Holiday disaster Ireland....help!

Driving along, not turning steering wheel, accelerating, decelerating or braking....brief screeching sound from underneath followed by smell of burning: to hard shoulder. Recovery driver can find nothing visible amiss but guessing at diff/gearbox owing to oil on truck load bed. Starts & runs but 'groans' soon as in 2nd ( tentative trial in Travelodge car park) Anyone any idea as to likely cause? Having to decide if can afford a fix...if expensive - will have to be no. Hate the thought. Its a RRC with 300 tdi.

look underneath or borrow my crystal ball

You don't say if the RR is manual or auto. If the latter, the 'oil' itself might be a clue i.e gear oil or trans. fluid? Hoping you have a recovery policy that will at least get you home.

whereabouts in Ireland?
what is your intention - rental for remainder of holiday or come back with vehicle? Both? Neither?

Automatic? Manual? colour of oil?

give us a clue!

Thanks...to elaborate slightly. Black oil I think ( it was evening) , nothing untoward visible in engine bay ( belt was properly located) or underneath...just the ' groaning' sound. Its a manual box

having a guess - and thats all it is.......

I reckon your rear oil seal has gone on your engine and has coated the clutch plate - do you get clutch slip? Is the oil coming from the wading plug?

well??

wot happened?

a bit of feedback would be nice.

No pc and 3G poor in the hills. Hard to say where oil came from as no more appeared. Maybe all that was going to come out, came out... There was no clutch slip at all. The only symptom was the sound. Upshot was abandonment of car at mate's house who in turn has a mechanically literate friend though little experience of Range Rovers. If fixable, fixed and recovered. In meantime an Avensis is filling the gap pretty well.