Help! L322 gearbox problem

Hi All,

My 2004 L322 TD6 with 70K on it has just developed a gearbox problem, it started yesterday, when driving in town at low speed in automatic, I tried to depress the throttle to accelerate and it would not speed up past 3000rpm in the same gear, stayed like it for a mile or so with the throttle depressed, then applying throttle on and off it suddenly seemed to engage and move through the gears normally, no cluncks or any transmission noise.
Took it out today to test it again and did the same think, seems to be intimitent.
what might be causing this issue and would a change of oil and filter might solve the problem, when this starts to occur is there anyway back or is this simply putting off the inevitable gearbox change? I would welcome some advice on this one

Regards

Richard

Doesn't sound gearbox related to me.

When it stayed In one gear did the engine rev it's nuts off ? Or just stay at a steady rpm ?

70k is around the time it may develope faults...

As hippo says it may not be gb related, although the box does have an overheat protection system whereby it will hold lower gears to try and push more fluid through the cooler.

A quick drain of the fluid and filter change wouldnt go a miss plus you can see what condition your oil is in....can give clues....

Possibly your oil is old and fhe cooler is getting clogged causing a rise in gb temp, forcing the cooling down stratergy....

Next thing would be engine issues....a loss of torque would mean the gb would hold lower gears...this can be caused from an injection issue or low fuel pressure, which would commonly be the secondary fuel pump mounted on the outside of the fuel tank....low fuel pressure will result in engine struggling to rev and loss of output forcing the box to hold lower gears.

Thanks for the replies, it does not go to extremely high revs, but wont go above about 3000 rpm, it doesnt so it initially upon driving but develops after a couple of minutes.
I am taking it the the specialist landrover garage today so they can hook it up to the diagnostic, see if there have been any faults.

Another thing that I thought must be a related symptom was that about 2 weeks ago there was a slight oil leak, when i took it to a landrover specialist a few days later they said thay could not identify the exact cause of the leak but that the oil appeared to be engine oil. Their expert opinion was that it should not cause an issue as long as the engine oil was topped up, which is why i put it in for an inspection 2 service. It was the 1st time driving it after the service that it has developed the issue

I am a bit miffed about it all, and very surprised a specialist garage could not identify the cause of the leak.
Garage thought the leak "could" be the crank seal, which they informed me would be a gearbox out job.

I wondered that since it has just developed this fault, is it likely that remedial action now could save a gearbox, is there a timescale that if you get to it quick enough that you could save yourself a replacement.
All related gearbox issues on other forums tend to suggest that the driver has driven with a slight "niggle" for a long time before any major damage or replacement is necessary. And I dont understand how people can drive with a slight "niggle" in the box as 1/ it would drive me insane, and 2/ surely it is not safe.

RIch

Unfortunatly with the GM box on the TD6 - it is not a case of 'if' it will fail if I do X, Y and Z.....but when...

Yes regular oil changes, careful driving will prolong the life of the box, but it will fail eventually....it is just the nature of the GM box....

The main reason being is the Valve Block material used was of crap quality and is very soft. This means as the valves move to direct Hydraulic Pressure to the various clutch packs and etc, they wear away the bore they operate in. This causes fine metallic particles to enter the oil.

In most cases the Filter will start to collect these particles, but some do work their way round the system, clogging up the cooler, and acting liek a cutting paste in the Torque Converter Lock Up Clutch and also causing more wear in the Valve Block.

As the valve bores wear, Hydraulic pressue is lost as it leaks past the valve seals, this in turn causes a reduction in pressure holding the drive clutches in, allowing them to slip and damage the clutch plates, and subsequently emptying more trash into the box....

Regular oil changes can reduce the cutting paste effect as you are removing debris from the box, but the Valve Block will still wear out and the box will eventually fail.

The only true remedy is to replace the Torque Converter and replace the Valve Block with a Sonnax (spelling ??) one as these were made of better quality materials, plus a new Oil Cooler - this is aslong as there isn't much premature wear to the clutch pack plates!!

Surprised your 'Specialist' couldn't find the leak if it is that bad....try somewhere else!

