I think I broke my Freelander

Hi all,

I've only posted a couple of times but found this site a wealth of information and advice. I now look for advice and direction in my hour of need.

I'll start from the very beginning but keep it brief.

Impending road trip to France brings some tinkering and servicing.

Whilst attempting an oil change myself I removed the wrong drain plug, yup, I drained the IRD, I did nothing more because I realised straight away, called a mechanic friend and he topped up the oil in the IRD for me. Oil change was completed and car ran fine.

Next replaced 2 tyres which were getting low, I bought Accelera which are budget but had decent reviews, (2 new tyres went on the rear).

Car runs fine for 1 week.

Set off for France, 60 miles down the road, rumbling and whining, (like driving on the rumble strip at the side of motorway, but slightly less severe).

Pulled over and called my mechanic pal, he couldn't hear the noise obviosly but said it could be road noise from cheap tyres. I carried on.

Noise returned after 10 minutes then bang clunk grind.

AA called, took car home and borrowed another one.

Now, after returning from holiday my mech has looked and says the rear diff has gone, must be a common fault.

BUT is it that common, is it more likely to have underlying causes, maybe connected to tyres, too much or too little oil in IRD, or an existing fault in VCU exasperated by new tyres.

What do we all think.

Thanks in advance for replys

Siblo

(ps the car I borrowed was a RR vogue 4L and I broke that too)

I think you should stay away from cars if you are going to keep breaking them

If the diameter difference of front to rear tyres is too great, your vcu will be over worked. This creates transmission wind up. That puts extra pressure on your ird and rear diff. Either the rear diff or/and the ird will fail when this happens.

added:

This is because the vcu will be over worked. It will "seize" up more often whilst transimmsion wind up it happening due to the "sheering effect" of the silicon inside the vcu. This should happen orf road when spinning wheels, or spinning on snow, but it's bad on tarmac wiv loads of grip. So when yer gets yer rear diff fixed, DON'T drive it wiv the same vcu wivout doing the one wheel up test below to prove, shorry, see if yer vcu is feked also.

hello Hippo what you doing????????????

Oh, and always replace tyres in sets of 4. If you can't do that, then replace in "axle" pairs. Make sure they're all the same. Thats same make/model/size. Newer tyres go on the rear always if only replacing 2.

As to the question of this being a popular fault, yes. We get a lot on ere with the same thing, or leading to it. Garages don't know how the Freelander 1 transmnission works. Tyre fitters even less. Eggspensive repair for such an easy mistake to make.

Fur Trapper said:

hello Hippo what you doing????????????

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Pointing out how daft someone has bin, shorry, helping me fellow Freelander owners. Should av come on ere first to be abused, shorry, given advice on how to keep a Freelander 1 alive.

Bin quiet this week as I have course work to do. Also bin avoiding pudding.

Hippo said:

Pointing out how daft someone has bin, shorry, helping me fellow Freelander owners. Should av come on ere first to be abused, shorry, given advice on how to keep a Freelander 1 alive.

Bin quiet this week as I have course work to do. Also bin avoiding pudding.

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What is course work? And as always you are a wealth of infoAnd the freelanders have a good leader raise::mil4::mil4:

Course work is me work I have to do like reading books, assignments which get marked etc. Like the work peeps do at school.

Hippo said:

Oh, and always replace tyres in sets of 4. If you can't do that, then replace in "axle" pairs. Make sure they're all the same. Thats same make/model/size. Newer tyres go on the rear always if only replacing 2.

As to the question of this being a popular fault, yes. We get a lot on ere with the same thing, or leading to it. Garages don't know how the Freelander 1 transmnission works. Tyre fitters even less. Eggspensive repair for such an easy mistake to make.

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Hi Mr Hippo the above sound advice could do with being posted as a sticky to inform new freelander 1 owners of how important tyre choice is in the wellbeing of the drivetrain , this problem causes a lot of grief to new freelander owners who are ignorant to the fact as i was when i first got mine !

Thanks for the reply Hippo,

But the new tyres DID go on the rear so I thought that was the right way to do it.

siblo said:

Thanks for the reply Hippo,

But the new tyres DID go on the rear so I thought that was the right way to do it.

