You know the trick to try and find on which side a wheel bearing is failing...swerve gently from side-to-side and listen as to whether the rumble comes and goes depending left turn or right turn...

Does the same trick work for the rear diff?

The rumble is most noticeable at 40 or 65mph. If it swerve/turn left, the noise pretty much disappears. Turn right or drive straight, then the rumble/drone is quite noticeable.

Thanks

Generally, I notice wheel bearings as more of a ,rrrr,rrrr,rrrr,rrrr sound as the wheel rotates .... I.e. It's not an even sound as the wheel rotates. The diff is more a rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr constant sound.

^^^^^ I had a wheel bearing replaced last year and the sound was thud thus speed related noise rather than a constant drone. FL2 SD4 Metropolis Auto Santorini Black / ivory completely stock.

It's true that light travels faster than sound, some people look quite intelligent until you hear them speak.


Stop global winging.

My rear wheel bearing noise was a drone but it used to come and go with different speeds.
Then again garage said it was a 'grumbling' wheel bearing

N/s rear wheel bearing, as per other comments, varied with speed, silent at town speeds, worse at 50-60, but started appearing at 45.

On left handers noise disappeared, and came back as soon as straightened up. On long left hand bends if you drove it like a threepenny bit could make noise come and go as you pleased. Can't say it got any worse on rh bends.

Getting the drive shaft out of the hub required a 10 tonne press and a BIG hammer. Typical Land rover. Granville, fetch a bigger hammer!

I took the car into Sturgess in Leicester. They put it up on ramps and confirmed that it was the nearside rear wheel bearing. They'd want over £400 for the job, but I can't remember if that included VAT yet. No noise from the differential, thank god!

After reading up on the bearing, it doesn't seem like the job that any garage will be able to do. Perhaps a Landrover specialist. Nearest one to me is Infield4x4.

Would it be simplest to change the whole hub assembly?

I had the hub assembly changed when my wheel bearing went, cost about £190

Just looked out the invoice, £93 for the hub assembly, £75 labour, plus vat.

My bearing cost Something like £300 including new handbrake shoes, done by Derby 4x4. FL2 SD4 Metropolis Auto Santorini Black / ivory completely stock.

It's true that light travels faster than sound, some people look quite intelligent until you hear them speak.


Stop global winging.

Reading all these posts with great interest. I will try the left right thing on mine.

Do you know if the LR extended warranty covers bearings or diffs?

Can I just ask, does your noise sound worse when accelerating or decelerating? I've noticed mine becomes more evident if I take my foot off the gas and let the car slow itself.

Mine was speed/corner dependent rather than accelerating/decelerating.

According to the LR indy that replaced the rear wheel bearings for me (both done for good measure) FL2's always wear the NSR but rarely the OSR. Some of his customers had gone through a couple of NSR's but no probs with OSR. He said there was a suspicion that there was a manufacturing fault/misalignment in the arm for a number of years. Could be just hearsay (and maybe just due to the camber of the road?) but he's been servicing LRs for 30 years so I tend to believe him.

Interesting. I was sitting in the back of mine on a journey today and I just cant tell what's going on. The car has certainly developed a tone over about 40mph, but I cant tell if its road noise or what. In the process of preparing to move house so every penny counts so am wary of going to local dealer and pay for nothing.