as the title said.

Garage have confirmed the DMF is on its way out, due to excessive vibration however nothing too severe at this stage

Warranty company want the gearbox etc stripped out, so their assessor can come and look at it. Although while it is in pieces on the workshop floor im not sure exactly what he is hoping to see to confirm/deny the diagnosis. (obviously at my expense so about £150 to remove it all)

Garage have advised me to keep driving until it gets worse, bad enough for it be plainly obvious although they are happy to book it in for the next week.

What exactly should i be looking out for as the DMF 'fails' further ??

Being slightly cynical perhaps, but the warranty company may want to inspect the clutch as well as the flywheel as they may be able to argue that a failing clutch caused or contributed to the damage to the flywheel!

If the flywheel deteriorates further you'd most likely experience the vibrations getting worse, and possibly the clutch starting to slip.

At the moment the clutch isnt slipping in any gear, just getting judder at idle (more than normal for diesel) and the feeling of driving over rough tarmac road surface quite frequently.
No noises from the back end so Im not suspecting haldex or rear diff issues.

The car has done 66k, it was on 48k when I got it last August and its a July 2008 model so is fairly low mileage for its age. The majority of my miles have been done the A1 so the clutch set up hasnt been getting hammered.

So basically am I looking for the first signs of clutch slip, and the vibrations getting progressively worse ??

Any danger of the DMF suddently going bang at a critical moment ??

I believe flywheels can go bang, damaging other components in the process, but I don't know what the likelihood of that happening in practice is. (Others with motor mechanic experience may be able to advise better on this one).

Also, all that vibration is being transferred to other components in the drivetrain which isn't doing them any favours.

Ive just emailed the warranty company explaining the vibrations, the lack of any clutch issues and my concerns over further damage being caused, waiting time now to see what they come back with.

They are just following the process really and from my experience with process following, if you raise a concern then the problem is looked at on an individual basis rather than just a semi automated response.

fingers crossed

With mine when the whole thing was on its way out, clutch and flywheel the very first thing that became apparent was the engine revs which rise momentarily whilst trying to accelerate in 6th gear up a very slight incline, like on a motorway, doing around 50 mph, try to accelerate fairly hard, the revs will rise around 500 rpm and then drop back to normal without any increase in road speed then it would continue normally.
I only got vibration when it was actually slipping and it was ok otherwise.
If I never tried this action you would have never of known there was anything wrong, in fact if it was just a town car only it probably would have gone on for years still without the fault making itself known.

Mine was fixed under warranty as it was under 3 years old and done 50000 miles, they said it was a defect and renewed the clutch assembly, flywheel and whilst they had it in bits the clutch slave cylinder too, would have been around £1200 apparently?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Land rover have said £1300
From looking around on here Indys come in at £700 - £900.

I think the warranty company are going to use the wear and tear clause, even though the DMF is not 'supposed' to fail for a good many miles more than Ive got.

They seem to be going down the line of ' if its a sudden mechanical failure' (i.e. gives out completely while doing 70mph in the outside lane of the motorway!) then its covered but failure by wear and tear isnt (even though they state that wear and tear is covered)

So it seems they would rather me wait until it goes completely, and then pay for a repair and any consequential damage it may have caused, at much greater expense (full DMF, clutch, slave, diff, haldex etc etc etc) than pay a lot less to replace it now.

I will just have to wait out and see. Worst comes to worst then I will pay to have the gearbox removed, have them inspect the lumps of useless metal on the garage floor, and take it from there.

"God only knows what's next" - better make it an automatic!

Seriously, I hope things work out OK for you. Ours - 2008 Stornoway Grey HSE Auto
Tricia's - 2006 Royal Blue Beetle Cabriolet Auto
Mine - 2014 Vespa GTS 300 Super Sport Matt Black
Ours - 2007 White Bailey Pageant Champagne

cheers RJC.

I can afford to pay for the new bits myself, just dont want to

As for the auto, I did really want one but when this one came up on a local forecourt, it was the colour I wanted with the panoramic roof and roof rails and with a low mileage, too good to pass up.

I was thinking that IF I have another Freelander (and big IF at the moment) then I would probably go for an auto as then the extended warranty would cover any problems rather than have the "Clutch of Damocles" hanging over me. 3 x FL1 2 manual + 1 auto
5 x FL2 4 manual + 1 auto
Now Discovery Sport P250 MHEV SE

Update

Assessor has been out to inspect the lumps of metal, apparently the DMF was well shot and the slave cylinder was also leaking.

Garage believes the warranty company will authorise full or at least partial payment of the claim so I have fingers/toes/legs/eyes crossed

Warranty company have so far wriggled out of it and refused to pay saying i had continued to drive with a failed DMF so i had caused it. In reality the slave cylinder had popped its seals and leaked onto the flywheel plates causing deterioration leading to imbalance and failure.
that was the engineers report on the day which the warranty company have chosen to mostly ignore......... let battle commence!

on the plus side i have a different car back, its now really smooth with noexcessive vibration,its quieter and im guessingthat due to the battery being disconnected for 2 days and discharging any residual current left in the system.... the radio reception is now 90% clearer. ☺