Wobble At Most Speeds - Prop Removed

Hi again all...

My 2002 TD4 developed a wobble yesterday when driving on the motorway.

It started off quite mild, then got pretty severe. There was no associated noise with it, the car turns on full lock fine (without noises), so I assume dit was the VCU bearings... lo-and-behold, they are knackered, but I've taken the shaft off and the wobble is still there but not quite as bad.

The wobble is throughout the whole car, not just the steering.

The most perplexing thing for me is that there is no associated noise with it.

Any clues? Am I looking at a new VCU? (If so, the car is going to be sold for bits - it's done 125k and so won't be economical to fix if it's more than a few hundred squid).

Could be the knackered bearings have damaged the IRD or diff pinion bearings, have a look to see if either have any lift in them, if they have then this could be the problem.

Cheers Nick... is it just a case of shaking the output shafts to see if there's any give?

Right, I've given the rear output shaft from the IRD and the input shaft to the rear diff a good shake in all directions... Neither of them appear ot have any play in any direction.

I'm assuming this is a good sign...

If there's no lift in either then this could indicate that the output shaft bearings are ok, unfortunately this will not show if there is internal damage to the IRD or diff. You could lift the front wheels and run the car in gear/drive with you listening underneath (safely) to check if the vibration is coming from the IRD as this appears more likely to fail before the diff. Difficult to try and diagnose without seeing/listening to the car so these are only my suggestions, someone may have had a similar problem and may be able to offer more help than I can.

Cheers again Nick...

I'm assuming that if the IRD/diff gears are screwed, the result is a load of noise from the grinding metal?

I don't have the facilities to pick the car up safely and run the wheels with me underneath, but this is more like a silent vibration than anything like that. It seems to get slightly worse when I take my foot off the gas when coming down from higher speeds and it's there whether the car's in gear or coasting.

EDIT: It is worse when coming down from speed and can be felt through the gearstick as a strong, low frequency vibration. It also doesn't seem to be anywhere near as bad if the car is out of gear. Going for another drive in a bit, as I need ot drop something off.

Might seem a bit obvious, but have you checked your tyre pressures and what are your tyres like?

have you checked wheel bearings.

David... Tyres and wheels are fine.

1spin... Wondering if it is a bearing or outer, left side cv joint, as I've been for a steady drive down some country lanes and have found that the vibration is far worse when I'm going round a right hand bend (so the weight of the car in the left/passenger side). It's at its worse when either accelerating or slowing down in those situations.

Going round a left hand bend (under either accel or decel) is as smooth as a silk.

Will jack up that side tomorrow and have a good shake of all the bits...

is it a manuel or auto mine old one shook like that in it was auto turned out to be gearbox in the end as well as the vcu

It's a manual.

Last nights test drive was a bit more illuminating... The rumbling/wobble is seriously bad when pressure is over on the left front wheel (turning right) and non-existent when turning left. Now I've felt it several times, I can feel it coming from the front left hand side.

I had the very same problem as you and it turned out to be a bearing missing from the driveshaft there are supposed to be 3 in there but i had one missing causing the wobble,my inner boot was split and somehow don't know how i lost a bearing.

replaced the drive shaft and it runs sweet again.

Just had the front wheel off the ground and gave it a good ragging around and had a look at the drive shaft. Couldn't see any damage or feel anything that was particularly loose.

I'm back to thinking it's that side of the IRD that's goosed.

Gonna go and buy a cheap car this week, to get me around, then decide whether to fix or flog the broken Freelander.

Here's a non-update on this...

I bought a new small car to get me around and just use the Freelander for taking my dog out. Still not got to the bottom of what's wrong, but it's not got any worse over the course of about 500 miles, so I'm going to hope it's something small, so I can keep the freelander through winter.

I'll get it back in to 4wd ASAP, as it's made no difference taking the propshaft off.

somebody has not loosend your wheel nuts have they

How bad is the wobble? Could it be a wheel out of balance? Is there a balance weight missing on the wheel?

I would still put a decent bet on your tyres.

What tyres have you got on it? Goodyear Wranglers maybe?

Checked the wheelnuts...

Not checked the tyre to be honest, but doubt it's that as I can't feel the wobble through the steering wheel.

I'm really busy at the moment, but I hope to get chance to have a really good explore of the problem one evening this week. Even if I decide to get rid of the car for spares or repair, I still want to know what the problem is!

ShotgunDrew said:

Checked the wheelnuts...

Not checked the tyre to be honest, but doubt it's that as I can't feel the wobble through the steering wheel.

I'm really busy at the moment, but I hope to get chance to have a really good explore of the problem one evening this week. Even if I decide to get rid of the car for spares or repair, I still want to know what the problem is!

Click to expand...

Rears won't show thru steering, fronts don't always!


DD