Freelander 2 2.2 diesel diff oil

Today i got another job out of the way on the ORK FL2 SD4 the rear diff oil was changed.

The oil that was used was Smith & Allan FS 75w/90
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This was added to my hand pump 1ltr even though the rear diff takes 0.7litres, it helps when pumping if you are not sucking up the dregs at the bottom of the container.
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The FL was already on the four ramps which are always used when working under the car.
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The little suction pumps and the battery were also ready under the rear of the FL, along with my 13mm aviation spanner & socket ratchet.
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Cracked the filler plug open, with the aviation spanner excellent to get that little more leverage.
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Turned the filler plug out slowly with my hand, i was expecting a little oil to drip out but nowt.
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A bit mucky but not really bad.
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The copper washer was left behind, which was removed has a new one is going to be fitted.
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Hooked the pump up to the battery which was fully charged.
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The pump with it's little 5mm drain pipe was pushed into the diff and the removal of the oil was started.
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This is a slow process because the volume of withdrawal is not that fast, and towards the end it slows down even more, the first 10 minutes is not to bad.
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Maybe about 400ml removed in the first 10mins then you have to start moving the suction pipe about in the diff, by 12.28pm most if not all the oil was removed, copper washer removed cleaned up around the filler entrance.
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This is the amount that was sucked out.
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You can clearly see it's very dark brown as opposed the the nice golden colour.
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This was then poured into a measuring jug.
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The total amount that was sucked out was 700ml
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Amounts from the owners book.
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I hooked up my hand pump.
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This was held in place with a rubber bung, once pumping had been commenced & oil was dribbling out i stopped.
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700ml back in the plug was fitted and i started the car for about 10mins.
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Plug removed added another 50ml until dripping again plug refitted job done, overall 750ml
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I will remove the plug again later today when i am doing the PTU if weather allows, to let it drip until it stops.

Brilliant write up, thank you. Might be a future job for me since you've made it look so simple.

Used your write up when I did mine yesterday- very helpful

JokerUK said:

Used your write up when I did mine yesterday- very helpful

Click to expand...

Hi holy Batman how did it go, fairly straightforward hopefully, i have in the meantime done the PTU, and also changed the oil on the Haldex, removed the Haldex ECU & N373 valve, which have been sent off for testing.

Arctic2 said:

Hi holy Batman how did it go, fairly straightforward hopefully, i have in the meantime done the PTU, and also changed the oil on the Haldex, removed the Haldex ECU & N373 valve, which have been sent off for testing.

Click to expand...

Let me know how the testing goes, although I'll just replace the N373 valve as it's relatively cheap.

Mine shudders quite badly, so I'm running FWD at the moment, which is resulting in lots of wheel slip on the slimy roads at the moment.

Nodge68 said:

Let me know how the testing goes, although I'll just replace the N373 valve as it's relatively cheap.

Mine shudders quite badly, so I'm running FWD at the moment, which is resulting in lots of wheel slip on the slimy roads at the moment.

Click to expand...

Hi John.

Yes i sent my ECU and N373 off to Matt at Auto Fault Finder, he checked the N373 value, that was working and fine, he then suggested i have the scrabble fix on the ECU.

Sent them back to me with an order i had put in with him for a proper genuine filter, Febi oil, and some O-rings for my three Gen 3 Haldex i am cleaning.

The turn round was 3 days mainly because i sent them on a Saturday, always send them special delivery next day by 13.00pm

Matt said to me do not change oil yet just fit the ECU and Valve back on the car and get some miles on the car, doing some full circles also, so i have now for four days drove the FL2 with lots of pulling out of junctions, streets onto main roads so i could try replicate and make the Haldex grab or scrabble up to now all is ok.

Reason for not changing the oil was we need to know that what has been done has corrected the problem and not the oil being changed, otherwise if you do different things you would never know, the oil in the Haldex is Mannol which i will change for Febi at a later date.

I dropped him an email where he will then give me a call, if i am satisfied and he is by my report, he will then take a payment from me, up to now he has not had any payment for what he has done, so he puts a lot of trust in you to be honest with him, if you say that it's not worked he will then talk you through what to do next.

For me what better advertising could you get than someone willing to sort out a problem for you and not ask for any money up front.

Follow the test on the link below, you do have a Gen 4 Haldex yes.
https://www.haldexrepairs.co.uk/land-rover...solutions/

Saved me forking out nearly £600 going to Bell Engineering whom could not give me a guarantee or warranty on the work that would have been carried out, which was to remove the Haldex clean it, change the oil and fit it back.

