Saint.v8
Member Since: 13 Jun 2012
Location: UK< Surrey - Near the Middle Close to Some Green Bits
Posts: 94
 
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| ZF5HP24 Fluid Drain and Filter Change..... | |
After having a few odd vibrations at between 25-30 and 40-50 I thought I would drain the fluid and take a goosey......
So Saturday morning and time to drain the ATF and see what is going on in the ‘box....
First things first....
Tools required:
8mm Allen key for Sump and Fill/Level plugs
T27 Torx bit for Sump bolts and Filter Bolts
Pliers
Stanley Blade/Gasket Scrapper/Wide Screwdriver
Plenty of Rags
Drip Tray
Receptacle for Oil
Method of refilling (I used a pressure sprayer attached to a length of flexible hose)
Degreaser/cleaning products
SAFETY GLASSES
Always use the correct grade of ATF for the L322 Gearboxes – considering the price of this stuff, shopping around helps.
I bought 7 litres from a local VW/Audi place as theirs was the cheapest I could get hold of in the time I had....£11.70 a litre with the VAT. LR was £14 odd plus the VAT so was about £16-17 ish a litre...
VW part number G-052-162-A2
Process:
Raise Vehicle – Now before everyone goes bandy, I know driving up 4 ramps is a no-no, but I needed access underneath for a larger than average person and also have the vehicle level to drain and refill the box.
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Climb underneath and laugh at the ‘Filled for Life’ sticker.. 
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On first inspection underneath, it looks like there has been a fluid leak from the front corner of the sump
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Hmmmm....
OK, now before you do anything there are couple of Must Do steps
Spray some penetrating fluid on to the sump bolts, drain and fill plugs
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Make sure you have a viable and working method of refilling the box, I used a cheap pressure Fence Sprayer from Homebase (£14.99) and took the little plastic filter off the end of the delivery tube, cut the yellow plastic tube shorter and attached some flexible hose to that so I could feed it into the fill hole.
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Now this probably the most important part – make sure you can undo the fill level plug BEFORE you drain the oil out, I cannot stress this enough – if you can’t get it back in – you’re fecked !!!!
I was quite shocked just how tight the fill/level plug was – I am a rather large lad, and it took both hands pushing hard on a long Allen key to budge it....
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Crack open but don’t drain the Sump Plug
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Now go round the 22 Torx bits on the sump and only crack them open, don’t undo just a tweak....
On the side of the Sump is a metal plate covering the Selector switch...the official procedure is to remove this, but looking at it, and knowing the hassle caused if the selector isn’t set properly, you can just bend the side tabs back to allow the sump to be dropped.
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Position your Oil Receptacle under the sump plug, remember the sump can contain 4.5 to 5 litres (sometimes up to 5.5 if not more litres)
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You can now undo the drain plug....
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The residual oil on my plug doesn’t look to bad!! Nor did the stuff coming out of the sump!!
The odd thing was I could only get about 3.5 litres out of the sump.....I have read and re-read articles and posts on the internet and I am sure I should have got more out of it – is this a sign??
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Now, never having taken a Gearbox sump off before, I don’t know a) how heavy it is or b) how much oil is left that couldn’t be drained....so I used my large Trolley jacl set just below the pan, and started to undo the 22 torx bolts....count them off so you can count them on....!!!
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I had about half a litre left in the sump when it was removed, so be carefull when removing it, and remember part of the sump sits above the gearbox protection cage, so you’ll have to wiggle it past that....
At first look, the oil looks clean to my untrained eye....slight tan colour to it, doesn’t smell burnt, still has the typical LT71141 fishy/odd smell to it, no sludge, no fillings, no glitter, no swarf, no bits, no grit, nothing....just oil!! Took a bit out and smeared it on white paper, no suspended debris, no odd colour, no blackness....just a tan/brown oil!!
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The magnets in the corners don’t look too full of fillings, according to a thread on rangerovers.net they usually and should look like that....infact the comparison photo they showed was worse than mine!
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Ok, so looking at the sump pan, oil and magnets, nothing looks out of place and infact looks a damn sight better than I had expected.....
