Just dropped my Tranny Pan and found metal sludge on sliding shift portion of mechatronic.

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malibulr4

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Been having intermittent P0915 and P0850 codes on 2011 LR4. both have to do with park neutral circuit and gear selection circuit. Tranny has a melt down when the codes pop up and tranny fault hits dash. Car rests overnight and problems go away. Before I pull the electronic potion off the valve body, it occurred to me that the fault could be caused metal sludge on the sliding areas of the shift circuit or gear range sensor. Sure enough, there was metal sludge on both sides. Since the gear selection is based on a magnet in a plastic slider and some sensors on the other side of the plastic, could this be the source of my troubles? Pictures to follow shortly!

Screen shot of a YouTube video where the guy shows a bunch of metal sludge on range sensor. Also attached if the circuit board that shows 6 soldered round spots. I think the magnet on one side slides along a track, and on the other side of the plastic divider in this circuit board. I think the magnet lines up with the round soldered dot and tells a computer what gear the transmission is on. My theory is that too much metallic sludge might be conducting some magnetism and confusing the 6 Round sensors. Maybe its bridging two pins. SO now I need to know if I should just drop the valve body and do some new seals on the back side, clean the sludge , and reinstall and drive. I guess worst case scenario is Im out some fluid. Also switching to metal pan so it won't be so bad to do it again.
Third shot.....I think the black thing has a magnet in it and slides since it is attached to the shifter via a cable.it slides along the track in pic 3. It slides then lines up with one of those dots on the green circuit board.
Anyone got some advice on this?

Side note....tranny pan came out without having to remove anything. I also did the karate chop to the side and easily broke the filter tube. All came out easy after that. A few bolts were a pain and that's what took the most time.
 

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