Thanks Saint for your detailed explanation, so, I have just taken the car to the garage this morning, and I was incorrect in saying that the gear was stuck in 1st, it appears that the car changes gear fine, but it will not go above 40 mph, flicked into manual and it goes through the gear changes fine and appears to alter the revs correctly according to the gears, there seems to be a loss of drive, limped it to the specialist garage at 35-40mph.
This is making me doubt that it may be the gearbox, anymore thoughts???

summary

gears change fine, depress throttle and it goes to a maximum speed to 35-40mph, rpms change acordingly via manual gear change. Seems there is a loss of drive.

Engine in limp mode?

Datatek said:

Engine in limp mode?

Click to expand...

+1....could be Turbo Pipe loose or delaminated....Fuel Pump pressure....Injection issues.

Diagnostics may show up something!

Hi Chaps,

Running it to the garage there was no warning on the screen showing up a fault. Awaiting a phone call from the garage once they have hooked it up to the diagnostic.

Rich

Hi,

heard back from the garage, diagnostic fault was a "pre fuel circuit" fault, nothing to do with gearbox fault.
Spoke to the mechanic and he explained a bit about the fuel system on the car.
Can someone confirm this is correct, there are 3 fuel pumps, 1 in the tank, 1 outside the tank, and a high pressure pump that pumps fuel into the engine, he said that he would start with pulling out the 1st pump in the tank because it could be that a gauze is blocked which might be preventing fuel from passing down to the engine. He mentioned something about the pump arrangement and it being in a pod???
He is going to start the work tomorrow, Any further thoughts?

Anyone had this problem before? my inital thoughts of the fault are that my wife is a bugger for running it around on vapours and my thoughts are that it could have pulled a load of crap from the tank into the diesel delivery line.

rwilki said:

Anyone had this problem before? my inital thoughts of the fault are that my wife is a bugger for running it around on vapours and my thoughts are that it could have pulled a load of crap from the tank into the diesel delivery line.

Click to expand...

Pump failure on the petrol has come up a few times, the diesel is a bit different but may have the same problems.

Mine did the same last year

Turbo intercooler pipe blew off !

There are indeed 3 pumps....

Most common fail is the second one on the outside, but the internal tank pump is known to fail, a few reports on here can be searched for....

The internal pump is a large unit that also incorperates the fuel level sender, the oem part is a complete unit, but it can be split open (carefully) and the pump inside it replaced with the equivilant one from and X5..... I did my petrol one last year, and another member did his diesel a few months later (search for posts by RSFH or something like that).....read my How To in the How To section.... Saves a bit of cash....

The unit is easy to get to just means lifting the rear carpet and the access hatches are in the floor under the rear seats.

Simple enough to do....

The secondary in line pump is hidden under an inspection hatch on the side of the fuel tank is again simple to replace.

okay, so spoke to the garage today, turns out it is gauze and filter on the pre fuel pump that is blocked, it has worn out the secondary fuel pump due to this reason and it needs to be replaced. All said and done, not too bad really, oh, and they also sorted a tiny leak on the high pressure fuel pump near the engine.

Since I thought it was going to cost considerably more than that I have also decided as further preventative measures to get the gearbox oil and filter changed as well as the underbody sealed against rust, all in all, only a couple of hundred quid extra. Hopefully give it a couple of years troublish ish (touch wood) motoring. haha

rwilki said:

Hi All,

My 2004 L322 TD6 with 70K on it has just developed a gearbox problem, it started yesterday, when driving in town at low speed in automatic, I tried to depress the throttle to accelerate and it would not speed up past 3000rpm in the same gear, stayed like it for a mile or so with the throttle depressed, then applying throttle on and off it suddenly seemed to engage and move through the gears normally, no cluncks or any transmission noise.
Took it out today to test it again and did the same think, seems to be intimitent.
what might be causing this issue and would a change of oil and filter might solve the problem, when this starts to occur is there anyway back or is this simply putting off the inevitable gearbox change? I would welcome some advice on this one

Regards

Richard

Click to expand...

Hi mate I'm new member too my stepson has a similar if not the same problem , his seems to bounce off a limiter he says and it goes into limp mode