I've just bought a filter and gasket from LR today to change my ATF.

When I asked for the filter the parts man told me the gearbox was filled for life and they only sold filters when the gearbox was being stripped down. Little wonder there are so many problems with this box.

Mercedes-Benz adopted a sealed for life policy a number of years ago for auto boxes but that soon changed when they started getting excess warranty work due to contaminated ATF

Its going for repair tomorrow. Heres hoping that it goes super smooth and turns out it needs hitting wivanammer and only costs a tenner... well I can live in hope . I'll keep you posted guys, expect to be FFRR'less for a week. That said its been parked up for probably ten days. Can't wait to get back to normal. 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".

Well needless to say 'iting it wavanammer didn't work!

Hitting it with just shy of £3k did the trick though!

Reconditioned the whole box including the output shaft which was showing signs of wear to the splines.

The guy had three output shafts on display.. the two prior FFRRS he had done also had bearing wear in to the shafts although my bearings hadn't got that bad.

The suspected item was the 1st gear spragg clutch (did I sound like I knew what I was on about then?) but everything else has been sorted too so fingers crossed.

12 month warrantee or 12,000 miles which ever comes sooner. Needs to go back in 1000 miles just for a peep to check the levels and leaks.

The chap who did the rebuild said it can take a while for them to settle after a rebuild but mine had been fine on a test drive.. dropping down the gears is clunky sometimes as the boxes relearn the driving style (really?). As I say mine is fine on the drive home and pulls well. From start when cold forward motion in "D" was instant without waiting for pressure to build up or what ever was happening previously.

Above all I have the confidence back for those long haul continental trips with the caravan next year.

I did ask a best guess as to how long he thought before it gets as bad.. mine has 80,000 miles on and that is typical of the ones he refurbs.. though the odd ball was the 2005 he had in with 40,000 on the clock.. so anywhere between 40,000 and 80,000 miles and you takes your chance.

The trend in output shafts wearing is something to note for the future, especially as it can also mush the transfer box.

The other recent Auto he did was fudged due to the transferbox blowing, which he said ran to around near on £3k just for a transfer box then the auto would need a rebuild on top of that It's easy to see whats going to be taking these fine trucks off the road as they get older  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".

Thanks very much for keeping us all updated, hope alls well from now on. 03 TD6 vogue....Epsom, very nice
03 TD6 se....gone
94 Vogue se....gone

I did quite a bit of research on the 5L40E last year. I've posted my findings somewhere...

80k to 100k miles (150kkm) actually seems to be the average with these transmissions. Of all the people I've spoken to, this is actually the first I've heard of output shafts being worn. Interesting. Generally, the problem begins as reduced pressure due to wear in the valve body - which causes all sorts of other problems.

With a good rebuild, you should be good for at least another 80k so be happy!  
RRC 2Dr, RRC 4Dr,
P38, and 2 L322s
(wife thinks I'm nuts - prob right, too)