After replacing both front and rear diffs under warranty on my RRS a few years ago, I drained the fluids on the new (to me) 06 LR3 last night and wasn't very happy - but honestly wasn't very surprised either.

Front diff... classic "mocha soup" semi-burned smelling, chocolate brown color.. magnetic drain plug covered in 1/8" of fine metal goo.

Transfer case looked okay - reddish fluid but was pretty dark, not cloudy dark but just a deep translucent red which I guess is normal for "ATF" which is essentially what LR uses.

Rear diff was yellowish green and unfortunately while it wasn't brown, it DID have almost the same amount of metal on the magnetic drain plug. The rear of the vehicle seems very quiet.. and I know for a fact that the LR dealership replaced this differential under warranty about 35k miles ago.



I think at this point I'm going to start pulling the procedures for R&R front diff and replacing the bearings inside, plus sourcing some of the parts. I really hate the idea of just throwing a reman unit up there, since it sounds like most of them are semi-prone to some kind of noise / failure also.

I'm going to start searching, I'm sure the UK guys have completed the rebuild before.

Just wanted everyone to know that even if it's not REALLY LOUD or obnoxiously vibrating etc, it could still be failing just the same... I'd check your fluids if I were you.

Can't believe that, counting the one they already replaced in the rear I'm FOUR FOR FOUR ON DIFFERENTIALS with my last to rovers.

I heard that company went out of business and I certainly hope so, if it wasn't for such a STUPID problem and basic miscalculation the resale value and general perception of this generation of land rovers would be COMPLETELY different. Really infuriates me...

Then again I don't know why LR didn't take production parts from an 05 LR3 and run them on a dyno for 100k miles, pull the drain plug and say "HOLY CRAP" - seems like an incredibly easy QC issue to discover. You'd think they'd do fluid analysis on every single component in the vehicles long before production.

 

I just had my rear diff replaced (again) after only ~18,000 miles. I'd also changed the fluid TWICE in that span (once after ~2000 miles following a "break-in" period) and then once at 18,000. This time, the locking motor may have been the culprit as I was getting a clanking/binding sound and when investigated; the clutch packs were slipping. Replaced. Then about a week later I got a "soft fault" that, once read with my IIDTool stated it was related to the "clutch position not learnt" or something along those lines. A little digging on this forum and I learnt (couldn't help myself) that it was the locking diff actuator that throws that fault. Even though the existing one checked out upon calibration, I changed it anyway.

I plan to change my diff oil again at the 1000 mile mark; after that it'll be every 15k miles.