Best of luck, with the difficult times ahead with your parents...the whole end of life journey can wear you out, phyiscal and mentally.

 

Thanks guys for the kind thoughts and good direction on the Cats.

I’ve got a few rough weeks ahead of me: First will be a 4am wake up call to airport. Then immediately after I get through customs and hour drive down to the cars. Then, without pause, I start an 18 hour drive east (here’s to hoping all the good servicing of the Jeep I’ve done over the years will pay off). Then, the day I arrive on location, we will be moving parents to assisted living. Then, it will be all about getting their place ready to be sold. And finally to top it all off, I’ll be starting a new job.

I’d have to say, I exemplify the Land Rover saying of “One life, live it” in that mine certainly is always an adventure, and definitely not boring. Once the boss and kids make it back and we are settled back into our home, I have made the edict NO MORE MOVES!!!!!!!

I’ll leave you all with one aspect of Germany that is kinda fun:



However, you have to accept that although you get to cruise at those speeds in places, you also run into this:





Not 5 minutes before those pictures were taken, I was going 120mph comfortably and safely.

 

Sounds like a helluva welcome back to the USA. Let me know if I can help with anything.

 

So in my typical weekend morning coffee induced rambling/research/come alive time, I decided to do some re-familiarization to the P0501 code.

I was pretty certain it was related to the transfer case being replaced (and that still may possible) but this is what I’ve found out:

- As a recap, the P0501 is furthered by P1884 on the Nanocom (according to my notes) and more specifically “sub code” 20, which according to the RAVE is “Road Speed Invalid”.
- So it seems there are 2 different speed signals generated: one from the SLABS, which runs the speedo (verified on pages 88-6 and 88-14) and one from the Output Shaft Speed Sensor that is the one I think I’ve mentioned that is above the Valve Body deep in the transmission. Both of these signals report to the ECM for “analysis” or whatever.

I’m going to really geek out for a sec so bear with me. On page 44-2, the diagram shows “4” as the electrical plug for the “Solenoid Valve/speed sensor connector”. On page 44-9 it shows the Output shaft speed sensor, which I think is the VSS. So then, if my speedo is showing correctly- verified by, well, showing an accurate value (duh), and no 3 amigos and those systems functioning correctly- and the code (P0501) stating that the VSS value is implausible, I HAVE to believe this is the sensor above the valve body.

I am coming to this statement for 2 reasons: 1, there is another code (P0500) that would denote if there was a short in the wiring somewhere (I don’t have this code), and 2, the connector shown on page 44-2 is back behind where the XYZ switch is located, and I think close(ish) to the transfer case an completely possible they unplugged it whatever- thus throwing the code.

All this leads to a final thought that I can’t verify until I am less than a continent away from the vehicle: At one point or another in racking my brain on this code, I recall monkeying around and inspecting a bunch under the vehicle. I remember there being some connector in the proximity of the above that I found disconnected. If my feeble mind recalls correctly, that was a 2 pin blade connector and was disconnected. I plugged it back in not thinking much about it (I probably posted something about it here at some point).

Well, if my logic is sound (who knows) then this could very well be as simple as me connecting that sensor back in backwards. Obviously I won’t be able to verify this for probably a couple months, but I think it would be hilarious if that was the cause. The research has all been worth it as it has been fun to think through this, and I’d be equally excited if I don’t have to pull the valve body out of the transmission and see what’s up. The key flaw in my logic could be that plug I reconnected may have not been 2 blade as I’m thinking and it’s just something else.

You guys think I’m nuts?

 

To get a bit philosophical on the issue would be why is this considered to be an issue at all? The CEL denotes it to be related to emissions in some way or another and I have to believe that some nitwit lobbyist said that if there is a code related to the transmission and when it shifts, it could affect economy and as such emissions! This is pretty stupid as it even notes in the RAVE that the code has no impact on function and almost seems to be there because they were told to put it in there. There are numerous examples of other codes that could come up that actually don’t have an appreciable impact on emissions (and I’m getting outside the Disco or Rover world in saying this) that I think frankly could end up being decisions based on ignorance or political motivation. And Land Rover just said, “ah heck with it, we’ll keep that in there because we were told to and not demonstrate its irrelevance”. In other words, not fighting City Hall.

Yeah whatever.

All in all, just an interesting diagnostic and- based on this post- philosophical adventure. All the more reason to love the Disco: it makes your brain work.

 

Well shoot. I think my logic is wrong. I just looked for physical images of the transmissions and what I was viewing as the electrical connector and thought it a blade connector is in fact has multiple pins on it (#4 on page 44-2). Looks like I’m back to pulling the valve body…

 

Those VSS units can go bad. Here is a 'rebuild' explainer... can be found in the google drive (previously just in the D1 section but now also in the D2 section). Looks like the same part on a D1 and D2.

If memory serves (and if the D2 is set up the same as a D1) the parking brake cable can be an obstacle to removal and replacing the VSS. A long (like 4" long) 3/16 hex will be very helpful.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VVd...usp=drive_link

 

Thanks so much for this, but I think the VSS is different in the D2. I need to verify this but I thought in reading the transfer case manual they were different and I thought I remember reading somewhere the values were derived somewhat differently. Now you’re going to get me to read through all of that again.

But seriously, if this means I don’t have to pull the transmission pan and the valve block, I’m totally find with that.

 

So I just read in the transfer box manual on page 35 describing the LT230SE: “Speedometer drive and and driven gears not fitted for this application”

Later, it says: “The speedometer drive has been deleted from the transfer box, with the vehicle speed signal now being supplied by the self levelling anti lock brake system (SLABS) Electronic Control Unit (ECU). The speedometer drive casing is therefore blanked off.”

EDIT: OK, I’m losing my mind here but not totally losing my mind. Remember I mentioned a 2 blade connector I found that was unplugged. Weeeeelllllll, I’m going to contradict the above as I just did a really quick search for a VSS for a D2, and sure enough, a part came up that has… a 2 blade connector at the end. Now I just need to find where that gosh darn part is!

Another EDIT: So it looks like this part from Land Rover is STC444. What I can’t figure out is where this part is located. Is it the one above the valve body like I’ve assumed?



#24 in the picture looks like it’s the one, but I can’t tell if that’s inside the transmission or if all that wiring is on the outside.

 

24 from my memory is not on the outside of the tcase. I just swapped an old defender 1.4 case into my d2 and the main differences being the "new" old case does not have the temp sensors off the rear side like the 1.2 standard d2 cases. Maybe I'm mistaken and I swapped the front output but I don't think I did. I don't get much sleep since #2 arrived last summer lol

edit: ping Jordan for a final answer lol he helped me with the t-case rebuild/swap