front diff and transfer box

[Daz968]

I was searching for front diff and transfer box issues and cost to repair.

I have a 2008 lr3, 110k (km) on the clock fully maintained and serviced by local or dealer here in Muscat oman. The car rarely goes off road and even then it shingle gravel roads, nothing severe.

Following a recent couple of blips with the dsc warning light coming on, I took the car in for a check. It came back with the statement that front diff, transfer box and wheel bearings need replacing....

Worse still, local costs Show transfer box will be 5700 usd and transfer box 3000 usd!!

Irrespective of the cost, this all seems a bit catastrophic. I will be seeing them on Monday to discuss further, what questions should I be throwing at them?

Looking at forums, it seems they might have just seen a few flakes of metal and think it all needs replacing. Surely a replace of fluids should be a first step....?

Appreciate your feedback.

Thanks

 

[Houm_WA]

I would want more info on the failure mode of the transfer case, for sure. As for the front diff; there are a few things...lack of fluid and the crummy inner housing coating that causes flaking are issues. Also the breather cap is under-sized. It was replaced under TSB a while back but a lack of pressure relief sometimes caused build-up in the diff and leakage.

It's possible that you could simply change your fluid and carry on with your front diff. They are noisy...but I don't know what happens if you simply keep on driving on a noisy diff. I don't know the failure mode.

Wheel bearings wear out over time on any vehicle. If yours isn't vibrating badly you may be able to put that off to space out your repair costs.

 

[tlt]

It seems a bit odd that all of these items went bad together. I do not recommend continuing to drive on a bad front diff, because the core will be ruined.

I can help sort you out if you need to save a few bucks on the big stuff.

 

[Daz968]

Thanks Tot and houm for the replies.

I went back and questioned the service manger. He ended up stating the parts do not replacing. I stated that maybe the fluids can jus be changed which he responded was due next service (120,000 km). That's a while away so I will arrange for that in the least but I won't give them the pleasure of ripping me off so I will take it to the local garage. He then went on to say the viscous bearing wasn't healthy and it was juddering a little at low speeds. I never noticed that before I took the car in but on driving the car home, did notice this. It was fine at high speed. He said not to worry about it ( yet).

All in all not very happy and a little confused...

 

[Houm_WA]

Viscous bearing...in the front diff? What did the juttering feel like and sound like?

 

[Daz968]

Viscous bearing in the transfer box. At low speeds it felt like there were bumps in the tyres...Basically very lumpy transmission at low speed. Ok at over 20 kph