Transmission Fault light at 2500 miles - MY14 LR4 Lux

We have a 5 month old MY14 LR4 that literally shut down going 40mph on a city road. My wife was driving, it shut down and then displayed "Transmission Fault." See pic.

Before that happened there was some strange behavior as the engine nearly shut-off pulling out of the drive way, but she thought it was the start/stop. Also the power windows would no longer go up with 1-click like before. The mirrors also stopped folding in when the door was locked.

After it died, she was able to start it again to get off the road and pull to safety. We did not want to risk driving it again (especially on the highway) so road-side service towed to the dealer on a flat-bed. Dealer said so far they found nothing but they were getting analysis from Land Rover on what to check. I should hear back tomorrow hopefully.

Anyone see this before? Recommendations?

Dash Light:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9onyml9gns0fikb/tf.JPG

That's scary. Kudos to your wife for keeping her cool and controlling the car at that speed (I imagine she lost power steering and brakes when everything shut down, which is no fun for anyone with a beast this heavy, let alone a woman), someone else might have panicked and it could have ended far worse than it did.

Sounds like an electrical problem to me, either bad grounding or something shorting out and causing a cascading failure: A real transmission fault wouldn't cause your engine to shut down. The fact your windows mysteriously lost the one-shot up feature just prior certainly points to a possible electrical short (you normally lose that feature - and need to reprogram all windows - when you disconnect the car battery, however briefly.) They will probably trace it down to some loose or faulty wiring / junction box / connector. It wouldn't even surprise me if they traced the issue to the new - and not quite battle tested yet - stop/start system everyone seems to love so much.

Keep us posted on the resolution, sorry to hear about your trouble. These catastrophic failures used to be commonplace with Land Rovers of yesteryears, not so much on newer models... Hopefully just a fluke and not a sign of things to come.

This might sound really really silly but I would suggest to them that they simply check every connection along the wiring harness. Recently had a separate issue and that was the answer.

Glad to hear your wife handled the situation well and everyone is okay.

Dang! I am two weeks from receiving my new MY14. Reading stuff like this gives me pause. I'm not buying my LR4 as a town car. I will be taking it all over the Rocky Mountain and West regions where I'll be out in the middle of nowhere. LR dealers will be hundreds of miles away. I'll be on trips many hundreds of miles from home so I can't just "tow it to the dealer and wait a week at home with a rental while they fix it."

There are a lot of things I don't like about the Toyota Land Cruiser and the Lexus LX570. But, sheez, I need a vehicle I can trust.

To umberto's comment, is this a sign of issues creeping into the MY14 model? Maybe in how they are doing the wiring as epiclr4 found with his AC?

Thanks umbertob and epiclr4 - they sent the diagnostics to LR and are waiting to hear back.

Danrhiggins - hopefully this is a one-off. I talked to several LR4 owners before purchasing and they all had much better luck albeit it was not on the 14. Fingers crossed and I will provide an update.

calisean said:

Thanks umbertob and epiclr4 - they sent the diagnostics to LR and are waiting to hear back.

Danrhiggins - hopefully this is a one-off. I talked to several LR4 owners before purchasing and they all had much better luck albeit it was not on the 14. Fingers crossed and I will provide an update.

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Right, they will continue to send diagnostics to LR over and over again. Every time they try to fix the issue and it doesn't work they will then re-scan the vehicle and send the details to LR. Then they will have to sit and wait while LR looks over the details and the results. This was the process they used to fix my vehicle.

The reason I was given for this process is because we have the 1st generation of the LR4 with the new engine and transmission. LR wants to be aware of any issues so they can evaluate issues and issue TSB's. Mine was only for the AC not working. I am sure yours will be much more in depth as it seems more significant.

Argh. Maybe I should just drive it around the neighborhood for the first 6 months while they get experience with the new engine/transmission. ;-) Or maybe I will take a less ambitious route for my first road trip. And carry a sat phone. I really, really don't want to switch to a Land Cruiser at the last minute.

danrhiggins said:

Argh. Maybe I should just drive it around the neighborhood for the first 6 months while they get experience with the new engine/transmission. ;-) Or maybe I will take a less ambitious route for my first road trip. And carry a sat phone. I really, really don't want to switch to a Land Cruiser at the last minute.

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Dan, I am sure you will be fine. Take it and enjoy it. You will be the 3rd round of LR4's and I am sure you will be fine.

epiclr4 said:

Dan, I am sure you will be fine. Take it and enjoy it. You will be the 3rd round of LR4's and I am sure you will be fine.

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I'm going to hold you to that. Ha ha!

danrhiggins said:

I'm going to hold you to that. Ha ha!

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You can do that, doesn't mean I will still be with the brand!

But now, back on track. Looking forward to the outcome of the OP's issue.