Discovery TD5 Auto questions

Hi Pete,

have you found the "Discovery Owners Club" at all yet? quite a helpful bunch on the specifics -

Si

The fuel consumption on the TD5's seem's to be in the range of 22 - 33 mpg dependent on type of driving and driving style etc. My previous Disco was an 04 TD5 and it averaged abut 28mpg.

Do you have ACE fitted? I ask because my current V8 had a nasty sounding vibration at low revs which turned out to be a small stone trapped between the ACE valve block and the chassis. It's rubber mounted and the stone trasnmitted the vibe through the chassis rails. It was the simplest and cheapest fix I've ever done!

As has been said. I highly reccomend the Discovery Owners Club, the best technical resource available and the club dicsounts will return your membership fee many times over.

I've been getting over 30mpg but that is in a Y TD5 manual, previous posts about autos indicate that auto boxes do have a much larger impact on the mpg than other auto v manual comparisons.

I drove an auto when looking for mine, also noticed that it appeared reluctant to change up. Enough to put me off the auto box (not that I like autos all that much anyway). Fortunately I do very little town/urban motoring otherwise that might have been a bad decision as the manual is quite a pudding stirrer around town.

On the flat I'll be changing up around 2500, up hill 3,000 plus but that is because of the fairly wide gear spacing. Anything less and you drop out of the turbo and you don't have enough umph to keep going.

On or around Thu, 02 Nov 2006 23:22:49 GMT, Peter Harrison enlightened us thusly:

I reckon for those tyres you'll get good results at 36 all round. I run that on series 1 discos with no trouble at all, and the front tyres wear as nice as you like, at book pressure the front tyre wear shows a classic "underinflated" pattern. I'd alos not bother deflating them much for mild off-road unless you find you're lacking grip.

I'd run simialr pressures on your other set, too - maybe a couple of pounds lower 'cos they're lower profile.

My last TD5 Auto returned 21mpg on average so 23 is about right I'm afraid. Just to echo the other posts, join the Discovery Owners Club, we are a nice bunch :-)

Was that a manual?

I shall have a peek under in the morning. Well, probably Sunday as I am off to see if the traction control and hill descent work tomorrow.

I shall definitely do that

Thanks

Pete

I much prefer the ride on these compared to the wranglers. I put them on a set of cheap commercial steel rims. Now I think black wheels look good on a silver Discovery with black upholstery. You won't be surprised to learn that I seem to be alone in our house on this. I may up the pressure at the rear a bit as they seem a bit more squashed.

Pete

|| Hi || || As the new owner of a 52 plate Discovery TD5 ES Automatic, I have a || couple of questions:

Mine's an 01 ES Auto, previously had a manual too.

|| First, fuel consumption seems pretty poor. So far, with a fair mix of || driving, it only returns about 23MPG.

I get about 22 normal driving, 24-ish on a run and 19.5 towing, so you're not far out. (The manual got about 27 solo and 21 towing, IIRC.)

||I can't help but feel that || this is due in large part to it not really wanting to change up into || fourth. It || can be 55mph before it finally gets into 4th gear (unless I am going || downhill).

Yup, it's a "feature". Mine does the same, although 55 sounds a bit high. It certainly seems to hang onto 3rd more than you would do if you had a manual change. It's worse with towing. I recently towed a caravan the length of Wales and back, all on A and B roads, and it spent a lot of time in 3rd and even 2nd. I've learned to live with it. I've been told that a chip upgrade will help it hold a higher gear on hills etc, and I'm looking into this myself.

|| I have also been told that the gearbox controller is adaptive and || learns a driving style. Is this so?

I think that's right, as I've heard that too. I followed a mate in a breathed-on 200Tdi 90 across country for about 20 miles late one night and gave it a bit of a caning. For the next few days it was much livelier until it "re-learned" my normal fairly conservative style. I think it must be the gearbox that's adaptive, as a high-speed thrash up the motorway doesn't have the same effect.

|| If it is, can it be reset and || would it make a difference?

