Originally Posted by maddogmontana

First off, thank you everyone. Truly appreciate everything here.

I bought car AS IS from a copart auction. My 4th purchase this year, 3 land cruisers and an lx470, all have arrived in working condition matching the description on the auction listing.

The X5 said "normal wear, runs & drives" When it arrived off the carrier, it did neither. The battery was too dead to start it it with the pack provided by the driver and I couldnt reach the trunk to swap one out. We got enough juice for lights and to put the trans in N.

So I rolled it off the truck, a big multi car hauler, in N, when I hit the brakes it didnt really do much of anything until I pulled the E brake. I'd say I hit the pavement pretty hard, wondering if that could have caused something to snap lose on the front axel.


Anyway, after swapping out the battery for my backup she started right up, I was pumped but it didn't move in gear, rolled in P, made that fine grinding noise going back into P from D that I described earlier.

Got it towed to my "mechanic" who is not great but, has been great when I need to drop off a company car for a master cylinder or brake pads, starter, etc. Lets me bring my own parts, very reasonable prices, etc.

Once we got it on the lift and hit the gas in D we all noticed a rattling noise from the front diff, sounded like a large bolt was being shaken around a metal box or something.

So I went to a yard nearby and got a front diff, it was clean, no gear wear, oil was still visable, it was clean and when I turn the part that bolts to the front drive shaft, the internals seemed to move nicely, everything felt good.

Also, when I spun the front wheels with the car on the lift, the other did not move. When I did this with the rear wheels, the other wheel spun in the opposite direction. When I spun the front pass wheel, the front driver wheel did not spin.

I wasn't there to check how this worked after he swapped the diff and when I got back it was on the ground and still no movement. But it felt like it was almost there, you could feel the car sort of kick or jerk or try and give you a little push when In D or R when previously the drive shaft was just spinning freely with that rattling noise from the front diff.

I was ready to go buy some after market front drive shaft assembly and just have him swap it out, I know its not the trans, it could be the TC chain, but I would like to look at the front CV's and rule that out before i start with the TC.