Freelander 1 Back diff - anyone upgraded to an LSD?

My hippo's back diff has been leeking like a seive for as long as I've owned the motor, and its always had a little bit of what I believe to be diff lash, ie: it makes a soft thud from the back when transitioning harshly from power on to deceleration or vice versa.

So... Seeing as I've decided to treat it to a new gkn vcu for peace of mind... And I'll have to drop the propshaft to get it down.. And I'll really need to do something with the diff leak before I do the driveway at the house this summer... Driveway is all marked by oil leaks from a 407 coupe which had a porus sump pan, and a rake of leaks off her 300tdi discovery, but the freelander lived on the kerbside so dropped diff oil on the gutter. I'm looking at either:

• fitting an exchange refurbed diff with new seals and what not
• getting the diff exchange place to give me a price to supply a newly rebuilt diff with quaiffe fitted to it
• rebuilding my one with new seals bearings crown wheel and pinion and whatnot and a quaiffe LSD
  • to make sure I dont get ripped off they would be instructed to send the diff with the back plate off so I could inspect it to see my quaiffe centre with my own eyes.
• rebulding my own diff with new bearings crown and pinion and seals

I'd thus like to know if anyone has fitted the quaiffe LSD to a freelander and does it offer any noticeable benefits? Ordinarily I'd swear blind by quaiffe Automatic Torque Biasing LSD's and just fit the damned(expensive) thing, however I'm not sure do I NEED it because of the hippo's traction control using the ABS module to perform torque vectoring onto wheels with grip. If theres no real advantage in it I'd rather keep the money in my bank than in the diff casing, but if it really does enhance the vehicle I'll happily spend it.

What I dont want to do is lash out all that cash and feel no real benefit from it.

Thanks in advance for all the advice, and for the benefit of the tratter lads I'm waiting on a delivery of perming supplies so seeing as the hairdressing is on hold I might as well crack out the socket set.

LSD for the front diff maybe, a waste on the rear without solid drive, imo

Jayridium said:

My hippo's back diff has been leeking like a seive for as long as I've owned the motor, and its always had a little bit of what I believe to be diff lash, ie: it makes a soft thud from the back when transitioning harshly from power on to deceleration or vice versa.

So... Seeing as I've decided to treat it to a new gkn vcu for peace of mind... And I'll have to drop the propshaft to get it down.. And I'll really need to do something with the diff leak before I do the driveway at the house this summer... Driveway is all marked by oil leaks from a 407 coupe which had a porus sump pan, and a rake of leaks off her 300tdi discovery, but the freelander lived on the kerbside so dropped diff oil on the gutter. I'm looking at either:

• fitting an exchange refurbed diff with new seals and what not
• getting the diff exchange place to give me a price to supply a newly rebuilt diff with quaiffe fitted to it
• rebuilding my one with new seals bearings crown wheel and pinion and whatnot and a quaiffe LSD
  • to make sure I dont get ripped off they would be instructed to send the diff with the back plate off so I could inspect it to see my quaiffe centre with my own eyes.
• rebulding my own diff with new bearings crown and pinion and seals

I'd thus like to know if anyone has fitted the quaiffe LSD to a freelander and does it offer any noticeable benefits? Ordinarily I'd swear blind by quaiffe Automatic Torque Biasing LSD's and just fit the damned(expensive) thing, however I'm not sure do I NEED it because of the hippo's traction control using the ABS module to perform torque vectoring onto wheels with grip. If theres no real advantage in it I'd rather keep the money in my bank than in the diff casing, but if it really does enhance the vehicle I'll happily spend it.

What I dont want to do is lash out all that cash and feel no real benefit from it.

Thanks in advance for all the advice, and for the benefit of the tratter lads I'm waiting on a delivery of perming supplies so seeing as the hairdressing is on hold I might as well crack out the socket set.

Click to expand...

I doubt anyone’s bothered to do this, but surely the advantage of an LSD over traction control is that TC is a negative way of gaining traction - slowing the spinning wheel down and sapping energy from the system. I’d love an LSD in my Defender.

If I were you and wanted better off-road ability, I’d get a recon diff and spend the spare money on decent tyres, maybe a lift kit as well. What are you doing with your FL?

Few years back on the old LRO forum there was a Polish guy who fitted a quaiff in the back axle and said it transformed his FL on the forestry tracks, he did complain that the VCUs were giving out at 50,000kms with the rougher terrain though, something he talked about was having an electronic lock on the prop shaft to couple and disconnect drive through the VCU so that it was only part time 4X4 and at the flick of a switch it was all fully functional, I never did see the results but he did do some sketches and a mock up using an LT230 difflock front output housing to demonstrate his idea, looked like it would have worked too, he thought a stepper motor to engage and disengage would be better than a lever or a cable in such a confined area.

Thanks for the replies, my freelander already has a 2" lift kit, 5mm ally sump / steering guard, tubular steel rear skid guard, 225/75/16 Kumho KL71's, performance wise its started life as a van so its got the uprated springs / shocks and antirollbars, I've since put a leather interior into it, and engine wise its got aronbox 2a, eger complete obliterated (completely gone, not just bypassed) hybrid turbo and bigger nozzled injectors. Its a spare / hobby vehicle. When my wife uses its just as a soccer-mom wagon to move our kids about or do the shopping, I sometimes use it as van or as a shunter down at my workshop, or I sometimes take it for the odd bit of mild offroading, a bit more rugged than greenlaning, but not full on winch challenge extreme terrain.

As I said earlier, were I buying it for a live axled landy like her disco or my one or my RRC, I'd be 100% sold on ATB diffs, but with the electronics in the freelander doing the same sort of thing by modulating the abs to slow down the spinning wheel hence vectoring torque to the wheels that have grip... I dont know if I still need it. But if somebody can tell me hand on heart that they have done the LSD conversion and the difference was marked I am willing tospend the money.

If anyone would like to see my hippo heres a link to an old post with some pics of it a few months ago.
https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-ro...-a-prefacelift-hippo-td4.322855/#post-4118415

The only time you're likely to need the benefit of a LSD is when the car's lost traction, so the rear diff should be fully powered via an "engaged" VCU. Therefore, even though most of the time the diff isn't fully engage, I'd have thought you would get the benefit when its needed.

I would question though whether the diff is knackered. If its lost all its oil, it likely to be - however, I'd have thought that it would whine. Thuds when changing gear etc are usually slam dunk knackered front diff mount. They are a "consumable" on Freelander, and its worth replacing it with a decent (not cheap) one. I'm pretty sure you can replace it with props still attached - so might be worth doing it before any other work so you can get an idea of what work (eg recon or new seals) is needed when you strip the props out.

If you when the TB diff then go for it. A member on here has fitted one with very good results. I'd get another diff rebuilt with a quaiffe unit fitted. It'll be an expensive exercise, but I'm sure you'll notice the improvement when the going gets tough.