Our 2009 fl2 has recently developed a noisy diff. Finding it difficult to get anyone in the local area in Australia to repair it so thinking of buying a recon from uk and shipping it over. Has anyone had the diff actually fail completely, or just get noisier ? Just wondering how long we have before the car is off the road. I can see that in uk repairs seem common and quite affordable, initial research suggests 3,000 dollars over here for a rebuild which is way more than over there. The great Australian rip off in action again.

I may have an option of having a diff brought back as excess luggage as missus is over in England this week. Not sure how happy she will be though at the prospect of bringing one back with her. Freelander 2, Nissan Elgrand Autech Rider.

Is the problem with the diff or the Haldex?

Mine degraded over time from first noticing it. I reckon in my case, the gap between first thinking "hmm, there is a noise there" under moderate acceleration in 4th till the point it was noisy all the time regardless and had to be changed would have been about 6 - 8 weeks. I really can't recall. Towards the latter time, I was tending to avoid going longer journeys with it, just to play it safe.

To diagnose it, I put the car up on axle stands all round ( plus other things underneath as a precaution), and with all wheels in the air, engaged different gears to make it spin all wheels at different speeds.

I could clearly trace the source of the noise to coming from in the join between the haldex and the nose of the diff.

I got my re-con diff from: http://www.ics-steeringspecialist.co.uk and did the work myself.

If I needed another, I wouldn't look elsewhere, I would go straight back to them.

Depends, mine seiously deteriated in 500 miles, parts are about £150, the rest is labour.

We first noticed the noise about two months ago, it is noticeable from about 40kph and gets noisier over 80 kph. The car travels about 600km per week, so may have already done 5000km with the noise. My worry us that it will just go bang one day and seize up. Taking it to a landrover dealer here is out of the question due to distance and cost, so I would do the work myself. I am confident with the spanners and have serviced all my cars for years including my jaguar xk8 and previously lotus esprit and rx7 etc. not much phases me if I have the manuals and info required.

What's the best way to check whether it's Haldex or diff ? It certainly sounds like a bearing. Thanks for the replies, much appreciated. Freelander 2, Nissan Elgrand Autech Rider.

Re eliminating the Haldex, you could pull the fuse which will leave the Haldex disengaged, just spinning with the propshaft input. The fuse is in the boot fusebox (15amp). Just a thought. Not recommended to run permanently with the fuse out though.

Bob 10MY (Sept 09) TD4 HSE Auto in Stornoway Grey (Now Gone)

08 FL2 TD4 SE Manual in Rimini Red (Now Gone)

Spuddyo, I would suggest that you change the fluids as it is easy and only a few quid, sorry $. it may be too late but it could be that fluid is low or in need of replacement. I did mine and it was nasty stuff that I extracted, plus the Haldex fluid was low, which is still a mystery to me as there are no leaks - I have run the car for a month and rechecked levels and all is good. I would extract the fluids and inspect for ware. Put some nice new fluids in and see if it makes a difference. Just my opinion, I am not a mechanic.