I must add, that after driving for a while and coming into parking space, after stopping and needing to back up to better park myself, after putting the truck in R, you also feel that clunk, that is the only time I feel/hear it when no rolling.

 

Hello Roverers,

Here is the update regarding "the clunking noise when turning situation".

After visiting my mechanic yesterday and reading the comments from MLN01 & OffRoadFrance, I called up a "Land Rover mechanic" and will be going there by next Saturday at the latest.

Nonetheless, and since I also did think the issue had to be "transfer-case" related, I followed my mechanic's first suggestion and replaced the fluid.

Both filler & drain plugs gave a bit of hell to loosen them up, the drain plug more, but was able to loosen it up.

Plug came out with a lot shavings and gunk stuck to it, and to my astonishment, no more than 2oz of fluid was drained, even though I left it draining while I went to get the new fluid.

So I got back, cleaned up everything the best I could, screwed the drain plug back in and started to fill it up; it took two 32oz bottles for it to start dripping, maybe a bit more. Put the filler plug back in, and job done.

Finished cleaning up, fired up the truck, put it in "R", and backwards out of my garage I went.

The difference was felt immediately, it only made a soft clunk the first time I backed up, after that, you can barely feel it, or none at all. Drove nearly 20 miles and no jerking at all. Went into a parking lot and turned in circles like a mad man, and no clunking noises -no matter what I did, the noise was gone! I may have dodge a bullet here, hopefully for a bit longer.

I've had this truck for nearly 4 years and I had failed to check the TC fluid, who knows how long it had been running with 2oz of fluid in it, it should at least had 64oz!

I'm planning to drive it this week as usual, and replace the TC fluid again next weekend, trying to flush as much gunk and shavings as I can, is this a good idea?

Shavings aren't a good sign at all, so will be on the lookout, since sooner or later I might have to replace the TC.

All undercarriage is pretty nasty, I saw oil sifting out the back, maybe the rear main oil seal is bad.

So now that the clunking noise when turning went away, I can relax a bit before focusing on replacing all ball joints and both bars as well, but definetely something I need to replace for the better.

Again, thank you all for your inputs. And for those that fail to change your fluids regularly, get on schedule! I know I will.

Now some pics!

 

Holy crap dude! Definitely do another fluid change/flush.

 

Thanks JUKE179r, but keep in mind that this came out of the "TRANSFER CASE", not the "Transmission". Although a couple months back I did replace filter, gasket & fluid on the transmission, so we should be OK on the department, but next weekend I'll check the levels in it as well, also in both diff, which I also did the drain and refill at the beginning of the year.

Thanks again! ;-]#

 

I recently had a power steering leak and experienced the clunking noise you describe when turning. I topped off the power steering reservoir(which was lower than min) and the problem resolved. I hope yours is as simple a fix as that, and cheers to you

 

Thanks CAROBA, but I think my issue might had been resolved, at least for a while. After seeing all those shavings and nearly 2oz of fluid drained out, I want to believe it was lack of oil in it that produced the noise, since it is now gone. Will check the PS fluid as well, just to be safe on that department. But I still ask myself, where did the other 62 oz of fluid went?

Again, thanks for your input.

 

Christ m8 lol

You need to go get yourself 6 more qt's of gear oil rapidly. Put 1.6L in both the front and rear diff's (because duh, if T case was bad then those diff's could be too), then give yourself another T case drain and fill.

That's a very ugly color for gear oil lol do yourself a solid and order a 6 pack of Royal Purple 75w-90.

You might also want to check the rear output seal on that diff. They all seem to leak. Mine is currently about a quarter size drip a day. You've either got a front or rear seal leak there. Just make sure the leak isn't substantial, get yourself on a decent fluid change schedule (like 30K for your T case, 50K for the diffs).

Save yourself the pain, part cost, and labor of doing something major down the road lol

 

Thanks ZOLTAN7, but I guess you did not read right. I changed both diffs fluids back in december, but failed to tackle the T-Case then, should had. And yes, I will do a new drain & fill on the T-Case this coming weekend, maybe will do the diffs again as well; if I remember well fluid also came out with a similar color, although no shavings.
As per the Royal Purple, will consider it, thanks.
Yes, the leak is coming from the rear, front was replaced about a month or so ago.
And will definetly do scheduled fluid changes on these two as well, thanks again for your input. ;-]#

 

If those chunks of brass/metal came out of your transfer case...l'd keep my eyes open for a replacement. That's probably some sort of thrust plate or shim that has come apart from lack of lubricant.

Had a similar situation with the 01 I bought, pulled plug and about a half a quart came out...but luckily no metal. My wife's 03 was about the same. For some unknown reason, Land rover folks never seem to have this checked.

Brian.

 

Hello Roverers!

Last weekend, after having the truck for 4yrs or so, I did my first drain-n-refill of the t-case fluid -I did not know when, or if the previous owner had ever replaced the t-case fluid, although it sure looks like some work had been done to it.

As you may have seen from the previous pics, only nearly 2oz of dark, thick fluid was drained, along with lots of metal shavings. I refilled with two bottles of 75W-90 Lucas Gear Oil, and once truck fired up, you felt the difference right there and then; since I had to back up to get the truck outta the garage, the usual clunk wasn't there, that put a smile on my face!

All week went pretty smooth, and truck have been running nicely since.

I had already decided to drain-n-refill after a week, assuming that it would help cleaning and getting rid of more shavings and gunk inside the t-case; so after reading a few feedback and recommendations, I decided to buy 85W-140 for the refill this time around, and went again for the Lucas brand (under $8 at AAP).

So I crawled underneath my truck to start working; filler and drain plugs gave a bit of work to loosen up once more; filler one is kinda tricky to get to, since the brake drum gets in the way, and drain plug came out after using and extension on the wrench, for more leverage. No apparent signs of leakage was seen, although this week rained cats and dogs here in Broward county (SoFla), and truck had to go thru a lot of flooded streets, and I mean "FLOODED", so undercarriage had a nice bath!

Fluid drained came out very, very dark, and it was only a week of use! can't imagine after 30k miles! Viscosity was pretty much as it was when it went in though, maybe a bit thicker? Very little to none metal shavings or particles, so hopefully most of the big chunks came out on the previous drain. Did see a lot of "metal-dust", if you may; drain plug came out with nice amount of gunk, and what I can describe as very, very short hair-like metal, since it was hard to clean off the magnet (look at the pics).

I poured the old oil into a gallon jug, and what was left on the oil drain pan did feel more sediment-like, and it was like a two color liquid; a very dark black tone, and a dark chocolaty too (look at the pics).

I haven't fired up the truck yet, so it is still parked in the garage, but will go for a ride tomorrow and see how it behaves.

I'm posting some pics so you can see how this second drain went, and receive any feedback as to if it would be advisable to do another drain a week from now, would it help to get rid of more gunk and metal shavings, and get things cleaner in there, especially now that it will be running with a thicker oil?

I'll be looking for your inputs, thanks!