TD4 Gearbox issues

My automatic gearbox (year 02) has been leaking for awhile now and well, I kinda have been ignoring it.
It has been leaking for the better part of 2 years now.

Recently it has been acting up, the shifting pattern has been changing and last week it started to make a weird noise from the drive train.

I had been looking at reconditioning the gearbox but that will cost twice what the car is worth, hence that is not going to happen.
Would it make sense to fill up the gearbox with the ATF402 fluid and see what happens or would that be a waste of money?

I know the procedure on how to do it with the 'level plug' and 'filler plug' are to be found online so I am confident that that part will not be an issue, It's more that I do not want to spend money on something which makes no sense or is not useful. If filling up the gearbox might give me some more months with an otherwise very good car, it would perhaps be a wise investment, would it not?

Your advise/tips are greatly appreciated!

When was the fluid last changed, or the level checked?

Thanks for your reply, in all fairness, not in the last 4 years since I have had the car. I have done about 50 to 60k miles in those years.

Last time I used the car, in addition to the noise from the drivetrain, I also smelt burnt (gearbox) oil just before I stopped the car/engine.

If you know it's not been checked or changed in 60 K miles, then it's well overdue.

Give it a couple of changes of Carlube ATF-U and see if it improves. ATF-U is 1/4 the price of the LR fluid and about 10 X more advanced.

Thanks! I bought the stuff on ebay and will give it a go, if it gives me some improvement I will do it a couple of times more.
I figured that the 40 GBP would not hurt too much before considering the car a write-off ;-)

If yer auto gearbox is leaking then you risk running it low on oil. If it gets low enough to get air in the torque converter it will cavitate and fek the torque converter. I found this out the eggspensive way. When it's low it will also slam into gear.

It's possible to top up and check the level regular. Depends how much it's leaking but in general it's slipary slope sort of problem.

When you wipe the auto clean can you see it leak? Could it be someone has split auto oil ont top of the auto where there's a lot of metal strengthening finns which can collect and store oil quite happily while it slowly dries over time?

After having a delivery of oil, I managed to get a bit further today...

I drained the gearbox and what came out was aro. 2.5 liter of dark brown, close to black, smelly oil.

After that, I had a search around the gearbox to find the (small) filler plug. I found it, had some or more like it, a lot of trouble getting that out, you can hardly reach it.

It was getting too dark to continue (I am working in my yard, not inside), so spent some time just now to fabricate a contraption to be able to get the oil in the gearbox.
When the weather permits, I will do that tomorrow so I can perhaps have a test run.

Wish me luck

Does the oil smell burnt?

The filler plug for the jatco auto fitted to the Freelander 1 is on top of it. Theres a rubber bung in the filler hole.

FreelandeRobert said:

After having a delivery of oil, I managed to get a bit further today... I drained the gearbox and what came out was aro. 2.5 liter of dark brown, close to black, smelly oil. After that, I had a search around the gearbox to find the (small) filler plug. I found it, had some or more like it, a lot of trouble getting that out, you can hardly reach it. It was getting too dark to continue (I am working in my yard, not inside), so spent some time just now to fabricate a contraption to be able to get the oil in the gearbox. When the weather permits, I will do that tomorrow so I can perhaps have a test run. Wish me luck

Click to expand...

I find they take about 4.3 Litres, but that does vary a bit, depending on temperature. I normally put in 4.5 Litres, then start the engine and cycle through the gears. Once it's been running for a few minutes, I check the box underside is at 40°C with an infrared thermometer, then open the level plug. The excess will drain off, leaving the correct fluid level in the box, at which point the level plug is refitted.

Thanks for the last bit of advise!

I drained the gearbox when it was NOT at running temperature, was that (ill)advisable? This afternoon I unscrewed the level plug and filled the gearbox, but after not even 2.5 liters it started overfilling.

Should I, with the level plug but back in, fill her up to around 4.5 liters, have it running, check the temp (I have an infrared thermometer) and then drain the excess?

