synchrones were put on most FL's LOL

However, check the sidewalls for age related cracks, mine had them when I changed tyres last month.

Hope yr problem gets sorted too

Hi.

Yup - they are cracked and I intend to get them replaced.

Cheers - hopefully it'll be resolved Thursday. Keeping my fingers crossed

sounds like offside drive shaft. Be aware that if that CV joint has been worn for a while it could have damaged/prematurely worn the IRD output bearing. Check for oil leaks from this point aswell. Also if you have warranty on the car makesure this is all noted down as a future early failure of the IRD bearing should be attributed to this. Another source of the vibration could be the coupling between the prop and the ird, this is the same as a CV joint and can collapse in the same way. A stiff/malfunctioning VCU or incorrectly matched front and rear tyre sizes can also case similar vibrations, but this doesn't disappear at high speed so doubt it would be this. If the vibration doesn't go away after the driveshafts have been done, try it with the prop removed, this will at least eliminate any possibility of it being prop or VCU related.

Front drive-shafts replaced and problem has gone away

What is the best/correct way of testing the driveshafts? When I bought my 2001 TD4 auto last year, I was getting bad wobble at motorway speeds. Shortly after, i put a new set of tyres on it and the wobble was still there. Thought the guys at the tyre place haddnt balanced them correctly. As i dont do a lot of motorway driving I kind of forgot about the problem. Early January, I changed over to my 15" steels with mud terrain tyres on because of the snow. Went on motorway and the wobble was nowhere as noticable. Made me think that it was my other set of wheels unbalanced. Not so sure now. Oh i had my alloys balanced just before I put the steels on in January. Changed them back to the alloys the other week and had a horrible motorway drive yesterday. Thought my arms were going to fall off.

visually inspect them for damage and bends, grab hold of them and see if there is any play in them

Would i be looking for play side-side , up-down or trying to rotate them?

any play in any direction........................

RobBentley said:

Hi.

I had gearbox judder on my last Freelander (A TD4 sport auto) and it was a different sensation. It vibrated under load irrelevant to speed. It was more to do with load/torque, hence it got really bad at 2k/rpm pulling up a hill. If you roared up a hill quickly using momentum as opposed to torque to get up - the problem wasn't apparent. That was clearly gearbox.

Click to expand...

My TD4 auto had this same vibration, (still has) .. My LR Stealer inspected and couldn’t find any wear. The FL had 28k mileage showing on the speedo!.
I worked it out to be a poorly designed gearbox ‘mapping’, in other words its very lazy!. The box doesnt seem to understand the need to downshift when the load/throttle settings increase when the FL starts to ascend a steep hill. The "drive train" starts to retaliate as the load increases. Feels like rumbble strips. Only full throttle will knock it down a gear, the vibes disapear but then you fly up the hill, which aint no help if there’s other traffic in front of you.
I've found now, that a simple tap to the right, on the gear stick (sports mode), is sufficient, using a sensible throttle setting, for the box to nicely slip into a lower gear, and all the vibes disappear.

I have a newly bought 54 TD4 auto which has a vibration/Humming from the OS rear tried changing the treads but has made no difference any ideas?