Thread: TD5 vibration, maybe fuel, maybe balancer. I need some faith restored. I need to rant

For those that don't care about my rant, just jump to the bold bit.

So I have taken my Disco on a pretty hard trip. I headed out the Roper Hwy from Mataranka to Limmen NP. We spent a night at Tomato Island (awesome camp site) then down to Lorrella Springs. We used Lorrella as a base camp for 4 nights, heading back in to Limmen a couple of days and having a little look around Lorrella itself. Across to Borroloola then on to Queensland, through Hells gate, down to King Fisher camp and on to Lawn Hill. We came home via the Camooweal and the Hwyback to Darwin.

Apparently it's been the driest 6 months on record for the area. That meant the ground was bloody hard and rough or dusty but mainly both.

It took a mean toll on the Disco. Not as bad as some others, apparently there has been 1 vehicle a week leaving Lorrella with broken Chassis. We saw a new Hilux and a 6 week old Ford Ranger.

The trip was a fantastic trip about from the toll on the gear. We found it far better than the Gibb River Rd that we did last year. If any of you go there, you must make the effort to see the Western Lost City. I rate it as one of maybe top 5 places I've seen in Australia.

Anyway so leaving Lorrella one morning as I was crossing the creek, I heard this grinding/vibration that I suspect was a wheel bearing. We had enough food and water for a could of weeks and had 3 weeks of holidays left if needed so I was worried but not enough freak out. That went away.

Next morning the sound was different and I suspected Harmonic Balancer. But again the sound went away.

I quickly learned the sound would go away as the engine (or whatever the sound was coming from) warmed up.

So day after day the sound would be worse each morning. Stressing more and more to how bad it was and if I was doing more damage by continuing.

Cruising across the Barkley with everything warm. I started to think it was all ok. The engine was sounding good but leaving Barkley Road house (don't stay there) I slowed as I came out of the camp ground as I thought I'd buy a drink before I left but the vibration with the engine slow and cold was worse than ever so I just drove on and it went sweet again.

I noticed while heading up the Stuart Hwy, I was running low on boost, only 13psi but my waste gate was previously set to 19? I have had the manifold off, had it machined and replaced the gasket as it was leaking pretty bad but I'd have thought that would reduce lag not decrease pressure. I am suspecting maybe a delaminated inter-cooler pipe might cause that but doubt that will cause my vibration.

Now I'm back in Darwin, I have looked at the Disco and while I think the vibration is the worst than wrong, I think I have multiple things wrong and I don't know where to start. While I do near all my work myself, I decided to take it to a mechanic for a big check up and to give me a list of all the things wrong.

I already knew the rear rotors are very close to minimum thickness, the front pads are close to being worn out, I have a failing module on the ABS pump causing the 3 amigos, leaking fuel pressure regulator and completely totaled watts linkage bush.

So I went to pick it up this afternoon. They charged me $60 to tell my I have a diesel leak from the regulator and worn brake pads. WTF about all the other issues?

So they claim the vibration could be caused by low fuel pressure as the regulator could be failing as well as leaking. I'm just looking for opinions from what could cause the vibration. Can the Harmonic Balancer work when warm but not cold. Can fuel pressure cause a bad vibration. It's not a miss in the motor kind of vibration.

Please help.

Originally Posted by Ean Austral

Put a jack under the sump, start the carand slowly juack it up if its engine mounts the viabration should be a lot less asthe weight is taken up by the jack.

Td5 is known for the dampener so have aclose look at it but if it chirps after being turned off then look at the front pulleys.

Cheers Ean

I would suggest to use a block of wood in between said jack and sump