I started working on the transmission last night! I can now see why it takes so long, esp. as I tend to go quite methodically (read slow)! In many respects I feel I got very lucky as some of it went very smoothly. Here are some notes and tips...
I put the suspension in extended mode to give myself some room, I then spent quite a lot of time to get axle stands setup but based on where I put the axle stands on the vehicle the vehicle was very obviously not level; realizing this and making adjustments the axle stands are not tall enough so the rear of the vehicle is sitting on wheels; the front is on axle stands. I'll resolve this when I come back to adding the transmission fluid and needing the vehicle to be level and wheels off the ground.
I then started by removing the rear cross-member; this is the cross member that supports the transmission and the only cross-member that can be removed (back of the transmission). When I got to the passenger side (US vehicle) I realized that one of the nuts was inaccessible and decided to abort the cross-member removal; I don't think the work to remove the cross-member is worth the slight benefit in accessing the rear four transmission pan bolts... Here's an image of the passenger side cross-member bolts and why there's an issue:
I did however remove the bolt that secures the transmission to the cross-member and lifted the transmission by about an inch to buy a little more room.
Before emptying the transmission fluid, I wanted to make sure the fill plug was removable (needs an 8mm Allen wrench); I didn't want to get in a situation where the transmission fluid was emptied and I couldn't refill it again; I got this tip from Christian at LR Time and it resonated with me. This caused my first spill as fluid started weeping out the fill plug! (Brake cleaner to the rescue as I wasn't ready for this).
My next issue was removing the drain plug (needs a 10mm Allen wrench); this was rounded out. I used a 3/8" drill bit and drilled until fluid started coming out (being very careful not to drill the mechatronic unit).
Once all the fluid was drained out, I started removing the 21 bolts; these on my LR4 were T40 Torx; I hear some older models are T30 Torx. A combination of a Makita drive rachet and this tool helped a lot (in fact I want to make a huge shoutout for this little tool; without it I think I would have been stuck):
Some of the bolts are incredibly difficult to access; I shudder at the thought of threading them back in. I do however think that this is one area where I got extremely lucky as they all came out very well, once I'd uncracked each bolt, I was able to use my fingers (in some cases my forefinger on each hand) to remove the bolts. Be patient; this just takes time, every single bolt had insufficient friction to use the Kaifnt tool (the racket is too strong) and so each bolt was removed by hand.
With all bolts removed the plastic pan came off easily, I was able to then use a hacksaw blade to cut through the 3/4" pipe fairly easily (if I've lost you here I suggest watching the
British Atlantic video or similar - they do it on an LR3; the LR4 is similar). I was thinking this was going to be difficult but with a brand-new blade it probably took me about a minute; the diameter of the pipe was a lot less than I was expecting and the thickness of the sidewall makes this sawing quite easy. I was then able to remove the pan by rotating it 90deg and slipping it out between the exhaust and the front cross-member.
I called it a night and will start again in a few days. I hope this helps others who follow. A quick question, does this white plastic part stay on: