The other day when I first started the truck I heard a very loud noise coming from under the hood. It had a grinding or scraping quality to it that made me think something was caught up in the serpentine belt or a bearing had gone bad on a pulley. It was bad enough that I turned the truck off right away and checked under the hood. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary, so I restarted it to see if I could pinpoint it and the sound was gone. I drove the car that day and the next few. Then, after driving the car for 15 minutes or so and stopping for 45 minutes, I went to restart the it and got the noise again. Now it won't go away and is there within a second of the truck starting. The motor turns over, catches, revs and then the noise kicks in. So, I've parked it until I can resolve it. Here's a video:


You can see in the video that it seems to either diminish or at least get smoother and masked with more RPMs. The noise is definitely louder under the car and seems louder toward the back of the engine. With a stethoscope I can hear it most clearly through the oil pan. On the top end, with the stethoscope, the rocker covers on each side sound fine. It's so loud, my initial thought was an exhaust leak, but I can't locate any cracks or feel any escaping exhaust underneath. I've checked all the fluid levels, pulled the spark plugs sequentially from each cylinder with no change in the noise, and ran the car with the serpentine belt off, also with no change in the noise. I also moved the differential from high, to neutral to low and locked and unlocked it, all with no changes. Lastly, moving the main gear selector through all the gears also doesn't produce a change.

I'm planning on pulling the oil pan today to see if I can locate anything else. No check engine lights or oil pressure light. Any thoughts?

 

Sounds like the rover gods are mad at you.

Sounds like something is loose on the exhaust.

 

I thought of that. Bad cat baffles seems to be a common theme, but I put the stethoscope to both cats and they sound fine. I would think they'd blow my ears off if that's where it was coming from.

When the car shuts down and the noise dies, it sounds rotational. So, based nowhere I'm hearing it from and that, I'm still thinking torque converter, flex plate, crank bearings (although I've read multiple posts about those never going),etc. something along those lines.

I have the bell housing plates pulled right now, but don't see anything obvious.

 

Sounds like money.

 

last times I heard something like that it was a stuck starter dragging on the engine running ( till the starter grenade) or the flywheel inspection cover got bent and was rubbing the flywheel

 

Funny you mention that. I finally narrowed the noise down to the starter this afternoon.

I started the process of pulling it, but ran out of time today. Well partially ran out of time and partially got hung up removing the heat shield. I've got the bolt out and heat shield released from the starter. I also pulled the forward O2 sensor per RAVE. I just can't seem to find the right sequence to pull it out. I'm assuming it comes out the bottom? Any suggestions? Do most people simply work around it or just bend the hell out of it?

Thanks guys.

 

bend it, and work the bolts with several extensions from in front of the axle. Wash out the allen head bolts with spray something so you can get all the way to the bottom.

Here is another problem that may take place in D1s without a distributor. If all this work, or a piece from the starter bends one of the reluctor tabs, or worse, breaks it off; then Crank Shaft Position Sensor (CKP) will be most unhappy and you can have misfires that are a mystery. In other words, the starter needs to come out in one piece, not leave a lot of chunks behind.

 

yes it is a real pita to get off and a bigger pain to get on thanks the shield you need to bend away then back when finished and yes out the bottom

when I first bought my rover I went over some rr tracks coming home and shut it off at home no crank, pulled the starter and the copper wire from the starter to solonoid was corroded till nothing was left, no idea how it was even working

 

Glad you narrowed it down. Luckily it was only your starter.

When you have some free time read about my cracked flex plate. Yes, it does happen.

https://landroverforums.com/forum/sh...3687&styleid=4

 

The tabs all looked good when I checked them during the process of trying to narrow the source of the noise down. Thanks for the heads up, though, I'll double check them once I have the starter out.

Thanks for confirming the "bend it" method. I hesitate to do those things out of frustration for fear that I'm missing an obvious and more professional way to proceed.

Tackling the removal this afternoon. I want to test the starter to confirm it's the issue before ordering a new one. From what I've read on the forums, I'll probably go with the one from British Starters. The D1 hasn't always been the easiest starting car and it would be nice to hear it fire right up now that it's the "family" car.

I'll let everyone know how it turns out. Thanks for the help guys.