Hello,

I have been lurking for a while, and recently bought a 2000 land rover discovery. I had it inspected by Dennis at LinDen Engineering in Golden, CO, and he said that the only problems were the upstream o2 sensors and some slight valvetrain noise.

Well, i dont think that is the case... The engine has what sounds like a ticking noise from the engine bay, but is much louder underneath. Also, beginning at around 3000rpm the engine makes the entire car vibrate, getting louder up to the red line, regardless of if it is in drive, park, or neutral. It is very loud underneath the car when this happens, and it almost sounds like an exhaust problem or resonation, but the exhaust does not vibrate excessively.

I have done an ATF Flush, and then filled it with 10w40 Royal Purple, but the noise stayed. I filled it with super 93 gas, and added seafoam, as well as did a seafoam induction cleaning in case it was a problem in the intake, but the noise stayed.

I looked at the car further, as realized that the noise was actually much more prominent underneath the engine, so that lead me to believe it might be an exhaust leak...but there are no carbon spots near the exhaust, and the noise is symmetrical on both sides. So, it seems like the noise is actually coming from the oil pan.

Along with all of this, when the car sits in park for more than a minute or two, it starts making a clanking noise like metal on metal from the transmission!?!?

I made a youtube video of the problems...
YouTube - Discovery Vibration and Engine Noise -- HELP

Any ideas? I am completely stumped, and i have seemed to exhaust any information to be found in already-asked questions on forums.

 

#1 sounds more like a slight piston slap or lifter (tick) noise. I say that because it sounds like a diesel. It's common. You can replace the cam and lifters to get rid of it, but honestly in my opinion it's not worth it. It's a lot of work. If the engine is running good don't stress too much on that idle sound. Does it go away once the engine warms up? Well not go away, but it should not be as loud, etc. A thicker oil will make it louder (cold start), also that is why right after a oil change it is less noticable . What kind of oil do you use? Also what is the oil pressure, off the gauge (idle and hot).

#2 let's get #3 fixed first.

#3 is the one we need to fix asap. It sounds like something chipped or is lose, could be metal debris. You will have to get up inside to really diagnose that one. Might have to remove the oil pan (inspect inside that) and definitely do a transmission flush and replace the filter (kit). When you get that off inspect all up in there like the oil pan. Your looking for metal flakes, etc. Grab and inspect everything, make sure it's bolted tight.

+1 the video. Videos are king.

I will also show this to my friend/neighbor/senior ford diesel mechanic, and ask what he thinks about #3 over beer tonight.
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Ferrari F60 Specifications

 

#1 So it can't hurt anything? I still need to do a tune up and replace all the plugs/air filter, as the PO didn't take care of it at all...but could that be causing the rough idle? I am used to an '01 Dodge Dakota we have as my v8 reference, and it definitely does not vibrate at idle. It is not too harsh, but it can definitely be felt sitting inside the car, and is more of a nuisance than anything else... Oh, and i just ran it with seafoam for 100mi as soon as i bought it, did an ATF flush, and then filled it with royal purple 10w40.

#2 I got the suggestion to check if the torque convertor plate was tight, as my engine was rebuilt 30k ago...maybe it wasn't reinstalled correctly?

#3 The weird thing is, it only happens in park? And it only starts after it has been sitting in park for a while. My current strategy was to simply not let it idle long enough in park to start making the noise? I planned on changing out all the fluids with royal purple, as soon as i get a chance, but i have a 1963 VW Beetle Convertible that i need to sell first to help fund this...and its listed on thesamba.com

Thank you for you help! I will go out and pick up an oil pressure tester today, and test it tomorrow morning. Any help on where to plug the tester in? As the RAVE Manual does not have a very good description of where the sender unit is actually located...

 

x2: if the engine was removed then double check all bolts, many people do sloppy work and leave things finger tight. If the torque converter plate bolts are all tight then I would loosen them all to finger tight and then torque them up again. There are 4 bolts and it takes a few minutes, remove 1 of the rubber grommets at the back of the oil pan and rotate the engine with a breaker bar until you see the bolt through the hole. Double check your transmission fluid level while you are down there.
Why did you flush it with ATF? Where you trying to fix something or did it just sound like a good idea? Did you remove the oil pan after the flush and clean it out and clean the oil pickup as well?

 

I did an ATF flush in hopes that it would free up any lifters that might not have been working...plus, the last record the PO had or an oil change was 10k ago, and the oil was disgusting when it came out, so i figured a good cleaning couldn't hurt...and the ATF also came out very dirty after 30min of idling, so it had plenty to clean up.

I did not drop the pan, but when i check the oil pressure tomorrow, if it is low, i will drop the pan and make sure the pickup is clear, etc.

And i have no rubber grommets underneath the engine...is it supposed to be a hole on the rear of the engine oil pan looking back towards the transmission?

 

I am not sure where the oil sending unit is. Bundu might know. I get my disco 2 this weekend hopefully, so when you find it post a pic of where it is. I will prob need to know as well if and when I want to officially check my pressure. It was kinda a pain on the jeeps. You could get the compression guage to it, but sometimes the oil sender would not hook to it nice and tight so you had to goto the hardware store and rig something up.

This is a good thread, don't see too many guys posting over here that turn wrenches. Lets build on this one.


Yeah I came from the jeep world, and the 4.0 w/high mileage were notorious for lifter/tick noise under idle. Most the guys just left it as is. Some tried covering it up with synthetic high visc oil, but that's only a temp fix. That noise is common though for a high mileage 4x4 engine - the more sludge the more noticable the tick. You can just tell people it's a diesel.

If #3 noise is only happening when it's in park (not neutral), then it might be easier to fix for ya since you have 2 scenarios to inspect/test from. You inspect underneith while someone else puts it back and forth from neutral to park. I bet you will see it, hopefully.
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30 Rock Forum

 

You most probably ****ed up a healthy engine with that flush. You HAVE to pull the pan and clean it out and clean the oil pickup after an ATF flush, otherwise you are running all that crap that was loosened up by the ATF through your engine.
Drop your pan, clean it and clean the oil pickup and replace your oil filter.
The grommets are on the oil pan, not on the ****** bell housing. Pay attention.

 

Woah, calm down. The noise did not change at all through the ATF flush. I changed the filter before the flush, and then again afterwards with new m1 filters. The ATF Came out no dirtier than the oil that was in there previously. Think about it, all that "crap" loosened up by the ATF, was running through the engine DURING the flush as well. If i don't have oil pressure problems which i will check as soon as i have a free morning, then the pick up tube is not clogged, and therefore, was not clogged by the ATF flush. Maybe dropping the pan is the best way to do it, but this is my DD and i had 1/2 day free to do this. I did not have time to drop the pan. If my oil pressure is normal, i see no reason to?

And thank you for PAYING ATTENTION. i did not ever suggest that i thought the hole was on the bellhousing. I know it is in the oil pan, and i have found the holes. I only had a grommet in the passenger side hole, which i did not see until further inspection, so i just wanted to make sure that we were talking about the same holes.

I dont want to turn this into an argument, i am simply looking for helpful advice, and your last comment was not helpful.

 

See it? Whatever is happenning is inside the transmission, and i thought (i may be wrong) that you never wanted to run the engine with the transmission pan removed, as the transmission always needs oil to run? So what do you mean by see it?

Thanks!

 

Yeah OK whatever... its your car so screw it up any way you like.
There are a lot of IFS and MAYBES in your reply.
Good luck, you obviously know what you are doing.