Hi Folks,

2001 Disco II, 155950 mi. and been doing great up until yesterday. Started out fine and drove to work, no problem. On the way home for lunch, I suddenly noticed a fast-amplitude vibration that felt like the transmission. I slipped it into neutral and it seemed to dissipate and came back when I put it in gear again and accelerated under load. It made it home, but seemed a little sluggish. I left it in my garage and took my SLK230 back to work.

I put a scanner on it this evening and got two codes, P1590 and P0303. It couldn't describe the first code but said the 0303 was a misfiring #3 cylinder, which I suppose could be responsible for the vibration. Can someone tell me what the P1590 code is and whether there is a common cause for the 0303 that I should take a look at? I was naturally going to start with the plug itself, but wondered whether there is any particular I need to look at otherwise.

Thanks for any assistance offered. I'll also take a second to commend this forum and extend my appreciation to Mike and the other members. My Rover has been down 3 times before this and each time everyone has helped me to get it right back on the road again.

Russell

 

First of all, have you rebuilt your front drive shaft? Does it have three grease fittings on it? If not I would say your front driveshaft is potentially getting ready to break free and smack the transmission out of the truck! As far as the codes go, can you clear them? If you can clear them, then turn the truck on in your drive way let it run to see if the codes come back. Did you have a check engine light on before this? Perhaps these are old codes?!

 

Has your front drive shaft been replaced or rebuilt so that it has multiple grease fittings? If not best to park truck until you can evaluate it (write up in tech sticky on rebuild). Can split and poke hole in tranny, just will ruin your day.

RAVE says:

 

Front driveshaft needs rebuilding.

 

Thanks for the replies. Both front and rear drive-shafts rebuilt last year and I greased them when I did an oil change 3 months ago. If it was the front shaft, I thought placing it in neutral while traveling would not have made any difference in the vibration since the shaft would still be rotating with the wheels?

I'll make a close inspection of the front shaft but it was professionally rebuilt and seems a bit soon for it to already be failing. I don't drive the vehicle hard at all and have only put 9600 miles or so on it since the shafts were rebuilt.

Ah, the P1590 is an old code. My ABS light came on a while back but the tech said he could not find anything wrong and that the light might come back after the code reset, so I didn't get concerned when it did.

I'm still wondering about the P0303 code and whether this is something I need to look into further.

 

when was the last time you checked the fluid levels in the transmission? when was it last changed including the filter. Did you check the ROTO=FLEX coupler on the rear driveshaft. I know you said the shaft was worked on but was the roto flex...

 

Did you rebuild the front drive shaft or have someone do it, was the centering ball replaced at the same time?
Remove the front shaft and drive in High lock, see if the vibration goes away.
Also inspect both shafts to make sure you have not dropped a weight.

 

Trans was fully serviced last year. Front shaft, including center ball was entirely rebuilt and performed by a company recommended from this site, although I can't recall the name at the moment.

More specifically, the vibration is not extreme at all and feels more like the vehicle is riding rough on the road. It seems more prominent at highway speeds but remains present at lower speeds.

I'll take a look at everything tomorrow and post any findings. Thanks for the help.

Russell

 

Under stress the drive shaft can act up, so while under power and not while coasting.

 

Okay, finally had time to crawl under my Rover and pull the front shaft. The problem is that I can't remember how to switch the transmission to run without the shaft so now I temporarily can't get it down off the ramps. Could someone please take a minute and tell me where to locate the detent and which way to switch it so that the transmission will operate without the front shaft? It's been so long since I had to do it I can't recall precisely where it is or which way to turn it.

Thanks

Russell