What was thought to be the front diff leaking turns out to be the steering rack leaking. I have 'all component' insurance which I hope will pay the bill quoted as £3,399.46p !!!! Just wondered if this a ANOTHER common fault? If they don't pay has anybody else had the same problem and is a cure possible?
I really don't want to go down an additive route that just swells the seals to stop the leak.
Cheers Kev.

I don't believe its a common problem, most racks seem to last the lifetime of the car.
However...… they do wear out occasionally & pipes appear to be a problem regularly

Our late 2006 3.6TDV8 with around 130,000 miles suddenly went from a minor leak to a major leak a couple of months ago.
It had significant "play" in the rack housing for a couple of years since purchasing it.

I replaced the rack on the drive with a £90 second hand unit from a slightly newer car from a breakers. The replacement rack had done almost the same mileage as ours, but on a 3 year younger car. The replacement rack was in perfect condition apart from being oily due to what looks like engine oil.
Problem solved for £90 + £20 of sundries (PAS fluid, sealing washers etc) and maybe 8 hours of slow work over a few days.

Are you confident your leak is from the rack internals rather than a much cheaper / simpler pipe connection ?

PS repairs / re-conditioning of the rack is potentially possible, but needs the rack out of the car. I'm not sure what the surcharge is if your rack is not fit for reconditioning (mine wouldn't have been, it was so badly worn) Paul,
2001 Discovery 2 TD5, 211,000 miles & climbing
2006 FFRR TDV8 Vogue 145,000 miles & climbing
Member of Midland (Land) Rover Owners Club, www.mroc.co.uk

A leak on a 2011 4.4TDV8 which seems to be coming from the diff?

Secondary turbo is worth a look.
Well I say look but it's proper buried.
You may want to get a snake camera.
But it sits right of the diff.
And they can leak.

And I've not read about any racks going, esp. on a 2011.

Can the type of oil be identified?
Colour can be a tell tale but a learned mechanic told me to use your nose on leaks.
Power steering fluid smells different to engine oil as does ATF.
. Cheers, Greg
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2011 Vogue SE 4.4 with lots of toys in Stornaway

Check its not an oil pump plug too. I had that and a leaky secondary turbo  Gone to a good home: 2011 4.4 TDV8 Vogue SE Buckingham Blue with Ivory and clear glass = "Rory"
New Defender D300 90
1974 Series 3 Lightweight = "Millie"
My preferred specialist: www.glenrands.co.uk
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Thanks for the comments guys. My local indy found where the leak is coming from. Thoughts were it was from the drive shaft seal initially. The oil is leaking from the rack and dripping onto the drive shaft.

Sounds a lot.

I’m sure that as said there are MUCH cheaper ways of doing it if the insurance won’t pay out. Plenty of places rebuild racks. There will be reconditioned options out there rather than a NIB LR rack. There is nothing that can't be fixed with a hammer😜😜
FFRR 4.4 SDV8 Autobiography Santorini Black.
Fiat 500x 1.4 multiair Lounge 2015
2010 LR D4 Commercial 2.7 TDV6

The rack on it's own is £2800. Rimmer Bros quote the same. I'll have to see what the warranty company says.

Had to replace mine when I had a 2010 tdv8, way more common than you think. I was quoted these prices too, iirc they are zf racks, which are effectively in different coloured boxes depending on gen or oem. I ended going for a refurbed, fully guaranteed unit, fitted for £1k.

Nice to know mine ain't the only one then mate.

kevinp wrote:

The oil is leaking from the rack and dripping onto the drive shaft.

Try these guys
https://www.dasteeringltd.co.uk/ Gone to a good home: 2011 4.4 TDV8 Vogue SE Buckingham Blue with Ivory and clear glass = "Rory"
New Defender D300 90
1974 Series 3 Lightweight = "Millie"
My preferred specialist: www.glenrands.co.uk
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Thanks DrRob.
I found an ebay seller advertising rack seals who is supplying the required seal after I supplied the ZF part number for the rack. Hopefully a reconditioned rack won't subsequently be shown to be required.

As long as there are no proprietary seals in there it should be easy enough to get the rack re-built if you can do without the car for a week or two. I rebuilt the quick rack before I fitted it to the Impreza and it was about £70 in seals and such, plus getting all the pipework vapour blasted and re-plated. On the BMW their recommended fix for a knocking rack in warranty is to replace it at some god-awful cost. The solution out of warranty is a £30 plastic part and about half an hour's time to fit it! There's always a way to do something outside the documented procedure which is usually designed with three things in mind; a) sod the cost, the warranty co or customer are paying and b) replace the whole thing as the parts chuckers in dealerships aren't capable of rebuilding components like that and c) (and related to b), it minimises the risk of it coming back again for the same problem if some other internal part is worn for instance.

Having owned a couple and spent a lot of time trawling forums because I have no life and over-research things to death, I wouldn't say the rack is what I would call a common problem. Sure, I've come across mention of them previously but probably only a few, rather than something like EGR/Turbo/GM5 TC's etc etc. It's probably one of the more reliable components to be honest!

I could usually plan to do without the car for a day or 2 but I would still need someone to bring parts to me, so having the required part on hand when starting the work is highly desirable.

Ennoch wrote:

On the BMW their recommended fix for a knocking rack in warranty is to replace it at some god-awful cost.