Scraping / Grinding when offroading

Greetings all,

And, judging by my last two Defender experiences, I imagine I'll be posting a fair bit ...

I recently bought a very nice 110, pretty much set up for rally raids. While mechanically sound, and with a fantastic tuned V8, it is going to need a bit of work to get tip-top. Already identified a few key issues, which will be resolved soon, but have a niggling issue which is a bit more concerning.

In sand dunes (I'm in UAE) I'm getting a disconcerting grinding / scraping noise from front of vehicle. This only happens when there's fair bit of suspension travel ... levelling out at base of steep dune, or powering through rather 'choppy' low dunes. At first I was thinking possible the bash plate or other bit of kit was rubbing ... but after a fairly heavy desert run yesterday, the noise has changed, from a crunching-grinding, to a smoother, more metallic scrape (so ruling out tires rubbing) Any thoughts? It is fitted with King coils and dual Koni Raid shocks on each wheel -- not sure exactly when they were fitted, though, and I do know the car has been used in the desert quite extensively.

Any thoughts?

Check engine / gearbox mounts are ok and are not allowing the engine to move and rub on other parts of the vehicle.

tottot said:

Check engine / gearbox mounts are ok and are not allowing the engine to move and rub on other parts of the vehicle.

Click to expand...

Many thanks -- yes this is on list to look at when it goes into servicing, and would fit the symptoms. I know it had double engine mounts fitted not long ago -- and I have noticed that after hard driving, the gear box has moved fractionally .. enough to notice when I change to first and third (shifter 'bumps' the custom dash, already a tight fit)