Td5 auto box slipping/surging into 3rd

Hi!

Me and my father have just bought our first Td5 (auto). I trailered it back with my Navara (hangs head in shame) from Plymouth to the midlands and it's now safely back at home with us.

It was an ebay auction purchase and we bought it with a view to it being a father and son project. it was listed with a fault that it was losing water without any visible leaks (will run it and monitor this) hence why I trailered it back.

It drives fine and we're thrilled with it so far. It needs work but hey, that's the idea of this car. However, it's got a bit of a head-scratcher of a fault for us. The auto box seems to surge or slip into 3rd - revving and then settling into 3rd rather than the usual smooth change on all the other gears.

Does anyone have any experience of this or ideas? Maybe changing the ATF and filter might sort this out but then another school of thought is that it could make things worse.....

Any thoughts before we get the spanners out would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers
TommyTdi

read up on changing the oil and filter and try it first, note oil you drain out for colour and debris

hi, you are not gonna like that but loosing water without any sign of leaks means crack in one of the inlet or outlet ports in the head and the water is vaporised out through the exhaust... ask me how i know

for the other thing, being new purchase, can you see the green M + S warnings in the bottom row of the instrument pack on ignition self test? cos if not it can be a serious issue which sends the box in limp mode but the warnings were ''disabled'' to hide the fault... let's hope not

Hi, firstly, don't panic too much about the water. Try the cheapest things first. I had exactly the same on a td5 and it was the radiator knackered. Could also be the expansion tank. They get minute cracks which open under pressure let water out which evaporates off then you can't see where it's leaking from!!

There is a sensor on the top of the box which gets dirty etc. give this a clean off and a spray of wd40 then start the car and have a mess with the sport button. Keep putting it in and out of sport mode then go for a drive. Turn the car off then back on again.

Otherwise change the oil and filter and pop a bottle of lube gaurd red into it.

Hope this helps

As long as the M + S warnings are working on the self test but they are not flashing while driving it's not about any sensor... out of interest what sensor is on top of the box cos i'm curious

The inhibitor switch. I was thinking someone may have 'stopped' the m and s bulbs illuminating. This is not necessarily terminal for the switch though, they can just play up intermittently. Though I think you are correct that it's on the side if the box, not the top. My sincere apologies

No worries... i just like things to be accurate , which means the inhibitior(XYZ) switch is a switch not a sensor, also intermittent short time missbehaviour of it would not put the box in limp mode, definitively not without warnings ... that's why i asked about the self check cos even if the XYZ switch is the most common there are 14 more reasons for limp mode

No probs. it is a switch not a sensor. I just wondered if an intermittent problem with that wouldn't cause limp home mode? I have a td5 disco that showed the lights, went into limp home mode. I did the above and hey presto it was fine!!

that's the gist of it... to see if the warnings are working or not to get closer to the issue, cos if they are working the problem is pure mechanical

I will check for the marks and Spencer light and get back to you. Also, it definitely doesn't seem to be going into limp mode.

I had issues like this i changed oil thats helped and more common is the harnis over the transfer start to fail with age i noticed this when i messed with my window switches and pulling on the harnis brought my m n s lights flashing

Right so the M + S lights work fine on the dash and it's seems to be slipping/surging/revving at the change up from 3rd to 4th.

I will pick up some fluid and I have a filter and i'll change the fluid in the box.