Hey everyone,

I have started getting a drivetrain hum/whine around 55-60mph. It's slowly gotten louder. The sound is coupled to wheel speed, not engine speed. It is much more noticeable while accelerating than coasting, and also seems more noticeable when decelerating such as engine braking on a hill.

I had the car at an indy today, and they weren't able to pinpoint the noise. They thought drivetrain like transfer case or propshaft area, but didn't get further. They also weren't able to reproduce well on the lift since it needs 60mph and possibly a little load to show up.

Questions:

• Has anyone faced something similar?
• Has anyone greased or changed the propshaft bearing (or whole propshaft) on these? I saw tons in other forums, but couldn't find any in the X250 section
• How hard of a job is the transfer case to change out, and any similar sounds like this?
• Any chance it's low transfer case fluid or something like that? Basically any good next steps here I should try? I've noticed the transfer case gasket a little damp before, but never seen a drip from it

Thanks!
Austin

 

They should have been able to detect a failed carrier bearing or universal joint on the lift. Given it’s a JLR product, it most likely could also be the differential(s). Have the shop drop and fill the diff (front and rear), transfer case and transmission. NO FLUSHING, that just causes different problems. Getting to see the condition of the existing fluids might point to the problem and it’s good maintenance anyway.

 

The noise definitely sounds front/middle vs rear. I saw a writeup on how to do the transfer case fluid and it didn't look too bad. Have you ever done the front diffs before? I'm curious how to change fluid in those too. I could do fluid in everything on the front half of the car to at least eliminate that.

 

Others know more than me, but doesn't this description also sound similar to wheel bearings.

Any difference in loudness when turning versus straight?

 

I have done a few wheel bearings before on this car (both left ones). So far this sound doesn't adjust when turning/driving an arc vs straight that I can tell. The shop also listened to the bearings on the lift but wasn't able to pick up anything with them. I'll definitely try to sit in different spots of the car just to make sure, but it's different from what I'm used to with wheel bearings where they normally vary by arc your driving too

 

Does anyone know how much fluid the transfer case takes? I may try to change that to start since I've seen a little seepage on the seals. I wasn't sure how much to get though

 

1st choice would be getting access to All Data but if you google around a bit you’ll find what you need. Don’t use too narrow a search. I do recommend Motul DCTF as the fluid to use.