Just checking before I do something horribly wrong.

Thanks!

FreelandeRobert said:

Should I, with the level plug but back in, fill her up to around 4.5 liters, have it running, check the temp (I have an infrared thermometer) and then drain the excess?

Click to expand...

The engine must be running and the gears been cycled though, before opening the level plug.

FreelandeRobert said:

This afternoon I unscrewed the level plug and filled the gearbox, but after not even 2.5 liters it started overfilling.

Click to expand...

If the engine is stopped and no gears have been cycled, then the fluid will come out at much less than 4.5 Litres.

This is why I fill first, the run the engine, cycle the gears a couple of times, check the box it as 40°C, then drain off the excess fluid.

Thanks!

Summarizing, I am best off:

1 - Ordering some more oil
2 - Running the engine, going through all gears until bottom of gearbox reaches 40 degrees
3 - Drain gearbox, put back drain plug
4 - Filling gearbox with 4.5 liters of oil
5 - Run engine again, until gearbox is 40 degrees
6 - Removing level plug and release any excess oil
7 - Put back level plug

Correct?

FreelandeRobert said:

Thanks!

Summarizing, I am best off:

1 - Ordering some more oil
2 - Running the engine, going through all gears until bottom of gearbox reaches 40 degrees
3 - Drain gearbox, put back drain plug
4 - Filling gearbox with 4.5 liters of oil
5 - Run engine again, until gearbox is 40 degrees
6 - Removing level plug and release any excess oil
7 - Put back level plug

Correct?

Click to expand...

I posted a link to the correct method above.

Using this new idea will take longer to do and cost you more in oil when more runs out.

Thanks for your reply, it is much appreciated!

Indeed I checked the link, the thing is that I started off on the wrong foot and thus cannot follow the correct procedure to the letter.

I did not tap off all the oil since it was not at the correct temperature, hence my 'new' list, fitted to my situation. Or am I missing something?

FreelandeRobert said:

Thanks!

Summarizing, I am best off:

1 - Ordering some more oil
2 - Running the engine, going through all gears until bottom of gearbox reaches 40 degrees
3 - Drain gearbox, put back drain plug
4 - Filling gearbox with 4.5 liters of oil
5 - Run engine again, until gearbox is 40 degrees
6 - Removing level plug and release any excess oil
7 - Put back level plug

Correct?

Click to expand...

If you could only get 2.5 Litres in when turned off and cold. Then simply add another couple of litres, then warm up the box, cycle the gears while it's heating to 40°C. Once the gears have been cycled and the box is up to 40°C, remove the level plug and see how much fluid comes out. It shouldn't be much, if any. If it's just a few drops that come out, then add another 1/2 Litre keeping the engine running . If there's still nothing out the level hole, then add a bit more fluid. Eventually the fluid will come out at the same rate that it's added, at which point the level is correct, or the box fluid has got to hot, in which case, you'll need to let it cool and repeat the level checking again.

Hi. Surely before doing any of that he should fix the leak. Presumably because it’s the auto box the leak is from the sump. As they are a steel sump on the auto box’s it has probably rusted through.

Jerrytheberry said:

Hi. Surely before doing any of that he should fix the leak. Presumably because it’s the auto box the leak is from the sump. As they are a steel sump on the auto box’s it has probably rusted through.

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I think yer'll find the Jatco case is aluminiuminum. Int theory he may not be able to find out where the leak is unless he fills it up. If it's leaking at the side then it will stop leaking when the level gets down to the leak.

No the sump on the auto is steel and rusts through. Just fixed mine a couple of weeks ago. Had to take the sump off and weld it up. One of my options at the time was to get a spares box offline but they all looked to be suffering the same problem.

Jerrytheberry said:

No the sump on the auto is steel and rusts through. Just fixed mine a couple of weeks ago. Had to take the sump off and weld it up. One of my options at the time was to get a spares box offline but they all looked to be suffering the same problem.

Click to expand...

Are you talking about the solenoid cover/pan? I agree that's probably steel.