Whats up with the lifetime Auto Transmission Fluid?

[BazLR3]

How can a mechanical part, which will experience daily wear and tear, not have its lubricant changed? Is it a ploy by the maker (and I am not saying that it is) to change transmissions every few years by the owners? Will Land Rover pick up the cost of a new transmission if poor lubrication was found to be the culprit?

I had the same fight on my hands when I had my VW Touareg in the fact that the dealer refused to change it unless I sign a paper releasing him of any liability for warranty work!

Thoughts? Experiences? Please share

 

[Houm_WA]

My thoughts are that ZF knows better than I do, so I don't question it.

 

[JackMac]

BMW uses the same ZF transmission as the LR3. They have defined "lifetime" as a fluid replacement every 100K miles. Without a drain plug, it needs too be siphoned out.

I don't think anyone is suggesting to "change transmissions every few years" as you are asking above.

 

[BazLR3]

I just want to be sure that I am not short changin' the transmission. If that is what is meant by "lifetime" then it is my bad. That would make sense then. WIll check the maintenance manual and check with the dealer come next service.

 

[techboydino]

BMW uses the same ZF transmission as the LR3. They have defined "lifetime" as a fluid replacement every 100K miles. Without a drain plug, it needs too be siphoned out.

I don't think anyone is suggesting to "change transmissions every few years" as you are asking above.

Is that true it has to be siphoned? Wouldn't you just drop the trans pan or do a machine flush? Or is that what your talking about. I want to change mine at 50K because of all the initial trans problems before the software upgrade. (which still didnt fix all the stop go sloppiness)

 

[BazLR3]

Any one with 100K miles who changed their tranny fluids here?

 

[Mhaise57]

Well I am at 93k now on my LR3 and I just talked with the dealership here in Houston, Tx and they said they wouldn't change the transmission fluid unless something was wrong with it. Now what do you guys think about that?

 

[Houm_WA]

I've heard the same philosophy from my own LR Service Dept.

...but it was a general statement; I'm at 79k.

 

[thorgal]

This topic is widely popular on forum across the pond and thoroughly discussed.Many members did change the fluid with success .Typical symptoms were gear searching, while climbing winding roads,juddering ,vibrations , while acceleration and under certain gears to name a few.Fluid does not have to be siphoned out, there is a plug to drain it under a heat shield.There is one guy 4tech, that specializes in double flush transmission fluid procedure and IIRC requires double amount of oil in order to change it twice.Some of it will stay in torque converter, impossible to drain at first change ,GTR website calls for driving around 100 miles before next flush, but most members just go thru gears couple times and drain and fill again shortly after.I guess, if you don,t tow heavily,drag race or live in very hot climates, your tranny will do just fine, but statement"sealed for life" is rather tricky and deceiving in some cases, specially in some short lived transmissions.I did not hit 100.000 miles yet, but when I do ,. I will definitely look for someone, that change it for me,worst case scenario, I will do it myself,after all it is not a rocket science and many disco members did just that with great succession.It is just like with any other oil...it wears..so why not change it .I can,t blame dealers , after all they know very little about these transmissions and if anything goes bad , they don,t fix it , they replace it .My 0.2 cents

 

[dantheman1]

Land Rover's own maintenance schedule for 2005 LR3's says to change the transmission fluid every 10 years or 150k miles. If it's on the maintenance schedule, I'd hope an LR dealer knows how to change it.

http://www.muddyoval.com/articles/lr3tech/LR3_05.pdf