Hello all,
I have a freelander 2 2007, that I have owned for 14 years, and has been a great car, but it’s starting to cost money in repairs, and now the rear diff is making a terrible knocking noise when car on lock right or left…
So I have read hundreds of posts and decided that I just don’t want to spend over £1000 on repairing this, but I have also read that many people have removed the propshaft and made it a two wheel drive, and it’s not that hard to have done, but my question is, I get it will then be a two wheel drive car, which is fine as I am always on roads, but as the rear axle with driveshafts and diff will still be all intact, won’t I still get the knocking sound and the potential for it to seize up at some point, or with it not being driven by the engine anymore, will this not be an issue…
Also I have seen this done loads on the freelander 1, but not so much on the FL2
Thanks for reading…
Olly

Haldex?? Any real diagnosis done. Fuse to Haldex removed?

My local mechanic has been and looked at the car and test driven it, and he agrees that it’s the diff gone. When you turn on lock it’s like a banging sound comimg from the back, seems to come from back passenger side, worse when just going really slow and pulling of drive on right hand lock…
Not sure what you mean about the fuse to haldex, do you mean to remove it, and try, or to check that it is there….?? 🤔

The Haldex sits between the propshaft and the differential. It powers up and locks the drive to the differential as you pull away and at low speed gradually reducing drive as speed increases. If you remove the fuse for the Haldex it’s clutch will remain unpowered and you’ll have no power to the differential. If the banging goes then it’s the Haldex that I’d investigate.
If you’ve had the car for 14 years has any servicing been done on the Haldex, filter changed, new fluid? What about the differential servicing? Fluid changes?

I believe that the FL2 is much more complicated than the FL2 in it management of the 4 wheel drive, and stability/traction systems.

If I was in your shoes, I think that I would either get it diagnosed and fixed properly, or get rid of it.

(Is knocking on-lock a normal Diff symptom, or is it a coupling or spline elsewhere?)

PS I've Just noticed you in this thread
https://www.freel2.com/forum/topic35432.html
that you say the Rear Diff is noisy, is it the classic 'out of mesh' whine.
Also note my posting in that thread about plenty of well designed 2WD SUV available, so it's a pity to destroy a well designed and capable 4x4 FL2. FL2 XS SD4 Auto 2010 2012-2017 (21k - 91k miles) (MY2011)
FL2 Metropolis SD4 Auto 2014 2017- (16k - 77k+ miles) (MY2015)
Metro in its 11th Year of (Extended) LR Warranty / Full LR Service History
(Expensive, but Trouble/Worry free - hopefully?)

BossBob wrote:

The Haldex sits between the propshaft and the differential. It powers up and locks the drive to the differential as you pull away and at low speed gradually reducing drive as speed increases. If you remove the fuse for the Haldex it’s clutch will remain unpowered and you’ll have no power to the differential. If the banging goes then it’s the Haldex that I’d investigate.
If you’ve had the car for 14 years has any servicing been done on the Haldex, filter changed, new fluid? What about the differential servicing? Fluid changes?

IanMetro wrote:

I believe that the FL2 is much more complicated than the FL2 in it management of the 4 wheel drive, and stability/traction systems.

If I was in your shoes, I think that I would either get it diagnosed and fixed properly, or get rid of it.

(Is knocking on-lock a normal Diff symptom, or is it a coupling or spline elsewhere?)

PS I've Just noticed you in this thread
https://www.freel2.com/forum/topic35432.html
that you say the Rear Diff is noisy, is it the classic 'out of mesh' whine.
Also note my posting in that thread about plenty of well designed 2WD SUV available, so it's a pity to destroy a well designed and capable 4x4 FL2.

Well fuse removed and silent as anything now all good, so first of all, does this mean that the diff and associated hardware will have less wear now while this is disabled ..??
And now with a warning light on the dash, is this an MOT fail…?

Yes, in effect you have 2 wheel drive with only the oil drag between the Haldex clutch plates causing drive to or from the nose pinion of the differential. It shouldn’t be left like this as there are probably warnings about various things being unavailable. MOT failure, possibly as it’s a warning that something isn’t working as designed.
Land Rover say sealed for life to reduce maintenance costs. An engineer will tell you that life is longer with service and oil changes. Which would you rather, the cost of an unexpected breakdown or the cost of a regular service?
As Ian says, a Freelander 1 has a much simpler 4WD system than a Freelander 2 so removing the propshaft is less of a problem for them.

So I now know it’s the Haldex unit at fault, but I don’t know what the issue is, and if it can be fixed or not, I doubt a service will fix it as that’s just a filter and oil change isn’t it…??
but what I will say is this issue started 2 days ago the day after driving home in the worst rainfall we have seen round here in a while, with and inch or 2 of standing water across the road most of the time, and large kerbside puddles to contend with, so has that had an impact on the electrical side of things if it’s got really wet under there…??

There is sometimes a fault where a wire rubs on a chassis or subframe and breaks. You might have worn through the insulation and the moisture is causing problems that way. There are a couple of companies that deal with Haldex faults. Bell Engineering is one and a search of the forum will find the other.

I would start by getting the haldex serviced, its probably the filter screen clogged up and the fluid knackerd, not been touched in all its life is hardly surprising. 2013 FL2 XS.
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1944 Willys MB "Jeep" with bullet holes. (gone)
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