Hi all,

I am hoping for some advice; I am currently in the South Of France with the family and a humming has developed with the rear near side wheel. It varies with speed and stops all together when turning courners at speed and so throwing the weight off the wheel

We have been to the local Land Rover dealer who say the bearing is on the way out but it is ok to drive it back to the UK and then up to Milton Keynes - about 800 miles.

The dealer cannot replace the bearing until after we should have returned home as its a holiday week in france and no one is working. Land ROver assistance has offered us two choices, leave the car here to be recovered and faff around with rentals to get us home or risk it. I am minded to risk it.

How far can I drive on a noisy bearing,,,,there is currently no play in the wheel,but it will be weighed down, 4 passegers and luggage etc and it will be hot.

In addition the car broke down driving up a somewhat steep hill as the fan refused to cut in and the car boiled. As a result the air con fan has also packed up. The AA has come out and hopefully sorted it by disconecting the power supply and re-connecting whilst the engine was running. THis seemed to have the result of bringing the fans back to life. No idea if they will go again, but another problem for a long auto route run in the heat.
The car is 2 yeas old with 28k on the clock, sadly I have only owned it 4 weeks and my confidence is badly damaged...it has other problems too, faulty fob and faulty heated wind screen.

Grateful of any advice

from what you describe my feeling is that it would last ok until you get home, especially if you take it easy with it.

it's a shame these problems have happened on holiday and can see how your trust in the car could be affected.

enjoy the rest of your holiday

Iain

Thanks Ian, that was the view of the LR garage in Avignon....atleast I think that is what he said, he had no english and I must have missed the french lesson at school when we covered wheel bearings and rear difs etc. The translation sites are not a lot of help for technical things either........to be fair LR assistance called him with a translator so I did get the right message.

Will keep the speed down to 65 /70 and try to break the journey in two sets of 400 miles rather than blitz it which was the original plan.

For the fans there is a Special Service Message (SSM41748, I believe)and it will be sorted OK at the next service.
If they'll stop to function again while you are away, do the same as AA man has done.
There is a problem with the firmware of the fans control module.

As for the bearing, as long as they don't have any play (yet) it is OK to drive.
Check for play from time to time and take it easy when the play appear.

Does LRA not cover your hire car costs or provide a loan car whilst in France?

Could a bearing generate sufficient heat to be a fire risk? (not tech minded so just a thought i would have)

edited: my silly spelling  Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

Last edited by npinks on 16th Aug 2011 10:58 am. Edited 1 time in total

npinks wrote:

Could a bear generate sufficient heat to be a fire risk?

dont know but it does in the woods  At work
At home

"I can't always believe facts I read on the web" - Charles Dickens

winner by default of the tractor vs caravan race

 Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

LR assistance will provide a rental car and get ours home via a series of relays. Last time I went through that ( 25 years ago - the rental car was an Alpine ) the returned car was quite badly damaged....the fuel tank had been gashed open pulling it on and off the transporters and stuff left in the car had been stolen. I would like to try and nurse this back as far as Dover at least. So far no heat emminating from the wheel so will check it every time we stop.

I guess this could be the rear dif, also Stratstones fitted the car with 4 brand new tyres before we took delivery, Matador tyres, could not have picked a cheaper brand if they had tried and I dont think fit for purpose on a heavy duty car like a LR. Anyone had experience of these on a Freelander??

you'll be fine, but pressure on the dealer when you return !

In over 30 years of working in the trade I have only ever seen 2 wheel bearings give out big time ! most bumble on making a noise for ages.
Enjoy France while you can, wish i was there ! weather is carp here ! its more like March.

Wheel bearings are funny old things, they can run for years and years or fail at any time in their operational life time.
If a bearing starts to fail its usualy the bearing race is starting to brake up and very small peaces of debree is finding its way into the inner ball bearing race.
This causes friction which causes premiture wear, excess heat and eventualy total failure. Should the bearing totaly fail at speed you may loose the wheel resulting in lose of controll of the car.
In the past I have known there to be a lot of damage done by a bearing totaly braking up and at low speed. Car had to be recovered.

Sorry guys,it has been so hot here today......cars temp guage showing 39 degrees.....has not beaten last year when we saw 44 on the dash of our old Xtrail . We will be back in it by sunday so not long to go.....keeping the speed down is not the issue,its more keeping the weight down by not carrying the usual EU winelake in the boot....now that will hurt!!!!

Outtheoffice,
Noisy hub bearing can run for long enough, you will hear a much harsher sound if bearing deteriorates.
Matador tyres although budget tyres are not the worst, a good reliable tyre with better than budget performance in poor conditions. Downside, a bit noisy on all but the best road surfaces.
Matador were main sponsors of the British Off Road Championship for 2 or 3 years and all competing vehicles ran on Matador tyres. Lots of Land Rovers. All FL2's (3) Gone
2011 Mercedes C180 CGI Gone
FL2 GS Auto SD with heated leather, factory tints, alloy spare and a few other bits.

Thanks thats very re-assuring......it sounds like if we are careful we will get home ok. Car is already booked in on our return so will just check for excess heat each time we stop

If it were me, then i would find somewhere to take the wheel and hub off. I would then slap as much thick grease on the bearing as poss, and box it all up. Drive on at a steady 55 mph.
Having said that, if I were a member of LR Alliance, then I would let them deal with it.
I had a problem with my auto-box in Belguim, and there were no problems, apart from the usual hanging around, waiting.

engchamp wrote:

If it were me, then i would find somewhere to take the wheel and hub off. I would then slap as much thick grease on the bearing as poss, and box it all up.