Thanks Austen will send the update.

Going back to the very first series one's the service procedure at 10,000 miles was (I seem to remember): Remove pistons and fit a oil control ring (engine pre-built with slot for it).

Our throw away society maybe then. There could have been an engineering solution to this if JLR really wanted its modern cars to last longer than 150,000 miles / 10 years. FL2 MY10 TD4 GS traded in at 2 years
FL2 MY13 TD4 GS Current

austen_fl2 wrote:

I'd say it's down to 3 things.
1. The hardening process doesn't seem to have been done correctly on a lot of these units.
2. The sleeve should of been sacrificial, but it was made harder than the transferbox
3. It's a water trap, and corrosion seems to play a big part.

As promised from my mucker, please note I am not necessarily supporting any views below and yes he is the mad academic these days instead of just mad. Remember he has not seen the set up in real life and nothing has been edited.

I think the Haldex is too complex for its own good, both mechanically and electronically. It is another bit of de-skilling driving. It appears to be purely for the ‘Chelsea Tractor’ market, so they do not need to think about when to push the yellow knob. If you cannot see far enough ahead to know when more traction is needed – you should not be there! Whoever thought of putting complex electronics in to road vehicles wants shagging with the wrong end of a revolving pineapple!
I’d really need to see at least one failed unit to have much of an opinion, but here goes:

1. The hardening process doesn't seem to have been done correctly on a lot of these units. Commercial hardening processes are well tried and fairly reliable. Pressure to get more parts through at lower cost tends to cause problems usually the components are packed too closely in the furnace and some do not reach the desired temperature for the requisite time. Quenching can then cause problems not only because the material is not in a suitable state for hardening but, the rate of cooling may not (due to the extra load), on badly selected steels in poorly regulated shops, be fast enough to form Martensite giving a soft product. Post heat treatment hardness testing is something you can train any one to do in a short time, but can you pay him enough to test each component properly? Workers in heat treatment shops are not, traditionally, well-educated or well-paid.
2. The sleeve should of [sic] been sacrificial, but it was made harder than the transferbox It sounds to me like it is! You may doubt this, but it is true – soft parts wear hard parts in an abrasive wear situation. The soft component picks up hard particles e.g. sand which becomes embedded and acts much like a file on the hard part. To prevent adhesive wear – ensure both components are not soluble in each other in the solid state, e.g. lead and steel. Making the mating parts with a significant hardness difference, say, more than 10 Rockwell hardness numbers, helps to prevent adhesive wear, especially if well lubricated.
3. It's [sic] a water trap, and corrosion seems to play a big part. Corrosion requires three things; dissimilar materials, an electrically conducting path and an electrolyte. It can be prevented by any of: Proper choice of mating materials. Breaking any conducting paths. Removing the electrolyte (dirty water). Simple in theory – hard sometimes in practice. Throwers work surprisingly well and can be made of any old crap and do not need much of an attempt at balancing. Try using bits of rubber and super-glue if you want to try home-made throwers.


Best way to clear any moisture out of the system is to use some sort of desiccator and change it at regular intervals. Military electronic equipment was fitted with desiccators that were easily regenerated by heating in an oven at about 150°C until the indicator went blue. You might be able to find some. I’d try to fit them into the filler port with some sort of baffle to keep oil out as far as possible. Getting water out of splined areas is easy – centrifuge it out if you cannot prevent it getting in in the first place. If the drain holes clog up – clean them more often or drill them out bigger.

Understanding of lubricants has come a long way since you and I were lads. 150,000 miles on a thing like a Haldex looks like a frequent oil change to me if you can keep water out of the system. You would be less than half way to changing oil on a ship at 150,000 miles.

Quick look for Haldex on the internet is more interesting for the omissions – why does Borg Warner not appear, have they flogged it off?

Any help?
Find me a few failed boxes, with history and someone with some money and I’ll tell you all about it. My bet is that the engineering is OK and no one has read the small print. FL2 MY10 TD4 GS traded in at 2 years
FL2 MY13 TD4 GS Current