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Are the new tyres on the rear the same make, model un size as the part worn on the front? We've found out before from someone doing a calculation that say for eggsample 215/65/R16 A manufacturer tyres have a difference circumference to the same tyre made by B manufacturer etc. Even though they is the same stated size. This would be something to look into.

No, there not the same make, I thought of that when I posted earlier.

I'm not near the vehicle so can not physically check today, I'll do some measurements tomorrow.

But from your diagnoses and the symptoms I experienced, I believe now that they must have caused the problem.

Motoring was OK around town, left and right turns, but when I drove on the motorway for 20 miles in a steady straight line, the stress built up in the diff and the VCU was not able to cope.

Is my analyses correct?

What are the chances that the VCU has survived?

Clutching at straws but, when first looking at the rear diff there was a lot of physical movement, could it have just been the mounts?

Thanks again for your help.

Siblo

Not sure if the vcu will be ok. The best thing to do is test it as per the video below. It may be the vcu was half way through it's thought to last life, which we've tried to guess, but it's difficult to do so. Few will do the test and post results. I have 12 result sets out of 11500 views of the video. Loads of peeps on ere read the torque test fred, un see many others being told to do the test. Have also been on other forums to get them to join in. Also forums in different countries which I spot looking at me video. Not everyone agrees it's a good test, but a general comparison was what we were looking for. The self test mode fred idea went in the bin too.

So sadley you need to test it to see. I would guess that as it's been working more often than it should, this wouldn't have helped it. Recon from bell eng is yer best bet if it's a fail.

it is likely that your new tyres are of a smaller rolling radius than your existing fronts, a cooked diff is typical of larger front tyres.

OK, so I checked the diameter of the old tyres on the front against the new tyres on the back.

Using the "tyresave" calculator from the other tyre thread they should be 692mm. New ones on rear measure about 695mm , old ones on front about 680mm.

Any thoughts...

Siblo

siblo said:

OK, so I checked the diameter of the old tyres on the front against the new tyres on the back.

Using the "tyresave" calculator from the other tyre thread they should be 692mm. New ones on rear measure about 695mm , old ones on front about 680mm.

Any thoughts...

Siblo

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Hi tollerance of only 5mm allowed front to rear ! , i measured mine by height by placing a piece wood on top of the tyre then measured from the ground to the bottom of the wood , at that time my front tyres were 25mm shorter in height than the rears this was causing my vcu to get very hot after matching all 4 tyres (same make / model ) there was only 2mm dif, in height between front / rear and vcu was cold after a run hope this helps

That's what broke it then, just waiting now to see how much damage has actually been done.

I'm sure the VCU is bust, I've been told the DIFF is broke, and one mechanic said it feels like the IRD is broke too.

All I did was treat the girl to a couple of new boots,

If this doesn't deserve stickying as a warning to people then I don't know what does.

I did everything as I should and am stuck with a bill of at least a grand.

Oh well.

Siblo.

siblo said:

If this doesn't deserve stickying as a warning to people then I don't know what does.

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Ian jones said:

Hi Mr Hippo the above sound advice could do with being posted as a sticky to inform new freelander 1 owners of how important tyre choice is in the wellbeing of the drivetrain , this problem causes a lot of grief to new freelander owners who are ignorant to the fact as i was when i first got mine !

Click to expand...

m.

Unfortunately there are a few problems with that......

1) its in the user handbook - no-one seems to read that.
2) it is a sticky - no-one seems to read that.
3) it has been posted gazillions of times - no-one seems to search.
4) peeps dont believe what we tell em even when they do find the info.

Ian jones said:

Hi tollerance of only 5mm allowed front to rear ! , i measured mine by height by placing a piece wood on top of the tyre then measured from the ground to the bottom of the wood , at that time my front tyres were 25mm shorter in height than the rears this was causing my vcu to get very hot after matching all 4 tyres (same make / model ) there was only 2mm dif, in height between front / rear and vcu was cold after a run hope this helps

Click to expand...

So too much of a margin between lower diameter front and larger diamter rear is as bad for the VCU as having the newer (wider) tyres on the front?

yes - the VCU works on the difference between front and rear - it doesnt matter how that is achieved.