Thread: Rear diff issues

The question in my mind is whether they went out to a different diff manufacturer (read cheaper) during the Ford years, like they did for a number of things?

My 1996 Defender 90 did 350,000km on what is essentially the same Rover diffs. I had a very hard life spending at a guess about 45% of its life in difflock, but as EP90's reasonably cheap, much more frequent oil changes than recommended.

I appreciate the P38 diff is different and possibly a bit small for a max kerb weight 110, but as Pat mentioned back in August there are similar examples running for hundreds of thousands of km without issue.

I recently broke the front diff on my 2010 Tdci through an error on my own part (discussed in separate thread) and I fitted an ARB locker purely because it was cheaper fitted that replacing it with an OEM one (I'm obviously out of warranty).

The lad who fitted it at ARB drove my car to test it afterwards and when I picked it up he told me he felt a bit too much lash on the rear diff, so he adjusted it for me as well. It's like driving a completely different car now to be honest and it might be worth getting (paying) an actual diff specialist to set it up rather than just giving advice?

Cheers,

Lou

I had a diff specialist do my last rear diff and it made no difference. It's still noisy and getting noisier. Maxi drives are in my list when I can afford them. And as mentioned they're cheaper than fitting genuine.
The amount of back lash I get in my 130 is astounding.
Have just done 66,000kms

Dan,

Stepping completely away from your difficulty with LRA...

Have you considered a fully rebuilt Ashcroft differential? I have no affiliation with them , but if I had the time to wait for delivery, this was going to be my first choice option. Even at 100% markup for transport you are still going to be better off and if you have a specialist willing to fit it it would be IMO certainly be the best option.

There must be a reason your diff is destroying itself and it might be alignment issues which will obviously be solved by replacing the majority of it?

Ashcroft Transmissions

Cheers,

Lou

Originally Posted by Danjeffery

I am trying but am not having any luck. Have spoke to LRA numerous times, to the point where I feel they are not returning me calls because of it. I seriously believe that there needs to be the next step taken with these poor quality diffs.
For every ones information LRA we're not impressed at all with my emails to Land Rover UK about how bad my treatment has been.
I still have a noisy rear diff so nothing has come of it yet.
I think that everyone with a noisy rear diff needs to make Land Rover Australia well aware of it so that something that can be done.

Land Rover have openly told me that they will and do not take 3rd party advise into account and even if I am to get a diff specialist or a land rover specialist diagnose the noise. They aren't going to do anything about it because "they're" mechanics (which have driven the car and have acknowledged that it's noisy) an they're engineers (whom haven't driven the car or even seen it) have said no there isn't anything wrong with it.
I'm at a point where I can't speak to anyone that can or is willing to do anything, feel like I am at the end of the line...

Time to involve the appropriate consumer protection agency and maybe ask LRA about their views on the lemon laws.

No one represents ashcrofts in Oz that I can see, so self import or via a independent? Suggestions for Bne if any.

Originally Posted by Loubrey

Dan,

Stepping completely away from your difficulty with LRA...

Have you considered a fully rebuilt Ashcroft differential? I have no affiliation with them , but if I had the time to wait for delivery, this was going to be my first choice option. Even at 100% markup for transport you are still going to be better off and if you have a specialist willing to fit it it would be IMO certainly be the best option.

There must be a reason your diff is destroying itself and it might be alignment issues which will obviously be solved by replacing the majority of it?

Ashcroft Transmissions

Cheers,

Lou

I haven't looked into anything further as of yet. Will definitely consider Ashcroft as well as Maxi Drive. I haven't had a diff fail on me yet but have had them become extremely noisy. To the extent I couldn't hear my wife sitting next to me in the passenger seat.
Am I wrong to have just expected better?
My curret rear diff absolutely howls at me a little over 90km/h with a little load on it. Still running standard tyre size and standard everything else except bolt on stuff. I'm still majorly disappointed with the service I have received from LRA.

We are actually very lucky over here in WA.

We only have two dealers and the one is out main club sponsor with all sorts of discounts and a very good relationship to boot. I just can't see that sort of difficulty for any of our club members.

Really sounds like an alignment or manufacture issue with your particular diff because while people do break them off road, they just don't seem to do what you are describing. Good luck going forward!

Have a watch of the attached Ashcroft youtube video on diff rebuild as it gave me quite a bit of insight into potential issues. It's a bit long, but worth a watch how it should be done.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob9eBwbiwrw[/ame]

Cheers,

Lou

Originally Posted by Danjeffery

I haven't looked into anything further as of yet. Will definitely consider Ashcroft as well as Maxi Drive. I haven't had a diff fail on me yet but have had them become extremely noisy. To the extent I couldn't hear my wife sitting next to me in the passenger seat.
Am I wrong to have just expected better?
My curret rear diff absolutely howls at me a little over 90km/h with a little load on it. Still running standard tyre size and standard everything else except bolt on stuff. I'm still majorly disappointed with the service I have received from LRA.

Stupid question,what tyres are you running,do you have a roof rack,do you have roof bars,do you have anything that will cause the howling that you mentioned?,I'm asking because a diff only howls just before it ****s itself,if it's as bad as you say it would have lunched itself by now. Pat

Originally Posted by PAT303

I'm asking because a diff only howls just before it ****s itself,if it's as bad as you say it would have lunched itself by now. Pat

If it's crown wheel & pinion howl, it can go on for years & years.
My old RRC has an D1 diff that was replaced under warranty for a bad howl. It's been in my car for about 7 years now & it hasn't gotten any worse.