Driveshaft problems of the 2003 Land Rover Range Rover

I was driving my 2003 Range Rover that I just bought used 2 weeks earlier. As I was driving, the car started making severe grinding noises and lost power. I could not steer that well and was in the middle of the road. I managed to get barely enough power to make it to the side of the road and pull into a parking lot. This event was without any warning and the car made the worst grinding noises in the world. I had it towed to a local repair shop and they informed me that this vehicle has a recall on it to address the problem, which is a failed driveshaft / axle / differential operation. Because it was recalled, I had it towed to Land Rover and they are now saying that they can't fix the problem until the axle is repaired, which they say is not part of the recall. I believe it is part of the recall and they should be covering this at no cost. I had my child in the car and I think this could have been a very dangerous situation. Also, when I bought the vehicle in costa mesa, CA (house of luxuries), they assured me the car was totally checked out and had no mechanical or other issues. Now I am very angry with them for placing my life (and others) and my child's life in danger by not disclosing these problems, or at least telling me that this vehicle has a recall and to repair it before I drive. I am happy that I was told about the recall later but feel that the business I bought the car should have known this prior to the sell of the car and it could have placed our lives and others at risk had I been going down the freeway, which is in la and heavy traffic. Thank you.

Complete front drive shaft failure - sudden, without any warning, while driving. 2003 Range Rover hse.

I was traveling on interstate 75 in the right lane during rush hour. My car started making a loud noise, I pulled over, turned the car off. I started the car and was not able to drive off. My vehicle was towed to landrover dealer and I was informed that my drive shaft had to be replaced. I had to pay $1800+ to fix. This is the second major repair cost. The first was last September I had to replace the transmission.

Driving at 80mph passing a tractor trailer on interstate 380 north, my front axle and drive shaft gave out almost causing me to loose control of vehicle and run into the truck. Luckily I was able to get control and guide vehicle to the side of the road. Vehicle was inoperable and had to be towed. This is the second time this part has failed on this vehicle as it was repaired by previous owner only 10k miles ago.

At traffic light I heard a grinding sound in transmission, moved gear from drive to n to hear it again. As light changed the driveshaft disengaged from the transmission, coasted across traffic to service station, but unable to move rear of vehicle out of traffic. Passersby helped push me and my child out of the intersection. I believe this is the 2nd differential failure for this vehicle.

(1)excessive noise and vibration at front end of vehicle (2)front differential failure/front driveshaft spline misaligned with input spline on differential. (3)front drive shaft and differential replaced.

Front differential catastrophic failure while driving 65 mph on us 290. 1 adult driver, 1 3 month old boy, 1 4 yr old girl no warning signs. Front wheels locked up for a moment almost causing an accident on moderately busy freeway, then was able to have vehicle coast to a stop following loud noise.

While driving on the highway the car with no previous indication just started making a grinding noise hardly allowing me to pull off to the right. The dealer stated I had to replace the front differential and driveshaft.

I have a 2003 Range Rover. The front differential completely failed and broke causing the vehicle to be immobilized. I cannot drive or use reverse. This is a known technical service bulletin 540103 and NHTSA item 10000919, however it continues to happen again after being fixed according to some customers. The original owner had it fixed once and I am the second owner, it happened again. My vehicle was bought used last month with 44. 8k miles. It now has 47k miles. This is a very important safety issue and should be considered a recall. My vehicle is sitting at the dealership. It is out of the 4 year/50k mile warranty so Land Rover may or may not fix it. . Read more...

I purchased this 2003 Range Rover with 19,000 miles February 2007. It currently has 36,008 miles and the transfer case differential and drive shaft needed to be replaced. The car had a catastrophic failure stopped at a traffic light, and was in gear at the time. They had to replace the drive shaft and differential. Time in service is not the issue with the low miles on this vehicle. The only wear and tear that could occur would be through usage. The warranty is 50,000 miles or 4 years. This vehicle is not even close to the mileage limitation.

