Wierd noise from 300Tdi Disco auto box

I've been driving Land Rovers for over 20 years but have just bought my first automatic. When I bought it everything sounded fine. I drove it home (120 miles mainly motorway) and parked it up. started it up again 1 week later and there is a hideous kind of rasping noise coming from the gearbox area. When I switch off the engine everything goes quiet except I can here something still spinning which slowly winds down and stops. Whatever it is, it didn't do it before and it definitely ain't right! Grateful for any ideas as to what's wrong. Many thanks.

Welcome to LandyZone

Sounds like your starter motor is sticking in the engaged position. Best look at it quick or it will lunch itself and ring gear

Ouch! ^^^+1, hope you've caught it in time!

Auto gearbox flex plate breaking up?

lynall said:

Auto gearbox flex plate breaking up?

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I had this once donkey's years ago, and it started with a clunk, the sort you don't expect from an auto, but not the sounds described by OP. Mine happened on take off, nothing to do with on start up. But then who knows?

Stanleysteamer said:

I had this once donkey's years ago, and it started with a clunk, the sort you don't expect from an auto, but not the sounds described by OP. Mine happened on take off, nothing to do with on start up. But then who knows?

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Take off are two words not normally used in the same sentence as 300 auto

lynall said:

Take off are two words not normally used in the same sentence as 300 auto

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Arr! but mine has a "sports exhaust"! "Everything is relative", sadly including my mother-in-law!

Stanleysteamer said:

Arr! but mine has a "sports exhaust"! "Everything is relative", sadly including my mother-in-law!

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I take the pee, but I did own one for 4 years and 50k, was terrible when bought flat as a fart, but one tune from the guy up north and she flew and was faster than the std td5 I replaced it with.

Okay, so after lots of great advice from you guys I now know lots more about auto gearboxes but also the following. I had suspected from the start that the problem was low oil in the tranny. The problem was that whenever I tried to check the oil with the dipstick I couldn't get a reading as there was oil all the way up the dipstick and I didn't want to start chucking more oil in unless I knew for certain it needed it. so the two things I learned since then... 1. When you pull the dipstick out and wipe it clean wait a couple of minutes before putting it back in to get a reading to allow any oil that you pulled up the tube when removing the dipstick to flow back. 2. After every bit of research I did it was unequivocal, check the oil when it's hot... WRONG! at least in the case of the ZF box in the Disco. I had never noticed before but it actually says RIGHT THERE ON THE DIPSTICK check the oil when cold with the engine running and the selector in neutral. So I did and waited the two minutes and finally got an accurate reading. I had about 2 millimeters of oil at the very end of the dipstick. ie. Bugger all! Just to be sure, I repeated this three times and got the same result. I will now fill it with ATF after dropping the sump (which is dripping in oil, hence my initial suspicions) and fixing the leak.

Mandelbrot said:

I will now fill it with ATF after dropping the sump (which is dripping in oil, hence my initial suspicions) and fixing the leak.

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Replace the filter whilst your in there ..... it'll be worth it

Good idea. Looks fairly straightforward a job. I'll order the bits.