Thread: Vibration/drone in a D2

Ok I will try to help you if i can. The number one noise and vibration problems in td5 is r/h engine mount aka drivers side mount. If you pull off the engine cover the rocker cover should be sitting dead flat - if it is down to the left when looking from the front of the car (i.e. tipping downs towards the drivers side) the mount is shot. Also the front prop shaft can be at fault as the aircon drain pipe drips on to UJs and the UJs are non greasable. This is only a guide and not a absolute but I hope this helps. Let me know what you find

Yep, me again . . . . . . . sorry top be a pain.

This is driving me nuts. I've had to do a lot of highway driving the last few weeks and I can't live with it. The mechanic said to me (back when I picked up the car) he thought it may have nothing to do with the work they did and it was coincidental it started at the same time, and yes that's possible but surely unlikely.

The vibration seems to be changing and as opposed to what I said initially it is definitely worse under load.

The key characteristics seem to be it's a vibration through the car, not just through the steering wheel, it happens worst from 90-100 but seems to have spread to 85ish to 105 ish, and it has a drone through the car, kind of like I strapped a 6ft sheet of MDF to the bullbar and it was buffering in the wind as I drive.

I'm going to call the mechanic again tomorrow, but he seemed to have no ideas last time.

Any one want to buy a 2003 Disco ???????????????????????????????

this is worth a read.

Did you check the donut (rubber between the rear tailshaft and the diff). Sounds like the donut to me if its happening at those speeds.

Does your model have the option to lock the centre diff? If it does have you tried locking the centre diff and removing the front tail shaft....then going for a drive. This may help identify which end of the car the noise is coming from...or if the front tailshaft is involved as already suggested.

If you are now getting a vibration through the steering wheel I would suspect that the problem lies in the front of the vehicle....hope this helps. Sounds like anything worth a try at this point.

I popped down to the mechanic today and had a chat with him, and took the printout that Bellmore attached a couple of posts up.

He's listening and offering suggestions so I can only say nice things about him and the workshop. He's genuinely interested in solving the problem so I'll leave it with him for a couple of days and hopefully collect a smooth running car once again. I don't envy him, if there's 10 possible causes, and a few of them could take several hours each and require expensive new parts to test , where do you draw the line ? My pockets aren't all that deep either . . . . .

He's flat out this week and his thoughts were to bring it down next week when I'm back in Bris, he'll put it up on stands and run the vehicle up to 90kmh whilst on the stands and try and sort out the issue. Most of the possible solutions are nothing to do with the work I had done so it looks like it may be totally coincidental and is a separate issue to the work I had done.

I do have the CDL but I just have so much work to get through before I go away I doubt I'll be able to drop the front drive shaft out, it's 11.30 and I'm still working so time wise I think I'm just going to have to drive it like this for one more week and then look into it.

Just remember that if your mechanic puts your vehicle on stands and leaves the diffs hanging it will change the tailshaft/diff angles. I know this is just anoher spanner in the works for you so good luck with it all. If the mechanic puts the stands under the diffs and runs the drivetrain up to speed then there will still be no load on the drive train so good luck again...hope he finds a solution for you. I was a mechanic for 10+ years and these ones can be a bugger to find.

Originally Posted by sandyian

They .. checked the uni joints

Do you know if the front tailshaft was removed or just inspected in-situ? It really needs to be removed to properly check for a siezing uni.

If its a TD5, make sure the harmonic balancer isn't dancing about with the engine idling.

How's the centering bearing inside the donut? Are there any cracks in the donut?

Are the nuts tight on the front of the rear tailshaft, at the handbrake drum?

Is the handbrake drum full of mud?