Vibration on acelleration only

Freelander TD4 03 Plate SW Auto. When accelerating there is a vibration which you feel through the seat not the steering wheel, started light at first but within 2-300 miles its become quite severe .. its now uncomfortable to drive. Vibration only appears on acceleration or when engine under load, take foot off the gas and its smooth. Theres little or no accompanying noise with the vibration and it seems worse when turning right and eases when turning left. Not very noticeable up to 30-35 but can then be felt getting worse the faster you go, 60+ gets a little scary. Almost feels like I've got an egg shaped wheel NSF. Will go left or right full circle on full lock with no noise and no straining. If stationary in park or neutral revving the engine is smooth, no noise or rattle, no vibration. Recently had the head off for a little remedial work and replaced 2 injectors, engine runs smooth so seems to suggest drive train.

Any thoughts? Any good places to start checking or some good tips on diagnosing?

Taipan has had similar prob with his L-series still ongoing, yet to be resolved.

You just have to elliminate possible causes one by one.

Start with sump gaurd against sump/exhaust and exhaust downpipe hitting subframe. Plus check all accessories fitted in engine bay

Engine mounts especially lower tie bar cause rumbling/thumping noise if worn badly. I noticed the rubber bush had split approx 3cm across. noise was awful and only present under heavy acceleration. Especially uphill

If you suspect the drive train then removing propshaft will elliminate rear diff and VCU problems. For your sakes hopefully its not mechanical based

I have read in other forums that UV joints are a common cause of these symptoms across the whole range of LRs.

try them first.

Did you get to the bottom of this vibration? My Freelander has the same vibration at 70 mph-ish only when accelerating and worst when under heavy load. Drives perfectly all the rest of the time.

Cheers

Rog

Have done 400 miles in the Freelander this weekend and all was abosolutely perfect except for this damn vibration. You can only feel it through the seats and doesn't happen at all below 60 mph. Over 60mph it depends if you are accelerating or not. Drives fine all the rest of the time (on lock, in reverse, etc, etc).

Any ideas??

Cheers

Rog

First - have you had new tires?
Secondly - I would be tempted to pop under and just check the 2 bolts from UJ's to VC (outbound side of the support bearings) are tight and the c shaped washers are present and correct. Will take you 2 mins to check.....You still here?

Dealer who I bought the car from is taking the Freelander in tomorrow to have a look. I get a lovely Astra courtesy car in the meantime

Will let you know what happens...

Cheers

Rog

i realise im a bit late for this thread but i have a very simalar problem, vibration under accelleration at 30mph plus. turned out to be the tyres, swapped the half worn rears for the new fronts and she was fine untill breaking, then it juddered under breaking. so i forked out for 2 more new tyres and its fine. I think i have a very picky Viscus joint as it would appear to keep slipping into 4 wheel drive.

OK. Dealer I bought the car from (not a LR dealer) had the car for two days and said that first of all they couldn't feel the vibration. Eventually, the service manager took it out and he could feel it but they didn't know what it was. On the second day they took it to their local Land Rover dealer who have diagnosed the problem as "...a damper in the gearbox".

I'm not sure what this is and got the info third hand via my dealer who couldn't even tell me if it was a big job or not. I'm guessing it's a bush of some kind. Anyway, my dealer has booked it into the LR dealer next Wednesday to get sorted.

I'll let you know if they're successful...

Cheers

Rog

the damper is not the cause of your problem, there is a bulliten on the damper and if theres a fault you get a gear lever vibration at 1250 rpm, it depends on how you drive it as to whether you'll get the vibration, all they'll do with the damper is take it off and cut it in half.

I had a freelander in the other day, an 05 Td4 that had a serious vibration under acceleration and at 60+ (accelerating) the whole car was shuddering, I condemed the front driveshafts, when it comes back to have these fitted, i'll put a post on here and let you know if it cures it.

clutchdust said:

the damper is not the cause of your problem, there is a bulliten on the damper and if theres a fault you get a gear lever vibration at 1250 rpm, it depends on how you drive it as to whether you'll get the vibration, all they'll do with the damper is take it off and cut it in half.

