When I accelerate the FF hard, I get a rumbling / thudding sound from the rear passenger side, doesn't do it if I accelerate gently or moderately although I have started to feel a bit of vibration from the rear passenger side at speeds above 60mph. Also seem to get a slight metallic clunk when stationary, if I cycle the gears from Drive into Reverse. Started fairly recently and has been getting slightly worse. Took it to my local indy last week and demonstrated the clunk, he had a quick look under while I cycled the gears, but couldn't see anything obvious (though he knows it's not gearbox related, as noise is coming from the back of the FF). Not caused by binding brakes, as wheel, disc and caliper all cool even after long runs out on the open roads.
Got it booked in to my indy for Friday, but wondered if anyone on here might have any clues as to what the problem might be. Initial thoughts are rear bushes (though they were replaced for last year's MOT), drive shaft, CV joint, loose bolts, bearings or something else?

Cheers everyone for any insights.

Sounds like you've left the mother-in-law in there by mistake....








...sorry couldn't resist Mike - MPx

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Turns out it's the rear propshaft centre bearing knackered, got a second hand propshaft on the way and will get it fitted next week.
Getting the starter motor changed as well, as that's starting to make bad noises and is struggling to turn the engine over.

Hey, ho.....the life of a FF Owner.

Sorry to hijack the thread but I also suspect my centre bearing.

Is it not possible to just replace the centre bearing or is it a new shaft as the original posters doing?

Discotigger wrote:

Turns out it's the rear propshaft centre bearing knackered, got a second hand propshaft on the way and will get it fitted next week.
Getting the starter motor changed as well, as that's starting to make bad noises and is struggling to turn the engine over.

Hey, ho.....the life of a FF Owner.

The centre propshaft bearing is available separately.
I'm sure site sponsor advanced factors do one on their website.
Greg.

Had one fail on my 3 series BMW IIRC they are about £40ish, not difficult to do just a PITA having to take all the bits off to get to it. 2004 4.4V8 Vogue
BMW 330CD
BMW523i
Escort Mexico MK1
1974 airportable series 3

Yes you can just get the bearing on its own, but as said it's a pita to strip down the propshaft to get to the bearing. I've managed to get a good second-hand propshaft with centre bearing for just £85-00, so will cost less in the long run for the garage to replace it, and I'll get the car back on the road sooner.
Will get the garage to leave me the old propshaft and will get a replacement bearing to fit at my leasure, then if the replacement prop goes south, I've got a spare to put on straight away.

It's what I do with all the bits I've replaced on the FF, so now got a good inventory of 'fixed' spares for my use.

Does anyone have or know of a how to for stripping the prop shaft?

The strip down of the propshaft and bearing is covered in the Workshop Service Procedures Manual, have a look in the Wiki section for the manual.

Haven't seen any 'how to's' but there may be something on Youtube.

Well, picked up the Rangie today and my mechanic showed me the old propshaft. The universal joint was in a pretty poor state with one of the pins pretty badly damaged. It was darned lucky that I had got a replacement second hand propshaft and centre bearing, otherwise I would have been stuck.

So a word of advice for anyone who has a similar problem with their centre bearing. Check out the propshaft carefully as the damage wasn't readily noticeable until the prop had been removed from the vehicle.

Thanks for the info Dt.