Thread: 2015 Defender 110 - Transfer case, Gear box and Rear Diff failed.

The likelyhood that it's damaged anything else is nearly Zero!, The failure mode for the splined shaft is to lose drive, and that's it! They (assuming it's a dealer) are likely giving you a set of alternate facts... (ie bs)! I have had this happen to me a few times (I've owned 4 defenders from brand new), oh yes your diff is broken and will fail very soon, Lucky under warranty! But Land Rover refused to fix, and they then made us some crap about it being Ok but out of tolerance... That Diff has done nearly 200,000k's since they played that trick.

Originally Posted by 101RRS

I cannot speak for the Puma but the old R380/Lt77 - LT230 it was splash lubricated from oil from the transfer case I think - problem was there was no way for the oil to get to the splines - later the sud shaft had holes drilled into it to let the oil in or used an oil slinger. So grease was not used on these.

However with the advent of the D3 the output shaft of the gearbox goes into the transfer case and is all dry - hence greased at the factory but unfortunately sometimes they forgot .

I think it's more than grease... I had my latest PUMA upgraded to a Ashcroft center diff, and changed that shaft at the same time. It was as dry as a bone, but completely unworn, looked like new. And that had done 200,000k's There must be something in that alignment theory.

Fixed.

Ludicrously long winded process taking over three months and involving transfers between land rover dealerships that never arrived needing me to track down my car and transport it myself, lawyers, ombudsman's and a fair bit of stress. But in short and predictably but also bizarrely this ended up being the rear Diff.

Somehow almost all the bolts that attach the crown wheel had sheered off. I genuinely have no idea how this happened, again I'm a city person that drives too and from work. This must have taken a huge amount of force given the sheering strain of bolts. Even more bizarrely the axles are fine both sides, I would have thought they would have failed through strain before the bolts attaching the crown wheel sheer.

The "Spud shaft" that land roved pulled out ( assured me was the cause as it's splines had sheered off and then replaced) in fact looks pristine with zero ear and tear as I have it in my garage.

The transfer case was fine.

Land Rover were in some ways atrocious and disorganised and in other ways they were ok. After arguing with Land Rover Australia that I had land rover road side assistance as per the servicing agreement they towed the vehicle and got me a hire car. Initially they offered 40% of the repair cost for the spud shaft, ~2-3k repair bill all up. Then when it looked like it was going to be the transfer case and diff extravaganza at over 20K repair bill there was radio silence with it always being with the "Warranty assessors". So I then had to talk constantly with the land rover dealership who were repairing it, they eventually and understandably got fed up with not being paid and refused to do any further diagnosis. At the same time I realised I had Extended Warranty insurance, in parallel I pursued this. This insurance is utter junk, they refused to pay for the tow truck or hire car until the repair was approved, they refused to approve the repair until the cause was diagnosed, they refused to pay for any diagnostic fee to identify the cause, and they refused to take the Mechanics report as a diagnosis they wanted photographic evidence. In short this is not a warranty extension it is a pay money and receive diddly squat. This Stayed like this for 2 months with Land rover paying the Hire car the entire time. I consulted Lawyer who said i had a very good case under the ACCC laws and should pursue it against Land Rover and that I also had a good claim against the insurance company (But they would say that as they want the case i guess)and should pursue that but should try the ombudsman first. I took the Insurance company to the Ombudsman, Literally two days after I lodged the claim with the ombudsman I has the insurance company and their Underwriters write to me saying they would sort the claim and then the national claim manager rang me to say they would approve it in full.

The Land Rover was transferred to the Hobart dealership at which point it was "lost in transit" for a couple weeks. It ended up being at a Depot. Land Rover assured me it was safe to drive so I then had to pick it up from a depot and drive it myself to the Land Rover dealership. From there Land rover cancelled my hire car. It then took another month or so to get the diagnosis and repair completed and all costs were covered by the insurance company.

TLDR, Dodgy Landy diff and Dodgy Land Rover Australia.

Originally Posted by WombatMarshypoos

Fixed.

Ludicrously long winded process taking over three months and involving transfers between land rover dealerships that never arrived needing me to track down my car and transport it myself, lawyers, ombudsman's and a fair bit of stress. But in short and predictably but also bizarrely this ended up being the rear Diff.

Somehow almost all the bolts that attach the crown wheel had sheered off. I genuinely have no idea how this happened, again I'm a city person that drives too and from work. This must have taken a huge amount of force given the sheering strain of bolts. Even more bizarrely the axles are fine both sides, I would have thought they would have failed through strain before the bolts attaching the crown wheel sheer.

