HELP! Auto gearbox problems...

hmm... very strange... Rave says it must be removed, and I think james said it must be removed too... and i've heard a lot that it must be removed from other people... i'd be surprised if the ATF can be changed, the sump removed and the ATF filter replaced without touching the chassis cross member to be honest... i guess i'll find out!

Your looking a the procedure for the V8 maybe, where part of the exhaust and cross member has to be removed I think the hardest part for a tdi is a gearbox bolt or something similar has to be removed... I'm not that interest so may be wrong. Difflock did a write-up of this and they stated that the crossmember didn't have to be removed on tdi's, they seem to have removed this info from their site.

My disco's fluid has only been changed twice and both times the garage did it as part of a full service, so much easer than playing around with the exhaust and cross member.

hmm... according to Rave, the removal of the gearbox itself is different for V8 than it is for TDi, but the removal of the sump and "oil screen" seems to be the same for both, strangely... do you have a copy of Rave you could look through as well, in case I've got confused with mine?

Although my copy of Rave has a section for auto gearboxes whe it comes to the filter replacement it goes through the procudure for a box fitted to a V8 I can't see anything relating to diesels. I suspect you don't have to remove the cross member to do the job, but it's easer if you do.

The removal of the sump and "oil screen" seems to be the same for both once you has access.

fishsponge said:

hmm... according to Rave, the removal of the gearbox itself is different for V8 than it is for TDi, but the removal of the sump and "oil screen" seems to be the same for both, strangely... do you have a copy of Rave you could look through as well, in case I've got confused with mine?

Click to expand...

Why don't you just have a look underneath, you'll soon see what, if anything, needs moving to remove the sump.

I'm pretty sure you don't need to though..............................

Right... my local garage ended up doing this for me today, as I ran out of time this weekend... turns out the cross member did not need touching, but the mount needed loosening or removing... no further details on this!

Anyway, ATF changed, filter changed, new gasket, O rings etc...

Going to drive it around for 2 weeks (350 miles) before doing it again.

Strangely, the garage used 7 litres of my new ATF to re-fill the box because more than expected came out.

I thought only 4.5 litres was supposed to come out, but apparently more did. The re-fill procedure was done correctly, but 7 litres was used. Is this normal?!?!?

fishsponge said:

Right... my local garage ended up doing this for me today, as I ran out of time this weekend... turns out the cross member did not need touching, but the mount needed loosening or removing... no further details on this!

Anyway, ATF changed, filter changed, new gasket, O rings etc...

Going to drive it around for 2 weeks (350 miles) before doing it again.

Strangely, the garage used 7 litres of my new ATF to re-fill the box because more than expected came out.

I thought only 4.5 litres was supposed to come out, but apparently more did. The re-fill procedure was done correctly, but 7 litres was used. Is this normal?!?!?

Click to expand...

No, it's not normal - I would be checking the oil level very carefully.

I think I will... it could be that it was rather empty to begin with, I guess.

I cannot test it now because I've just driven the 2 miles home, so it'll be warmed up I guess.

In the morning I will start it up cold, run through 1, 2, 3, 4, R and then P and shove the dipstick in as far as it'll go... the level indicated should then be between the two marks (ideally towards the top one), right?

Right... the ATF isn't too warm (about the temperature of a cold cup of tea, so cold that you wouldn't want to drink it, but not stone cold...), so I've measured it:



And then, to be sure, I ran it through the gears again and measured it a second time, with the dipstick the other way up (i.e. rotated 180 degrees):



This looks normal to me, but as I said, the ATF is luke warm... what are your opinions??

Just to be sure, you are checking it with the engine still running?

If so, then the level looks fine.

yes, the engine is still running.

I put the handbrake on, started the engine, waited 5 seconds, put it into 1st gear for 5 seconds (felt it lunge forward as it went into 1st), put it into 2nd for 5 seconds (felt no lunging, of course), then into 3rd for 5 seconds (no lunging), D for 5 seconds (no lunging) then into R for 5 seconds (felt it relax as it came out of gear and then lunge backwards as it went into R).

I then put it into P and within 5 seconds or so, I had put the dipstick back in, pulled it out and photographed it.

The engine was running throughout and the ATF was luke warm.

I then repeated the procedure for the second photograph and will repeat again in the morning with everything stone cold.

If my procedure was spot-on and the level looks good (which it does), the question is - why was 7 litres used and why did more than 4.5 litres (probably) come out? Did he drain it with the engine running perhaps? Did dropping the sump or changing the filter let more come out? Is a seal gone somewhere?

Right... spoken to the garage...

More than 4.5 litres of ATF came out because the dipstick tube wasn't pushed far enough in by the previous owner/garage, so I have been over-filling it since I owned it, basically.

When he put the dipstick tube back in, he put it back into the correct position, so the dipstick became accurate.

He used 7 litres of brand new ATF to get it back to the correct level due to "bleeding" and getting some old ATF out of the torque converter etc... the level is now correct, because a 2 litres or so of the new 7 litres used went in the waste bin.

Does this sound plausible? ...and can the dipstick actually be attached in the wrong position so the readings are wrong?

dipstick tube cant be pushed into far as is a flare type fitting so would leak if fitted wrong ,obviously dip stick may have not been fitted all the way in but you may have noticed that,he couldnt have drained any out of t/c its impossible you cant bleed auto box ,id imagine he over filled ,drained more than he should out ,is easy done if you arent refilling from a measured container , also oil level isnt that critical ,BUT BETTER RIGHT

Thanks, James... it was reluctant to change from 1st to 2nd this morning for the first gear change, and it wouldn't come out of 1st until 2,500 - 3,000 rpm.

This suggests the governor valve is clogged up (as far as I know), so hopefully this fresh ATF will flush it through. I'm then going to have another ATF & filter change (done at an independant LR garage this time) after 500 miles or so.

Regarding it not kicking out of 1st gear, I saw in another thread that says when this happens, a good technique to free it up is to floor it in 1st gear until you hit the rev limiter because that tends to free up the weights that the governor relies on.

Does this sound sensible?

He probably spilt a bit of fluid with landrovers ridiculous method of filling through the dipstick tube