Hi Guys, for a long time, my 06 LR3 (just rolled over 200k) has been wearing outside passenger front tires like there is no tomorrow. I can go through a tire in less than 20k miles and be down to the cords on the outside.

I have had 3 alignments in the past year, one at the LR dealer, one at an indie LR shop and one at just a tire place. I have pointed out the tire issues to all of them but no one can seem to find the problem. So, this weekend I am replacing the front suspension parts, tie rods, tie rod ends, upper and lower control arms, sway bar links, the whole shebang.

Before I get under there and do that, does anybody have any ideas what could be causing it other than what I listed above? I should note that I have gotten a slight wobble in the wheel, WAY worse during braking, as pressure on the brakes increase, it goes from bad to sounding and feeling like the car is shaking itself apart, to barely noticeable.

So, front suspension aside (or maybe not?) there's one other thing that has been driving me nuts. I have gotten to the point where I have a LOT of drivetrain play. With one front wheel off the ground, I can turn it and see what looks to be somewhere between half and a full inch of rotation on the drive shaft (past the front diff.) So my question here is this, should I be looking at a U-Joint problem, or Diff problems? I do get a good bit of high pitched whine when up at a high speed, but I'm not sure how much of that is just that tire on the front not sitting on the ground correctly.

I should mention, that to the best of my knowledge that at 200k it's never had a transfer case or diff service, and to be honest at this point, I'm a bit scared to crack them open.
I had a horror story with my Disco2, I got the 50k mile maintenance done on it, and within 5k miles past that I was putting a new transmission in it. So, I'm a bit gun-shy about opening up the drive train parts under there... Would it be worth swapping the oil in the diff's and xfer case? Or pretty much damage done at this point?

Thanks!

 

If you're doing that much, I would also consider replacing your hubs. With that many miles on the truck, it's only a matter of time until they go as well and the cost should really only be parts because the labor should be included in the above work.

As far as your "wheel wobble", that sounds like a classic case of a warped rotor. With light pressure, it becomes very noticeable and pronounced because the pads are barely touching the warped portion of the wheel. However, as you increase the pedal pressure and the clamping force of the calipers, the slight warping of the rotor becomes inconsequential and you no longer feel it.

 

i find it hard to believe that three places would have missed something as easy as tie rod ends or control arm bushing as lr3/4's they are know for control arm bushings.

I have also read of a few lr3 eat up front differentials

did you buy the car new? is it possible it was hit on the passenger side in the past?

 

When an allignment is done the dealer puts the suspension in tight tolerance mode which is super strict on the height sensors. Tire shops and indy's wouldn't be able to do unless they had a gap pro tool or T4 AFAIK. To my mind the only allignment that you could count on to be really good was the one the dealer did. If bushings went bad on control arms or the hubs were bad it might explain the wear on tires.

x2 on hubs, rotors, mine are warped and do that exact shaking. Clean and inspect your brake components. If you're like me you're "planning" on new rotors and pads

 

As far as the alignment, I would assume the Indy LR shop I took it to would have been able to put it into alignment mode... I know they were complaining about not being able to login to SDD to load the software for the new air compressor, so I would expect them to be able to do a proper alignment, at least I would hope...

I have heard the brake thing a lot as well, and I have swapped out the rotors on the front a few times since I have had it, and the wobble always comes back FAST, within 5k miles. Which makes me think there has to be something else broken contributing to the rotors?

And I too find it completely unbelievable that 3 shops have looked at it and not "been able to find anything wrong." Something is wrong, I realize it's high mileage, but it just isn't as smooth a ride, or handling as well as it used to.

I did't buy it new, I got it with just about 40k on it from a little indie LR dealer in town (red mountain rovers.) As for a wreck, anything is possible, CarFax didn't show anything when I bought it, and I know I haven't gotten hit since I have had it. It also was not doing that when I first got it, only started around maybe 75 to 80k. It's been looked at by the dealer probably 3 times, and god only knows how many indie shops since then. But the three I mentioned above are all within the last 12 months. One of the indie shops replaced the tie rod ends and did a FULL brake job on it, rotors and all and it stopped, for 10k at the most, then slowly started coming back.

About 6 months ago, I replaced the front drivers hub, it was BAD wobbly, but the one on the passenger side seems tight whenever I check it.

I just dont know... the whole thing has me confused...

 

Your diffs may be bad, but that wouldn't cause the tire wear issue you're having...I wouldn't think.

 

Do you get a clunk when pushing brake or letting off brake?

Sound like a bad hub to me, or bushing

I have seen plenty of shops that do alignment without inspecting the parts , like Mr tire

 

Take it to a nice flat level parking lot and take a close look at it from head on.
Does the passenger wheel look like the top is leaning out?


Does one side of the vehicle sag?


Measure heights of frame members.

 

probably not what i'm thinking if you drove it for 40k with out this problem.

 

It doesn't really appear to sag, but I have noted in the past that there is slightly (maybe 1/4" or less) less clearance between the tire and the wheel well on the passenger side than the drivers side.

There's a hill in town (a really steep hill) with a stop sign placed so you stop just exactly where the road levels out, and its always so bad at that spot that it makes me cringe. In that spot it's coming off the stop hitting the gas, there's a long lull, then slap and power.