It's just showing you which way your front tires are pointing. I think it only appears if you are in particular Terrain Response settings and maybe even 4-Lo, not sure of the specifics though.

 

I came across this thread tonight because I had the same experience as the OP. I took my relatively new-to-me 2006 LR3 HSE out into the desert this weekend to try different terrain response programs. While in rock crawl & low and navigating across a dry creek bed with deep sand and rocks, an image of a drive axle with wheels on each end flashed in the main message center. Only there for a few seconds. Happened again in a different part of the desert in an equally crappy stretch of dirt. The image was large, taking up the width of the screen. I've been flipping through the owner's handbook this evening trying to find some indication of what that image was trying to tell me but I never saw anything close. Yes, "messages relating to the Terrain Response system are displayed on the instrument pack main message center" according to the handbook, but this was a large icon, not text. I think the only icons the handbook shows for the main message center are the ones indicating the air suspension and terrain program settings. My attention was primarily focused on the path in front of me and not on the dashboard, but I'm pretty sure the orientation of both wheels in the icon were straight up and down, so if it was trying to tell me which way the front tires were pointing, it wasn't very accurate information as I was swimming and twisting through some deep sand and because it only lasted a few seconds, it wasn't very useful. But if it's an indication of some sort of problem, I'd sure like to know.

Cheers,

Nick in Palm Springs

 

Pretty sure that is just the Lo-Fi way of showing steering wheel direction, for vehicles w/o factory nav screens

 

Yep....Nick, I wasn't guessing, or anything. That is what it shows. The only thing I don't know is what triggers it to be displayed/removed. If it seemed inaccurate to you, it was probably due to some latency in the system.

 

Yeah, maybe, but I do have the factory nav system along with the 4x4 info display (the one with the locks showing on the differentials) . I'd think that if the icon was intended to inform the driver of wheel direction during the use of rock crawl + low, it would be activated the moment the program and low gearing were selected and continue to be displayed until a different terrain program was chosen. This just flashed on the main msg. center display and then vanished. Weird. I suspect that there isn't a problem (otherwise people would be screaming at me to take the vehicle to a transmission specialist ASAP), but I hate not knowing for sure what it means.

I wonder if what I saw was the equivalent of the 4x4 info display showing a locked rear differential. I believe that the rear diff only locks briefly in very challenging conditions, so maybe the icon isn't about wheel direction but instead about a momentary rear diff lock. I guess the only way to find out for sure would be to have the 4x4 info display on in rock crawl+low and when I see the icon flash in the message center, see if the rear diff is showing lock in the display. Probably not worth the drive to a dry creek bed during a heat wave where temps have hit 123 in the past couple weeks (and 121 yesterday).

Nick in Palm Springs

 

It is not related to the diff locking. Also, the rear diff doesn't lock only "briefly" depending on what you mean by briefly. I have seen the diff lock for minutes at a time. I agree that the wheel direction icon should be shown for longer than just a moment; I don't know what the logic is. I know that it is ONLY an indication of wheel direction, though.