Hey all!

The wife and I have been noticing an odd noise when driving at 55+ uphill. It’s not consistent either. Some hills it’s audible, others not at all. It sounds like it’s coming from the brake booster area. Video linked.

 

I wish my Disco was that quiet. I wouldn't worry about it unless someone loud starts happening.

 

That was hard to hear. Years ago I had a intermittent tapping noise under load (going up a hill) which turned out to be my water pump shaft being loose causing the fan blades to rub on the shroud. New water pump fixed that noise but it returned recently because the oem fan had a wobble. Dorman fan replacement when I did all gaskets 2 weekends ago.

 

Agreed. Not the best recording skills on my part. It's most evident at the end of the video.

Anyway, I replaced the water pump last week, but resulted in no change. It's been making that noise for the last several months.

 

What year is your Disco? With the engine idling, does the fan spin smoothly, or does it have any wobble?

 

2002. And yeah, the fan clutch is nice and tight, no wobble either.

 

Do you feel any vibration on acceleration? Sounds like it could be a drive shaft U-joint going bad.

 

No vibration. Actually, both driveshafts are new.

 

Do you have your A-pillar covers installed?

I get a similar noise and I'm 90% sure it is the wind whipping across the metal clips for the a-pillar pieces I never took off

 

I do, yep. Good thought though. It's such an intermittent and oddly-occurring issue. Like... why only uphill at highway speeds? I would presume it has something to do with the kick down of the transmission, but on flatland a kick down into a lower gear doesn't produce the same symptoms. In other words, I don't understand why the uphill factor is the issue here.