Disco Auto Trans Failure

Sounds like the pump has either failed or has become clogged. Smell the fluid, if it has a burnt aroma you have serious problems. Go ahead and pull the filter and before you dump the pan, run a magnet through the gearbox fluid. You'll be checking for either an abundance or absolute absence of metallic particles. The TC uses the same fluid as the gearbox (or at least the NAS versions do).

I've found that most pump jockeys are scared of Land Rovers. Why, I don't know. Anyway, smell the aroma of motor oil and compare it to the trans fluid. BTW, wear surgical gloves prior to handling any synthetic or petroleum based oils and fluids as they are all cancer causing.

What I've done is to replace the drain plugs in both front and rear axles as well as the engine sump. Land Rover's part number for it is FTC5208. You didn't say if it was a Disco 1 or 2 because the 2s had it standard for the sump. I'm looking for the same type of plug for the manual gearbox and transfer case as well. Mobil Oil offers, as others may as well, the opprotunity to have the used oil analyzed to help determine the health of the engine. I haven't used the service yet so I can't comment on it.

I have gone over to completely synthetic oil and fluids for my Disco 1. I have seen a marked reduction in temp both water and oil.

I think that I have probably said too much but, what I have said hope it helps you and your Landie.

--Jeff

Hmmmm..mine did this - athough the failure in the end was more catostrophic - i.e. it pumped the atf up and out of the filler tube all over the engine. Essentially it lunched the clutches. The first thing that happened was a reluctance to change, I had it flushed and it ran okay for a weeks and then BLAMMO!

Jac Hi,

sorry to hear about your troubles with the autobox. Have had similar problems after leaving the car standing still for about two years. Living next to the sea means that the ATF had absorbed lots of humidity . Have not thought about it and after starting to use the car again the autobox started to act up, slipping between gears, not engaging forward or reverse gear and finally starting to whine and whistle.

Following recommendations from fellow listers from here I changed the ATF and cleaned thoroughly the filter. The ATF was dark brown and there were a LOT of debris (black powder sludge) on the filter. I used cheap ATF to change the autobox's contect three times and cleaned the filter each and everytime the ATF was changed. Upon changing the ATF the last time I used very good quality ATF II (Dextron) and an autobox oil conditioner (Liquid Muscle, Stops Slip) and since then (about two years now) the autobox works extremely nicely. It occasionaly feels a little sluggish and delays changing from first to second gear when the ambient temperature is lowish (around 10 degrees Celsius) or when the autobox's oil is cold but when everything is in operational temperature.

So before you decide to take a plunge in the deep and expensive why don't you try the same approach?

A trick I have been told by the mechanic who has assisted me into changing the ATF/purging the system was to empty the autobox from the ATF, keep the plug open but the transfer box in neutral, start the engine and put the autobox lever in D and let the system operate for a few seconds. Only a few seconds appeared to have made the torque converter rotate and also empty its oil since there was oil dripping from the open plug. I can not take any responsibility for proposing this trick. But it appears it has assisted into completery removing the debris from the torque converter and the pump apart from just the autobox which is usually the case when you change ATF.

Take care and hope this damage you had will be easy and cheap to repair and rectify.

Pantelis

trouble-free

On or around Mon, 3 Apr 2006 13:05:31 +0300, "Pantelis Giamarellos" enlightened us thusly:

There's a problem with changing ATF which is that about 30% or more of the fluid stays in the box and especially the torque converter when you drain it. It's a huge operation to get it completely empty and flushed - when I changed mine which had the "A" clutch failure I had to re-use the TC from the failed box, and I spent about an hour and a gallon of paraffin trying to flush the old cruddy oil out of it. Trouble is, to do that you have to get the 'box (or engine) out.

So what happens is you replace the filter (about 25 GBP, last one I got, and yes, you can clean it, it's only a fine mesh screen, but ICBA) and drain and refill the sump (about 9 litres I think). The oil capacity from new-and-empty is about 16l.