Soooo.......after reading this archive thread from 2011

https://www.fullfatrr.com/forum/topic7271-15.html

I am and have been experiencing the same thing since ive had my FF. If car been left sat for more than 6/8 hours it will sometimes take 10 secs, others over 40 second to engage drive. All the rest are fine, sometimes I forget and im sat in the middle of the road lol

The gearbox was swapped for a recon’d box at 110.000, its now on 185.000
At 184.000 I performed an extended drain (left overnight with the pan off). Wasnt a pretty colour - but no in the sump
Had 7 litres drain out total, so 7 litres went back in again with lucas stop slip additive, a specialist in liverpool that deals with the GM & ZF boxes for these Range Rovers and X5s said that they usually recommend if uses for towing/to prolong the life)

Still no difference though experince the same issue where drive takes time to engage so I then greased up the linkage after reading this wiki post, I had the car in the air (door open!) and my neighbour selected through the shifter locations whilst i wd40’d the linkage and cable, then used multipurpose grease afterwards.

http://www.fullfatrr.com/wiki/TDV8_Gearbox...s_of_drive

I actually got better, still took some time but it was usually a few shifts from P to D and we were off.

I guess as its simply just returned to not behaving all the time - I can now only assume that the fluid being cold is a factor and its something else in the gearbox that isnt best pleased ?

That Lucas stuff is incredibly thick and only increases the viscosity of the existing fluid, check out the lab tests on youtube. I would presume that would slow the flow down at cold temps. Are you using dex 3 or full synthetic fluid? When you changed the filter did you get the old seals out, they can be really stubborn and tight. Also, did you use the correct filter, there are 2 types for the GM Box, the correct one has the pickup 1cm lower than the other. When I did my 1st fluid and filter change 50000km after a rebuild I found it had the wrong filter, see the attached photos, the correct one has the black bar which lowers the pick-up
This one is wrong

Dexron III.....that stuff went out in the stone ages, no im not using that.
Yes that lucas stop slip was very thick, i added a 200ml at a every 800ml of ATF I put in.
I used the well documented process that is on this forum and RAVE.

The filter i’ve got is the pancake one, in your last picture and yup the filter seal did get stuck, so i fished it out with a hook

Im using the Comma ATF fluid that shows approved type on their web site, its synthetic, this is also what was recommended on their system at the motor factors.

I ran this by the ZF and GM box specliast for L332/X5 in Liverpool and they said they put in the euro car parts ATF plus and dont have any problems with it. They also mentioned that Comma stuff I was using would be fine.

The problem i’m having, existed prior to me performing a fluid change anyway, plus drives fine regardless.

I’ve wd40’d and greased up the linkages/selector again for now

If you have a GM gearbox then this is what it was designed to have inside it





If I was in your position I would buy a 20L drum from our onsite oil sponsor and do a triple flush. Then I would top it up and add a tube of Dr Tranny.

Jim

Just a quick update on this one, After greasing & using WD40 on the selector each month.
The car does engage D after about 2 seconds from stone cold, I think that's reasonable enough  Current Fleet

FF L322 2.9TD6 SE
BMW e46 330ci Msport
Skoda Superb TDI Mk2, stage 1
Audi A3 8P 2.0 T 4x4, stage 2
Yamaha R6 13S
Triumph Thruxton R
Sold, but not forgotten

WJ Jeep Grand Cherokee V8