Book my MY10, 100,000 mile old FL2 in at a local(ish) Landrover specialist to have the noisy rear diff rebuilt. Got the car back and all seemed fine, a nice quiet ride. The garage told me they changed the filters in the Haldex while it was off the car.

Did a couple of shopping trips and then a quick trip down the motorway and back, about 80 miles since the rebuild. The following morning pull out of where it was parked and the wheels are scrabbling and jumping and it was pretty obvious the Haldex was locked solid. No warning lights or other error messages, just skipping wheels.

Looking under the back of the car the rear exhaust box shows a wet patch from fluid of some sort and the cross member under the haldex had some fluid on it, but no oil/fluid on the ground.

The RAC took it back to the garage last week, that cost me £100 because it was more than 10 miles. The garage has had it for nearly a week now. At first they told me the seal between the Haldex and Diff was leaking but now they say it's not and the fluid levels in the Haldex and Diff are fine, but still the Haldex is locked up. They say the the fluid I saw was just fluid spilled while filling the Haldex that had been sitting on the top of the Haldex support casting. I can believe this as there was certainly fluid present but not an obvious leak. Just wish perhaps they had made sure it had been cleaned up properly before handing it back if that really was the case.

So the garage is taking the Haldex back off the car tomorrow to be stripped down for investigation.

But what would cause this? Wrong fluid, bad filters, some other error. I'm struggling to believe that the Haldex would fail just because the fluid has been changed or that it's a co-incidence and it was going to fail so comprehensively right now.

So far the garage has been very quiet about charges or no charges, but today's phone call seemed to be building towards - not our fault, it was going to fail anyway, so now you need to pay for a Haldex rebuild or replacement.

And what is Haldex fluid like? The fluid I found under the car was quite thin, almost clear, more like brake fluid than oil.

Any comments or thoughts. Getting a bit fed up now as the car went in for the diff job 3 weeks ago and since then it's spent most of it's time at the garage.

Haldex fluid is very light in colour and runny - very different to EP used in the EP80w90 used in the rear diff Jules

Thats what I thought. It was almost certainly Haldex fluid I saw.

Just a thought. pinion seal fails, this allows diff oil into the haldex. Diff oil is thicker than haldex fluid, so haldex pump is going to deliver greater pressure at lower pump speed locking up the haldex far earlier.

If you are lucky replace pinion seal, drain and clean haldex, refill oils and away you go. If you are unlucky the garage are going to line their pockets at your expense.
could be completely wrong of course, just guessing. Tangiers Orange - gone, missing her
Replaced by Ewok what a mistake - now a happy Disco Sport owner

In theory if the pinion seal is leaking there should be signs of this dripping from the drain at the bottom of the diff housing as there is a small gap between the double walled seal that allows any leakage to drain from a small hole rather than getting in to the Haldex or Diff.

After a lot of searching of various user groups I've found a few other cases of people with similar experiences. At least a couple of them were cured simply by draining the Haldex and refilling again being very careful to follow the correct procedure (allowing it to run for 5 mins, topping up again, then removing 70ml). I'm wondering if it was overfilled. Or that some crud has found its way into the solenoid valve that regulates the pressure.

Another possibility is corrosion in the Haldex ECU and removing it has disturbed the electrical connections inside the control module. There are a few reports of this, often it's a simple repair with a soldering iron or reworking some PCB tracks with fine wire.

Hopefully they will get on with the job and let me know what they have found. It's the first time I have used this workshop and I am really hoping that this really is just one of those one off occurrences and they will be honest about what they find. But the fact that enough fluid was left not cleaned up to cover the rear exhaust box and leave traces of it all over the haldex and diff doesn't inspire confidence.

I'd certainly check that they know about the quirky filling procedure. Jules

After a lot of searching of various user groups I've found a few other cases of people with similar experiences. At least a couple of them were cured simply by draining the Haldex and refilling again being very careful to follow the correct procedure (allowing it to run for 5 mins, topping up again, then removing 70ml). I'm wondering if it was overfilled. Or that some crud has found its way into the solenoid valve that regulates the pressure.[/quote]
Interesting point I would make.

