TD5 Defender - strange transmission noise

[Lionel]

Hi All,

Just recently I am experiencing a high pitched, "sizzly" noise coming from the gear lever area in the Defender. It is sharply centered on 60Km/hr, and it is audible in both 5th and 4th gears at this speed. A few Km/hr either side of it and it more or less disappears.

It is almost as if a grommet is loose somewhere, but I have not been able to see anything obvious.

As in all Defenders, there has always been the normal whine from the transfer box, but this seems to be a new noise, although outside the narrow band around 60Km/hr noise levels seem quite normal.

Any ideas?

Cheers,

Lionel

[Yorkshire_Jon]

It might not be of any use, but I once had a TDi Defender with a failed centre exhaust section, made exactly the same kind of noise.

Could have sworn it was a gearbox issue and spent hours trying to track it down.

In the end it was the inners of the muffler rattling about!

[CraigE]

I have the same in 4th gear at about 80kmph. Sounds a bit like a tin rattle.