Freelander 1 Could it be something else

Hi all,
I placed a thread in the Forum on December 16th 2019 AUTO BOX PROBLEM and the consensus of opinion was it was more than likely The Reverse Brake Band.
I would like to add a bit more about this. For quite a few months before I experienced the slight juddering in Reverse I kept on using Manual Gear Selection whenever I felt the Auto box wasn"t changing up soon enough. So when I left home and drove a mile or two onto a fast bit of road and the auto didn"t change up I would sometimes over-ride it and change up manually, I obviously never carried this out when it was in reverse. But could this have had any significance because I have not used The Manual Gear Selection since December and even though I have had to Reverse dozens and dozens of times it has worked perfectly.
cheers

The box up and down shifts are dependent on many factors, which includes box temperature, throttle position and engine load. I often change up manually too, as I find the box up shift to late, and down shifts too soon.

This won't have caused or be a clue to the impending release fault. That's simply down to normal wear, and a week reverse brake band design.

It might be abit of a hail mary, but before replacing the box, since its behaving itself now, why not change the fluid? Two gallons of a suitable N402 spec fluid which is specific to the JATCO JF506E the freelander uses, is under £60 on ebay:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ATF-N402...669390?hash=item56a671e48e:g:P0cAAOSwccJcp3PK

I'm running Ravenol synthetic JF506E fluid in mine, granted it is a reconned box, but its never misbehaved when hot or cold, maybe you and nodge could eek a few thousand more miles out of your auto's with fresh fluid in them?

Also, isnt juddering symptomatic of Viscous Coupling getting tight?

One sign is when you are turning on full lock, either forwards or reverse, your Freelander will feel tighter than usual, a little like the brakes are on.

Click to expand...

taken from:
https://www.freelanderspecialist.co...res-and-how-a-viscous-coupling-vcu-unit-fails

I think when we spoke about it last we were pretty much certain that it was a failing reverse band in your autobox, but since you've stated its behaving itself these days and are looking for other possible solutions I'm just "spitballing" here. The VCU could be tested with the One Wheel Up Test, details of whcih are in this forum, maybe even in the stickies / pinned posts at the top. If the VCU gives you a healthy OWUT result, I'd suggest plugging in a "good" diagnostic tool like the thirty odd quid chinese ebay delphi clones, whcih BTW requires a laptop to run, I recommended last year whcih Andyfreelandy has since bought one of and loaned it to Nodge who tested his autobox with it showing a dodgey solenoid. If there is nothing on the diagnostics session, try a fluid change, maybe in the interests of thoroughness throw a £26 filter at it while the fluid is out:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VW-JAGUA...lander&hash=item282a55efcf:g:N5cAAOSwA3dYkFLA

So to explore everything else that could be looming on your freelander before bighting the every expensive bullet for a reconned autobox you are looking at:
One wheel up test £Free
Diagnostics Computer Equipment ~£30
Fluid change £56
Filter Change £26 (to be done at same time as ATF change)
For <£105 you end up with a damned good diagnaostics system, and possibly even saved / "fixed" your gearbox, if the above doesn't work and your box has a deep seated issue with its internals, you'll at least know that for sure and will hopefully have extended its remaining servicable working life possibly even long enough to allow you to save up for replacing / reconning the autobox.

Jayridium said:

nodge could eek a few thousand more miles out of your auto's with fresh fluid in them

Click to expand...

Mine has had 3 fluid changes in 3 years, so nothing wrong with my fluid, or the box for that matter. Mine has an intermittent wiring fault, which fluid changes won't fix.

Wow, thanks, a very comprehensive answer and a lot for me to consider. At one time I did consider selling the Freelander but with only 147K on the brilliant BMW engine which is running as sweet as a nut I thought why spend my hard earned cash on a younger vehicle which will probably cost ??????? and which could cost me that or even more in the long term, so no, I"m going to run it ino the ground. Just need some decent 4 knobbly looking tyres.