LR4 Transmission oil change... mixed feelings.

[cperez]

An independent shop up here in VT charged me 1 hour labor ($60) for the job.

Wow, nice hourly rate. It's in the $125 - $150/hour range here in the DC area.

 

[PeterA]

Yes .... One of the nice things about VT living .... Many things cost a lot less than they do in the NY and DC area.

 

[Kelly Barrie]

Sharing my latest transmission story for what it's worth. I currently have 50k on the car, had transmission service/AB conversion kit done at 35k and a transfer case fluid flush at 45K to try and resolve a slight buzzing noise that occurs at the end of each shift. You can only really hear the buzz during gears 2 &3 at around 2800rpm or when down shifting to accelerate away on the freeway. Transmission flush seemed to help temporarily, but noise came back, and transfer case flush did nothing. Incidentally, The transfer case(pun intended) was interesting. As instructed, my mechanic tried to do a transmission update after the transfer case flush, and it wouldn't take, he thought for moment that an internal electronic shift component which takes a pounding from heat decided to take a you know what and die. At the time my mechanic was stressing because no matter what he did the update wouldn't take and theres' no way he was going to call me back saying the car you brought me in good working order is now dead, and we're gonna need 3K to bring it back to life. So to his testament, he spent the next 48hrs sourcing and trying various firmware fixes. After speaking with all his landcover tech buddies/vendors it looked like the worse had happened as it's pretty common for this internal electronic part of the transfer case to fail. He then called one of his smaller vendors who told him to try his firmware update. And sure enough, update took and car was good to go. Incidentally, I still have that buzzing noise, but I'm not sure what else can be done at this point unless whatever it is fails, throws a code or something. For the record, buzzing was prevalent with original tranny oil still in the car. Doesn't appear to be getting any worse, than it was 25k ago, but time will tell.

 

[Quijote]

Interesting. Glad your AB conversion kit is working well.

I must admit that I had no idea about the "necessary update." Could you please explain a bit more?

 

[Kelly Barrie]

Sorry for late reply, next time I'm down at my mechanics, I'll get the specifics about the update procedure he went through. I'm pretty sure it's not necessary, and in retrospect not a good idea of mine to do a transfer case update/reset. I was trying to eliminate possible cases for the rpm humming noise which I now know is due to a missing dampener in the transfer case thanks to TrinidadLR4.

 

[TrinidadLR4]

@Kelly Barrie Let me know if the dampener ended up curing your buzzing. I still haven't installed mine yet and am planning on doing the transmission fluid change this weekend, at which pt I think I'll do the dampener too.

 

[Kelly Barrie]

Hey man, so dampener did reduce buzz, but has not eliminated it. It is definitely not as distracting now, but on occasion I can hear/feel it.

 

[Land Rover Joe]

Great thread and very helpful for all - thanks to the Team for everyone's insights and experiences.

I have had the dealer change the fluid and filter twice (with some friction from the dealer) and just did the Atlantic British Kit earlier this year. Nothing to add there which has not been covered better by the collective experience here. Only thing I would say is that fluids need to be changed - early and often is better.

I am posting a variation of this thread which focuses on an item which is much less discussed - the ECU reset ("adaptation values" reset or clear) needed after the transmission oil service is completed.

That thread is available at
https://www.landroverworld.org/thre...ration-adaption-clearing-after-service.45985/

Hope that is helpful -

 

[timc930]

FWIW and my personal opinion and experience. I have never let high mileage stop me from changing transmission fluid, not a flush, just a pan drop and filter change, and refill with new fluid. I’ve done this on multiple BMW’s with ZF Auto’s with over 200k. One was driven another 100k before being wrecked, and the other is still on the road with 330k. Did same with other cars Volvo’s, RRC Classic, Defender 90 that all had the ZFHP24 with over 100k with no problems. I’m sure problems happen, maybe trans was on the way out or unknown issues before a change, but I’ve never experienced a trans failure changing fluid over 100K. I would NOT flush a high mileage trans though.

 

[KarlHungus]

FWIW and my personal opinion and experience. I have never let high mileage stop me from changing transmission fluid, not a flush, just a pan drop and filter change, and refill with new fluid. I’ve done this on multiple BMW’s with ZF Auto’s with over 200k. One was driven another 100k before being wrecked, and the other is still on the road with 330k. Did same with other cars Volvo’s, RRC Classic, Defender 90 that all had the ZFHP24 with over 100k with no problems. I’m sure problems happen, maybe trans was on the way out or unknown issues before a change, but I’ve never experienced a trans failure changing fluid over 100K. I would NOT flush a high mileage trans though.

Do you use ZF Lifeguard ATF or just whatever "ZF approved" multi-vehicle ATF you can get? Do you use any conditioning additives?