825i front end noise.

[Hunter825i]

I've had my 825i for a couple of weeks and can hear a kind grind coming from the front differential. Only occurs at around 11-12 mph. Sometimes harsher than others but definitely there. Seems to me I've heard this sound in older gators. My dealer felt like it was just a normal sound coming from the machine and was not alarmed. Anyone hear this with the new or old gators. Overall I'm very satisfied with my 825i!

[snowboss]

I bet it is the front drive shaft. mine did the same thing and in neutral even at 2800 rpm and only quit when you grab the shaft by hand. deere came to dealership saying no that could happen but put on a new shaft and said it quit bit i can still hear it at about the same speed as yours.:OhNoes:

[BarnDoor]

Mine has had a new shaft as well. At around 7 hours, 36 miles. Now At 17 hours, 172 miles. No problems since and I've been using it hard every day! It was the center support bearing in the driveshaft. It bolts to the inside of the frame under your feet. No grease fitting either!

[snowboss]

Mine was replaced but I can still hear the rotational irritating noise. deere is going to get the shaft so to speak.

[snowboss]

got the 825i back from deere. they pulled back the cv boots to verify that yep there is grease in them. they were told by factory to fine tune the pillow block bearings for the least noise. took it out on the trail and I swear there was a troll under there with a ball peen hammer. I am not a happy camper! they said if it still makes noise they will put on a new shaft. that would be the third. How can they possibly build a machine in there high tech facility after thousands of hours of testing and not hear a miserable drive shaft problem?

[Hunter825i]

Interested to see how this plays out. I guess I've kinda gotten use to the grind. It seems to stop after about 13mph or if I accelerate fast it's not as noticeable. Disappointed in the mechanic who told me that the problem occurs with gators and there was very little he could do. I may have to make a little grinding noise at the dealer if a fix is indeed available. Please keep posting as I am very interested in the outcome.

[snowboss]

with the cab version it is probably more noticable. :Wlys: The coupler at the front difff. is a very loose fit. I even tried a piece of rubber hose and tie straps to keep it from hammering. and to my surprise it did not help one bit. going to need a amped up stereo so I cannot hear it.:Rofl:

[snowboss]

riddle me this bat man, Is it only the 825i with drive shaft noise? Or is it the 825i with maxxis bighorn radials? Is it possible the noise is coming from the front ring and pinion backslap? In other words if the ratio is to evenly matched is the noise coming from the pinion bouncing off the ring gear? I think I am going to try some tire pressure ratio changes to test my theory. My 11 year old daughter asked when are you taking the gator to deere to get that fixed.? she says she hates that noise! I had it there three times dear!

[Hunter825i]

Mine has the noise and I do not have the Maxxis bighorns. I think it's gators in general that have the noise. Poor design of the driveshaft. I've googled the problem and I can see it occuring way back. Common thread seems to be the backlash.

[snowboss]

Today I road back on the bed and you cannot hear it one bit. you only hear when it is pulling not coasting. again with the cab it seems to be amplified.

[825iguy]

Mine did it at 5 hours. In the shop now getting bearing replaced. It's offically been in the shop more than it's been at my house as of today.

[BarnDoor]

Now at 30 hours and 260 miles, still no noise from the shaft support bearing that was replaced early on.

[825iguy]

Changing the two bearings did not work. They are now going to change the entire drive shaft.

[jbru888]

I don't think its actually the bearings or the drive shaft themselves that are the problem. My buddy works for deere and he told me that you need to add spacers or washers between the bearing block and the frame on the front drive shaft bearing. If you look under the machine at about where the gear shifter would be you will see two bolt heads. If you loosen them a little and drive the gator just a little you will probably not hear that annoying grinding noise near as much. Its because the angle of the drive shaft universal joint is to steep and by adding a washer in there you smooth out that angle just enough. Its a real pain to try getting those washers in there because there just isn't any good access but thats deere's problem if you take it to them. I did this to my 825i and it helped a lot. Btw...don't run it with those bolts loose...thats just to show you that the noise lessens when the bearing is allowed to give a little a flatten out that angle. Good luck!

[snowboss]

Now I have 77 hours on the machine and have done some serious off roading in deep snow as in dragging the frame wheel hopping to get thru and have completely thawed out the machine in heated garage and for some reason the drive shaft noise that drove me nuts is gone.:hsu: Yes as a matter of fact I looked to see if it felll off and it is still there :Rofl: I took out the cat and plowed all the trails so the gator did not have to work so hard to get thru the woods not to mention my black lab Kelly was having a hard time in the deep snow:BG:

[m38inmaine]

Perhaps it just needed a good workout to break in. I can hear noise in mine but it's not too loud and will monitor it. I had mine in some pretty deep snow and man those bighorns can really dig!

[dieselsmith]

I kinda thought they sucked in the snow compared to the Mudlites on my Grizzly. Steering sucks at faster speeds and have to lock the diff to spin cookies.

