I posted this in the reliability thread But I really think it deserves it's own topic.

I just got hit with the dreaded rear differential failure with my 2008 LR2 HSE. At 69k miles this is unbelievable to me that my wife's street driven LR2 differential has a bearing failure at 69k.
$1800 in parts and labor it'll be done on Monday.
I guess they're getting a lot of practice fixing this because I've seen people post up to 5k for the repair when people started hitting 60-80k miles.

I'm 42 and this is the first car that I've ever even heard of that's had a rear differential fail under 200k miles if at all. I'm pissed
This should be a recall! My god damn rotors lasted longer than the differential that's just unbelievable.

When did the differential become a wear item?

 

Well just got the LR2 back yesterday minus $1900 in my wallet.
Hey but they did give me a gift card for $150 so I can buy some mugs and t-shirts.
I guess everyone can skip the 10 year differential oil change since we're changing rears every 5 years.

Oh and I get a one year warranty on the new redesigned rear differential.
Nice! So that only needs to last 12k to 15k miles lets hope they did it right this time if not oh well it's not their problem.

 

Replaced our 2010 at 29K miles. Fortunately, still in warranty.

 

Here's the new Rear.
What do you know it does look different.
If I remember correctly the old casting stuck out on both side and could see the axle shaft seals.
So if your differential doesn't look like this one complain until they replace it while it's under warranty

If anyone has a pic of the original that would be great if you could post it.

 

Just found out today my 2010 LR2 64k needs a new rear differential.
Only had the car for 5 months and put 600 miles on it..
Purchased a one year service warranty from Zurich - I hope the repair is covered as I was quoted $3000.. My wife and I are pissed...
If Zurich doesn't cover it -- gonna go back to where I purchased it with the bill....

 

I hear you SCIGONE, The Freelander had the same or similar bad design of its rear and it was a recall. It's not right that a vehicle's design flaw is the consumers responsibility to replace.


People assume that a car will last a reasonable amount of time past the warranty period.


I guess Land Rovers bad reputation is still going strong with their newer models. I really thought that LR had corrected the reliability problems that they were known for.

 

Attaching pics of a working original from a 2008 LR2, 72K miles.

 

What were the symptoms? Was it just noisy, or something else?

 

It was just noisy.


At first I thought it was just road noise but it seemed like every time I drove I would be turning the radio up louder or would have more drivetrain whining then normal.
My wife didn't start to notice until the noise got really loud.
Eventually you could hear some crunching sounds when making slow less than 5mph turns in a parking lot.

 

Land Rover issued a Technical Service Bulletin LTB00342 (Issue 3) in Aug 2011 that basically says this noise problem can be repaired by replacing the bearing in the rear differential, and it's not necessary to replace the entire rear differential assembly. The TSB indicates this bearing replacement is several hours of work so I don't know how the total cost would compare to the work you had done.

Were you aware of this option and did you discuss if it applies to your situation before making a decision on how to proceed? Or maybe that's what they did? Based on your photos, I got the impression they replaced your entire assembly.