Hi all,

I brought my 2005 LR3 (201,000 miles) to the dealer for a check-up. Everything felt fine but I was leaving it with my dad for the summer so wanted to make sure it was in good shape for him. The only major repair they did was replacing the rear driveshaft assembly.

After the repair, the tech road tested it with a note saying "Ok but there is a vibration possibly tire noise". About a week after the repair I returned home and drove the car, felt significant vibration from the steering wheel above 40mph so I immediately took it back to the dealer. They did a full check and found metal shavings in the diff oil, and quoted a $4,000 repair to replace the rear diff and axles.

My main concern is that there was no vibration issue before bringing the car in for service, but immediately upon the first set of repairs the vibration started. Is it just a coincidence or could something have happened during the rear driveshaft assembly replacement that caused the following issues?

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

 

Wow. A lot going on here. First, having metal shavings in your diff fluid is not a death knell; I'd be curious as to what other evidence supports the replacement of the diff and axles. Some shavings in the fluid is normal; that's why the drain plugs are magnetic, to capture said shavings.

I do think that the rear driveshaft replacement could contribute to your vibration feeling however. If it were me I'd be saying "no way" to replacing the diff/axles unless it could be explained convincingly why that conclusion was drawn. I'd also want the driveshaft re-examined, perhaps by a different tech.

 

Bad diffs can be driven on these things for a long time. I have not heard a justification for replacing the axles too... That's why bearings exist.

I would too have them explain to me why the noise only started coming up after they touched it... It sounds like they may have messed up doing the driveshaft repair OR magically you have a wheel bearing out or something. The diffs can make noise but not noise/vibration that appears out of nowhere. Did they replace the centre support bearing on the driveshaft?

Don (zelatore) had a writeup somewhere on driveshafts recently.

 

I thought the center support bearing was an integral part of the driveshaft (i.e. a non-serviceable item), which would mean it would have to be replaced if the driveshaft was replaced.