There have been a slew of shark attacks, FL on west.. All seem to be in waist deep water, 30 yards out. If you see Dolphins, head in.

Here is what the insides will look like eventually. If it's not making noise yet, just run your maintenance as planned. Then every 30k miles.

 

Maybe you can help me understand "Making noise" because I am hearing a bearing/worn tire noise at speed... but only under power, so would you think the differential bearing is the culprit?

*Edit: For full disclosure I refilled the differentials and the transfer case with enough fluid to have it spill out the fill hole. I let it drain off for about 5 mins and then sucked a little more off the top out with suction gun. I know this is more than the listed capacity, but seems this is quite common technique to use.

 

Well, first off, bad wheel bearings are commonly misdiagnosed for differential issues. But we also already know every single diff out there will need to be rebuilt at some point...

A dull roar from the back that eventually turns into a dull roar..

noise in the front under power (pressure applied to gears, bearings, etc) - The front is more critical do get done, because if you let it go, the center piece is ruined, meaning no core refund..

 

Thanks for the reply and given the state of the fluid and amount of build up on the magnetized drain plug sounds like I should plan to replace the front diff in the near future (at least disassemble and carefully inspect). Doesn't look like too bad of a job, but likely to uncover other issues in the drive train.

Any other things you recommend replacing while I am pulling it all apart?

 

I would check the front drive shaft, the rear drive shaft as well, probably good but doesn't hurt. The center carrier bearing goes out in the rear shaft and is most noticeable as a small oscillation in the vehicle. Put a half glass of water and in cup holder.

Cheers

 

Good deal, sounds like first step after getting back will be to order a new round of fluids and plan for a tear down and inspection of drive train. More to learn

 

We got to carova at 1030 PM sat night, and learned deep sand driving on the fly. Terrain response is flipping awesome and kept us in 3K rpm the whole way plowing through 8 inches of soft powder sand. Hit a few bumps at some good speed and ABS and traction control lights flicked on and off, but the rover kept tracking and never seemed to struggle. Saw plenty of AWD cars buried up to axles along the short stretch we are on.

Got some go pro footage that I will upload once I'm back home (working with DSL speeds down here).

 

As a VW/Audi refugee as well just wanted to welcome you to the world of rovers. Looks like you having fun already make sure to post vids/ pics when you get back

 

...looking forward to the footage! Sounds like a blast!

 

Thanks for the welcome and yeah definitely having fun. Still have the TT and a nice build/maintenance thread if you want to check it out. Title isn't accurate as I went with a hybrid turbo instead of a large frame.. but its a pretty good read with lots of pics.

VWVortex.com - Boulderhead's Big Turbo Roadster (BBTR)