Thread: Mystery item

Hi Dinty,

My understanding is that it is a stabiliser of sorts for your steering damper, I took mine off when fitting a front diff guard as I was told it made no difference, they were right.

I am sure you will get a more technical reply than this one.

Cheers,
Lee

Sounds like its the dynamic absorber off the front diff housing. Its designed to vibrate at a certain frequency and eliminates a vibration at this same frequency on the diff.
Its primarily there just to improve noise and vibration and make the vehicle quieter, but I suppose there could be durability issues long term as the vibration its designed to remove will still be there.

Yeah it's a vibration dampener, I took mine off about 200,000km ago as it hit my extractors - cant say I've miss it

The rubber mount that holds it to the bracket is actually a V8 engine mounting insulator.

Yes, removing it doesn't seem to make any difference as far as I can tell.

JC

Took mine off a while ago and no difference it still vibrates like it always has lol

Mine fell off on a rock climb at Yalwal one day. Can't say I've missed it either.

So does anyone really know why it was fitted by Landrover? I cannot imagine Landrover or any other car maker fitting something that was not needed.

Originally Posted by blackbuttdisco

So does anyone really know why it was fitted by Landrover? I cannot imagine Landrover or any other car maker fitting something that was not needed.

The only real reason for fitting these is to reduce noise and vibration.

Back when they were developing the Disco 1 (or maybe even the RRC, but dunno if they have the same dynamic absorber fitted), LandRover would have done lots of interior noise and vibration measurements and determined that there was a noise and/or vibration that was coming from the front diff. Due to the market they wanted to aim the vehicle at, they reckoned that the customers would complain about this so they would have looked at trying to get rid of it. Sometimes the only way of doing this effectively (.... and cheaply) is by fitting these types of dynamic absorbers.
Bear in mind that their measurements would have been done on smooth tarmac on road biased 205/80R16s or 235/70R16s, standard suspension, etc and this absorber would have made a measurable difference, otherwise the bean counters would have simply removed it!

Fast forward 10-15 years and we've fitted +2" springs, different shocks, big knobbly mud tyres, the door seals don't work as well anymore so there's more road/wind noise, the centre muffler's been removed, the fuel pump tweaked, the whine from the transfer case drowns out anything bar shouting anyway and the rubber on the dynamic absorber has probably stiffened/cracked anyway, so its effectiveness now will be bordering on SFA apart from just adding weight.....

cheers,

Dan