Hi all,

I know this is discussed before, perhaps not as detailled as my problem shows.
After 211000 km the tranny showed some problems: last week there was some hesitation in changing gear from 3th to 4th, today it went into the Trans Failsafe Program; it got me home fine but sticked into 3th gear I think.
I've read all topics concerned but my question is as follows: should I invest money and time into changing the oil and filter ( never has been done before) or just look for another tranny?
Could someone who had similar problems confim me that the oil and eventual filter change curred the problem at the long term?
ronald

My problem was slightly different and the oil and filter change failed to solve it.

I wouldn't touch a second hand box with a barge pole.

GM boxes were renowned for particularly poor castings, which leads to a increased demise of the rest of the components.

I got my box totally reconditioned for just shy of £3000 which was the cheaper option.

Make sure the gearbox output shaft is also checked / replaced as the chap who did mine had a line up of worn outpur shafts and a FFRR on the ramps requiring a new transfer box due to an output shaft failure = + £2500/3000 for the transfer box  2010 Disco XS TDV6, 2009 Freelander 2 GS

Previous Landrover products -1990 110 TDI CSW, 2003 TD6 Vogue - RRC TD Vogue, RRC v8 Fleetline, Disco ES V8 LPG, 101 Ambulance "Morph", 1964 SIIa Auto Powered by Jag 4.2 Lump - "Percy".

There are too many variables involved to use someone else's experience as a guide in a case like this, Ronald, and besides to assess the condition of your transmission the pan will have to come down this way or that.

Get the ecu read to find out what faults were thrown. I wouldn't just run out and buy a new transmission based on one fault. Changing the transmission fluid is def a good idea - everyone I've spoken to thinks so - despite LR's lifetime fill. So have the transmission serviced and make your decision based on the outcome. In the worst case you may have wasted a few quid - but it's better than spending a few thousand on a new transmission unnecessarily.

As LPD says - no used transmission.

I've mentioned in other transmission threads that I did research on the 5L40E before - thought I had posted info on FFRR but apparently it was only on RR.net (or I'm too stupid to find it). So copy and paste to here as well:


I did considerable research on this transmission and spoke to all sorts of people from Ian Ashcroft, to John Mackey, to some very competent folks at Sonnax Transmissions.

The 5l40E has some very real problems - nearly all of which are pressure related. In a nutshell, the biggest wear issues stem from wear in the valve body bores and in the torque converter clutch valve bore. It seems that, for whatever reason, the aluminum used by GM in the casting of these pieces is softer than the material used in other (older) GM transmissions. This wear leads to improper shift/lock-up pressures which in turn leads to premature wear in the rest of the transmission components (which drop particulates into the fluid and exacerbate the wear in the valve bores) and, at some point, transmission failure.

All of the people I spoke to concurred on a number of items:
-'sealed for life' is not a good thing.As the filter is on the suction side of the system, it can't be made too fine as otherwise it would cause cavitation in the pump. These means that wear causing particulates, once in the transmission fluid, are there to cause damage till removed - or transmission failure. Early, regular fluid changes are good and necessary.
- using the proper transmission fluid is vital. The valves tend to oscillate relatively rapidly in their bores and the GM engineers put considerable effort into the interaction of the materials vs. pressures vs. wear problems. Use only the recommended fluid - not all fluid is alike.
- when transmissions are rebuilt, cleanliness is vital as is checking the tolerances in the valves and the pump
- after a rebuild, changing the fluid is almost more necessary than before to reduce the likelihood of a repeat failure

Most TD6 transmissions will fail at between 80-100k miles. Some of the rebuilders I spoke to told me that they make minor modifications such as sleeving the valve bores with a harder material and for this reason, they felt that a transmission rebuilt properly was actually better than ex-factory while others stated that the best one could hope for is back to OEM-spec (with another failure in 80-100k miles).



Hope to have helped and not caused  
RRC 2Dr, RRC 4Dr,
P38, and 2 L322s
(wife thinks I'm nuts - prob right, too)

Thanks elpeede for the info.
This morning, the faultmessage was gone and the first 5 km everything was back to normal, then it started hesitating again between 4th and 5th; some time later It took even a few seconds before it reacted after passing through Neutral or Park.
A indy shop did a read out and the faultmate showed following messages:133 canbus transferbox timeout, 55 gear monitoring and 52ED ??. in other words you're screwed?
I was offered recon boxes at euro 2.300,- and 2.750,- including warranty, VAT and mounting.
Unfortunaly, they're all closed due to year end hollidays.
So in the meantime I ordered for euro 145 oil and filter ( due for Thuersday at the BMW shop ) and try my luck.
Keep you informed what the outcome is...

Hi Steve,

Jsut recieved your post while i posted my answer to elpeede. Thanks for the info!
As said, I'll change filter and oil on Thursday and see what this brings, although I have not much hope as the tranny did a total of 211.000 km without any problem what so ever, I believe this is much better than the average.
I'll come back on Thusday evening with more news.

Proper thread- some excellent technical help-

Ron: hope you get all sorted!

As soon as I saw the inside of the oil pan, it was clear to me that an oil and filter change would not be sufficiant: there were a lot of metalic particels swimming around!
Did it anyway as I had the parts but a testdrive proved that my problems were still there.
So my New Years gift to myself will be a recon tranny first week of january.
Funny thing what happened when I pulled the lever to unlock the hood: the release cable broke. Was this a sign?
Anyway I am gonna look for a new RR in March.