Hi all,

I have just registered with a view of being a range rover owner once more. Having owned a P38 and enjoyed smoking round in it, I now want to own a full fat rangie.

I have found one for sale at a trade dealer, although I have not been to see it yet due to distance, I have spoke to the dealer and spoke in length about it, the story is as follows.

Dealer was fixing a couple of small issues before releasing the vehicle which included sorting out the central locking and a window fault, I quizzed about the front diff and the resonse was that his technician works for guy salmon landrover who had checked it over and no outstanding work was neccasary. After a couple of days mulling I phoned him back to secure the vehicle with a few quid, of which he happened to be with his technician, so being a nosy sod decided to chat with him and it came out that the car has not had the diff recall done !!! Also they had found out that the gearbox was playing up after an oil change, the dealer assured me all would be well as he would have the gearbox and have it overhauled. In the mean time leave the front diff to him to investigate.

As you can imagine I came off the phone in a dilemma, so here is/are my questions,

Can the front diff still be recalled and if not how would it be done, I ask in case the dealer makes me a proposition with respect to the price, would it be worthwhile me getting it done or should I look else where.

Secondly does anything specific need doing with a gearbox overhaul, am I looking at a dog of a car or will I be blessed with a "new" gearbox.

Many thanks

Paul

IIRC the recall has ended and LR will charge now if requested to do.

Could you expect this recall to have been done by dealer if the service records show a service before and after the recall date ??
i ask this as i dont know if mine has been done but have a dealer service record upto 2011 0n 05 vogue, this may also help v8 paul. (SEE WHAT HAPPENS WITH HEATED SEATS)

Not sure .... Easy enough to tell by looking underneath tho.

I think you can call any LR dealership service department and they will be able to tell you.

speak with Liam in the LR customer relations section, get him to check and if not done ask him what can be done, accorrectly worded mail or letter may have more effect than you may think. One day your life will flash before your eyes......................................make sure yours is worth watching!

Thanks guys, with the recall ending and it is now chargeable, how much does this cost to upgrade, it does seem surprising that his vehicle has got to 120k without the mod

Get reg and vin and get Liam to check and see what recalls have been done. One day your life will flash before your eyes......................................make sure yours is worth watching!

I have read quite a few threads that suggest the recall was due to an incorrectly lined up prop shaft during assembly, this usually manifests itself as a destroyed front diff or stripped shaft - evident usually <60k

Not all actually needed the recall - if the alignment was correct to start with then there is no problem, infact some people have reported disturbed seals & oil leaks after the recall work.

[]

Nothing to do with alignment - it's the lack of any flexibilty on the coupling on the front shaft at the diff.

Old shaft coupling


New shaft coupling .

steptoe wrote:

Nothing to do with alignment - it's the lack of any flexibilty on the coupling on the front shaft at the diff.

Hmmmm manufacturers are always pretty cagey about stuff, a bit strange why they did not replace the prop and diff with the same type if there wasn't a design fault in the first place and align them correctly. More to the point is the statement

Consequence:
CONTINUED VEHICLE OPERATION CAN EVENTUALLY RESULT IN THE SPLINES SHEARING AND A LOSS OF DRIVE, INCREASING THE RISK OF A CRASH.

How on earth can LR refuse to change a part that can cause by their own admission A CRASH. I was doubting if mine had been done (Liam checked and it has had all its recalls) but if it had not I was going to get my daughter who is just about to qualify as a Lawyer to write a strong letter that would basically ask LR to take full responsibilty for any outcome of a crash or lock up at motorway speed. She explained it was almost immpossible for them to reply and avoid any liability.

As regard the reason for the re-call i would just say IMO dont believe everything you read. One day your life will flash before your eyes......................................make sure yours is worth watching!

Katash wrote:

steptoe wrote:

Nothing to do with alignment - it's the lack of any flexibilty on the coupling on the front shaft at the diff.

Take a look here

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/12/05/nearly-...-recalled/

This and numerous other sources clearly state its due to miss alignment of the prop shaft.

If it was lack of flexibility then ALL cars would eventually fail, results suggest if you have a 'bad one' its will have failed early, if you've done > 60K there is no need for the mod as the shaft isn't miss aligned.

I agree the CV joint is the best way to go and does allow flexibility but your original statement Steptoe saying it had nothing to do with alignment is just plain incorrect.

Your link even contains the following text

Quote:

It is well-known that some past BMW vehicles have had problems with drive shafts (propeller shafts or "prop shafts" in Queen's English) being misaligned causing spline wear and breakage in the differential. Since the new RR was designed by this manufacturer, it is possible that a similar issue is at work here.

Quote:

in 2004 Land Rover issued a special jig to dealers for aligning the front diff and supposedly eliminating the problem.

steptoe wrote:

If the vehicle was only ever used on flat surfaced roads and never taken off road you'd never have a problem

Probably worth pointing out that, because the L322 has independent front suspension, neither end of the front propshaft moves in space, no matter what the suspension is doing. The final drive assembly is bolted to the engine sump – and is therefore part of a rigid assembly, through the engine and transmission, back to the transfer box.

Click image to enlarge

The spline wear issue was caused by levels of angular misalignment between the external spline on the end of the propshaft and the internal spline in the pinion drive tube which were beyond what the flexible coupling at the transfer box end of the front propshaft could cope with. The introduction of a second joint at the final drive end of the propshaft, with Q041, cured this.

The clearance in the four bolt holes that attach the final drive to the sump is what allowed this misalignment to materialise.



Phil

Admin note: this post has had its images recovered from a money grabbing photo hosting site and reinstated

So basically a design fault? One day your life will flash before your eyes......................................make sure yours is worth watching!