[gatorxuv620i]

Weve had our diff replaced at 175hrs on our 08. The deluxe cab just triples the sound and its definitly a gear meshing sound.. best way to describe it only its louder at times but shuts up when i hit my 4wd switch which engages the frond diff. Our JD dealer said that in 08 they alone replaced about 20 some and all had the same noise. Maybe a defect

[jdtimbo]

On my 825i if the switch is in the 2WD position the front wheels will attempt to engage when the rear wheels are spinning, but at the same time there is a rather loud ratching noise some where in the front axle area, but this does not occur everytime. I also hear the ratching noise in 4WD if I get stuck and attempt to go in the opposite direction. I talked briefly to the Service Tech at the dealership and he has not had any other customers with this issue. I only have 5.4 hours on the vehicle. I know there is a 1 year warranty, so I guess I'll be dropping it by the dealer to figure out.

[snowboss]

I have had mine make that noise also when in some senarios coming off of using 4x4 where it was fully engaged and it still being part locked in and the only way to stop it is to back up for a ways then you can go foward without it making a noise. also when it does that you can feel a slight bind up of the steering.

[jdtimbo]

Maybe that's it, I guess I haven't paid that close attention to the steering effort. I will have to try it tomorrow. I know that in the 2wd mode when I hear the noise the I can can the front wheels engaging/disengaging by seeing them spin for a split second and then not spin for a split second and it continues to I let up on the throttle. I will try going the opposite direction after disengaging the 4WD and see if that changes anything. Thanks.

[jdtimbo]

I did the back and forth thing after disengaging the 4WD, but still get the ratcheting noise when in 2WD and 4WD. I can see the front wheels engaging and disengaging in 2WD while the rear wheels are spinning, but there are times when it will not do it. There are times that 4WD will engage in 2WD without the noise and there are times that 4WD not engage in 2WD. I read the manual and they way I understand it the 4WD should not engae at all while in the 2WD mode, if that were not ture then what' the point of the switch. In 4WD the ratcheting mainly occurs when stuck and attempting to start from a dead stop. I am going to talk to the dealer again and drop it off to let them look at it. It never did any of this the 1st few times that I had it out in deep snow, so something must have happended. Anybody else having the 4WD engaging in the 2WD mode? Thanks.

[gatorxuv620i]

allow me to chime in as I just came from our jd dealer this past weekend asking questions about this type of issue. The way the tech (a good friend of myn) described the way it works is that when you hit the switch on the dash theres some kind of electro-magnet inside that engages the gears or something like that. he said that hes seen a few that the magnet went bad and it was either engaging and disengaging when it wanted to or would have trouble disengaging kinda like how your describing your gator. I know every so often when i disengage our 4x4 or sometimes going from forward to reverse in 4x4 the steering wheel gets tight as hell and feels like something is binding and almost feels like the brakes are on... Thats the best I can explain it and the only way to solve it then is to go the other way and try turning the wheel. or go to 2wd. See if that helps you and you might tell your dealer that it is only when you hit the switch and let them search in that direction and Ill bet they find something.

[jdtimbo]

I only have 5.5 hours on mine and the first few times that I had it out it never had any front end noise. The noises just started a couple weeks ago, so something is not working properly. I have never notice the tight or hard steering. The electro-magnet thing that you are describing sounds exactly what mine is doing. There are times in 2WD the front will not engage, but there are other times when the front lock in in 2WD. Last night I was playing around in 4WD in some snow and manage to get stuck. I attempted to backout still in 4WD the rear wheels were spinning but the front wheels never kicked in, but would when I tried going forward. I sure they will find something its just dissappointing with only a few hours to have issues already.

Thanks for the information I will mention it to my service tech.

[snowboss]

If only they could build them like the old 4x4 trucks where you pulled the lever back an you were hard locked in.

[Lsutigers]

You guys are making it very easy for me not to buy a 825I

[dieselsmith]

I wouldn't say that. Its completely redone and they will take care of it. JD is good about that, besides you can get a 3 year warranty dirt cheap.

[jdtimbo]

Well, they found what was cauing the noise on my Gator. There is a roller bearing with a plastic cage and actually the rollers can be ordered as an individual part. The beraing has something to do with the engaging/disengaging of the 4WD. Well that bearing came apart in the front differential, so it was shifting in and out of 4WD on its own and 4WD no longer worked in reverse. All 14 of the rollers had fallen out and bouncing around in the differential and several must have got in some where because there are pieces of rollers and the oil was twinkling with metal shavings and the other bearing in there were filled with shavings. So, I found out today that they will be putting in a completely new differential. I looked the price up on the net, just under $1100 for the differential.

