Land Rover Discovery II – Undercarriage Noise and Banging / Disabled

Vehicle Details: 2002 Land Rover Discovery II.  Approx 165,000 miles.

Technician: Tyler

Initial Condition:

• Drivetrain and vehicle vibrations – more with speed
• Loud Undercarriage Noises – increasing with speed
• Loud snapping noise and vehicle stops
• Engine runs/idles fine.  No Warning lights.
• Towed in

Diagnostic Process:

Pretty simple:  a physical look undercarriage showed a broken front driveline.  The picture below is with the transmission already out of the truck.  The U-Joint on the left side is the guilty party.  This U-Joint started to fail and, because the symptom of more drivetrain vibration and noise wasn’t addressed, the joint eventually failed.  This caused the driveline to spin out of control and smash a huge hole in the transmission case.

Land Rover Discovery broken drive shaft and transmission

Here is a view further back of the damage.

Discovery transmission case broken from bad front drive line.

Conclusion:

Land Rover Discovery transmission removal

The solution is simple / although painful:  the truck needs a new transmission and drive line.  The tragedy here is that this is completely preventable:  had this come in for service when the drive train started getting loud the repair would have only been to replace or rebuild the drive line.  Any Land Rover specialist like us would proactively inspect this drive line whenever such a vehicle was in for service.  Additionally, despite having a less-than-perfect reputation in other areas, the Discovery’s transmission has actually a good reputation for reliability and longevity.

Tyler fixed it.