The contact owns a 2003 Land Rover, Range Rover hs3. While driving approximately 80 mph, the transmission failed and the contact attempted to accelerate but to no avail. The vehicle then down shifted to a lower gear and as the accelerator was engaged, the vehicle became more resistant. The vehicle was taken to a local mechanic and they replaced the front differential, propeller assembly and the yoke. The contact stated the failure had previously occurred and the vehicle was repaired under NHTSA campaign id number: 08v635000 (power train: driveline: driveshaft). The failure mileage was 78,000 and the current mileage is 82,000. The consumer stated the drivetrain was replaced twice, before the recall was announced. The consumer believed the failure caused the engine to fail. Oil became mixed with the engine coolant. Updated evoq 08/04/jb updated 8/9/10 updated 08/11/10.

Differential , drive shaft total failure . This has happen to me twice in June of 2007 and oct of 2007.

My 2003 Land Rover Range Rover hse had a failure of the front differential spilnes, axle shaft, differential unit and drive shaft which caused total loss of vehicle propulsion at 60 miles per hour on a busy highway during rush hour traffic. The vehicle had to be towed to Land Rover north scottsdale where it still sits because neither the extended warranty company nor the Land Rover dealership will claim responsibility for the repairs which are in excess of $4,000. I also had a failure of the retractable steering wheel which resulted in a diagnosis of having to replace the entire steering column.

2-9-05-driving on the highway. Veichle shut down on motorway, vehicle making loud grinding noise will not move in any gear. Had to wait to be towed back to dealership. It was a faulty front fif assemby. Replace front fiff and align. Replace drive shaft. 8-23-07-driving on a highway. Veicle making grinding noise while on the highway. Had to pull over the car would not accelerate. Car was towed into shop after 4 hours of waiting on the highway and being towed. Front diff and drive shaft splines stripped. Replced front diff and driveshaft.

Failure of front differential/driveshaft on a 2003 Land Rover Range Rover with 48,000 miles. No accident involved, excessive wear identified by dealer during routine service and clanking"noise identified by owner upon shifting from reverse to drive. Problem was consistent with other reported failures in same model with BMW drive train. Differential/driveshaft was serviced twice in 2004- once due to an owner complaint of a grinding noise coming from the front differential ,and once due to a service bulletin from Land Rover. Differential was replaced on 11 July 2007 at a cost of $2300. 00 to vehicle owner. Land rover continued to lack acknowledgment of problem and failure to issue a formal recall was creating a safety hazard for owners of pre Jaguar drive train Range Rover .

2003 Range Rover, I was driving at 50 mph on the highway when without any prior warning the car made a very loud metallic grinding noise. A warning message told me to immediately put into neutral, I was doing 50 mph in morning rush hour traffic. The car lost drivetrain power, and I was luckily able to change lanes and coast into the breakdown lane, narrowly missing a pile up accident. The car was flat bedded to a Land Rover dealership. They told me that the front differential/driveshaft was burned out. I asked if this was a common problem on this vehicle. They said yes! seemingly it could happen anywhere between 30000 and 100000 miles . This car hasd 7500. Miles on it) I asked if Range Rover knew about it and had recalled the car. They said that Range Rover had bullitins since 2003 after the car was introduced, but had not accepted this as a fault or issued any safety recalls. This was a disgrace, and the NHTSA needed to address this. The problem wa s well documented on the rangerover. Net website.

I was stopped at a red light and when it turned green vehicle moved for about half a block then there was this noise coming from the front that immediately disabled the truck in traffic . The truck just stopped instantly, engine still running, but truck won't move. I had it towed to the dealer, and was told it was a faulty differential and driveshaft.

Front differential assembly.

