Well this weekend the car has see its far share of flooded roads, nothing deep enough to tax it's 500mm wading depth, but plenty around 200-300mm. I guess I felt quite confident driving in these conditions, nothing that should really test the limits of the car ... or so I thought.

Following an encounter with a quite significant 'puddle' yesterday evening I became aware of a really bad graunching noise. First thought was that something had become lodged in a brake assembly, tried several hard applications of the brakes running both forward and backward, but to no avail. It was far too wet to get out and get under so I drove home and locked the car up without any further investigation; but with a clear thought in my mind that surely the car should be able to stand up to far more than a few puddles.

Anyway this morning had 20 mile round trip to do (parental taxi duties!). Much to my disappointment the noise had not disappeared over night. After a couple of miles I came to the conclusion that frequency of the noise indicated it was most likely related to the propshaft rotation, it was too fast to be related to wheel rotation. Also noticed that the noise varied a little depending on whether I was accelerating or decelerating, so got the impression that it was related to something that moved slightly with transmission wind up. Also noticed that it seemed to go away above 20 mph….

Anyway, after the taxi job I got home and parked the car two wheels on the road two on the kerb to give me some crawl space. I started at the front of the propshaft and worked towards the rear of the car. And surprise, surprise I found the problem!! The propshaft is supported at two points between the gearbox at the front and the rear differential. At each of these points there is a small cross-member and each cross-member has two small deflector plates positioned one in front and one behind. I’m really not sure what these deflectors are supposed to do because they really are quite ‘flimsy’, made of a very soft metal that I would best describe as heavy duty kitchen foil. Anyway one of these deflectors had been bent double and was fouling against the propshaft; this was confirmed by marks on the propshaft and the deflector plate. It took about 20 seconds to reshape the deflector and position it (well) clear of the propshaft. The strange thing is this deflector faces towards the rear of the car so how on earth it managed to get bent forwards is completely beyond me. If it had been the forward facing one then I could see that it might have caught water while the car was moving forward. But how it became damaged when facing the rear is completely beyond me.

Suffice it to say that I’m very pleased with my diagnosis of the problem and subsequent cure; but if this is any sort of off roading vehicle then this really shouldn’t have happened.

But as they say alls well that ends well ….I tell when I first heard the noise it sounded very, very expensive so I’m glad it was a simple fix !!

£23k+ motor, 5 months old, getting under it myself to fix problems - it shouldn't happen - but I guess I enjoy it really !!!

Trying to add pix to show problem, but gallery not playing ball !!

Good morning mate. I'm glad the problem was nothing serious, although I do really understand how you first felt. I guess it's a common attitude with our LR's: oh, I can hear something, it must be sth bad, cost about 2000 quid, oh well, it's the FR2 though, not a Defender, yes, I fixed it, big smile on our face! I have seen the metal foil on mine too, I believe it's a reflector for the heat from the exhaust pipe, looks flashy nonetheless. Wish your next problem is thousands of miles away.

defkalion wrote:

Good morning mate. I'm glad the problem was nothing serious, although I do really understand how you first felt. I guess it's a common attitude with our LR's: oh, I can hear something, it must be sth bad, cost about 2000 quid, oh well, it's the FR2 though, not a Defender, yes, I fixed it, big smile on our face! I have seen the metal foil on mine too, I believe it's a reflector for the heat from the exhaust pipe, looks flashy nonetheless. Wish your next problem is thousands of miles away.

You mean thousands on the clock and not from home!!!
David David

avtur,

My car had a simular noise whilst driving. Which came after going through large 400mm'ish puddles up here in Yorkshire. Also a large road side puddle that jumped out of nowhere during a sudden downpour.

Thought it was a brake problem aswell, noise was at low and high speeds and seemed to get louder when braking.

Car was going in to the LR dealer anyway so I added it to the list.

Turned out to be the heat sheild (the heavy duty kitchen foil) that need re-tensioning (LR speak for "come loose").

npinks wrote:

avtur,

My car had a simular noise whilst driving. Which came after going through large 400mm'ish puddles up here in Yorkshire. Also a large road side puddle that jumped out of nowhere during a sudden downpour.

Thought it was a brake problem aswell, noise was at low and high speeds and seemed to get louder when braking.

Car was going in to the LR dealer anyway so I added it to the list.

Turned out to be the heat sheild (the heavy duty kitchen foil) that need re-tensioning (LR speak for "come loose").

I have to say the heatshield definitely looks like an after thought ... who's going to take it off and see what happens!

The way my FL2 electronics are,

it is only a matter of time before the wife's bum warmer in the seat stop working

I'll take my heat shields off then

Nick

I've posted a picture of my propshaft and the damaged heat shield - see my gallery 'avtur' . I'm still baffled as to how this occurred while driving forward .....

avtur wrote:

I've posted a picture of my propshaft and the damaged heat shield - see my gallery 'avtur' . I'm still baffled as to how this occurred while driving forward .....

Great to hear that this problem is only a heatshield. I have had that noise now for over 2 months. I cant wait to go home tonight and check the heatshield. It has been so annoying listening to it.

Thanks,

LR did not charge me to correct the problem.

So I didn't have to do any crawling under the car.

If they tried to charge I would have gone mad with them.

I have mine going in for first service next Tuesday so might just leave it for them to fix. Its just covered 22,000k. I got quoted the following for the service

Labour €100.00
Oil €52.00
Oil Filter €11.53
Air Filter €9.70
Brake Pads (if required)€121.20

I hope the brake pads are not required. Most of the 22,000k have been motorway driving so hopefull will get away without the brake pads. So all in €173 (£115) which is not too bad.

Getting them to look at creaking door mirrors and wear to the plastic around where the seat belt comes out and also getting the software update.

npinks wrote:

LR did not charge me to correct the problem.

So I didn't have to do any crawling under the car.

If they tried to charge I would have gone mad with them.

quickmotor wrote:

I got quoted the following for the service

Labour €100.00
Oil €52.00
Oil Filter €11.53
Air Filter €9.70
Brake Pads (if required)€121.20

I hope the brake pads are not required. Most of the 22,000k have been motorway driving so hopefull will get away without the brake pads. So all in €173 (£115) which is not too bad.

Just out of interest I have just rang my local dealer, they have just quoted me £287 inc parts labour & VAT, for my FL2 1st service.

I Could drive to Ireland, have car serviced and a few pints of the black stuff, and still have some change spare

Ouch Thats gona hurt. You know what dealers are like though. I will let you know next week what I was, "actually", charged for the service after it has been completed. This is the first NEW car I have ever bought and I would easily do the service myself but with a new car I think its always better to have the dealer stamp on the book etc.

npinks wrote:

quickmotor wrote:

I got quoted the following for the service

Labour €100.00
Oil €52.00
Oil Filter €11.53
Air Filter €9.70
Brake Pads (if required)€121.20

I hope the brake pads are not required. Most of the 22,000k have been motorway driving so hopefull will get away without the brake pads. So all in €173 (£115) which is not too bad.

Just out of interest I have just rang my local dealer, they have just quoted me £287 inc parts labour & VAT, for my FL2 1st service.

I Could drive to Ireland, have car serviced and a few pints of the black stuff, and still have some change spare

Hello Avtur,

I took a look at the heatshield and the propshaft as displayed on your picture.

At first sight everything seemed ok. Then I put my hand in there and it came out with a black greasy substance on it. A closer look learned that there was sort of a ring of this greasy substance on the heatshield surrounding the propshaft.

Anyone noticed this too ?

By the way has anyone had the time to look at the mistery of the missing screw (see my other post) ?