There's a bunch of threads on various forums about a 'Crunching' sound, similar to driving over an empty plastic water bottle, coming from the front end during low speed maneuvers. I started noticing it after I put winter tires on so I initially assumed it was the sound of a tire rubbing on the inside of the wheel well, but I could find no clearance issues.

The other threads I discovered did not conclude what the problem is, but the closest explanations I found were that it's a problem with the anti-lock brakes (which is exactly what the sound is like), & it's just the normal functioning of the anti-lock brakes.

These explanations both sounded plausible to me but neither explained the intermittent nature of my problem, until I discovered that the noise only occurs when the Terrain Response system is not in the on-road setting. It completely disappears when the on-road setting is engaged.

I believe the sound is in fact just the normal operating of the anti-lock brakes, functioning at a much more pro-active & sensitive level when Terrain Response is in the off-road settings.

Anybody have any contradictory evidence?

Might be inner plastic wheelarch mouldings,could be steering rack if it is more of a clunk thats about £500+

hope it is not too expesive whateverit is ..  Wales
Were the mud is thicker, and the ruts are deeper.
(And we have the water to wash it off, and more on the way..! )
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Mine does this when very cold and going over speed bumps, for instance. I put it down to cold / hardened suspension parts ?? But would be happy to find out different. I'll mention it at the next service and see what the dealer says

To reply to the original post - when you are in any of the off-road modes the HDC is activated. So if you take your foot off the accelerator the HDC will cut in with a sound similar to anti-lock brakes. Sounds like that's what you've got. Ex AA Series III LWB Safari - Gone
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Mine does the same at low speed and when its cold. Last time it was just some replaceable mounting rubbery bits ( yes guess how technical I am ) but I am having the dealer look next week before its MOT'd just in case.

(oh it was a two hour job under warranty so not sure how much this would cost if it wasnt ).

Its the Haldex, I get it very few weeks. The other noise being talked about on the front suspension is anti roll bar rubber mountings.

Have a look at the screws that holds the transmissions just behind the whells. Tighten the screws, or change then, because they use to loosen, and the quality is not as good as it might be. My Range Rover does not lose oil, footprint the ground he walks on

I dont know if you got this sorted but the final job I had done under warranty was the Anti-Roll bar bushes and this seems to have sorted the speedbump squeeks ( so far ).

My son does a lot of off road work and used to complain about crunching/grinding noises like this and it was usually down to a load of stones and gravel stuck around the anti roll bar which was fixed with a good squirt from a hosepipe. 3 x FL1 2 manual + 1 auto
5 x FL2 4 manual + 1 auto
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