2003 Range Rover hse. Approximately 46,000 miles. Within the 50,000 mile warranty but out of time warranty by about 6 months. Were taking a freeway exit when the splines on the front driveshaft stripped and failed. Range rover would not cover the problem and did not let us know that this was a known problem. We took the vehicle to tricounty transmission in clackamas oregon for repair where they had another Range Rover on the hoist with the same problem. They ordered a drive shaft and told us that the yoke had slight wear from the stripped driveshaft but did not need replacing. The total was between $700 and $800. On April 14th, 2007 ot stripped out again. We were then told of the new custom driveshafts for solving this problem.

: the contact stated while driving 55 mph on the highway, there was grinding noise followed by the illumination of the neutral light on the instrument cluster panel. The contact managed to pull the vehicle over without incident. It was towed to a dealer who determined the front differential was fractured and needed to be replaced. The manufacturer was not contacted. Updated 10/18/2006 - the consumer was told by the dealer that the design of the front driveshaft, which has no flexible coupling at the front end, so any minor misaligned puts severe stress on the front differential input splines, leading to failure and immobilization of the vehicle. Updated 10/25/2006 -.

2003 Range Rover with engine problems including stalling. Customer states that one day while driving the vehicle lurched forward made a grinding noise and then lost all power. The mechanic informed the consumer there was a defect with the front differential. According to the dealership, the problem was with the design of the front driveshaft which had no flexible coupling at the front end, so any minor misalignment placed severe stress on the front differential input splines, leading to failure and immobilization of the vehicle.

I own a 2003 Range Rover, and I have read of numerous problems concerning the driveshaft and front differential failing in these model suvs. I want to do my part and report that I too had my front differential fail on the road at 40200 miles. I hope that reporting this will ultimately require Land Rover to redesign this part, because this will eventually cause someone to lose there life. The truck is totally undrivable. I was on the highway at speeds of 65 mph, and the acceleration just gave out. I was lucky that it was light traffic, and I was able to somehow get the truck to the side of the road.

Truck stopped abruptly in the middle of the road traveling at approximately 40 mph. I was unable to move the vehicle once it stopped in the middle of a busy intersection. The truck was immobile and made a severe grinding noise. A cab driver had to push my truck to the side of the road for safety. There was no warning light until the truck died which said "select neutral" truck had to be towed and differential assembly had to be replaced.

Read diff and driveshaft.

The first time the front differential went I was pulling onto my street. All of a sudden, out of no where, there was a loud metal on metal grinding noise. I immediately stepped on the brake, but by that time the truck wasn't going anywhere anyway. I put the truck into park, and walked to the house extremely annoyed that this could happen to a new vehicle. I went back out and started the truck and put it into drive, which yielded a loud grinding noise. I had no clue what was wrong, but it was obvious that I wasn't driving anywhere. When the tow truck came for it, it was immovable on it's own. There was no pre-warning to this event, the truck was still under warranty, and Land Rover, I thought, fixed the problem. However, the same problem occurred again last week in tucson, arizona. (may 06) the truck now has 55,000 miles and is not under warranty. The Land Rover dealership in tucson wants me to pay $800 to cover the labor to fix it, and they brought that price down from $1400. I am appealing to Land Rover headquarters, as this is a dangerous problem that was not fixed with the installation of a new differential and driveshaft the first time. If I had been on a highway or stuck in the middle of no where with an infant, this situation could have had serious ramifications. If you would like the old part, please let me know, and I will request it from the auto mall Range Rover dealership in tucson. However, I cannot promise their cooperation.

While driving approximately 65 mph vehicle inadvertently lost power. Consumer pulled to the shoulder of interstate, avoiding accidents. When taken to get serviced it was determined that driveshaft split. Prior to this incident the consumer had problems with the front differential and the front sway bar. The transmission also malfunctioned prior to this incident, downshifting by itself and then failing to come out of third gear for the remainder of the day. Shuttering sound from front end at slow speeds. The dealer attempted to rectify the rattling problem by replacing several suspension and steering components. Found low power steering fluid level due to leaking input shaft, replaced rack and pinion then performed 4 wheel alignment.