L322 occasionally slips into neutral on start up

All help appreciated. After driving my L332 about 600 miles with about 1 hour up steep mountain roads I parked up and left the car about 15 mins. I went back to the car, started it and attempted to select reverse. It wouldn't engage in Reverse and instead slipped into neutral and then the engine cut out. The dash warning I think said "select neutral". I restarted the car having put it back into park and it did it again. I thought at the time maybe it had overheated as the uphill journey would have been quite hard on the gear box etc. It did eventually find reverse and all was fine and nothing since even along the long journey home.
This weekend, I drove it 2 miles and parked up, went back to start her up and similar happened. It wouldn't drop into reverse, instead found neutral then cut out/died. I turned it over once/twice more then all was fine. Any ideas what this maybe. Cheers very much.

I have just had the torque converter refurbished with new oils etc solving the common lock up clutch issues around 100k (groaning etc).

First I'd check Gearbox Oil Level is correct....

Then start looking at the Wiring to and security of the Transfer Box Shift Motor....

The fact it said 'Select Neutral' means the Transfer Box is trying to change Drive Ratio and you have asked it to select a Drive Gear.....it is asking you to select neutral first while it changes the Drive Ratio.....

The Transfer Motor has a switch pack on the pack, and on the L322 it is known for these to cause shift problems and Select Neutral messages spuriously....trouble is the switch pack isn't available seperatly and are sodding expensive....

There was a chap on RANGEROVERS.NET HOME or fullfatrr.com - Index who was trying to make the plastic case for the switch pack as this is the part that gets brittle and breaks by using a 3D printer or plastic moulding machine...not sure what progress he was making and this was a while ago....

Check fluid level first, and wiring plugs for cleanliness, security and fitment....

thanks very much Saint.v8
will let you know how we get on as soon as possible

Hello again, I have had the car looked at, gear box oil level was fine and the big round plug into the transfer motor seemed ok too. There was some wear to the protector shield around the wiring, but there was no signs of any problems. Maybe it had been a momentary bad connection, but the problem hasn't happened since. Hopefully it was a rare occurrence.

The only other thing (which I forgot to mention ) was that after I had eventually successfully selected reverse on parking up, a strange screeching noise started and came from the drivers foot well. It had done this before 2 years ago, whilst we were in the middle of Spain, but it goes off eventually without intervention (after ten minutes or so). I popped open the bonnet and there is no visible sign of where the noise comes from but if you put your ear in the drivers foot well, it sounds as if it is coming from behind the foot well light.
Roll on more weird and wonderful L322 happenings.

smartone said:

Hello again, I have had the car looked at, gear box oil level was fine and the big round plug into the transfer motor seemed ok too. There was some wear to the protector shield around the wiring, but there was no signs of any problems. Maybe it had been a momentary bad connection, but the problem hasn't happened since. Hopefully it was a rare occurrence.

The only other thing (which I forgot to mention ) was that after I had eventually successfully selected reverse on parking up, a strange screeching noise started and came from the drivers foot well. It had done this before 2 years ago, whilst we were in the middle of Spain, but it goes off eventually without intervention (after ten minutes or so). I popped open the bonnet and there is no visible sign of where the noise comes from but if you put your ear in the drivers foot well, it sounds as if it is coming from behind the foot well light.
Roll on more weird and wonderful L322 happenings.

Click to expand...

Steering column motor & gears.

this noise seems to be quite common, and is believed to be the ECU fan. It sits in the bottom of the big black box at the front of the engine bay. Some have suggested removing the fan and oiling it, but for me its too infrequent and now I know what it is, I can live with it. For now!