I apologise if this has been done to death, but the wife has taken my FL2 to see her parents (100 miles away) and on arrival she reports grinding from the rear and a smell similar to old oil.

My thoughts are Haldex or rear diff assembly....

I am due to go and see what’s what on Thursday and bring them home in our other car, then go back at the weekend to see what I can do.

Can’t afford recovery so I either have to try and fix it at the in-laws (but all my tools and hydraulic ramps are at home) or is it possible to remove the prop shaft and run fwd to home where I have space and time to affect a repair?

Can you run the FL2 without a prop similar to the FL1?

We have an FL1 and have run that on occasion without the prop and have owned numerious land rovers over the last 20 years so not afraid of a spanner....

Any tips on getting it back in one piece?

My thoughts.
As you know the FL2 is full time FWD with part time 4WD.
You need to determine where the problem resides.
The haldex is a clutch; the input part is connected to the prop and the output is connected to the rear diff.
Even if you remove the prop, the rear diff and output part of the haldex will still be rotated by the rear wheels.

You could try pulling the haldex fuse. This should permanently disable the haldex and disengage the prop from the rear diff, and may allow you to drive in FWD only. You will get warnings on the dash.

If the haldex clutch is locked up then removing the prop would separate the PTU from the haldex unit and you will again have FWD only.

Whether you will actually be able to drive it on FWD will be determined by what has actually gone wrong (assuming its in the haldex or rear diff). Jules

Awesome, thanks for the information Jules.

So it looks like you can run without the prop. Good to know.

Further input from the wife is, it reverse fine, but when going forward it grinds and begins dragging - suspecting Handbrake Shoes or lose pads....

Will update when apart tomorrow

Maybe an urban myth but I've read that unscrupulous sellers have been know to remove the prop to hide a faulty haldex. Jules

fairly sure that they sold the FL2 as a 2WD -so no PTU, propshaft or haldex.
I did manage to destroy the input to the PTU, so no drive to the propshaft, drove OK but had to give less welly when setting off with lock on, strait ahead was OK.

Good luck with the repairs, finger crossed it's a Haldex fault, or even better one of the linings have fallen off the parking brakes - been there done that. The auto doesn't generate enough heat in the parking brake so in never dries out and falls apart. Tangiers Orange - gone, missing her
Replaced by Ewok what a mistake - now a happy Disco Sport owner

So the plot thickens. Nothing wrong with the pads, shoes or discs - lots of meat, not grooves or hot spots, shoes look in good condition, even the 'R'clips look almost new!

with both discs off, you can rotate the hub in both directions with ease on the pax side, on the drivers there was a bit more resistance, but nothing major. The opposite hub would rotate in the opposite direction as it should......but, if you stop the opposite hub from rotating....

Turn Pax Hub with Drivers Hub held tight, the pax hub rotates OK (diff resistance etc) but with the pax hub held tight and rotate the drivers hub - rotating as if driving forward, you can feel grinding and then it begins to lock up, goes tight and then releases to grinding again until you get to a similar point in the rotation and it starts locking up again....turn it in reverse, no lock up problems at all...

Thinking a diff bearing or even the pinion(?) gear on the driveshaft.

Took both shafts out to drive home about 100 miles, all was well no ABS issues - but at speeds over 50mph it felt like the rear wasn't attached to the car, it would slide about - most curious....I am thinking wheel bearings have play and the drive shaft nut was holding them tighter to mask the play, now removed the bearing has more opportunity to move about.

Once I pluck up the courage now it is back home to get it in the air and have a wiggle. Will update when I know more!

"with both discs off, you can rotate the hub in both directions with ease on the pax side, on the drivers there was a bit more resistance, but nothing major. The opposite hub would rotate in the opposite direction as it should......but, if you stop the opposite hub from rotating...."

So the input side of the diff is jamming up. To me that says that your haldex is kaput. The diff pinion bearing doesnt just suddenly jam up - it whines for ages AFAIK.
So I think the clutch plates in the haldex are locking up when they shouldn't.
Its easy to take the haldex off (unplug the ECU and remove 4 bolts, as the prop is already off) and see what the diff is like without it.

The haldex oil will drain out when you remove the haldex and you need a new big O ring when you put it back on or the oil will most likely leak. Jules

Thanks for the input..

The prop is still attached - I removed both drive shafts.

If the haldex is shot - wouldn't the 'locking up' issue be present when rotating the pax hub too when the drivers side is held tight?

The Pax side rotates fine when the drivers hub is held....but when the pax hub is held the drivers side locks up and grinds suggesting the problem is isolated to the drivers side of the diff surely?

I suspect the diff is the issue. Mine had no oil in it, and seized solid at 45MPH, which was pretty scary. Hyundai Ioniq 5 Ultimate. The family car.
2009 Rimini Red SE TD4. Gone.
2006 Tonga Green i6 HSE. Gone.
Audi A5 convertible, my daily driver.
1972 Hillman Avenger GT, the project.

Saint.V8 wrote:

Thanks for the input..

The prop is still attached - I removed both drive shafts.

If the haldex is shot - wouldn't the 'locking up' issue be present when rotating the pax hub too when the drivers side is held tight?

The Pax side rotates fine when the drivers hub is held....but when the pax hub is held the drivers side locks up and grinds suggesting the problem is isolated to the drivers side of the diff surely?

Nodge68 wrote:

I suspect the diff is the issue. Mine had no oil in it, and seized solid at 45MPH, which was pretty scary.

Blimey - and there you go - a seized diff !  Jules

jules wrote:

Saint.V8 wrote:

Thanks for the input..

The prop is still attached - I removed both drive shafts.

If the haldex is shot - wouldn't the 'locking up' issue be present when rotating the pax hub too when the drivers side is held tight?

The Pax side rotates fine when the drivers hub is held....but when the pax hub is held the drivers side locks up and grinds suggesting the problem is isolated to the drivers side of the diff surely?

Maybe you're right, I'm not sure. All I can say I don't recall a seized rear diff being reported on here. Lots of whining diff bearings and failed haldex units though.

Does the Pax side hub rotate freely in both directions when the driver side hub is held ?

If you remove the rear drive shafts, surely you should leave the outer CV joints in each hub to keep the inner and outer wheel bearings together? If there is no cv joint to put pre-load on the bearing, surely that will result in lots of play in the bearing hence the feeling of the rear being disconnected at speed? Past: FL2 TD4 HSE Auto
Evoque SD4 Dynamic Lux Auto
Present: Audi A3 S Line.

Left field here… but… are you sure it’s not just a sticking rear calliper? It would only identify itself on a long journey when the pad and disc start to overheat?
Apologies for the thoughts but I have had something similar…

Steve D is correct! The CV joint is needed to take up play in the wheel bearing. In a worst case situation if you were to put enough lateral loading on the bearing it could come apart completely and you end up loosing a wheel! Running without the CV joints should only be done at very low speeds for as short a distance as possible and even then probably not on a main road!