Berlingo NAD gearbox drone

[Piggy]

Just wanting to see if anyone has any thoughts and experience...i know a few on here have owned blingblings or the Pug Partner...

A very good friend of mine has a 2000 Berlingo 1.9nad van
Mileage is 124k.

Its generally looked after...I maintain it...passed its MOT recently no problems.

He has had what sounds like a front nearside wheel bearing noise for some time...but theres no play in it, it doesnt change with direction or temperature and with wheels off ground theres no grumble or tightness from either front wheel bearings...or the rears for the matter...I kinda hoped the MOT may find it, but they said all bearings were fine.

Now, the noise has got worse last few days.

Basically a bad bearing drone which changes with vehicle speed but not engine speed, and no difference if its in any gear or coasting.

leads me to believe its diff bearings???

second thought is, does a XUD gearbox fit? I have one spare and me mate is super skint at the moment

any help appreciated

[THE_Liam]

If it was diff bearings it'd probably change with direction as well, maybe check CV gaiters and joints? And yeah, an XUD box will fit but you'd have to change the clutch arm as with fitting a HDI box on an XUD

[Piggy]

yeah all shafts are good, to be honest he doesnt really drive it all that quick, so cornering tests dont really work...

good that a xud box fits though...the way they are geared it cant be a HDi box fitted though, or maybe just different final drive with HDi arm?!

[THE_Liam]

Pretty sure DW8 NAD boxes are XUD ratios...

[Tom]

Cant you jack it up and spin the wheels and listen to the diff? Is there any oil in the gearbox?

[Toms306]

That does sound the same as when the diff bearings were disintergrating on my 1.4 tbh, didn't make a difference cornering, but at constant speed droned then if you let of the throttle and coasted down in gear it whined like a bitch lol. Took it to the garage and whipped the drain plug out to make sure there was plenty of oil in it and a string of filings about 3" long came out with the plug.

I've no idea which gearboxes fit, but surely the NAD revs higher and makes power towards top end so would need different ratios?

[Piggy]

oil is ok. but worth seeing what filings may come out I suppose.

thanks for replies guys

no particular noise when you just spin it with wheels up...but then i dont think you can spin it enough and theres no load on them to drone if wheels are up

[ConorTRG]

Sounds similar to a fresh passat I had in, it was the box although when you raised one side of it and drove it in gear you could hear it very plain.

You could give it an oil change with might quieten it down for a bit but it is a waste of oil. Anyway if you drain its own oil it should be full of filings so just reuse it until you get another box.

[ally406]

If it's a BE3 box, or anything like a BE3, you can swap the diff without removing the gearbox. Drive shafts out, speedo sensor off, unbolt the diff cover and out she comes.

[Piggy]

If it's a BE3 box, or anything like a BE3, you can swap the diff without removing the gearbox. Drive shafts out, speedo sensor off, unbolt the diff cover and out she comes.

Sure about that??

If so I will strip the xud box and swap the diffs with bearings

[ally406]

Yep, swapped the diff on my 406

[Piggy]

Nice one...wheres the gearbox code so i can check?!!

[ally406]

I would think stamped on the bell housing somewhere, I'm not sure. A quick Googling would suggest Berlingos use either the BE3 or BE4 box, and that diffs from BE series boxes are interchangeable. So in theory even if you have a BE4 you should be able to change it out with your BE3 donor diff. However you might be altering the final drive, particularly if the XUD box is from a turbo (a quick tooth count of the crown wheel should tell you). Or if you can get the diff out, perhaps you can source new replacement bearings? Or just swap bearings from donor box?

[Piggy]

Good good calls...
Nice one bud

[C2K]

Diff has its own split line on the casing.

[Piggy]

Diff has its own split line on the casing.

What do you mean?

[Paul_13]

The diff comes off the Crown wheel. Just swap the diff over including bearings. Or you can pull off the old bearings and tap the new ones on using the old race.

Do not mix the Crown wheels as A) might be a different number of teeth. B) the are machined specifically for the corresponding final drive.

[Piggy]

So leave crown wheel in place and just swap diff yeah?

[Paul_13]

And yes the diffs from similar size can be used.
For example 1.6 205 diffs can't be swapped with 1.9 diffs as the inner cv diameter is different

---

So leave crown wheel in place and just swap diff yeah?

Yes

[Piggy]

Nice one guys...may have kept this harding working self employed chap on the road...will try and sort it for him this week...
Any tricks to doing it other than usual?

[Paul_13]

Just swap the box, much easier!

[ally406]

I don't know if I would agree Paul, once I had the drive shafts out I had the old diff out and the new one fitted in around 15 minutes. I was very happy that the box didn't have to come off (again).

[Paul_13]

From my understanding you have to drop the subframe for access.

---

Get some replacement diff bolts before you do the job. They are prone to stripping the threads when you undo them.

I've changed plenty of diffs and have only managed to rescue 3 in total. The rest were all buggered

[miles]

The Diff's from Late HD BE3's can be used, earlier ones use a different length on the Inner CV spline into the Diff, Mind a set of bearings for £30.00 will do the trick, Mind these normally last for well over 250,000 miles without issues

[Piggy]

But im running xud shafts with a hdi box with no issues?!

[Piggy]

Ok so diff is out...

Bloody tight!

Its not the same as the XUD diff...
.the crown wheel is 77teeth not xud 66 and also is bolted onto the diff on opposite side so diff cannot be swapped.

Bearings seem ok though, however the diff is very tight...the xud diff is nice n loose

Think may just find a second hand nad box

[miles]

You can swap the CW's over, no issues at all.

What do you mean the Diff is tight? Sun and planet gears not turning?

[Piggy]

No they turn but its stiff.

CW wont swap over...physically different