Diff or drive shaft fail?

[timberrel387]

Hi there

Well the ownership of Genevieve the xj8 has taken another turn and has developed a new noise

Starts fine and engages drive and reverse without any clunks or bangs drive fine and accelerates no problem, however on deceleration makes a flapping metallic noise which gets louder the faster you go

I have taken it to my local garage and to be fair he hasn’t really shed any light only said try and source a new diff and drive shafts.

Help please

Thanks

Tim

[BrianG]

When I had a 308 this developed a screeching noise in the left drive shaft at low to medium speeds - not quite your symptoms, but the cause may be similar. At that time (about 8 years ago) new drive shafts were not available according to the main dealer; they wanted to fit a used one but I insisted they rebuild the spiders with new needle roller bearings, which sorted the problem. The original needle roller bearings in the UJ spiders were obviously knackered and I put the cause down to lack of greasing the nipples in each UJ at each service. This is a pain for main dealers to do during normal servicing as the gaiters have to be undone. Your garage should at least be able to tell if the bearings are badly worn and look under the gaiters to see if any grease has ever been used.

[timberrel387]

Thanks BrianG

I think I am going to look at the drive shafts first buy a second hand pair and replace the bearings to start and see where that takes me

Tim

[J44EAG]

Can I perhaps suggest you first strip the suspected area down before buying any parts...diagnose the issue, then buy as required.

Mike K