Ive accepted that I need mine replacing - rev fluctuation, cattle grid effect etc and Ive been looking around a various places. J Pat and Sussex autos seem to be the favorites. But then i came across this ad in ebay

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Range-Rover-L322...Sw9r1V-X2f

He talks about uprated kevlar friction ring.

Anyone have any experiance of this guy or comments? No7 - 2003 V8 Vogue

Worth asking RRPhil on here!

I got the leads for jpat and Sussex from Phill, I hoped someone from here had fitted one and had some feedback No7 - 2003 V8 Vogue

Can't really see the point in paying another £200 on top of the price I paid for mine from Sussex Auto for extra lifespan given the lifespan of my original was 100k+ miles and even then wasn't worn out (replaced as I took the gearbox off for another issue). It's likely my gearbox will need a rebuild before the replacement torque converter wears out.

It all depends on how many miles you do, whether you do a lot of towing and how long you are planning on keeping it, personally I would save my money (and put it towards the next thing to wear out!).

I agree that it would be very interesting to hear from anyone who’s tried one of these converters.

My first thoughts were whether the friction coefficient of the Kevlar friction material would be the same as the resin-bonded paper used in the standard Sachs unit. If not, the transmission controller would have to learn the new LUC settings in ‘controlled slip’ mode – assuming that they’re within its range.

I completely agree with Weejock that the original friction plates generally last beyond 100,000 miles anyway so the only potential benefit would be once the vehicle had exceeded 200k miles.

Phil

It seems Doug also repairs & sells all Tefal Activfry machines, does it make me a bad person that all I can see is a torque converter!!!

Click image to enlarge

I had one of those... I got 25 miles out of it before it destroyed it's self and my gearbox too
And we had the blame game afterwards... lets just say that I wasn't totally out of pocket... but it did cost me an arm and a leg. In the end i went for a totally new unit supplied and fitted by STA in aylesbury... FYI it wasn't that much more expensive that a recon converter... but it helped my piece of mind  Yesterday I couldn't spell Engineer... Today I are one!
Inventor of the 'Guide-o-Matic automatic wheel alignment tool'
Former long term L322 owner, Up/Down graded to a Classic Tractor!

Oh and another lesson learnt, you can't just fit a new / recon converter... only you start playing with the gearbox it really needs to be stripped and cleaned if nothing else, cos your worn out converter will have dumped a lot of grinding past in to the rest of the box.... it will sit there forever until you do something like change the oil... then it gets softened up and goes on a wrecking spree  Yesterday I couldn't spell Engineer... Today I are one!
Inventor of the 'Guide-o-Matic automatic wheel alignment tool'
Former long term L322 owner, Up/Down graded to a Classic Tractor!

Do you have the TD6 and if so was the valve block checked before fitting the carbon fibre TC, just out of interest ?

First time the gearbox was power flushed.... second time the whole box was stripped and cleaned, and the valves were replaced with Sonnax upgrades... should have been done first time around

And yes it was the TD6, which is by far the weakest gearbox.. but it works in the same way that the ZF unit does, only worse But knowing what I know now, there is no way that I would replace a major component on a "sealed for life" gearbox with out a full strip down and clean... because the fluid stays in the box 3-4 times longer that normal all the muck from the friction materials wearing has to collect some where.. it forms pockets of nastiness waiting to be released by new fluid and then starts.......... Yesterday I couldn't spell Engineer... Today I are one!
Inventor of the 'Guide-o-Matic automatic wheel alignment tool'
Former long term L322 owner, Up/Down graded to a Classic Tractor!

So when the carbon fibre TC failed, was that the first time before the strip down and new sonnax valves?

Proper one it is then. Diint think about checking out the other items for sale. Never would have put TCs and fryers in the same service supply area 🙀 No7 - 2003 V8 Vogue

err not carbon fibre..Kevlar....

It sort of went like this 100K rebuilt gearbox... 122 K gearbox showing signs of TCC failure.. So new Kevlar TCC was got, but full power flush before the new converter was fitted... 25 miles later Kevlar converter let go Then had the valves rebuilt, as they were suspected, "couldn't possibly be the converter"

Well it bloody was

Had the gearbox stripped, new converter fitted and everything cleaned and checked... now working OK, but should have saved myself the hassle and just had the rebuild in the first place.

Unfortunately the sealed for life bit is the killer on these boxes... as everything wears the muck keeps getting sent around the box, causing more damage as it goes... the older boxes that had an oil change every 2 years were way better lasting  Yesterday I couldn't spell Engineer... Today I are one!
Inventor of the 'Guide-o-Matic automatic wheel alignment tool'
Former long term L322 owner, Up/Down graded to a Classic Tractor!

Sorry kevlar, I think the main killer is the valve body wear and then it seems common to replace / repair everything except the root cause which is the valve body and then in what can be a very short time, failure again caused by the lack of pressure to the LUC.
luckily i have a 4.4 petrol so the ZF box is far more forgiving than the GM when it comes to the TC failure.

Not so sure that the ZF suffers in quite the same way, being built by the Germans who care about quality, rather than the French who care about dinner But I still reckon that if the TCC is fubar'd then it's a good idea to have the rest of the gearbox checked and cleaned if nothing else.. after all you've already paid to remove the box, it don't take that much longer to strip it and give it a wash. What you have to bare in mind is there will be a lot of crap, in the form of worn friction material, that will have come out of the TCC... If any is left in the gearbox then it will shorten the life of it.. I'm not saying just book it in for a rebuild, it might not need it, but have it properly cleaned and inspected before you make that decision.. If you have a good gearbox centre then they should be happy to do that, I know that STA Aylesbury will do that. When they got mine all apart they could have said it was knackered, but it wasn't, as it was 22k old, but it did need a really good clean as there was tons of swarf from the TCC going tits up  Yesterday I couldn't spell Engineer... Today I are one!
Inventor of the 'Guide-o-Matic automatic wheel alignment tool'
Former long term L322 owner, Up/Down graded to a Classic Tractor!