Also in the mean time i have drilled a drain hold in the spare diff i have, took the bell cover off and checked the cogs etc, will post that up either on here or my other thread.

Hi Guy's & gal's
So if you have read my other threads on Haldex & Diff oil changes, you may well know i managed to bag myself a spare rear diff & Haldex from a FL2 2010.

My intentions to learn more about the Haldex and rear diff, if you have read this thread from the beginning you will know i changed out the diff oil by using a pump works fairly well but is slow and time consuming, so the next time the oil change is due it will have been drilled and tapped a drain hole.

I used my spare diff to practice on albeit out of the car, the diff was first clean outside. 1

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On the diff i have there is an ideal place to put a drain hole and plug, not all diff are the same in this area, it has an oblong flat spot.
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Where my FL2 14 has a round spot for the drain hole in the same place.
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The spare diff cleaned out side, i tried the 12mm drill bit into the hole already there it fits perfect
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I did a little test drill not much.
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The plan was then left for a few days while in concentrated on the Haldex.

With the Haldex sorted and out of the way i then went back to the diff, there are three oil ways in the area where the Haldex bolts to the diff, one is the filler hole.
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I cut some clear tubing which i threaded through the diff filler hole.
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The two other oil ways are in port of the diff & one on the outer edge just inside the diff.
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The clear tube was pushed into these oil galleries.
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The tube was fitted to a can of brake cleaner.
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This was then spayed into the galleries, the fluid came out of the filler plug hole.
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Same from the inner gallery.
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That was allowed to dry out for another couple of days, before the drain hole can be drilled out completely.

Ok so back to the drilling of the drain hole, 12mm drill bit on slow speed in the drill, on a bench in the shed.
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The hole was drilled very slowly checking all the time it was straight.
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The drill bit broke through under control not knowing what is below inside.
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Next it was time to tap the hole with a 14mm-1.5 tap, this again was done slowly and making sure it was straight.
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It was tapped until it came to a stop, more or less the full length of the thread.
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The thread looked nice and clean.
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I had purchased three different drain plugs not knowing the depth.
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The tap was again inserted so the tap showed no thread.
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My thought was the middle plug, would be the best, but i tried them one by one.
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The first one i tried was the Vw Skoda/Audi plug
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That came to a stop and did not mate flat.
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The next one was the middle plug from above, Vauxhall/VW drain sump plug.

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That one went flat has it should.
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The last drain plug was the magnetic one, VW/Vauxhall

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This too would not bottom out flat, it may have if it was tightened down by using a socket but the second one screwed in by hand.
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Therefore the one i thought in the first place fitted best, even though the head is a 22mm would have liked a 17mm or 19mm so have ordered a few more to try waiting on there arrival.

The next step was to remove the bell housing to see what the gears looked like and remove any swarf from drilling, which there was bound to be, maybe doing it is situ on the car with the oil in the diff the swarf would drop out with the oil, i will know that when i come to do mine in the spring.
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The above will be in the next post.

HNY to all ok so adding more to the thread to share the info and maybe give a god read.

Carrying on from above removing the bell housing, undo the bolts around the housing.
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With all the bolts removed i used a wood drift to open the housing as it was stuck, only a light tap mind.
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That opened a little gap for me.
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I was then able to get a wide 25mm /1inc wood chisel into the gap and lever the housing away from the diff.
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This was still not enough it was holding hard, so the big guns had to be used, a long lever bar.
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That did the job and the housing was free from the diff.
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In this photo you can see the filler plug in the diff.
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The housing plate looked fairly clean just a little brown old oil residue.
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This i cleaned up using some old rags and some brake cleaner.
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Looking inside the bell hosing the large cog seemed ok no damage, from the drilling or any other damage
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I pulled out the large gear cog, you could see the swarf from drilling the drain plug.
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Inside the housing there was also swarf.
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Now my thinking is this is there because the drain plug was drilled with the diff out of the car on a bench, it had no oil in it to help the swarf drain out, which if on a car it should do.

