Owing to the fact my wife is too scared to even ride in my RR, I have taken a few months to put it in to be fixed.

I have just received a phone call, informing me that the RR’s gearbox and transfer case have to be rebuilt.

The mechanic told me the “Spline” is bone dry and has NEVER had any form of lubricant applied to it, and it has come from the factory that way.

Can anyone tell me if this is the normal way these RRs are assembled? 2007 TDV8 Lux

Both the ZF 6HP26 transmission and the Magna DD295 transfer box have their own independent lubrication systems and use different fluids so both the transmission output shaft and the transfer box input shaft have lip seals to prevent cross-contamination of the fluids.

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge

Admin note: this post has had its images recovered from a money grabbing photo hosting site and reinstated

Hi Phil and many thanks for the photos.

The mechanic is a Land Rover trained mechanic and he told me that there should have been a type of lubricant. He did give me the name but it went over my head, but probably something along the lines you have mentioned and he stated that with time, while the lubricant can be hard to see on the spline, there is always some evidence of some on the seals.

In my RR’s case, he told me there is absolutely no evidence of any form of lubrication and he was very specific when he told me it had come from the factory that way, because the seals are bone dry.

Since I posted yesterday, I have received the quote to fit yet another one of Land Rover’s incompetent build problems, and it’s a $12,000 fix that is not going to be done as the vehicle is a bomb and was made that way.

I have had enough and have instructed that the RR be reassembled and tow trucked back to me while I now investigate my legal avenues.

In just over 6 years of owning this heap, it has come close to operating properly for jut 5 weeks and that occurred just before last Christmas, thanks to some great feedback and assistance from members here.

While following the advice obtained here, I got the RR to work, but only after discovering a faulty plug assembly in the compressor. Again, something that had come from the factory and was never fixed under warranty( not that I ever received a warranty ), even though the faulty suspension was raised repeatedly at numerous services.

I have been informed there are new National Consumer Protection laws here now, relating to this very kind of trade behaviour, and I have been advised today, by one of the Land Rover dealerships, to make an submission because the new laws relate to inappropriate warranties and/or lack of warranty and both apply in my case, because the service centre at the dealership stated similar to what you and my mechanic has stated.

Again, thanks Phil, and thanks to the others on the forum who have came to my aid. It is appreciated, but the vehicle is beyond repair, thanks to Land Rover’s manufacturing incompetence. 2007 TDV8 Lux

You would have thought Land Rover would have learned from previous mistakes given the trouble they caused on Discovery1's with gearbox output shaft splines failing where it entered the transfer box input gear through lack of adequate lubrication.
A very expensive mistake on an FFRR, you have my sympathy.
The thing that concerns me is that you can't possibly be the only one.

Hi nicedayforit and apparently it is not new for Land Rover to “forget” to lube this part.

There have been issues with the exact same problem in D3s.

I wonder how many RR owners have had damage cause by the same thing and just put it down to a NORMAL ware failure? 2007 TDV8 Lux