Rear diff issues

**Danjeffery** · 7th June 2014, 04:32 PM

Mine has only done 56,000 km's so has been serviced at least 5 times. With the run of late the diff oil has been changed 5-6 times minimum in 25,000 km's.
I haven't had any failures just getting noisy but they still shouldn't!

**PAT303** · 7th June 2014, 08:40 PM

The only thing I've dragged out is the R380 oil,it's had Redline MTF for 40K,I'll change it at 50K.Zero driveline failures in both Defenders,464K's in Tdi,90K in TDCi. Pat

**Danjeffery** · 7th June 2014, 08:48 PM

In all honesty I think it's just the poor design and manufacture of the rear diff. I don't load it up and it still becomes noisy. Legally I can carry over a tonne in the rear tray and tow 3.5 tonne. I'd hate to see how noisy it becomes if I was to do this day in day out which I should be able too!

**Drover** · 7th June 2014, 09:16 PM

My first 50k was a good mix of full long duration trip loads and towing a 2.2T Coromal Off Road van.

It was only ever used as recreational vehicle, but despite the heavy loads the rear diff never missed a beat.

With that said I take great consultation in knowing that I've got an Ashcroft in the front & rear now.

**PAT303** · 8th June 2014, 10:12 AM

Originally Posted by Danjeffery

In all honesty I think it's just the poor design and manufacture of the rear diff. I don't load it up and it still becomes noisy. Legally I can carry over a tonne in the rear tray and tow 3.5 tonne. I'd hate to see how noisy it becomes if I was to do this day in day out which I should be able too!

Makes you wonder why the P38 RR,fitted with the same diff never had these issue's doesn't it?. Pat

**uninformed** · 8th June 2014, 01:40 PM

Originally Posted by rick130

And I do the engine roughly every 10,000km if I remember (has been out to 20,000km once, and 17,500 a few times but was oil testing at the time, 10,000km is far enough in a Tdi IMO from my own testing)
R380 g/box every 20,000 (most probably done more now)
t/case about the same and diffs maybe 40,000km ?

Failures so far @ 320,000km

Zero.

I guess those engine bearings were just consumables

**uninformed** · 8th June 2014, 01:41 PM

Originally Posted by PAT303

Makes you wonder why the P38 RR,fitted with the same diff never had these issue's doesn't it?. Pat

Simple, QC. And possible material and or heat treating issues.

While it certainly has done the job in many vehicles, you can not honestly say it is a "good" design.

**PAT303** · 8th June 2014, 02:04 PM

Serg,how many diff problems do P38's have?,the answer,none.I would have liked LR to simply go back to the Rover rear in the defender,plenty of cheap easy upgrades if and when needed,but they didn't so end of story.I'm keeping my TDCi for a long time,if the diff fails it'll be replaced with the Ashcroft center. Pat

**Drover** · 8th June 2014, 04:45 PM

What is reason for using the P38 in the 110/130 and the Rover in the 90 ?

**uninformed** · 8th June 2014, 04:46 PM

Im not sure why we keep going in circles with this Pat, its pretty simple. The P38 type diff has served well in P38s and early on when it went into defenders. There for, its current rate of problems, since no major design change has been implemented is only put down to QC. We also do not know if LR have changed suppliers of internal components or lowered specs for $$ reason.

All that aside, as far as diffs go, it is not a GOOD design. You can argue all you want that since its done ok it is automatically good, but that is NOT the case from a engineers point of view.

Not sure why anyone would want LR to take a backward step as far as diffs are concerned. But when they had to go to a new rear end pushed by military reasons, they built a good housing with room for a better diff than the Rover type. They simply cheaper out and put a poor design in it.

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