Having juist had my Haldex serviced by Austin (Bell Engineering)
I noticed he does not remove any fluid once the level has been check after the 5 minutes run
I queried this and he hasn't removed any oil for some time also Volvo and Ford themselves
do not do this ......in his opinion the 70ml appears to be a Land rover thing. :roll: DAVE.

Might have been some crud go knocked loose during the drain/refill, more plausible if the haldex had never been serviced before 100K. Hopefully another drain/fill will take care of it.

Also plausible that the shop screwed up too.

As a complete novice regarding these matters I feel I must be missing something. All this faffing about filling and draining is not going to be done on the production line. There must be a set amount of oil to add , end of story. Please correct my thinking.

I think the issue when adding oil during a service is the amount of fluid that likely remains in the pump motor and clutch pack that may or may not fully drain. So there will be some uncertainty over the total volume in the unit.

But it is strange that LR specify removing some. Why didn't they just put the filler very slightly lower on the casting? There must be a reason for specifying the removal, I doubt they would do it just for the hell of it.


I think part of my frustration is how long this all seems to be taking. The car went back to them a week ago and at this stage were are no further than - it isn't working and we are going to remove it, clean and refit. I had hoped it would have been given some priority. It shouldn't really take more than 3 hours to remove the haldex, clean and refit for a properly equipped workshop. The diff removal, rebuild and refit - which supposedly included cleaning the filters in the Haldex only took 5 hours in total and the Haldex is much easier to remove then the whole diff assembly.

Happened to me ... Haldex failed (judder ...) after LR dealer changed the rear diff.

merlinj79 wrote:

Might have been some crud go knocked loose during the drain/refill, more plausible if the haldex had never been serviced before 100K. Hopefully another drain/fill will take care of it.

Also plausible that the shop screwed up too.

This is My Haldex after Austin at Bell Engineering had stripped it down,
after 5 years since last clean you can clearly see the oil breaking down.

Click image to enlarge

 DAVE.

As a complete novice here and reading this post i am confused.

Is one after filling the Haldex and running the engine for 5 mins to extract 70ml or not???

If what's been said regarding Volvo and Bell then why has LR not updated its procedure on this or are they totally different units made to suit the vehicle/s?

Very confusing to say the least...

Same here.
We extracted 70ml when the Haldex was serviced 5 years back,
although this was done at home and we couldn't totally strip the unit
down to remove the second filter, Drained of oil, soaked in brake fluid and drained,
left to dry out then reassembled, fitted and filled,
I wonder as Austin replaced both filters whether that would account for
not removing 70ml. otherwise I haven't got a clue. DAVE.

Update.

Pick up the car from the garage today, they were confident it was OK after stripping, cleaning and refilling. I'm not sure how far they stripped it down, but I do know they didn't touch the clutch plates.

I got about 400 yards from the garage and got a couple of bumps through the transmission once again suggesting the Haldex is not releasing

So turned around back to the garage. To get in and out of the garage I had to make several tight turns and at no time did it play up. Took it out with the mechanic and initially it was fine, we certainly got further than I did. I don't think the mechanic believed there was anything wrong. So we turned around in side road and head back. After pulling out of the side road - thud -thud - thud and then it settled down again. The mechanic agrees this feels like the Haldex.

But the garage is now at a bit of a loss. I don't think they have done anything wrong. I think this does seem to be a case of disturbing the Haldex during the change causing some kind of upset, perhaps there is still crud lurking somewhere. They didn't charge me for any of the work done on the Haldex so far.

So I have the car back for now. I drove it home without issue, not a single bump, thud or any other sign of a problem (25 miles) and I'll be taking it out for a gentle drive tomorrow to see if perhaps it settles down with a bit of use.

Contemplating what to do next if it continues to play up: Take it off again, strip, clean, refit again or source another Gen 4 Haldex from a breakers and try that.