This evening on the way home, instead of sitting through traffic, I decided to take the long way home over the hills and through a place called "Worlds End". Essentially it's a large moorland area between Llangollen and Wrexham. The aproach to this from Llangollen is up a single lane track at a reasonable gradient.

When climbing at times I was hearing a whine noise which I believed was from the front end. It only presented it self when going up the steep sections and only at approx 25-30mph. I couldn't go faster to see if it was still there, but certainly when crawling up at 10mph it wasnt there.

Does anyone have any experience of this?

I'm a little bit of a worried (I know I shouldn't be) and have visions of diffs exploding or haldex unit issues. Especially as the car is a little loud at 50mph+. However I'm not sure if this is the tyres etc. It's just loud, not a whine noise such as I experienced earlier.

Any thoughts would be gratefully received?

** Side note. If I was to take it to someone to have a look at / look after, does anyone have any recommendations in the North Wales area? Or am I best using a local indy for servicing and then someone like Bell Engineering for any drivetrain issues / suspected issues?

I've seen some posts about Bell Automotive in Deeside and NorthWales4x4, but nothing recent. Anyone with recent experience?

I recently used Bowydd Garage in Blaenau Ffestiniog for a Haldex service, rear diff oil change, PTU oil change. They also investigated an EGR fault. They are very knowledgeable and have the latest software to diagnose and keep up to date the online service documentation. Locally they have a very good reputation. Might be worth a phone call, guys names are Callum and Lee.

Cheers Tony

You, haven't mentioned if you have manual or auto box.
If, auto, have you changed the fluid?

His profile says it’s an SD4, so automatic.

OLOSTEVE wrote:

You, haven't mentioned if you have manual or auto box.
If, auto, have you changed the fluid?

Kage wrote:

His profile says it’s an SD4, so automatic.

Two simpler solutions to check.

Is it turbo whistle?

Check if the 'noise blocking' gaiter at the base of the steering column is sealing properly.

Check turbo hoses have not started to leak. FL2 XS SD4 Auto 2010 2012-2017 (21k - 91k miles) (MY2011)
FL2 Metropolis SD4 Auto 2014 2017- (16k - 76k+ miles) (MY2015)

Thanks IanMetro. I'll have a look at both today.

Just completed a bit of a saga with a similar noise. Essentially got a noise from front end, ( whine/ rumble) most noticeable 40/50 when under load such as climbing a hill. Sounded a bit like a bearing but climbing a local hill at 40, you could 'switch' the noise on'/off by slight pressure on the gas or easing off very slightly. Running it in a different gear had no effect, it's an auto btw, accelerating gently downhill through same speed range there was no noise. Very gentle acceleration on the flat no or little noise, but give it some gas and at 40mph noise kicked in.

Unlike typical wheel bearing noises no effect on cornering, though at one bit did have a wheel bearing grumbling so that confused issues for a while. Messed about with swapping wheels round, tyre pressures, no effect. Eventually decided it was transmission related to amount of load applied and likely to be from power transfer unit.

PTU removed and stripped, bearings changed, seemed a bit better but still not right. Ran it for a while to see what happened. No change.

After a few months at a suitable time removed and stripped again, now gear set replaced on advice from gear specialist who looked at the unit and suggested it was wear on the gears. Rebuilt and apart from some malarkey with oil leaks which needed yet another strip and yet another set of oil seals it's now running as quiet and smoothly as it did 10 years ago.

Would it have been less hassle to just bite the bullet and go for a speculative exchange PTU, probably, but that's hindsight for you.