Dealer does not recommend changing transmission filter...ever?

Disclaimer: Links on this page pointing to Amazon, eBay and other sites may include affiliate code. If you click them and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission.

jlach993

Full Access Member
Joined
Mar 13, 2013
Posts
493
Reaction score
192
Location
Fresh Meadows Queens NY
Others and maybe yourself may try and not to bash the dealer and its service tech, but they know its lifetime sealed for the lifetime of the transmission which is roughly 150k. I personally would have been offended by them and schooled their ass. They just want the tranny to go caput and have people with lots of cash and no experience with these trucks to pay for a new one. That’s their game. They need the money. Sealed for life doesn’t mean for the lifetime of your life….it means for the lifetime of the transmission which would be 150k if you never serviced it. We know this by just being owners and reading forums from others who went through the same crap. They’re a dealership and they service these vehicles. Come on…they know that its not “sealed for life”. Please do change the oil and the filter assembly. The new filter and pan come separately so its an easy install. The old filter and pan cover is one assembly so its a ***** to uninstall and install. To take it off you just drop it and cut the filter off with a saw and pull it out. It’s super easy. Do some research on it. I changed mine out around 70k with new oil and the updated pan cover and filter. It runs like a top.
 

avslash

Full Access Member
Joined
Nov 22, 2011
Posts
1,255
Reaction score
1,101
Location
The Lone Star State
Easy, but messy job. Pro-tip is just to saw the neck of the filter with a hacksaw blade and that pan will drop right down.

Second pro tip is that while you are in there, unscrew the 13 torx bolts and drop the mechatronic unit so that you can change the 3 rubber bridge seals that reside up there. This is likely as important as changing the fluid.

Land Rover's position on this is absolute BS IMHO.
 

Pfunk951

Full Access Member
Joined
Mar 5, 2016
Posts
316
Reaction score
192
Location
KCMO
I've replaced the pan/filter once and drained/refilled mine twice now, and am glad I did it. My fluid wasn't terrible either time, but I'd hate to think what it would look like now if I never changed it.. I cut my filter open, and it was kind of dirty, and that was at 70k! The magnets needed cleaning also. I'm at 110k now and am still shifting great, and don't have to worry if the fluid is holding up.

@ryanjl, pick a weekend and come over.. I've done this procedure more than most Indies by now and you're always welcome.

MP
 

bbyer

Full Access Member
Joined
Aug 15, 2008
Posts
895
Reaction score
151
Location
Alberta
I went to my local LR dealer here in Huntington NY for a routine transmission filter service being that my LR4 has 85k miles on it. The service advisor asked me to wait so that he can consult a technician about that service.
He comes back to me saying that the tech says it's a sealed unit and should never be changed. Even if they did they couldn't guarantee that the vehicle would run correctly after that.
I'm not sure that this information is correct. Atlantic British sells this part and even performs the service in a video.
Please advise.

Thanks.
I will give you my version of what was told to you.

We are scared of those foreign transmissions. We attempted to change the oil and filter (well the whole pan) on an LR3 a few years back and ended up towing the 3 to an Independent transmission shop (not one of the chains) and the guy really hammered us. Then the owner of the three would not pay the Independents charge plus our markup so we ended up out of pocket and lost face.

Now if an owner requesting an oil and filter change backs us into a corner and will not go away, we drive the vehicle over to that same Independent (owner and all his workers speak some EU language no one here understands) and then we mark his invoice up real good - but we do our best to make the owner go away first.

We also did one of those flush procedures where we disconnected some lines and pumped generic transmission fluid thru the tranny but we found out the generic fluid in time seems to make the tranny not shift but at least it drove out of the shop and we got paid. Needless to say, the filter did not get changed but not many owners even know about the filter.

We are a new vehicle sales dealer, hence our guys in the back only want to do flat rate warranty work; no one wants to learn how to do the hard stuff as there is no money in it, hence sending the owner off to an Independent works best, particularly if he looks like the type that will not eventually buy something new from us.

It is up to the reader to decide if the above is fiction or that there may be a grain of truth somewhere within.

I routinely have my Independent change the tranny oil and filter every 80,000 miles or so.

Below is a link to some files on the ZF LR3 transmission; the LR4 has something similar but more gears.
I see the how to change the oil and filter file has over five thousand views.
Most of the other files only have a thousand or so views.

https://www.disco3.co.uk/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=5059


Regarding the sealed for life story, the link below has a few thoughts on that. It is just business!

 

mm3846

Full Access Member
Joined
Feb 11, 2021
Posts
363
Reaction score
178
Location
LI, NY
Foreign transmissions?? The F150 uses the same trans.
 

ktm525

Full Access Member
Joined
Mar 26, 2017
Posts
2,590
Reaction score
1,259
Location
alberta
Yeah this is just a ZF unit. Nothing fancy about the LR transmission. The reason the dealer won't touch is that the replacement serviceable part is not an original JLR part. It is a smaller pan that doesn't need the tube broken to remove or the engine jacked to install. . If the dealer did the job then it is very involved with jacking of the engine so the pan will clear the crossmember and whatnot.
 

bbyer

Full Access Member
Joined
Aug 15, 2008
Posts
895
Reaction score
151
Location
Alberta
Foreign transmissions?? The F150 uses the same trans.
You are correct, but who licensed what from whom? The good news is that you have a better chance of getting your tranny worked on at a Ford dealer than with LR.

The link below is from within the file link I provided above.

The link is to what Ford calls their 6R60 which was their license built version of the ZF 6HP26 six speed in the LR3.

The 6R60 first went into the Raptor and then other of the body on frame Ford upper scale vehicles. The six speed has now been superseded by the eight and ten speed transmissions, also built under license from ZF.

 

Attachments

  • Ford 6R60 in BMW Lincoln ZF6HP26 expanded parts view.pdf
    282.4 KB · Views: 55
  • Ford Navigator 2005 ZF 6HP26 Transmission Pan.jpg
    Ford Navigator 2005 ZF 6HP26 Transmission Pan.jpg
    33.6 KB · Views: 37
  • Ford 6R60 showing torque converter cutaway.jpg
    Ford 6R60 showing torque converter cutaway.jpg
    114.4 KB · Views: 35

mm3846

Full Access Member
Joined
Feb 11, 2021
Posts
363
Reaction score
178
Location
LI, NY
It doesn’t matter. The ZF 6 speed is in every European car.. bmw, jags, MBs, and then of course all the ford 6Rs. Any competent euro shop can do this service. I guess if you live in a state that doesn’t serve many late model euro cars, it can be difficult.
 

txfromwi

Full Access Member
Joined
Dec 18, 2013
Posts
498
Reaction score
250
Location
2013 & 2015 Houston TX. 2016 Rochester NY
There is another string on this forum with a very long discussion of both the 6 speed and the 8 speed transmission pan/filter/fluid changes, it includes my detailed instructions for the 8 speed.
The 8 speed is not that bad a job, but if you explicitly follow the Rover instructions for the refill you will need the IIDTool or equivalent to be able to measure the transmission oil temperature.
I will be doing the 6 speed this spring.

Here are my instructions for the 8 speed (notice they are on page 19), but I suggest you follow that string back to page one and read the entire thing..
 
Last edited:

Latest posts

Staff online

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
36,222
Posts
217,575
Members
30,473
Latest member
OnoA
Top