transmission slow to engage coming off stop

[5crows]

Intermittent problem with 2006 lr3 hse. Mostly occurs coming off a stop after driving for awhile. Take foot off brake and instead of normal creep forward of engaged transmission, its like in neutral. Step on gas and hear whirring/whirling engine racing sound then transmission engages without clunk. If I go to sport mode at stop, all is well for the most part. Is this low or fouled fluid in transmission or a torque converter issue? Or some other electronic/computer issue? About 130k miles on it.

Other thought was that the linkage on drive (D - not sport mode) was touchy and slipping up to neutral, without noticable movement. I sometimes drive with my hand on the shifter, which could introduce a bit of play I suppose. I have noticed that pushing shifter deeper into D can engage when I hear the racing sound.

Assuming low fluid, I found the drain plug at back of plastic pan after removing heat shield. Could not remove metal frame that heat shield bolted to because one of the small bolts backed into the linkage cable..

Now looking for transmission fill plug. I found an 8mm hex head plug on the back face of transmission, about midway up the casting on the driver side, but on driver side (US) half of the back face. I found a writeup saying fill plug was on the right side.. Right and left side depend on my orientation laying on my back staring into cramped and dark spaces. So I'm a little worried I found the correct plug. Any picture references or clarifications on where the plug is located?

I found a picture of transmission with an arrow that I believe points to the location of the fill plug (see attached file). Plug I found was not the same one. Must have been a transfer case or differential plug. Now to see how to loosen that bad boy.

Yikes, to get to drain plug enough to remove, that heat shield support bolt next to linkage had to be removed in order to lower the support. That ended up being a hacksaw job. Lots of other anchor points so not worried about it. Then needed breaker bar to loose the fill plug. Reseated it and did a short drive to get up to temp, went thru the gears etc. Then leaving it running at idle I backed out the fill plug, got a burn from catalytic converter as LOTS of fluid came out, not the empty hole I expected, not a dribble, but lots. Shut off LR and did damage control on driveway. Now will put plug back in and try shifting it.

Maybe there was too much fluid in the transmission? It was deep brown in color. I'll likely drain it all and replace at this point.

 

[catman]

Did you attempt to simply adjust the shifter cable underneath? Sometimes they just work themselves a touch loose and cause the issue you described. Loosen where the cable goes through the linkage attached to the transmission, work the shifter back and forth a few times in the truck and then tighten when firmly back in park. Might be all that is needed.

 

[5crows]

In the middle of a transmission filter change, but I agree.

Underneath, the linkage is on the right side of transmission. The cable tightener is attached to a lever into the transmission which moves internals to different gears Park, Reverse, Neutral and Drive. Not sure how sport mode and manual gears are handled. The cable slides into the tightener where it's then goes back to slide through a round quarter (.25 cent coin) sized bracket/housing where it leaves out the back in a shielded sliding cable up to the console.

The linkage cable's furthest extension is Park and closest to housing is Drive. The lever going into the transmission moves as the cable is pulled or extended by movement on the console shifter. It looks like I should loosen the cable clamp with the linkage lever and tightener pushed furthest back vs in park. This in order to better engage Drive. Does that make sense? Or does tightening down clamp while in park affect the same result?

The more I tried working the shifter, I could watch the D on the dash flash on and off with pressure on the shift handle. Very touchy. The center console shift light stayed with Drive lit up even though the dash went out. When no D on dash, the transmission was disengaged and the engine would rev. I mistook the rev for hesitation or transmission slip. Stay tuned!

 

[catman]

I think the adjustment would work either way. Here are some documents to help.

 

[5crows]

Thank-you! I will definitely adjust linkage.

Filter change - Got the Tran pan unbolted and dropped and found a mirror and drop cord light and was able to find the location of plastic stem that the Atlantic British video described as needing to be cut off. Based on video, I had bought a 12 inch keyhole saw to do the job. Not much room for getting a good look at it.

Filter kit arrived, just before I started into hacking. I scrubbed up and went to open it, hoping for some procedure guidance documentation. One sheet only, describing the procedure in a paragraph. Noticed a big IMPORTANT box that stated the need to use an M6 tap to clear out each hole prior to trying to use the bolts provided, as the new bolts had more thread engagement then the T40 Torx bolts I had already removed. I was able to use a T40 star/Torx allen wrench short stem side with success to remove all the bolts.

