Rear end of my 03 disco II has been making a popping/clunking noise when going around corners. Feels like a bushing is loose cause it is a single firm pop noise when going around a corner and will do the same thing when turning the opposite direction. I have looked at all the bushings on the control arms and watts linkage and they all look fine and all bolts are tight. I removed the sway bar and drove without it and noise is still there. I replaced the bushings for fun and noise is still there. I disconnected the rear shocks and drove around the neighborhood noise is still there. Any ideas or suggestions? Vehicle is stock in every way and not driven hard or off roaded. Noise is driving my wife nuts and im tired of hearing about it. Any help or advice is appreciated thanks

 

Wheel bearings.

If you are up to say 140K to 160K and never greased the wheel bearings then this is probably it.

Been there and done that (On Discovery I)

 

Or a failing diff.

 

Aren't the rear bearings on these sealed unit bearings? What are some good ways to check out the differential to see if that's what making noise ?

 

The brearings are sealed units and not easily greased. if the sounds is more of a "clunk" when the body weight shifts then I would hazzard a guess at being the trailing arms. Even if they look tight they can still move and give a distinctive clunk when the weight shifts either under load or relief. If you were to hold the gutter and vigerously shake the vehicle can you replecate the noise? Works best if you have some one do it then you can lie underneath and point where its coming from. Make sure the vehicle is in park, E brake on and wheels chocked if you do this. Let us know

 

TO check the rear diff in a simple way..
Take off the plastic fill plug on the rear of the diff.
You do not have to jack up the Rover.
Just crawl under it from the rear.

The oil in there should be brownish.
If it is BLACK, then you may have a bad diff.

I doubt your diff is bad.

You may benefit from jacking up the rear of the rover and trying to find play in each back wheel.

You leave the tire on.
Grab the wheel at 12 oclock and 6 oclock and try to tilt the wheel vertical by
pushing with one hand and pulling wiith the other and then reversing the action.

If the wheel is moving even just a bit and you can sense the movement, then you may have a wheel bearing problem.

 

The arms that go from the axle to the watts link is what i suspected until I took the bolts out and checked them. The bolts were good and tight and the bushings look fine. I put it back together and got them even tighter still clunking on turns

 

If your abs and traction control dash lights are on it might indicate you have a rear bad hub. If the bearings go in the hub it will throw the 3 amigos. Or if you have regular springs and not air bags, maybe the rubber spring mounts are shot and allowing springs to contact metal?

 

Hey Ruffram,
This might sound kinda dumb. But I had my muffler was loose and at first I noticed a clunking sound both when I turned and went over bumps. And than in a week or so I started to hear another sound when I was driving, and it turns out that there was air pumping into the muffler, which I'm almost positive is bad for the car.

 

I was hoping the same thing. I was hoping that my muffler was moving enough to make the noise but i have wiggled the muffler far as I can in all directions and it doesn't come close to touching anything. I don't have any ABS lights or 3 amigos, etc. Has anyone had any first hand experience with replacing bushings on the linkage on the rear end? The outer bushings on the watts linkage is my suspicion of what my problem might be.