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wassall

New Member
Posts
57
I took my 02 Freelander GS to my local garage today, there was a sort of whining/grinding noise which sounded like it was coming from the front passenger wheel, also my clutch was quite heavy.

The results were, that they think the noise is coming from the prop shaft bearing, which they say isnt too much to worry about, they said it doesnt need replacing unless it starts to make a real racket.

And the heavy clutch has been made a lot lighter by oiling the clutch cable and the cluth lever arm thingy.

So, any thoughts on the Prop shaft bearing? is this a common complaint? is it indeed, nothing to worry about?

your thoughts would be much appreciated!
 
Sounds like they don't know if they think it's a prop shaft bearing and that it doesn't matter! Firstly, and I know it's splitting hairs, but generally it's drive shafts to the wheels and prop shafts to the diffs so if it is a prop shaft then it's nowhere near the wheels. If it is a wheel bearing it will need replaced sooner rather than later as this can cause steering problems and tyre wear. A simple test is to jack the car up, grasp the tyre at the quarter to three position and jiggle the wheel back and forth. If you feel any looseness there is a starter for ten. Get an assistant to put a foot on the brake and if the looseness goes it's the bearing. The bearings aren't adjustable, they come as a pair which need drifted in. If it still wobbles check the ball joints but thats a different problem. Hopefully though the problem isn't that bad. It could be worn brake pads, rusty disc or the back plate catching the disc as the wheel turns. Remember to jack two wheels off the ground if you want to spin the wheel as the 4x4 wont let you otherwise.
 
Sounds like they don't know if they think it's a prop shaft bearing and that it doesn't matter! Firstly, and I know it's splitting hairs, but generally it's drive shafts to the wheels and prop shafts to the diffs so if it is a prop shaft then it's nowhere near the wheels. If it is a wheel bearing it will need replaced sooner rather than later as this can cause steering problems and tyre wear. A simple test is to jack the car up, grasp the tyre at the quarter to three position and jiggle the wheel back and forth. If you feel any looseness there is a starter for ten. Get an assistant to put a foot on the brake and if the looseness goes it's the bearing. The bearings aren't adjustable, they come as a pair which need drifted in. If it still wobbles check the ball joints but thats a different problem. Hopefully though the problem isn't that bad. It could be worn brake pads, rusty disc or the back plate catching the disc as the wheel turns. Remember to jack two wheels off the ground if you want to spin the wheel as the 4x4 wont let you otherwise.

They spun the wheels independently and there wasnt a noise, not from the bearings or the diffs, they said when they had it up on the ramp and drove all the wheels then the noise seemed to be coming from the prop shaft. It was only me that thought it sounded like it was coming from the wheel. The wheel bearings are all fine, it had all new brakes in july.

He said that a new prop would be expensive so as long as the noise doesnt get any worse then i should ignore it.

As soon as im actually driving I cant hear it because of the road noise.
 
As long as its generally ok on the road then should be ok. One thing to check though when driving. Turn it to full lock when you are going very slowly in first gear and if the car wants to stop then your VCU could be going. That's your viscous coupling unit or middle differential. They are prone to going like this but as long as you're not driving on full lock just keep an eye on it (or ear more like!)

Have a look at this link............

Symptoms - Bell Engineering
 
Yet another garage that does not know......
The noise is most likely the VCU carrier bearings,a cheap and easy fix.
And I have yet to see a freebie with a clutch cable fitted.:rolleyes:
 
Yet another garage that does not know......
The noise is most likely the VCU carrier bearings,a cheap and easy fix.
And I have yet to see a freebie with a clutch cable fitted.:rolleyes:
Eggsakly what i was thinking, freelander, heavy clutch, will be the clutch and release fork, if its left to long the clutch fork will probably fail if the slave cylinder mounting bracket doesn't snap first. I would suggest you find another garage that knows what the foook there talking about, if you have a bearing noise it needs sorting out before it fails.
 
As long as its generally ok on the road then should be ok. One thing to check though when driving. Turn it to full lock when you are going very slowly in first gear and if the car wants to stop then your VCU could be going. That's your viscous coupling unit or middle differential. They are prone to going like this but as long as you're not driving on full lock just keep an eye on it (or ear more like!)

Have a look at this link............

Symptoms - Bell Engineering

I took the freelander to homebase carpark and tried it on full lock slowly in 1s gear, no problems at all.
 
Eggsakly what i was thinking, freelander, heavy clutch, will be the clutch and release fork, if its left to long the clutch fork will probably fail if the slave cylinder mounting bracket doesn't snap first. I would suggest you find another garage that knows what the foook there talking about, if you have a bearing noise it needs sorting out before it fails.

well, I asked him to have a look at the clutch arm, as suggested on here, where it enters the bell housing and he said he oiled it and now the clutch is a lot lighter.
 
So, Can anyone suggest a good Garage in the north devon area that can tell me what this noise is and if its a major problem or not?
 
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