The new bolts have hex bit heads. Bought a 6mm tap at hardware store and some gasket sealer. Just having spent hours under the vehicle, I was very aware of the cramped front and back bolt removal space. Sides had plenty of access. Tap was about 3 inches in length, short side of allen wrench about 1.5 inches. So cleaning up the holes is not going to happen on the front and back bolts. Not sure if it's a requirement to use the new bolts vs old, but will find out today, as the adventure continues.

 

[5crows]

Will start by saying that after I completed the tran filter change and refill, the linkage was fixed by adjustment. I loosened clamp on cable from the linkage lever and pushed clamp connector further back on the cable and re-tightened. A thirty second job and no more issue with Drive slipping into neutral!

Learned a few tricks doing the filter conversion that helped get the job done.

Problem areas - finding best way to hacksaw plastic sleeve. I thought a keyhole saw might work, but it didn't. The teeth were too large to bite and saw a single cut. This started to shred vs cut the tube. Ended up using a hacksaw blade in a special inline holder vs blade with duct taped handle. Slid the hacksaw blade into a groove in the modified handle with a set bolt to hold it stable. Think I got it for a plumbing project decades ago.

Shedding some light on the narrow space between dropped filter pan and transmission. I wedged a drop cord light on the passenger side of filter pan and then wedged a narrow rectangular mirror (like a car rearview mirror - actually was one) on driver side of filter. The light silhouetted the sleeve location. The mirror redirected my angle of sight into the narrow space, enabling me to see the hacksaw location on the sleeve during cutting, placing it away from sliding across bottom of the transmission (bad) and low on the plastic pan (good). That was my major concern and it worked pretty well, still a time consuming cramped job, but the light showed the deepening cut, which helped me persist through the job. I watched that finally ****** when the tube separated and the neck fell back into the pan!

Once the tube was cut, removing the old pan was fairly easy. It's removal opened up a lot of space to use the tap to clean out each hole. The 6mm tap worked in all but two holes at the back of the transmission and was well worth the time and effort to use it to clean out the holes. As stated on the IMPORTANT notice there was a lot of crud and oxidation deep in each hole that would have made re-seating all the new bolts SLOW. I used one of the new bolts to ream out the last two holes with short side of an allen wrench. Also used the new bolt to find any holes that did not need to be reamed out which saved some time, not all did.

Pumping oil out of large mouth Z7 Lifeguard oil bottle into fill cap. My pump was made for a standard oil bottle. I found a standard empty one, and poured Z7 Lifeguard into it to be able to use the pump I had. Pumping oil under hot catalytic converter while laying on my back, was a tough slow job. Definitely safety glasses, long sleeves and gloves job.

Dealing with catyaltic converter searing heat. Throughout the job this was an issue. I ended up cutting some cardboard strips from a small box to cover it up and avoid burning my hands and arms. That was especially helpful replacing the fill plug. which was difficult to say the least in a running hot car.

Many quarts of oil and back and forthes to shift through the gears and get oil distributed. But all good now. Stays in drive and all gears, sport and manual work properly, no leaks discovered yet!

Thanks again for linkage tip.

 

[5crows]

Think I'll just re-check the fluid level. This time I bought a piece of thermo guard to cover catalytic converter while at work. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001GFW5Q0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 as I also plan to drain and refill differentials and transfer case.

 

[5crows]

Hmmm, linkage messed up again after towing a trailer to help move my son. Went underneath and loosened up the set nut and tried adjustment. Only to get everything really messed up. Stuck in Park, wouldn't go into drive, etc. Thought I needed a new linkage lever kit. More youtube searches.

This time I found a youtube about the linkage lever bushing seizing up. This keeps it from rotating as it travels with the linkage cable during shifting from gear to gear. Not moving, causes cable to bind and get stuck at the ends of its travel or not be able to engage far enough in either Park or Drive. Symptoms were exactly what I was experiencing. Took off the lever tightening nut and found another larger nut behind it, over a rubber bushing. Bushing nut was bound tight.

Sprayed some liquid wrench on it. Worked it loose with a crescent wrench until the rubber gasket broke loose and the gunk buildup fell in my eyes. Note to self, wear safety glasses under here. Aligned lever and shift knob on console, into Park positions, tightened things up and no more linkage problems. Travels through all gears and seats firmly in each.

When I need to get under there again, I'll put some lithium grease on the bushing (if it binds again).