The Service Tech was telling me that the manual is wrong on how the 4WD works. He was saying that when the switch is in 2WD is when 4WD automatically kicks in when the rear wheels slip. And when the switch is in 4WD all four wheels are driving all the time. Makes sense to me, because in the operators manual they say to put the switch in 2WD to avoid tire and drive train wear when driving on hard dry surfaces such as asphalt and concrete. If it were auto 4WD in the 4WD switch setting and the front only engages when the rears are spinning then why would it matter to put the switch in 2WD? Also if you drive into some shit hole in 4WD and the fronts are not driving it might be too late for the fronts to kick in when the rears start to spin for the auto kick in. I also believe that it wouldn't be worth a crap with a snow plow hanging on the on the front and trying to drive or plow snow with it. Just my additional $0.02 opinion on how the 4WD works. I'm intrested on how you think the 4WD works or what you have experienced.

[Steve_in_SEMich]

Sounds like there's a different understanding on how the transmission functions on these new XUVs - when in 2WD, do the front wheels engage when the rear tires spin/slip? I hope not, as in the winter, a little slipping and sliding can be fun and there's NO reason to increase the steering effort required when the operator doesn't select 4WD. I don't want the front tires to engage unless I select 4WD. Can anyone confirm what happens when the XUV is in 2WD?

Thanks,

Steve

[dieselsmith]

No, 2wd is 2wd. If you want the cookies flip up the diff lock. From what i've noticed, when you flip the 4wd switch-you are in 4wd.

[Steve_in_SEMich]

Thanks dieselsmith - in the 2011 Gator XUV series brochure, the 2WD is 2WD, and the 4WD engages the front wheels only when the rear begins to slip. Sidebar reads "Switch between a perfectly turf friendly traction to a locked rear diff to On-Demand True 4WD for maximum traction for the most challenging terrain". Next time I'll read the literature in addition to drooling over the pictures before posting questions.

One dealer tells me 3/2/11 delivery date (ordered on 1/14) for the 825i, another dealer is searching their other stores to see what they have in stock.

Thanks again for the info.

Steve

[jdtimbo]

My Service Tech corrected himself this eve when I picked up my 825i w/completely new front differential from the factory. The 4WD works as stated in the manual, Deere.com, and brochures.

[jdgator]

When my 825i was new brand new I experienced the same front end noise noise issue. From what I gathered the noise was most prominent at a specific speed range while under load (uphill grade). I did spend several hours looking for the source to include; checking front differental fluid, inspecting CV joints, removing the front drive shaft from the differential in an attempt to isolate the noise, raising the entire machine off the ground using jack stands then operating in and out of 4wd at various speeds, etc. At this point in time I have convinced myself (right or wrong) that the noise comes from the front drive shaft assembly. In looking at the JD's design, the front drive shaft assembly makes use of two rigidly mounted bearing blocks to 'guide' power from the transmission to the front differential through a not so straight path - one block at the output shaft on the transmission and one within a channel in the floor board. I have deduced that this setup creates a situation where resonant 'noises' are magnified and radiated to the operator. These noise are much more prevalent when the machine is new and stiff. Actually of late I do not hear anything strange now that I've put an additional 25 hours or so of moderate use on the machine...

My take is this noise is 'normal' and is not at all mechanical design flaw. (Obviously the roller bearing issue is a different story all together).

One other thing...I also noticed the drive-line "wedgeing" also occurs less frequently (from the manual: NOTE: Occasionally the 4WD On-Demand system will not disengage after a change in vehicle travel direction. This is known as “wedging.” If this does occur, the vehicle will exhibit higher than usual steering efforts and driveline wind-up. To disengage (un-wedge) the system, reverse the direction of vehicle travel. )

[Univoftnvol]

Mine has 19 hours and exactly the same thing is happening!

[odotgator]

I have an older 6x4 gator (2002) and one of the rubber boots clamps had come off and exposed the steering bar. I put the boot back on and now there is a pinging noise every so often when I'm turning. Does the gear box need grease?. Any suggestions. Thanks.

[825joe]

New bearing support system for front driveshaft on 825i. Call your dealer to have it installed. Takes care of vibration and noise. hope this helps:Thmup:

[FIRESQ31]

New bearing support system for front driveshaft on 825i. Call your dealer to have it installed. Takes care of vibration and noise. hope this helps:Thmup:

My 825i is at the second dealer now. They told me over the phone that there is a Deere TSB on this to replace the pillow bearings.. New ones are mounted in rubber. Will know for sure next week.

[Jaykrebs]

yes. I have a 2012 825i bought new May 31 this year. The day I took delivery the front end popped. Since then I've had three CV joints replaced. One was actually broken by Deere on the test drive. I'm convinced its a combination of weak CV joint cage and a defective front Diff. Deere refuses to open the Diff because they think its fine. Put about .5 hours on my machine with the new CV joints and it's already popping, sometimes it pops even in 2wd. Deere requested that my dealer sent the broken parts to the factory for evaluation.