Hello Landyzone! My names Michael. I often come here to find out how to deal with my Land Rover, but I have a question that I havent been able to find a solution for on searching old threads, so Im hoping one of you excellent chaps might be able to help.
I have an R reg Defender 110 300Tdi with only 56,000 miles, which I bought two years ago. Its a thing of extraordinary beauty, and I love it almost as much as I do my dear wife and children (but dont tell them). Ive had all kinds of cars in my life, but this is my all time favourite. Theyre just awesome, arent they? Of course, it occasionally develops odd little problems (though, happily these are invariably easy and cheap to fix). Im a very useless and inexperienced car mechanic, but keen to learn, and I really enjoy mending it when I can.
My new problem is this. About a week ago, I noticed a strange thing happened as I was driving up a big- though fairly low gradient- hill. When I reached the speed of about 50mph, in fifth gear, the whole car began to vibrate and the torque flatted out appreciably. The vibration was a sort of low thrumming from down below that shook the entire car, which I felt especially through the steering wheel, but the whole thing was vibrating and rattling. It felt the same as if I were driving on low cobbles, or those shallow yellow rumble strips you sometimes come across just before you get to a roundabout on a ring road. The power drop was only slight, though obvious enough, but I noticed it diminished greatly with the higher engine revs when I went down a gear, or indeed when I slowed down slightly. Theres a definite speed threshold of about 48mph, below which it does not happen. In fifth, uphill, it gets worse as I accelerate (unusually sluggishly and weakly) above that speed. It disappears altogether when I go downhill (even at similar speeds and engine revs) or on the flat. Testing it out a bit, I found that it happens most in 5th gear, rather less in 4th, and hardly at all in 3rd gear- so it seems when the revs are higher, the vibration diminishes, and I suspect it therefore relates to the amount of labour Im asking the engine to do. It goes away completely when I put the gearbox in neutral and coast, and the engine itself appears to be working normally, with no obvious problems on revving out of gear.
In the last few days I have also noticed another new noise, which I feel must be related. It is quite different. Its an intermittent metallic chirruping, a bit like a twittering whistling birdcall, with a light rattling quality. This comes and goes more randomly, and seems to originate higher up- from the engine compartment. It doesnt seem to correspond directly with the deep thrumming though.
I think this might be a transmission problem. For several months now, I have noticed a kind of strange thump after I change up a gear, which I can reproduce when Im driving along, by repeatedly lifting and pressing my foot on and off the accelerator quickly- theres a kind of momentarily delayed but prominent jolt as the transmission comes into and out of engagement by the thrust of the engine. It sort of feels like theres something loose, so though its a bit hard to explain what I mean by that. Anyway, Im convinced this was an early symptom of the new disease.
Any ideas?
I have an R reg Defender 110 300Tdi with only 56,000 miles, which I bought two years ago. Its a thing of extraordinary beauty, and I love it almost as much as I do my dear wife and children (but dont tell them). Ive had all kinds of cars in my life, but this is my all time favourite. Theyre just awesome, arent they? Of course, it occasionally develops odd little problems (though, happily these are invariably easy and cheap to fix). Im a very useless and inexperienced car mechanic, but keen to learn, and I really enjoy mending it when I can.
My new problem is this. About a week ago, I noticed a strange thing happened as I was driving up a big- though fairly low gradient- hill. When I reached the speed of about 50mph, in fifth gear, the whole car began to vibrate and the torque flatted out appreciably. The vibration was a sort of low thrumming from down below that shook the entire car, which I felt especially through the steering wheel, but the whole thing was vibrating and rattling. It felt the same as if I were driving on low cobbles, or those shallow yellow rumble strips you sometimes come across just before you get to a roundabout on a ring road. The power drop was only slight, though obvious enough, but I noticed it diminished greatly with the higher engine revs when I went down a gear, or indeed when I slowed down slightly. Theres a definite speed threshold of about 48mph, below which it does not happen. In fifth, uphill, it gets worse as I accelerate (unusually sluggishly and weakly) above that speed. It disappears altogether when I go downhill (even at similar speeds and engine revs) or on the flat. Testing it out a bit, I found that it happens most in 5th gear, rather less in 4th, and hardly at all in 3rd gear- so it seems when the revs are higher, the vibration diminishes, and I suspect it therefore relates to the amount of labour Im asking the engine to do. It goes away completely when I put the gearbox in neutral and coast, and the engine itself appears to be working normally, with no obvious problems on revving out of gear.
In the last few days I have also noticed another new noise, which I feel must be related. It is quite different. Its an intermittent metallic chirruping, a bit like a twittering whistling birdcall, with a light rattling quality. This comes and goes more randomly, and seems to originate higher up- from the engine compartment. It doesnt seem to correspond directly with the deep thrumming though.
I think this might be a transmission problem. For several months now, I have noticed a kind of strange thump after I change up a gear, which I can reproduce when Im driving along, by repeatedly lifting and pressing my foot on and off the accelerator quickly- theres a kind of momentarily delayed but prominent jolt as the transmission comes into and out of engagement by the thrust of the engine. It sort of feels like theres something loose, so though its a bit hard to explain what I mean by that. Anyway, Im convinced this was an early symptom of the new disease.
Any ideas?
