Member Since: 13 Jan 2013
Location: Kent
Posts: 791
Haldex Oil and Filter Change, its all about the techinque.
As my car is 12 years old now, but still not quite 49k miles, I have steadily been doing some of the major service items, did the rear diff last week, that was pretty easy, tackled the Haldex today (still a Generation 3). I did not want to take it off as I am relatively low miles so I though just an oil and filter change would suffice. I got the kit from Austin at Bell Engineering (vr_limited on e-bay).
Most commentary about draining the haldex is,there is no drain plug, you have to suck it out via the filler. I did wonder if this allen key bolt in the below diagram might be a drain bolt ?
I had a go at removing it, however it was stuck solid so I couldn't use it. Anyone know what that bolt is for ?
I used a syringe to get the drain started and let it mostly syphon itself out. The oil didn't look to bad coming down the tube but once it gathered in the jug it was a bit murky. With the syringe I was able to get out about 335 ml.
Click image to enlarge
Next remove the filter, on the Gen 3 it's not so bad as its on the side so you can access it and see what you are doing, the housing bolts loosened off easily enough. Probably the best thing to do next is this:
But I didn't know about that technique yet so I just went ahead and got the cover off. It didn't want to move initially so I had to help it along with a screw driver and tap from the hammer to drift it off. The metal looked pretty heavily corroded on the inside. The plastic cover however did not come with it and remained in the housing. There is a nipple on it plastic cover, something to grab hold of. What I didn't realise, and another technique I missed is there is a gap you can thread some wire through the nipple and use that to pull it off. I just attacked it with a pair of pliers and pulled the nipple clean off. Damn, now what.
I hammered a nail into the plastic cover, to make a small pilot hole, then put a screw in and screwed that in a short distance, got the pliers onto the screw and was able to pull it out. However the filter remained in the housing. The filter spring stood proud, something to grab hold of, so again with the pliers, grabbed the spring and pulled, no resistance whatsover, the spring came out leaving the filter still in the housing. Great. Got a pair of circlip pliers, inserted those, expanded them, pulled and out came the filter.
Click image to enlarge
It was whilst having a cup of tea and doing the youTube version of RTFM that I came across the above technique for removing the filter. Too late for that now but it got me wondering if I could use the pump to remove some extra oil. I disconnected the pump connector, ran a live wire from a 12v battery to the connectors yellow wire, and the negative wire to the connectors black wire.
Click image to enlarge
Ran the pump for just 10 seconds and started getting some rapid drips from the filter housing. When these slowed up, gave it another 10 second burst. Kept doing this until I couldn't get anymore out. Doing this released another 90 ml of oil, so 425 ml removed now.
Click image to enlarge
Put in the new filter and bolted up the cover, syringed in new Haldex oil until it started to dribble out, put the drain plug back in, turned the ignition only on (not engine) for at least 5 minutes as per instructions. This is to, I am assuming, circulate the oil in the Haldex. You are then meant to top up the oil level until it dribbles out again and then remove 70 ml.
However, when I had the ignition on I could not hear the pump working. Is the pump supposed to come on or is it just valves opening ? I haven't tried to top it up yet so I don't know if the level has dropped any. I was thinking of running the pump off the battery again or actually starting the vehicle to get the oil circulated. Is this necessary. Even of its not I can't see it hurting ?
Hung like Einstein, smart as a horse.
Last edited by shiggsy on 26th Aug 2019 6:21 pm. Edited 3 times in total
24th Aug 2019 9:31 pm
Steve D
Member Since: 19 Jan 2013
Location: Essexshire
Posts: 4092
You don’t want too much in there. You could always just take it for a drive, top up again and then remove 70ml. There’s also a pump filter you can take out to clean as they get gunked up. Here’s how I did my Gen4 on my Evoque.
Member Since: 13 Jan 2013
Location: Kent
Posts: 791
Yeah, I know about the pump filter but I really didn't want to get into taking the Haldex Unit Off, which you have to on the Gen 3.
As I was also doing a transmission oil change which would require starting the engine up to get the oil warmed up for the final level check I thought I would re-visit the Haldex level after that, which I did. I found the final Haldex drain quite frustrating, after topping the oil up, with it now dribbling out of the filler hole I proceeded to try to suck 70ml of oil back out. Annoyingly it took several attempts of feeding the (thin tubing) into the filler hole and only sucking air each time. I couldn't quite fathom how I had oil dripping from the filler hole in front of my eyes but couldn't locate any oil to suck out. Eventually managed to find some and took out 70ml.
Transmission oil was quite easy, I happened to have a long tube of the right size and length which made pumping 1 Litre of oil out after the initial drain a breeze. As has been confirmed on other threads the Oil flow direction shown in the Land Rover manuals is wrong and you need to hook into the bottom pipe, which is the transmission oil outlet.
Click image to enlarge
The hardest bit is getting the black plastic connector off, it has 2 yellow tabs which need to be pushed in before you can pull the connector off. Its difficult to get at, even removing the headlight to give me better access I still couldn't do it with my fingers, I had to press them in with a screw driver in each hand and lift at the same time.
Got quite good (lucky) at judging when to turn off the engine to cut the oil flow.
Click image to enlarge
The transmission fluid that came out looked good.
So that's all my oils changed now, Rear diff, Haldex and Filter, Transfer Case, Transmission and power steering.
Power Steering fluid was changed 3 years ago and was still in good shape, only top quarter of the filter had got mucky.
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24th Aug 2019 9:31 pm
