I have recently hit 235,000 miles (I'm the original owner) and started having a small transmission fluid leak. This small leak has turned into a big one resulting in fluid puddles. It seems to be coming from the area between the engine and transmission.

Is this a common problem at high mileage with the Discovery 1 and since I am not a mechanic, am I looking at big bucks for the fix? This has always been serviced by a Land Rover dealership, so I have never put the transmission fluid in myself, but it seems there is a hard to reach place where the fluid is replaced via a hose under the vehicle. Too bad no under hood access for this.

 

Will most likely be the front seal, item 13 in attached drawing. Perhaps deal with this and a new clutch at same time? The manual gearbox hold 5.7 US pints. So it won't take much of a leak to compromise the transmission.

 

The R380 doesn't use ATF. A TSM was released quite some years back saying to switch to Texaco MTF. I, and many others, use Redline.

If you're sure it's from the transmission (you can tell by feel and the smell) then yeah, sound like the front seal leaking.
Yes, it's not cheap. The repair time is about 6 hours.
But if you're going that far you might want to consider a complete reseal which is 11 hours. That would allow you to have the gearbox mainshaft output splines inspected for wear.
This is my D1 at 265,000 miles, showing how they wear


I've seen them with a lot less mileage with the splines 1/2 gone.

What you do really depends on how the gearbox is overall, how it shifts (i.e. are the baulk rings worn) and if there's any clunking due to spline wear.

 

So, since more normal oil is used, could White Shepherd product provide any temporary relief?

 

No idea, I've never used it. I guess it wouldn't hurt to try it.

 

You know me, always looking for a shade tree short cut that can help you limp home from the trail or limp along until payday.