| Front driveshaft loosing grease due to loose bolts | |
Hi,
my name's Michael and for about a month now I own a 2012 4.4 TDV8. I'm from Germany and am otherwise driving a 110 Land Rover and some Audis on which I try to do most work myself.
I got the L322 mainly for towing and have done a basic service on it and replaced the rear dampers because they showed a peculiar combination of wear patterns causing a number of problems (squeaking, rattling, adaptive dynamics fault plus being way too soft, i.e. worn out). I can do a separate post about that if there's interest.
Another thing I noticed looking it over though is a spatter of what seems to be grease (or very thick and dark oil) on the underbody near the transfer case which looks like it originates from the flange of the front driveshaft.
Today I managed to get it on a ramp and look at it more closely. It turned out all six bolts were loose, about hand tight. From the marks I suspect someone's had the driveshaft out and didn't tighten the bolts properly.
Due to lack of time I just tightened them up to about 65nm for now and have new ones on the way to replace and torque up properly (RAVE says 45nm plus 90 degrees, i.e. single-use stretch bolts I assume). At that point I'd like to separate the flanges and take a peek what's going on inside.
In the meantime I'm wondering:
1. Where does the grease or oil come from? Shouldn't both transfer case and driveshaft be sealed units, at least regarding those flanges?
2. Is tightening those bolts likely to stop the fluid loss or do I have a bigger problem? Neither RAVE nor parts catalogue mention a seal there so I'm somewhat pessimistic.
3. If it's grease or oil from the drive shaft, could that leakage shorten its life and is it serviceable, i.e. can it be re-greased/-oiled?
I think it unlikely that the fluid coming from the transfer case since I changed its oil and it was still full before the change, a totally different colour and of course a lot thinner than the spattered stuff. Also, there's no weepage of any oils or other fuilds anywhere in the vincinity, gearbox and transfer box are totally dry.
Thanks in advance for any advice what I'm looking at here.
Thanks,
Michael
|
7th Oct 2022 7:18pm
) I had opportunity to check the drive shaft flange and as hoped no new grease had made its way out since I changed and tightened the bolts. Thanks everyone!
