@ 65mph, I heard a muffled 'pop' coming from beneath and in front, and my 2006 Range rover sport supercharged immediately lurched. A gear whine proceeded, which would react in pitch to my rate of speed. Feathering the throttle impacted the noise, and I suspected my front differential, or a front wheel bearing. As it was extremely cold outside, and extremely late, I babied the sport the remaining 10 miles home, where I raised the truck and confirmed a great deal of heavy viscosity fluid had coated the bottom of my vehicle, emanating from the front differential, on the left (us driver's) side. It caused quite a bit of smoke, having painted itself on to the exhaust system. After some research, I discovered that Land Rover has issued a special service bulletin on front differential failure, saying that on early models, the inside of the differentials were coated with a paint that delaminates, mixing with the gear fluid and contaminating it, causing overheating and bearing/seal failure. I am out of warranty (the truck is now @ 50K miles), and have filed a complaint with Land Rover to petition to get this covered under warranty. This, apparently, is a common problem - enough so that they issued a service bulletin admitting a fault.

- Hartland, WI, USA

There are oil leaks coming from both front and rear differentials. It has been reported by other owners that both differentials eventually fail and the vehicle becomes inoperable. There has been incidents where the wheels have gotten locked. This has caused vehicles to come to a full stop resulting in hazardous situations where the owners of the vehicles have suffered life threatening incidents. Manufacturer knowingly refuses to replace a part that is prone to failing due to an error on their side. A service bulletin (special service message 34304) has been issued to the service centers about the problem. This bulletin lists the cause to be "the casing black paint /sealer degrades, detaches and contaminates the oil. This results in the oil overheating which results in oil seal leaks and bearing noise." And also notes that "differentials from the vins quoted below are manufactured with a new casing paint which overcomes the above mentioned issues." Below is an full excerpt of the above mentioned ssm #34304: Special service message, # ssm34304 models lm - new range rover la - discovery 3 ls - Range rover sport title front & rear differential noise & oil leaks last modified 03-Mar-2009 12:23 category: Driveline symptom: 509000 axle concerns content: Front & rear differential noise, minor oil seal leak & debris in oil. Concern: Noise (whine or humming) from the front or rear differential. A minor oil leak may be evident with possible debris in oil. Oil will be black in color. Cause: The casing black paint /sealer degrades, detaches and contaminates the oil. This results in the oil overheating which results in oil seal leaks and bearing noise. Note: Differentials from the vins quoted below are manufactured with a new casing paint which overcomes the above mentioned issues. Please only raise an epqr for differential issues which occur post the quoted VIN numbers: Discovery 3 LR3 - la8A459201 Range rover sport - ls8A141510 range rover. Lm8A268394.

- Long Beach, CA, USA