I had a freelander in the other day, an 05 Td4 that had a serious vibration under acceleration and at 60+ (accelerating) the whole car was shuddering, I condemed the front driveshafts, when it comes back to have these fitted, i'll put a post on here and let you know if it cures it.

Click to expand...

Well, if it doesn't fix it they'll just be getting the car back to try again... I'll let you know what happens.

Cheers

Rog

Spoke to the dealer when they picked the car up today about whether it might not be this damper causing it. He simply said that they will test drive when it comes back from LR and if it's not right it will go back again...

In the meantime, I have a "lovely" bright red Fiesta loan car :-(

I'll let you know what happens

Cheers

Rog

OK. It's been a while so time for an update. The damper was replaced and it made no difference at all (as correctly predicted by ClutchDust). Dealer is now saying that it feels fine to them and that they cannot fix a fault they cannot find. They also said I was welcome to get a second opinion.

So, off I went to Pilling Land Rover which is only a few hundred yards from my house. One of their guys drove it and before getting to then end of the road said that it wasn't right. A bit of a test drive and a look underneath and he says both front drive shafts need replacing (right again ClutchDust!); nearside's worse but he recommended doing the pair. They put this in writing for me to pass onto my dealer. Cost for half an hour of a main dealer's time - £0.00 and they were very nice.

Back onto my dealer (who is about 25 miles from home) who don't want to pay LR main dealer prices to fix it so they have arranged for a independent garage local to me to have a look tomorrow.

Will let you know...

Cheers

Rog

Reference my earlier post....................

Front driveshafts fixed the vibration, N/S driveshaft inner joint fell to bits when the shaft was removed, I replaced both as a matter of cause and it was under warranty anyway.

If your vibration is THAT bad then the dealer should be able to find the problem, if they can't then they're bloody usless. They told you it feels ok 'cos they can't be bothered to sort it.

I have now had the car tested by LR main dealer and local LR specialist and both agree that the vibration is present and that it shouldn't be there. The main dealer says drive shaft; the independent says he needs to do more testing but suspects flywheel.

I faxed written reports from the testing to the dealer I bought the car from and they are now working on a solution.

I also have a third pary warranty on the car (supplied by the dealer) and the warranty company say they won't pay for repairs if it is the drive shaft as it is worn and not broken. Does this sound like b******s to anyone else? Surely a drive shaft is not a service item?? Of course, it doesn't worry me if the warranty company won't cover it cos I'm not paying anyway!

Cheers

Rog

Sorted!

Dealer agreed to take the car back and replace the two front drive shafts. Got the car back today and it drives like new! It's like the whole drivetrain has been tightened up. Gearstick, seats, steering wheel, pedals, everything feels really nice and very smooth.

The guy at the Land Rover main dealer who diagnosed it said that I wouldn't believe the difference once the driveshafts had been replaced and he wasn't kidding!!

Well done Clutchdust!!

Cheers

Rog

PS - Based on this experience I would recommend my local LR main dealer if you do have a problem and no-one else can help (queue the A-Team theme). They spent over half an hour looking at my car including a test drive and looking underneath it plus the service reception guy put their findings in writing. On top of all this their diagnosis was spot on. Cost to me £0.00. They are Pilling LR in Welwyn.

Glad you got it sorted. I'm suprised it took so long though as its not like its an uncommon problem, we've done loads!!!

clutchdust said:

Reference my earlier post....................

Front driveshafts fixed the vibration, N/S driveshaft inner joint fell to bits when the shaft was removed, I replaced both as a matter of cause and it was under warranty anyway.

If your vibration is THAT bad then the dealer should be able to find the problem, if they can't then they're bloody usless. They told you it feels ok 'cos they can't be bothered to sort it.

Click to expand...

Hi clutch dust, I have this same rumble coming through the seats when accelerating, so you're driveshaft change solved the problem which has saved me a lot of finding so thank you, could you tell me how much 2 driveshafts cost, much appreciated,

Grinford said:

Hi clutch dust, I have this same rumble coming through the seats when accelerating, so you're driveshaft change solved the problem which has saved me a lot of finding so thank you, could you tell me how much 2 driveshafts cost, much appreciated,

Click to expand...

i doubt it - that post was 10 years ago