hi all i’m hoping for a little help with my 2004 RR td6. when i bought the car about 7 months back it came up with a trans fail safe prog message on the dash but after turning off the ignition and back on the message went away. it has since happened about 3/4 times in the last 5-6 months.
However the message came on the dash last week and now my car is stuck in first gear (no reverse/neutral ect) i took it to the garage and the codes coming up were (transfer case faulty) & gear monitoring in 4th & 2nd &5th. Garage emptied my gearbox oil and there was some metal in there & suggests a gearbox recondition will solve the problem but before spending £2000+ i wanted to see if that’s definitely what will fix the car. this is my first RR so i have no idea what i’m doing or what to look out for. (gearbox was replaced in 2014 from previous owner)

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Are you saying that the car still drives forward in both neutral and reverse? If so, provided that the gear position indicator on the instrument panel correctly shows the gear lever position, my guess would be that the plates in at least one of the clutch packs have friction-welded together.

Thanks for the reply

The car will only drive in first gear, when moving the gear stick to neutral or reverse it drives forward.
The light still shows the gear stick going from Drive to Park to neutral and to reverse. When i switch into manual mode the lights also appear for 1st,2nd,3rd,4th,5th.
When trying to drive in auto it just high revs & sticks to 10/15 mph at most.

You could try disconnecting the 20-pin connector on the back of the transmission to see if it brings back neutral and reverse (i.e. in the event of it being a solenoid or electronic problem) but, if it’s still the same with the connector disconnected, it will need a rebuild I’m afraid. Sorry to sound so pessimistic.

Out of interest Phil what would cause the plates to friction weld together?

Jim

Just a quick question also, Ive been quoted £1900 for a gearbox rebuild + Labour on top.
Does this sound like a reasonable price or are we thinking i should look around some more before taking the jump & paying 🙂

Unfortunately, the GM 5L40-E transmission in the L322 turned out not to be a durable combination with most transmissions lasting around only 80,000 miles before requiring replacement. This was especially unfortunate because many consider the 3.0 TD6 engine, which it was mated to, to be a very good engine.

Many, but not all, of the problems stemmed from wear in the valve blocks which allowed valves to leak and crosstalk. This allowed clutches to remain pressurised when they shouldn’t have been, leading to overheating and the clutch packs welding together. The torque converter lock-up clutch was especially vulnerable to wear.

Unfortunately, many transmission remanufacturers simply replaced the faulty components and rebuilt the transmissions without sorting out the valve block leakage (either through ignorance or not having the necessary equipment to measure & fix it), so the problems started immediately again, and the transmission lasted a lot less than 80,000 miles the second time around – but maybe just got it through its 1 year warranty period. The result is that many TD6s are now on their third or fourth transmission.

Phil

That’s very unfortunate as it seems the engine is bulletproof the way people talk about the car.
I love the car too much to get rid so looks like a gearbox rebuild it is.

With all the parts you guys are talking about needing replacing how much on average should the garage be charging me for the recondition & replacing/reconditioning the parts as stated?

courtec wrote:

Just a quick question also, Ive been quoted £1900 for a gearbox rebuild + Labour on top.
Does this sound like a reasonable price or are we thinking i should look around some more before taking the jump & paying 🙂

For the reason stated above, I would only use a remanufacturer who has the capability to determine if the valve bodies are worn (e.g. with a Hydra-Test machine) and fix them (generally using Sonnax oversized valves). For example, although I have no personal experience of using them, I know that STA in Aylesbury have this capability.



Phil

courtec - There are a couple of garages that folk have used in the past

Birch Motors in Liverpool charge around the £1200 - £1500 mark, but as Phil ( ) said they need to look at the valve body. There is a place in Aylesbury (name escapes me) that fits an uprated valve body when they refurbish the box.

I have run a 55 plate TD6 for 5 years now. It was on 65k when I bought it and its now on 130k. I change the gearbox oil every year..

Jim

Ah! Phil and I must have posted at the same time. Yes, STA, that's where I would take my car if I ever had a problem.

Jim

I live in wolverhampton unfortunately so don’t think i can get down to liverpool. Will give google a go and see if i can find some reliable garages that know there stuff on range rovers 🤞🏼

Sorry to start this up again.

Garage have called today and told me the car now goes into all gears apart from reverse after it’s gearbox service. Gearbox hasn’t been reconditioned yet however he is saying he thinks my reverse has gone so will need the recondition. is this true? i don’t know what to think now

Strange, but a good result of sorts I guess, maybe it might be a good idea to call around some local auto transmission specialists and get some more info, before you get it reconditioned for £1800

You may be lucky and just have an MV3 solenoid/reverse gear valve issue, so when you call around and one of them says it might be the MV3 - they might be the outfit to use, but the MV3 solenoids are usually very reliable - it does happen just that it's not common.

Hopefully Phil will be along soon and give us some more insight

courtec wrote:

I live in wolverhampton unfortunately so don’t think i can get down to liverpool. Will give google a go and see if i can find some reliable garages that know there stuff on range rovers 🤞🏼