I have only recently purchased the car 2004 4.4M62 with the ZF box knowing fully that it had a gearbox problem so I am in the process of working through the fault. The car is not MOTd so not able to road test but low range works and from a brief slow speed drive around the property gears change o.k. using the steptronic function.

On a cold start the gearbox engages drive as expected. No harsh thump. Once the engine and gearbox get warm drive engagement takes up to 2 seconds and is a harsh thump followed by a second thump. I have seen reports of this fault but nothing definitive on the cause being in the valve body or in the main body.

I first checked oil level at correct temperature and there was a thin stream of oil emerging. I do not have the IID 2 GAP tool so used a software tool called BMW Scanner 1.4 but I would not want to rely on the code descriptions too heavily. Its an o.k. tool for BMWs but for range rover it does not provide full functionality. Anyway I get that it needs a proper ODB tool at some point.

The fault descriptions were: Stalling speed, Gear check 3, Gear check 2, Gearbox switch

I have dropped the sump and its been off before as had the valve bodies. No swarf, filter opened up and clean inside. The only anomaly I could find was that two springs could have been in the wrong valve locations in the lower rear body. This is based on photos that RRPhil provided on another post for a different problem. I transposed both springs SV1 and SV3 with SV3 now being the shorter spring and have refitted and refilled with no change on the fault.

All the solenoids and speed sensors and temperature sensor are within the spec's I have found for resistance and with basic voltage tests on the solenoids they all make the same sound for the two variants fitted. I have cleared the error codes and currently there are no codes but the car is still up on stands so not driveable.

Without full ODB connectivity I cannot reset adaptations in case the gearbox was repaired previously as mentioned the sump and valve body has been off before, and this was not carried out to reset the behaviour - that would be nice to hope for!

The oil that came out was probably the wrong type being dark red. I re-filled using straw coloured oil from Westway lubricants as per the photo. It took about 7 litres before streaming at correct temperature.

The battery is not good, it starts fine but voltage drop during cranking and as soon as the engine shuts off shows probably one duff cell so I have ordered a new battery. I mention the battery because I know from experience that BMW electronics are very sensitive to voltage drop on start up causing issues and need to eliminate this.

Any pointers/suggestions most welcome please. I'm in the process of also dealing with other usual problems with these cars so it likely to be up on stands for a while yet

Click image to enlarge

RRPhil is the God of these gearboxes on here. I am sure he will be along to offer some sage advice.

Last edited by Dolphinboy on 29th Aug 2025 4:51pm. Edited 1 time in total

steve k wrote:

Once the engine and gearbox get warm drive engagement takes up to 2 seconds and is a harsh thump followed by a second thump.

Hello Phil, many thanks for you question. No warning messages relating to the gearbox upon taking delivery or since doing the work so far. The car was delivered on a recovery and I have only been able to drive it around a small paddock before putting it up on stands so possibly its not been driven enough?

What I can also add is that an hour ago I checked the wiring continuity from the gearbox ECU to the relevant solenoids used for 1st gear based on my understanding of how RAVE explains the operation in a chart of which solenoids are activated dependent on the gear selected: SV1 and EPRS1,2,3 & 5.

All checked out with expected resistance values except EPRS1 which is open circuit. I can confirm from unplugging the connector at the gearbox and checking the loom that there is continuity between the ECU and the gearbox connector. I am using RAVE circuit diagrams for reference.

Although I meter checked and voltage checked all solenoids I only did a visual inspection of the loom inside the box. I was careful during valve block install by fitting the loom/connector separate from the valve body so as not to risk any undue stress and remember plugging all the solenoids etc in but regardless the same fault exists so its possible it was damaged during the previous work done. Unless I'm missing something I will need to drop the sump again to sort out the break but most importantly could this solenoid that I believe regulates the main system pressure be a silver bullet fix?? Current: 2003 TD6 HSE
2004 Vogue SE 4.4
Previous: 1993 Classic 3.9

So, just to confirm, if you measure the resistance between pins 2 and 16 at the 16-pin connector you get an open circuit?

Click image to enlarge

Hi Phil

unfortunately I cannot get a reliable test under the car as access and visibility is bad, even with clip leads and probes I cannot be certain on test result. What I can confirm is that with the gearbox connector in place I get expected 6 Ohms when probing ECU pin 21 (gearbox pin 16) and ECU pin 28 (gearbox pin 2)

RAVE conflicts with the ZF intel' I have and its causing me a lot of confusion at the moment. RAVE does not include the internal linking of wires that the ZF schematic does and my test results on all solenoids do not make sense. It implies a break somewhere when testing via gearbox pin 12 but the same solenoids tested via gearbox pin 16 provide resistance values as expected. Either RAVE and/or the ZF schematic are not accurate or I'm not reading my results correct. I resorted to putting them into a spreadsheet as something isnt making sense to me.

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge

Accessing the 16-pin plug is a pain. I made up this little breakout board to make it easier to read of the resistances.



That ATSG drawing used to bother me because they have the solenoid order the wrong way round. I wrote to them in the end, and they published a correction.

Wow - blimey! many thanks. I will compare the correct wiring to my results and see where it leads. This is very helpful Phil - Current: 2003 TD6 HSE
2004 Vogue SE 4.4
Previous: 1993 Classic 3.9

With the proper wiring diagrams I have re-checked the connections from the ECU box down into the box and back my results confirm the internal gearbox wiring is faultless.

Without your very helpful and invaluable information Phil I would be chasing a non existent wiring fault!

I ran the engine and it takes around 15 minutes of idling and gear selecting before it started to become harsh when engaging drive. Reverse did not give any concerning thump, just forward drive. The car is still up on the stands though.

Clearly I need some realtime OBD data to help understand what might be going wrong but I'm loath to shell out £500 for IID tool just yet. Current: 2003 TD6 HSE
2004 Vogue SE 4.4
Previous: 1993 Classic 3.9