Don't think so.

|| The next question refers to an odd (to me) noise. Yes, I know it is a || land rover and they make odd noises. This is a kind of low whine || heard || as the engine revs go through the range 750-1000 rpm. It happens || whether || or not the car is in drive and seems equally audible both in neutral || and drive.

Turbo spinning up?

I found the gearchange map on the disco owners club site. That indicates that (presumably on the flat) it should get into fourth by about 40mph for 50% throttle. I will have to find a bit of room somewhere to try that. Clearly I have a new (more leisurely?) driving style to learn. I miss the auto box on my TD4 freelander that I just exchanged. Ah well...

Pete

Oh dear. Quite amazing variations from what I can see. The auto box does seem a bit of a killer. So long as it is not a symptom of an underlying fault I guess I will live with it. Could be worse, could be a V8 range Rover like a guy at work has. I swear you can hear the fuel leave the tank.

I am about to go off and join up.

Thanks

Pete

I hope not :) It actually makes 'the noise' at 1000RPM plus a bit. Like all these things it is a bit hard to describe. I have only had the car a couple of weeks so I have not had a chance to get someone else to play on the throttle while I track it down. It is probably quite normal as the dealer says but I was just not expecting it and take with a pinch of salt any claim by the person who has just taken my money. Naturally cynical, you have to practice to be good at it.

Pete

I looked at that but I think not after watching the rev counter which drops to the 'right' value after the final change. I probably need to be a lot more gentle. there is not much flat near me either so pulling up a hill naturally makes it hang on longer as well.

Pete

I just twigged what is happening, at around 55mph the torque converter locks up on the D2 auto box, it feels like a gear change and there is a small surge in power. Should have spotted this earlier!!

Andy

This is totally non-technical, but -

Yes, the TC will lock up at about 53mph or so, and you can feel the slight lurch as it does so. But there are also what I call (in my head) half-gears too. Scenario: you are driving up a hill which becomes progressively steeper as you climb, towing a decent weight behind. You start in lock-up

4th. As the road speed drops below 55-ish, there is a slight rise in revs as the lock-up drops out. Speed drops further and it changes to 3rd. If you now give the box a bit of help and manually lock it into 3rd, the revs rise again. Speed drops again and it changes down - but again, if you move the lever to "2" the revs will rise again. It's as if there are splitter gears between the proper ratios, like a 3½ gear and a 2½ gear, but which are chosen by the car, not the driver, if that makes sense. This happens all the time when I am towing the caravan in hilly country. I don't know enough of the mechanics and electronics of the box to say what is really happening, but that's how it seems to me.

Sorry if that's confusing, but the brain isn't up to all this electrickery.

It might be the centrifugal oil filter but on mine that is most noticeable on switching off as it runs down from some stupidly high RPM.

On or around Fri, 03 Nov 2006 20:25:01 GMT, Peter Harrison enlightened us thusly:

disco II might be a bit heavier at the back. 36 all round works very well on a disco I.

On or around Fri, 3 Nov 2006 21:01:15 -0000, "Richard Brookman" enlightened us thusly:

The box is quite capable of going straight from 4LU to 3rd, if you're pushing it a bit harder. I think what you're seeing is converter slip in

4th, then you pull the lever in to 3 and it goes down to 3rd.

The torque converter is designed to slip within a certain range, which smoothes the gaps between the gears. Autos are typically higher ratios, but the torque converter gives a non-solid variable drive. Some industrial things ONLY have a TC, no actual gears at all, but they're usually operating in a more limited range of speeds.

Especially if driving with a fairly light boot, you'll get this effect. There are only 4 actual gears, although converter-lockup feels like a 5th.

Yes. My current V8 is rather less accomodating!

And the DII has lock-up in both 3rd and 4th don't forget, giving the illusion of more gears. Badger.