The diff housing inside was cleaned out with brake cleaner and wiped dry, this then shows you the drilled and tapped drain hole from inside.
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I think this is the bolt hole which some have used to use has a drain hole? ok if your diff does not have the allocation area for a proper drain hole which i think my07 Fl does not have.
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The drilled and tapped drain hole from the outside of the diff.
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New drain plug fitted, out side view.
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Inside view of the drain plug.
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I tried all the three drain plugs only the middle one fits perfectly, the other two got thread bound.
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I next cleaned up the large gear cog, again washing it off with brake cleaner.
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Close up of some of the numbers on the gear cog.
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All the teeth and rollers look to be in good condition.
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There is some stamping on the large cog anyone know what it means please.
[imghttps://i.imgur.com/iJGTgShl.jpg[/img]22

Feeling the rollers they seem ok, but should there be any play in the cage?
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Number on the roller cage.
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Also SKF stamped, so would these still be the originals.
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Another number on the roller.
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The drive shaft cog looks ok too no damage to any of the teeth.
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I marked the cog and turned round to the starting mark.
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Dropped the large cog wheel back into the diff and replaced the bell housing cover plate.
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The drain plug looks a little large for my liking 22mm very robust but looks out of place.
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So ordered a few other types which came on the 16/12/23
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Tried the above one, seems ok.
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So does the Allen key one.
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Another lot came on the 19/12/23.
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They fitted ok and perfect too.
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They where all tested over a few days with oil in the diff all passed the test on the bench.

Which one i will use on the day i drill and tap the diff on the My14 Ork Freelander i will pick on the day.

PS the Ork diff was drilled and tapped on 8/1/24 write up and photos to follow.

Spoiler.
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A couple days ago Monday 8/1/24 i decided after my above trial run on drilling and tapping the spare Freelander 2 diff i had i would tackle the diff on my current My2014 SD4.

So the FL was raised onto the four ramps which i always use when any work need doing under the car.
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Once the car was up and on the ramps i could set about cleaning, drilling and tapping the point on my diff, which has a area which is ideal for the drain plug.
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First the flatted area was cleaned and polished with a small sanding flap in a drill.
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Once i was satisfied it was flat and polished enough it was then ready for drilling out.
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Now the process of drilling out i did not take a photo of has i had to use both hands on the drill to make sure it was straight and square, the recess/hole already in the diff helps this, i used a good make Bosch 12mm metal drill bit, the duff being alloy drills very easy, so you must take care and control the drill steady.

Drilling slowly a little at each time.
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Until the drill bit went into the diff void, which you could feel right away by going slow, the oil stated to flow.
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Note the oil is a decent colour because it was only sucked out and change in November 11 2023.
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Below was a catch pan for the oil.
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As the oil drained quickly you could see it was in fact darker in content than when flowing out of the diff, this was most likely mixed with the little i could not get out by pump in November.
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The last dribbles of the old oil.
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By 13.45pm the oil had virtually stopped running out, but i jacked the near side rear up to make sure the oil was completely drained out.
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The rear diff should hole 0.7ltrs
gur.com/MBCSt89l.jpg15

The old oil was poured out of the catch can into a measuring jug, it read exactly 700ml.
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Bits of swarf was left in the catch tin, from drilling out the diff, which the old oil removed has it flowed.
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Also some swarf was left in the strainer i used when pouring the oil out of the can into the jug.
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I next prepared the new oil for the diff in my pump dispenser, 1ltr = 1000ml, this was left next to my radiator in my shed, which is run by diesel fuel burning heater from a Rover 75, so it would pump easy when needed.
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Now it was time to check the drilled hole for any more swarf and clean the hole out with a few sprays of brake cleaner, even though when looking it looked to be very clean.
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Right so with my trusty tap tool, which i made sure was square to the flat, i started to tap the drilled hole, 14ml drill bit.
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This was done slowly and precisely bit by bit.
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If you look close the remaining dregs of oil are bring out the alloy being tapped.
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The new drain hole was now tapped out.
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I then spayed some more brake cleaner into the hole just for good measure, and waited for that to drain out.

In the mean time i picked my choice of drain plug i was going to use.
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This was offered up to the new diff draining point, it screwed in by hand nicely.
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https:/
/i.imgur.com/9wM1ATM.jpg31

This was then tightened up with a 13mm ratchet ring spanner.
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It was now time to add the new oil
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The oil pump dispenser was placed below and hooked into the the filler hole.
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The pumping of the oil then commenced until the reading in the pump read 300ml which means 700ml into the diff.
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Which the oil by then was leaking from the filler hole of the diff.
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This was allowed to stop and then the filler plug was replaced.
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The magnets i use on the plugs of diff plug were replaced.
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The Ork was then left over night on the ramps for me to check the next day for any leaking from the new drilled and tapped drain hole.
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New drain plug checked the next day, all seems ok.
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Freelander was taken of the ramps, given a good ride out, oil drain plug checked when back home pleased to say that is another job done and easier to do in 12/24months time, most likely 12months knowing how i like to change my oils, i change the engine oil twice a year what ever mileage as been covered, spring and autumn.

Onto the next job

Two weeks have passed by since doing the diff drain plug, and I'm happy to report everything seems ok with it, no oil drips etc.