My wife said she heard a big "bang" while driving down the freeway. Of course I looked at the wheels, suspension and the fender door locations. But it was just a on a "well might as well look every where" thought I found this


This is Houston and if were any where other than the roof, I would guess it was a bullet impact

So, Like King Arthur, I am off on a quest to find the ........... well you know what I mean.

Wish me luck
Jeff

 

He got the woodgrain effect just right

 

That is why I added zero deductible full glass coverage to my LR3. That top sheet is about $1,500 new just for the part. Can't imagine labor is cheap either. I really hate the glass roof idea. It only look cool if you can see it, and you usually cant. And from inside.. pointless too. I would have MUCH rather had two more functioning sunroofs.

 

....last summer. $500 insurance deductible. Piece of cake.

 

Been on my to-do list for a while, found an actual proper Locksmith to make a few spare Keys for OEM tow hitch receiver. I have 2 units - for the LR3 and for the LR4. He also stamped the 4 digit key code onto each key head. They work perfectly. Only $5 each. Today is a good day.

 

Installed body colour door handle covers, mirror covers, new grille, and all 4 hood/tailgate lifts from PowerfulUK last weekend. Looks great and the company was great to deal with.

 

Pics or it didn't happen.

 

Well, it’s been quite a while since I last posted here. I think it was last year when I changed my oil plug for a Fumoto oil drain valve, which has served me well since then and over 7,000 miles later.



I originally didn’t plan on any posts here, as the only think I really did was change the oil on October 3rd, but I put my car up on 4 wheel raisers for the oil change and afterward did my inspection. I was concerned about some garbage I hit on the road a few months earlier which left me having to replace my front tow cover as a result and everything seemed good back then.






And then I saw this, there was some kinda thick and black goop coming from my rear driveshaft in a circle pattern, just where it meets the tansfer box. I know quite a lot about bearings, and this is bearing grease. It turns out that the rubber seal on the driveshaft was failing, and I needed to fix it ASAP, as this is my daily driver. Unfortunately, the whole bearing was press fit onto the driveshaft, and this meant that the while driveshaft needed to be replaced, requiring quite a bit more work than I bargained for.



Finding the replacement OEM driveshaft was pretty easy, but the price was unreal, over $650 for the original GKN version. There were other alternatives for close to $199, but were thicker Chinese garbage aftermarket ones, which are bad because of poor machining or out-of-spec diameters on the mating inner diameter parts. I eventually found an original GKN one using partsgeek for close to $360 with free shipping.



I was utterly amazed that the whole thing was at my house just a few days later on the 7th. I was afraid it was going to be some aftermarket garbage and that I got scammed, but it was indeed a genuine OEM driveshaft. I even did the “ping” sound test and compared it to the original, the Chinese ones are thicker and sound more dull, but the one I bought sounds exactly the same as the original, and even came in the GKN box. The following day was my day off, and I set to work replacing the whole thing.






Thankfully, the service manual to the LR3 is over 4,000 pages long and includes a pretty detailed explanation on how to take the old driveshaft out, and I even had most of the tools as well, the only thing I was missing was a torx bolt kit, but amazon fixed that. There are even quite a lot of videos on how to change it on youtube, in a variety of languages, as both the petrol and diesel engine use the same driveshaft, and is even shared with the Range Rover.









Oct 8th, I put my car on 4 wheel raisers, put my parking brake on, and set to work. I didn’t take a lot of pictures, mostly because it was kinda straight forward, but here are a few pics of the drivetrain off, and a side-by-side comparison with my old driveshaft. The only surprise I had was when I took the heat shield off, I saw that the middle bearing rubber had failed as well, leaking grease everywhere, making me even more sure in my decision to replace the whole thing.



The hardest part was definitely the rear torx bolts, as I struggled to summon enough strength to break the factory locktite and overcome the 110+ foot-lb’s of torque. I took the old driveshaft out, took a 30 minute break to eat something and drink some coffee, and went back to work. I just needed to put the new driveshaft in and torque the bolts to spec, and then I would be done. The new driveshaft fit like mating two well machined parts together, with absolutely no play. All that was left was to torque every bolt, and I would be done.



Thankfully, I bought a large 1/2inch torque wrench for wheel jobs a few years ago for my other car, and I put it to good use. Doing the 55 foot-lb’s on the front bolts was easy. On the rear bolts you have to add some blue loktite and then torque it to spec, which I already mentioned was 110 foot-lbs. I almost gave birth to my colon before I hear the heavenly “click” coming from the torque wrench, and then I had to repeat that 3 more times.



All of this took about 2 hours, including setting up the car and all the tools, my short break, and cleanup. I took it for a short drive the next day after leaving enough time for the loktite to harden, and after some light neighborhood driving with all the windows down and the radio off, I took it on the regular road listening for any unusual sounds or vibrations. Everything was perfect in every way. I saved hundreds of dollars compared to taking it to a shop, and even did the whole thing in one day, not having to wait days for a shop to get to it.



EDIT: Literally while still writing this post, I had to stop and get some crap from home depot, and turned my heat up to max as it’s cold as ***** right now, and is the first day of the year where it’s less than 60F, and I got a lovely check-engine light while driving on the freeway. My trusty GAP tool said it’s a “coolant thermostat temperature below regulating temperature”. This means that the thermostat is likely stuck open or the rubber seal in the thermostat shifted or perished. I noticed that my engine temps were kinda low these last few days and never climbed to half the thermostat's position like it used to, but I thought it was from low driving time, and a lot of city driving. Looks like I’m going to have to make another post soon! WTF!

 

A few weeks ago while freeway driving I had a judder, as if a had an engine misfire, only lasted a kilometer or so. Fast forward to last week, drive my daughter to school and heard a tinging sound from beneath the vehicle, which turned into a clanking sound. Suspected center prop shaft gone. Ended up being the rear prop shaft at the differential joint binding at a certain point and hopping. Ended up replacing the entire prop shaft.

 

^ And this is why I advocate replacement of the entire shaft if the center bearing support fails. These shafts, like any do wear at the CV and u-joint as you found out. So a repair of the center support may be a temporary measure. And with OEM shaft not really costing terribly much, I feel it is the wiser choice. Glad you got it figured out!