The "Spud shaft" that land roved pulled out ( assured me was the cause as it's splines had sheered off and then replaced) in fact looks pristine with zero ear and tear as I have it in my garage.

The transfer case was fine.

Land Rover were in some ways atrocious and disorganised and in other ways they were ok. After arguing with Land Rover Australia that I had land rover road side assistance as per the servicing agreement they towed the vehicle and got me a hire car. Initially they offered 40% of the repair cost for the spud shaft, ~2-3k repair bill all up. Then when it looked like it was going to be the transfer case and diff extravaganza at over 20K repair bill there was radio silence with it always being with the "Warranty assessors". So I then had to talk constantly with the land rover dealership who were repairing it, they eventually and understandably got fed up with not being paid and refused to do any further diagnosis. At the same time I realised I had Extended Warranty insurance, in parallel I pursued this. This insurance is utter junk, they refused to pay for the tow truck or hire car until the repair was approved, they refused to approve the repair until the cause was diagnosed, they refused to pay for any diagnostic fee to identify the cause, and they refused to take the Mechanics report as a diagnosis they wanted photographic evidence. In short this is not a warranty extension it is a pay money and receive diddly squat. This Stayed like this for 2 months with Land rover paying the Hire car the entire time. I consulted Lawyer who said i had a very good case under the ACCC laws and should pursue it against Land Rover and that I also had a good claim against the insurance company (But they would say that as they want the case i guess)and should pursue that but should try the ombudsman first. I took the Insurance company to the Ombudsman, Literally two days after I lodged the claim with the ombudsman I has the insurance company and their Underwriters write to me saying they would sort the claim and then the national claim manager rang me to say they would approve it in full.

The Land Rover was transferred to the Hobart dealership at which point it was "lost in transit" for a couple weeks. It ended up being at a Depot. Land Rover assured me it was safe to drive so I then had to pick it up from a depot and drive it myself to the Land Rover dealership. From there Land rover cancelled my hire car. It then took another month or so to get the diagnosis and repair completed and all costs were covered by the insurance company.

TLDR, Dodgy Landy diff and Dodgy Land Rover Australia.

I had a rear diff that was clunking prior to the installation of a diff lock at 95000KM I suspect that the crown wheel bolts were on their way to failure, Summitt on here had similar symptoms , except his bolts did fail. So the crown wheel failure is another defender "feature" My spud shaft was lubed at the factory as the grease was weeping from the bellhousing when the vehicle arrived. So far it's been OK but I'm anticipating needing to replace it at some point.

Regards,
Tote

Originally Posted by WombatMarshypoos

Hi All,


Mine has, had a really loud knocking noise especially when slowing down. After a huge hassle it is now in being repaired, they have completed that and now say that the transfer case and rear diff are also likely needing repair/replacement because of the damage. Yes, 1 year out of warranty.

Sam

*So they have replaced the adaptor shaft between the Ford MT82 gearbox and the Land Rover LT230 transfer case and all is well?
*Now saying... that AFTER they have finished the above the transfer case and diff need work?
*The transfer case COULD have been inspected while it was out.

*all sounds like bull****.
*If its running I would take it to Justin Cooper for an honest assessment of the transfer case and rear diff.
*Not so much the transfer case at what round 100K ? but the rear diff do suffer lots of backlash and bearing failures.
*I generally fit a Ashcroft ATB to the rear diff when I rebuild it.

Originally Posted by WombatMarshypoos

Fixed.
but also bizarrely this ended up being the rear Diff.

Somehow almost all the bolts that attach the crown wheel had sheered off. I genuinely have no idea how this happened, again I'm a city person that drives too and from work. This must have taken a huge amount of force given the sheering strain of bolts. Even more bizarrely the axles are fine both sides, I would have thought they would have failed through strain before the bolts attaching the crown wheel sheer.

.

*Yes unfortunately I've had a few rear diffs that came in making a clunk clunk clunk, the broken bolt heads had been spinning round in the carrier.
*I havent seen any axles / drive flanges on a TDCi (2007 on, puma) that didnt have free play wear on the outer spline with fretted material as they are half the hardness they should be.
*Exception to the axle / drive flange wear is the last couple of months of production they finally went to a one piece axle and drive flange.

sounds like total incompetence by the initial dealer by assuming it was the coupling shaft, all they had to do was to see if it drove in diff lock or not. no drive = coupling shaft, drive in diff locker = axle problem.

this test would of taken less than one minute and would of saved months of stress.

sheared crown wheel bolts are a common failure of the post 2002 rear diffs.

the lesson here is take your car to a trusted independent if it needs work !

Dave