• Welcome to the Land Rover UK Forums

    You are currently viewing the site as a guest and some content may not be available to you.

    Registration is quick and easy and will give you full access to the site and allow you to ask questions or make comments and join in on the conversation. If you would like to register then please Register Now

Does anybody recognise this noise and is it dangerous

Wild Rover

Wild Rover

Overdrive!
Hi there, I recently got back from a 1000 mile jaunt to visit family and the next day when I drove the 110 200 Tdi I started hearing a noise apparently from underneath me. It sounds like a thin metal rod dragging and bouncing off the road or some moving part. I have spent an hour underneath this morning prodding and pulling everthing I can get to. I have inspected the drive shafts for touching parts and looked in the engine space but I can see nothing that would account for the noise. From inside the vehicle the noise sounds like it should be external and it seems to happen most during the lag when you lift off the accelerator.

Has anybody experienced this before as it is worrying me as I will be back to work in the vehicle soon and will be covering some miles.

Hope you can shed some light on this, thanks.
 
Hi , Had same prob with mine the noise used to come and go, thought it was the thrust bearing, but after stripping for my refurb it turned out to be the spigot bearing. Its very cheap to replace but means taking the gearbox out to change!
 
Snagger said:
If it sounds like a metal tea spoon stirring tea in a china mug, it's a knackered propshaft UJ.
Click to expand...

Thanks Snagger is there any way to be sure its a uj. I was pulling the propshafts and looked at the uj's for loose bolts etc but could not really tel. There did not seem to be any movement along the shafts just free play when I twisted the whole propshaft, about an 1/8th of a turn prehaps. I don't like the sound of a spigot thingy so would like it to be a uj as I can see at least four of them. How do I tell which one if it is this? And more importantly what will happen if it fails whilst I'm driving? Will it drop onto the road or will it just make more noise and damage something else.

Cheers

PS How many uj's am I looking for?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You could give them all a shot of grease and see if it temporarily quietens them for a bit.
I had an annoying metal clanging noise on my 90 for six months, was driven demented looking for it and only occured at certain revs, turned out to be the front springs vibrating aginst the top retaining ring.
Mike
 
You need to see if there is any free play in the UJs. By the time they are squealing, and clunking on the over-run, they will be pretty worn. Put a large screwdriver between the two parts of the UJ (the U-shaped bits) and see if you can get movment between them by leverage. There hsould be no movement at all.

There are four UJs on the propshafts, one at the front end and rear end of each shaft.

If any of the UJs is in a really bad way, and decides to finally fall apart when you are driving, it can be messy. The spinning propshaft could decide to try and throw itself up through the floor, or through the gaerbox / transfer case, or it might embed itself in the road and act as a pivot to flip the landy up in the air :eek:
 
Believe Bernie and believe me that can and does happen.

You could chock one wheel,back and front, handbrake off and out of gear. Then crawl underneath and try twisting/lifting the propshaft.

My money is stll on propshaft related problems.
 
My guess is that it's the rear Uj of the front propshaft. greasing it may hide the noise for confirmation purposes, but it will need replacing even if the noise stops. You may need to remove the prop and drive very gently with the centre diff locked to confirm the failure, as UJs can seize or fail without any slack or play.
 
I had a very similar noise. There is a metel flange on the front of the transmission box where the output shaft connects to the front prop. This had come lose and would occasionaly rattle about.
 
Bernie Hayden said:
If any of the UJs is in a really bad way, and decides to finally fall apart when you are driving, it can be messy. The spinning propshaft could decide to try and throw itself up through the floor, or through the gaerbox / transfer case, or it might embed itself in the road and act as a pivot to flip the landy up in the air :eek:
Click to expand...

Thanks Bernie, did you happen to watch 'Final Destination 2' the other night by any chance. Thats it, time for a thourough examination I think.

Will try greasing the UJ's one at a time and driving (slowly) round the block. To see which one if any stops making the noise. Oh actually I'd better try levering them first and look at the mounting plates.

Thanks to all for suggestions, will start tomorrow, if the rain in Glasgow holds off. Any meteorologists amoung you?

Cheers
 
Snagger said:
My guess is that it's the rear Uj of the front propshaft. greasing it may hide the noise for confirmation purposes, but it will need replacing even if the noise stops. You may need to remove the prop and drive very gently with the centre diff locked to confirm the failure, as UJs can seize or fail without any slack or play.
Click to expand...

Hi Snagger, do you mean that if the noice stops when one of the shafts is removed that the problem can only be in that component or one leading from it? Also with the dif locked am I not in danger of twisting the drive shafts to the driving wheels (are these the 'halfshafts') at the first tight corner (about 40 yds) from my place?
 
Back
Top Bottom