Shaking badly sounds like a tank when picking up speed .

Hi, i am a total novice when it comes to the internet and hope i am doing this correctly this time as my first attempt was posted wrong . I have a April 2002 Freelander 1951cc TD4 diesel 122,000 miles. Other than having the drivers side CV joint replaced 8 months ago I have had no issues . I did find out that apparently it has no rear diff but was not too concerned about this as i was informed it would improve fuel economy .It has just passed its MOT with no issues and a service oil change etc . While ticking over it sounds great ,starts great ,no overheating ,uses no oil only topped it up when i bought it and never had to do it again . i only drive about four thousand miles per year . A couple of months ago i noticed a very slight vibration on the steering wheel but nothing major .I replaced all four tyres and had it tracked and balanced However about a month ago while doing some motorway driving and picking up speed it appeared to shake quite badly and sounded a bit like a tank . once i reduced speed so did the shaking and the noise .There did not seem to be any loss of power and still when ticking over etc sounds great , It is now shaking and sounding terrible almost as soon as i start to drive it . I am obviously clueless HELP.

I imagine you may get various suggestions for this. My guess is that the drivers side drive shaft is shaking due to a collapsed supporting bearing in the IRD. You could check by seeing if there is much lateral play in the drive shaft where it fits into the IRD (front diff). Possibly one of the inner CVs on the drive shafts.

The drive shafts are the shafts and joints joining the wheels to the IRD/gearbox in the center of the car.

Thankyou for your adavise I will look into this .

If the replacement drive shaft wasn't a GKN original part. Then as GG said above. It has probably caused a problem with the IRD output bearings. I'm my experience, budget drive shafts are rubbish and can damage output bearings.

make sure the cv joint used is not aftermarket esp. inner CV. they are known to produce vibration due to lack or articulation.

check this out: https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/cv-replacement-new-vibration-resolved.308638/

Hi, well i have had the Driveshaft replaced on the offside and the horrible noise has gone and so has the shaking .i have just one little niggle while changing from 1st to 2nd and between 2/3 thousand revs there is slight vibration but no noise .Once i'm on the motorway its fine its only the first couple of thousand rev's . Any more advise would be appreciated .

Seth Armstrong said:

Hi, well i have had the Driveshaft replaced on the offside and the horrible noise has gone and so has the shaking .i have just one little niggle while changing from 1st to 2nd and between 2/3 thousand revs there is slight vibration but no noise .Once i'm on the motorway its fine its only the first couple of thousand rev's . Any more advise would be appreciated .

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Was it an aftermarket driveshaft you had installed before? Any pics of the inner cv?

GrumpyGel said:

My guess is that the drivers side drive shaft is shaking due to a collapsed supporting bearing in the IRD. You could check by seeing if there is much lateral play in the drive shaft where it fits into the IRD

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Sorry to hijack the thread. Does a failure of the supporting bearing necessitate IRD removal/overhaul?

kernowsvenski said:

Sorry to hijack the thread. Does a failure of the supporting bearing necessitate IRD removal/overhaul?

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I'm not exactly sure - but I would have thought so. I would have thought it is seated in the end part of the casing.

kernowsvenski said:

Sorry to hijack the thread. Does a failure of the supporting bearing necessitate IRD removal/overhaul?

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Yes removal is needed, but a complete strip down is not necessary. The bearing that is damaged by the drive shaft can be replaced on its own. However I think it's better to completely strip the unit so all wearables can be replaced. The IRD is actually quite easy to work on at home. It doesn't require any special tools except a cheap bearing puller and needs no measurements to reassemble. Just strip it down, replace all the bearings by drifting them to there sholders and reassemble. Before deciding to rebuild it. Check the condition of the crown wheel and output pinion. If either are worn, then it's better to fit a reconditioned IRD.

If I remember right you can manage without removing complete ird. Although you still need to remove shaft and undo the bracket holding the IRD to the engine and you can open the IRD whille still attached on gearbox side.
It opens from driver side (6 10mm bolts /nuts) and remove cover you can also pull shaft out including internal diff. Replace shims on diff when at it they will probbably be damaged and contribute to the play in the output.

Drain all fluids 1st

That sounds like good advice - I'm not sure how easy re-assembly of the IRD would be with the main body fix horizontally to the gearbox?

I also had difficulty separating the end part of the body from the main part - they were stuck fast together and I couldn't budge them. Having said that - in the end they separated themselves after I left it in the sun for a couple of hours!

I did mine a while ago. On axle stands and it was difficult to put it back in esp re alligning the splines to the gearbox side with the heavy unit on my chest. Not getting it out though.
If there is enough space to slide the inner shaft out of the wheel arch side I think it will be much easier. With the wheel hub out of the way it should be doable.

Again it was a while ago so may be wrong myself. But if you try that and doesn't work then still yoi can take the whole unit out by slightly lowering the front subframe. Mine os a td4 so had to lower the subframe due to the unit hitting the turbo and not enough space to get it out. So if you're using axle stands dont raise from sub frame. But use the box channels right after.