Although this relates to my daughter’s Freelander 2 I have posted this on here as I could not diagnose the issues of vibrations in the drivetrain at speed!

Daughter had been complaining of vibration whilst driving over 65mph.. took the car out and sure enough there was a considerable vibration over 65-70mph but smooth as silk at any speed less than that!
It actually felt like a damper vibration shaking through the whole car...

Reviewed posts on this FL2 forum which seemed to indicate either failed propshaft or a failed haldex unit..

Drat I thought, so to identify which it was I swapped the wheels about and moved front to back etc..

This actually made it worse with now severe shaking of the steering wheel! So thinking it may have been down to balancing took them to be rebalanced!

Again no better after this so presumed it was a delaminating tyre or somesuch so now ordered a pair of new front tyres...

This morning took the car to the tyre fitters only to discover this!,,,










The whole inside of one tyre was full of water!

She does not off road ( other than a muddy horse field ) the tyre has never lost air, has never been reinflated from new and always maintained pressure...has only started doing this in the last couple of weeks...always has a secured valve cap protecting it , never had a puncture etc etc...

Fitted the new tyres and she now drives like a dream! Wtf! Shocked

At least it wasn’t the haldex!

Interesting, you would have thought that the water would have spread around evenly like in a centrifuge and therefore not affected the balance.

I have heard of tractor tyres deliberately using water for ballast (and make sure that you add anti freeze!) 3 x FL1 2 manual + 1 auto
5 x FL2 4 manual + 1 auto
Now Discovery Sport P250 MHEV SE

I think it was until about 70mph when it probably started cavitating hence causing the imbalance..there was at least a litre of water in there!

Next time drill a hole in the bottom of the tyre & plug it. Had to do 3 on my last holiday!

You would be surprised how much moisture is in the air. If the compressor's moisture removal design is poor the down stream plumbing will end up putting that water in the tyre & if the tyre has 2 atmospheres of pressure in it you will have twice the water. & you will keep adding water everytime you top up the tyres.

The photo of the moisture trap is after pumping up one tyre. Moisture traps should be at the end of the line. There are enough garages around who forget to empty their tank & I have read of situations where the tank is so full water starts being pushed down the line. I would expect a tyre shop would empty their tank daily.

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A local filling station had a similar problem when staff claimed they were not told how to drain the compressor and customers complain that the air line was delivering water.

J

I agree it’s the only reasonable explanation... hopefully it may help others diagnose high speed vibrations thinking they have a haldex failure or other potentially expensive issue!
Just drain your tyres!

Unless your tyre inflator is pumping pure water (not unheard of if it’s never been drained), there’s no way that amount of water will come from moisture in the air - it’s normally there when the tyre was fitted. See my third post in this thread.
http://www.freel2.com/forum/topic27660.html? Past: FL2 TD4 HSE Auto
Evoque SD4 Dynamic Lux Auto
Present: Audi A3 S Line.

Last edited by Steve D on 9th Dec 2018 8:59 am. Edited 2 times in total

Having your tyres inflated with Nitrogen instead of air can help overcome the issue of moisture/water build up in your tyres as Nitrogen is a very dry gas compared to air when compressed. Other advantages are that Nitrogen filled tyres do not fluctuate in temperature as much as air filled tyres and the tyre will remain at the correct pressure for longer as nitrogen does not leech through the tyre wall the same way that air does. The likes of Kwik fit used to offer the service for a £1 or so a tyre but it was never that well promoted. That was a few years ago and I never bothered myself so no idea what it would cost now. With a used tyre you would probably have to demount the tyre to be able to clean the inside of the tyre and ensure it was dry before refitting and filling with nitrogen so obviously that's going to cost a bit more. Has any forum member had it done and if so do they reckon it`s worthwhile doing.

There is 78% and a bit nitrogen in air, providing the compressor has the correct water traps or drying fitments pure nitrogen is a waste of money, the average car is not a racing car where decimal differences in pressure will alter the handling or balance and that includes the FL2  my PC is slightly to the right of Genghis
2012 HSE SD4 In Orkney Grey now gone, best car ever.

Farmer Chalk wrote:

I agree it’s the only reasonable explanation... hopefully it may help others diagnose high speed vibrations thinking they have a haldex failure or other potentially expensive issue!
Just drain your tyres!

Drill a hole in the bottom of every tyre to allow the water to run away And the spare in the boot, just to be on the safe side

Dartman the one wrote:

There is 78% and a bit nitrogen in air, providing the compressor has the correct water traps or drying fitments pure nitrogen is a waste of money, the average car is not a racing car where decimal differences in pressure will alter the handling or balance and that includes the FL2

All the tyres were fitted last year, in the dry and have been perfect for the rest of the year! The other tyre that was replaced at the same time as this one is perfect...no damp inside whatsoever...

Strange...

Sidthecat wrote:

Drill a hole in the bottom of every tyre to allow the water to run away And the spare in the boot, just to be on the safe side

Many years ago a friend bought a Rover 75 at auction and I drove it home for him, got to 55mph and all hell let loose,,steering shake like you wouldn't believe, thought a wheel was coming off, stopped and checked everything we could think of and set off again, up to 55 fine after
When we got it home he had the steering checked at the garage, all fine, tracking and god knows what else checked with no problems found, so got two new tyres put on the front, fitter was not very happy when about a gallon of water fell on him from both tyres, would like to think it was a inflator pumping water as already mentioned rather than somebody doing it on purpose ! Common sense isn't very common.
_______________________________
2007 Land Rover Freelander2 I6 hse Auto

Farmerchalk, it might be worth finding where the tyres are normally topped up...just in case it’s your own on-farm compressor that is putting out water!  2005 D3 2.7 Auto
Previously:
2010 MY FL2 TD4e GS - Now gone at 199,500 miles, about 135,000 of them mine.
‘93 Defender 110 200TDi CSW
‘87 Defender 90 4 cyl Petrol
‘83 110 CSW V8 - best ever!
Range Rover 2-door V8 (not sure of year - 4-speed box and vacuum diff switch)
Series III SWB Diesel