Discovery 3 Vibration :-(

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George Smith

New Member
Posts
9
Location
Blackburn
Hi,

I had a Discovery 2 which I loved however it developed an insanely annoying vibration when driven on the motorway, both through the car and the steering wheel. No one could find any problem with UJs/Wheel balancing/propshaft/bushes/tyres.. spent ages checking. When I found it eventually needed a new rear chassis section I sold it because the constant vibration made me less keen to spend any more money to repair it.

Bought an 08 Disco 3 auto which I was delighted with...Until the same kind of vibration started around a year ago. Replaced 2 tyres, balanced tyres, put new wishbone bushes on it, replaced passenger side wheel bearing and still the vibration continues. It's through the steering wheel mainly when accelerating at around 70mph but then gets worse if it's pushed over 70 when you start to feel it through the whole car. Vibration seems worse when it's under load- accelerating up a motorway hill causes visible steering wheel shake but not every time, sometimes the more you acccelerate the less it seems to shake. It seems to get worse with distance traveled- at the beginning of the journey not too bad. There's also a wheel shake when braking at higher speeds and an odd screech when turning sharp corners/roundabouts. Any ideas? It's only done 60,000 miles from new but I'm a bit fed up of the vibrations....

Cheers in advance
 
Not being a D3 expert, just going by my own driving experiences, the screech when turning sharply or at roundabouts could be a tracking problem or under-inflation of the front tyres.
Check your tyres for uneven wear.
Wheel shake under braking could point to something like a brake disc wobbling, not unknown and it doesn't take much more than just a few millimetres out of true to be felt through the pedal.
The vibrations could be anything from a steering geometry problem to one or more worn U/Js on your prop shafts.
Of course, I could be totally wrong and you could still find a single problem that contributes to all of your symptoms, but I would be inclined to rule out these possible sources first.
 
hi and welcome

may i add what @brian47 has said plse

1) have u had 4 wheel alignment done
2) checked the centre prop bearing
3) put it into access height and check all the tyres by putting ur hand on top of the tyres and rocking them and checking for any movement , isn't evident in normal height setting
4) if an auto is the software up to date on the transfer and autobox , oil levels all ok
5) ujs are they all ok
6) front diff oil level ok and also the front breather is clear , they have a modified breather now, when they block up it can blow the front diff seals,
have any fault codes come up by any chance

when were the front diff oil changed along with gearbox, tc etc

sorry i can't think of anything else , but please let us know how u the on
 
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Google discovery 3 torque convertor vibration issues, cheap fix that works is 2 tubes of Dr Tranny from ebay.

Wheel shake when braking is almost certainly a disc issue and the screech will be calliper slider pin starting to seize, this will have caused the disc to get hot and this was probably what caused the disc to warp in the first place.
New discs and a clean and grease up of the slider pins should have it braking nicely again, check pistons go back in smoothly, if not new callipers needed, the cheap britpart ones from Island 4x4 are just fine

Annually grease all calliper slides (NOT with copaslip just use ordinary grease) and adjust EPB shoes failure to do any of this will end up costing you money, nice easy brakes like normal cars.
 
Propshaft centre bearing is my guess. These fail at 60K intervals and require a replacement propshaft.
Gearbox shudder is also common and requires a new torque converter to fix permanently. Dr Tranny Shudder fix will extend the service life, but replacement is the only sure cure for TC shudder.
 
Hi everyone,

Thanks very much for all of your replies and helpful information, very grateful.

I had all 4 wheels rebalanced, the alignment done and then swapped the rear wheels to the front. This has basically eliminated the vibration completely. I think I may have 1 dodgy tyre which is now causing far fewer problems being at the back.

Many thanks again
 
Hi everyone,

Thanks very much for all of your replies and helpful information, very grateful.

I had all 4 wheels rebalanced, the alignment done and then swapped the rear wheels to the front. This has basically eliminated the vibration completely. I think I may have 1 dodgy tyre which is now causing far fewer problems being at the back.

Many thanks again

brilliant , great to see it was a cheap fix and turned out just to be the alignment , ;)

thks also for letting us know as it's good to see what the fault was
 
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