05 LR3 transmission trouble

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maskedmonkey2

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I have an 05 LR3 with the 4.4. 130k miles.

I bought it with 114k for cheap because it had a transmission gremlin and electrical issues from a deteriorated sunroof drain elbow.

I’ve driven this thing for about 15k miles as is and have learned to make it work, however if anybody else hopped in I could almost guarantee that they would put it in limp mode, I will try to describe it as best I can but it is kind of a feel thing and is a bit esoteric, please bear with me as I am at the end of my rope.


The problem first manifested itself with a harsh California stop issue, and it would occasionally throw a transmission misshift code and show transmission fault while holding it in 3rd gear. The condition was if you were easy on the throttle at the shift points, the solution was to drag it through the shifts under power, and it would cycle through the gears and run great.

I don’t know when, but this behavior started changing maybe 10k miles in, it began to be unreliable when shifting under power later in the range and I found that I now needed to drag the rpms above say 2500 and let off the throttle completely to get it to shift 3-4 4-5 and 5-6, it is a bit of a chore and I found that running it in command shift helped give me a bit more control over it. If you try to let it shift under power the transmission lets go, the engine revs,I hear a schreech from the transmission, it harshly shifts back down to the gear it just tried to come from and throws a fault.

Recently, I have began to loose control with the command shift. Now when I get to my 3-4 shift it will shift into 4, then immediately into 5 and 6. The problem with this is I am typically doing 45 at this point so as soon as I get back on the power it downshifts to 5 under power, revs, screeches and faults.

I have changed fluid and filter and replaced solenoids. The solenoid swap eliminated my California stop issue but the rest still remains. The only other indicators of trouble that I can think of are a 2 second delay from park to reverse engaging, and I have also noticed that the parking brake light on my console sometimes lights up at the shift points. My parking brake has malfunctioned since the day I got it, it does appear to work but it loudly screeches whenever activated.

Has anybody got any advice? I really am at a loss on where to go from here, my leading theory now is some problem from the water damage from the passenger side sunroof drain, but I don’t know if the tcm is close to that area or not.

Thanks for any help
 

LVDaytripper

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Short of rebuilding the unit, have you tried clearing the adaptations for the TCM? After changing oil, filter and solenoids, maybe training the transmission on how you drive will solve your issues. Just my thoughts.
 

NorthwestDriver

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When you did the solenoids did you replace the valve body seals? 4 rubber tubes and a bridge seal. These are known to cause trouble when they begin to leak, causing shift issues. I’ve only heard of it being a downshift issue, not sure if it can cause problems on the upshift.
 

maskedmonkey2

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When you did the solenoids did you replace the valve body seals? 4 rubber tubes and a bridge seal. These are known to cause trouble when they begin to leak, causing shift issues. I’ve only heard of it being a downshift issue, not sure if it can cause problems on the upshift.
I did not, that’s real unfortunate if that is the culprit and I went through all the trouble of taking it apart just to miss what looks like some $40 seals…
 

maskedmonkey2

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Short of rebuilding the unit, have you tried clearing the adaptations for the TCM? After changing oil, filter and solenoids, maybe training the transmission on how you drive will solve your issues. Just my thoughts.
I did not, is there a procedure for this or is it a job that requires an iid tool?
 

NorthwestDriver

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I did not, that’s real unfortunate if that is the culprit and I went through all the trouble of taking it apart just to miss what looks like some $40 seals…
Yeah, sorry to deliver that news. Definitely sounds like valve body issues. I would have started with seals, solenoids, filter and fluid since that’s relatively easy. Since you’ll have to go back in, you’ll need to decide if you want to just do seals or want to also rebuild the valve body.

I’ve got a very slight California stop judder and I’m hoping I can nip it with just seals, fluid, and filter. Usually the seals begin to fail and that later impacts the solenoids (or so I’ve read). So premeptively replacing seals could save solenoids. My parts are arriving this week and it’s on the docket for this month…
 

maskedmonkey2

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Too new to know what you mean by "California stop". Please clarify.
I think it is a pretty prevalent issue with these trucks.

When you come to a stoplight, and try to do a "rolling stop" there is a range where if you go slow enough that the transmission shifts from 2-1, it will not shift until you get back on the throttle, it will freewheel and rev the engine then drop into first causing a ****. The way to live with it is just not to do california stops. If you come to a complete stop the tranny will shift into first without issue.
 

bbyer

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While not an apparent solution re this thread , for me, only in colder weather, I ended up replacing the oil temperature sensor located down near the oil filter on the 4.4L V8 of my LR3. The problem was the transmission hunting at low speed and it would go away once the engine etc had warmed up - maybe 15 minutes of city driving.

It turns out that the coolant temperature sensor and the oil temperature sensor feed to the car computer first. The readings are averaged or something, and then feed to the transmission computer and dash temperature gauge. The average temperature signal into the transmission computer becomes part of the shift logic equation.

It seems that over time, temperature sensors slowly degrade and send somewhat incorrect readings; then later when these values exceed accepted norms, then default values are used instead by the computers.
 

Rover Range

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Believe it or not.
Not using OEM tail light bulbs can cause the issue you described.
I have seen it many times before.
The tail lights are wired into the same circuits as the trans.
 

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