Attention turns to the filter....
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It is held in by 2 T27 Torx bolts, undo these and then pull the filter from the valve block , a little tug to over come the O ring seal, and be prepared for a splodge of oil and further oil to catch....
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Looking at the filter, there is again no sludge, no sign of metallic debris, no burnt smell, no swarf....just brown/tan coloured oil....
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So, after draining the oil I can summise the following....
No Black sludge
No Metal Fillings
No Glitter suspended in the oil
No Swarf
No Gritty bits
No Burnt Smell
Now while I am not saying there is nothing wrong with the box, maybe I have caught the demise early, maybe I was imagining it, maybe it is low on oil causing reduced hydraulic pressure???
The oil and filter certainly don’t seem to carry all the usual signs of failure....hmmmmm.
Time to clean the old gasket off the box and sump....that bit was the part that took the longest....you really should take your time and ensure you get all the old gasket off to ensure a good sealing surface. I used a Stanley blade and a screw driver (be careful not to score the mating faces)
Anyhoot, time to put it all back together.....
New Filter, O Ring and Sump Gasket (Genuine Land Rover parts sourced from Hunters Land Rover in Guildford), place the O Ring over the opening on the top side of the filter
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With a little push to overcome O Ring seal, place the filter on the valve block and do up the 2 Torx bolts
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Clean the sump using a good degreaser, clean the magnets and fit the new gasket....I smeared a bit of fresh ATF onto the sump lip to hold the gasket in place during fitment...
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Put the sump pan back on, I placed two opposing corner bolts in first and held it loosely while I put the other two corners in....then one by one fit the other 18 bolts....count them back on remember...
Make sure you have the gasket seated correctly as you put the bolts in...once you have them all in, start nipping them up in a cross pattern to ensure the pan sits square and not twisted....
For the awkward one above the Protection frame, I used a spring drive to get the bit onto the bolt head
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Time to prep for the fill.....pour new fluid into the pressure sprayer.
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Open up the Fill/level plug and place fill hose into hole...
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Pump up the sprayer and start to fill......
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The initial fill must be done with the engine off, the first fill will be about 4 litres or so to fill the sump to the fill level.
When you start to get a thin line from the filler hole, start the engine and with foot firmly on the brake, go from P through R to N then on to D pausing for 2-3 seconds in each to begin refilling the valves and oil galleries....
Go back to P in tha same fashion pausing in each...start the fill once again until you get a thin bead again, then again cycle the gears.....back to P.....wait for the Gearbox oil temp to reach around 40degC (measure using am IR thermostat or similar or those with money can use a diagnostic to monitor the GB temp)
When it is up to temp, keep filling until you get another thin line from the filler plug, and remove the fill hose and put the plug back in....DO NOT TURN THE ENGINE OFF UNTIL THE FILL PLUG IS BACK IN as the GB pump will stop and all the fluid in the cooler and Torque Converter will drain back to the sump and pour out of the fill plug again!!!
I managed to get all 7 litres in...!!!!!!
Clean up and grab a coffee....all done!
CONCLUSION and FINDINGS:
Well considering all I have read suggests I should get between 4.5 and almost 6 litres from the sump/ filter etc....(the GB takes 10.5 litres from dry, but you will have 4.5-5 or so left in the TQ) I only managed to drain at the very most 4.5 litres....
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BUT I refilled with 7 litres, which, considering the condition of the oil, leads me to suspect that my issue was concerned with the fluid level dropping to a point where hydraulic pressure was reduced causing clutch slipping....
Now I am not a Automatic box specialist, but to me the oil drained looked good (for 10 years old), the magnets and pan where clean, no burnt smell, nor anything untoward....
After getting it off the ramps a quick 15 minute drive should no ill effects, and whilst a longer drive will be more conclusive, there was no judder at 25-30 and only a faint hint at 40ish, but I couldn't tell if it was GB related or road condition....
Will give it a few weeks and see what happens....
Anyone got any views on the state of the oil or pan at all??
Time taken was about 6 hours (I like to take my time on things), and it was very messy!  
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