I have a 1997 Discovery 1 that has problems engaging reverse. When you first start the car cold, it seems to always engage reverse when backing out of the driveway in the morning, but anytime I need to do a 3 point turn, GOOD LUCK. Everybody is gonna have to wait for me to ride the shifter 10 times or so to engage the reverse gear. The landrover techs took a look at it and said it was the shifter cable and not the transmission, as did the previous owner. I replaced the shifter cable linkage and the shifter entirely, but did NOT replace the transmission lever arm which seems to just be a bracket? Would this even have an impact on a Disco I?

All other gears work great, no problems whatsoever with engaging. its weird that a middle gear is the one having the problem and doesn't always happen. I am going to replace the transmission fluid and filter here shortly to see if that remedies the problem at all.

The vehicle is at 167k miles and I need this vehicle to be my daily driver for 3-4 months so I definitely need to figure this out.

 

cold vs hot sounds like a trans fluid issue but that is a guess. Mine decided to not always work in park, that is it clicks as it rolls away. luckily it happened when I was sitting in it, so I use the emergency/parking brake now. done this ever since I fist got it and I replaced the shift bezel because the original was broken. (maybe why it doesn't work) But I can live with it for now.

 

my 96 does this sometimes. I'll go to back in the driveway and nothing happens. Then I'll pull forward a few feet and try again and it usually works. Not sure what the problem is but it doesn't happen often enough to bother me

 

I changed the transmission fluid/filter and that resolved about 90% of the issue. The car was sitting in a field for years before i bought it so all the fluids are likely gunked to bits.

 

Bet you could get it all back after another 2 fluid changes - just drive it between each for a bit.