Hey all, I had the radiator on my 1999 Disco I rebuilt by a local, reputable radiator shop. Ended up putting in a four core vs. the original three core. Cooling is great. A couple of weeks after the work, I checked the tranny fluid level and found that it was about two quarts overfilled. I drained the overage. I noticed that the tranny seemed to be shifting harder, running to higher rpms before it shifted and overall just didn't seem to be as smooth as before. I never have felt like it had much of a kickdown gear. When I step on it, it just seemed to make more noise and gradually sped up. But that is a different story. Anyway, would the overfill cause the tranny issues? It never seemed to shift hard before this. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks Phil

99 Discovery I 95k miles

 

No the over fill will not affect shifting.
The worse that could happen is that tranny fluid comes out of the dip stick.
Did they use the correct fluid?

 

Not sure what fluid they used. I plan on doing a drain and refill this weekend. Any ideas on the hard shifting? Also, do these rigs have a kickdown gear? If so, do they fail? I know it is a land rover, everything is built to fail.......... thanks Phil

 

Well kick down gear is nothing more than kicking down one gear from the gear it is already in.
So if you are in 4th and mash your foot to the floor it will kick down into 3rd.
As for the hard shifting cant really say until you change the fluid.
The trannys on these trucks last forever.

 

When I step down on mine it doesn't drop a gear. Is there a switch or vacumm line that controls the downshift?

 

there is a kickdown line on the tranny somewhere that you can adjust, don't ask me where, mike mentioned it to me, maybe he can chime in on the A.M. We have a ZF Transmission, look up problem using that instead of landrover and see what you get.

 

*cracks knuckles* My 'new' disco will shift when my left foot and my right hand tell it to! LOL!

In all seriousness, I was under the impression that overfilling the transmission would cause all kinds of hell later on down the road. Blown seals, and such.

 

Seals, both to the outside as well as internal can be damaged. Have you spoken to the shop, they should have been made aware of this right away.
Doing a fluid change may help, but I wouldn't do it till I spoke with a good tranny shop. See what they have to say. It may be better for you can get more information and talk again with that radiator shop before you go making any of your own repairs, you'll blow any chance of getting help as a claim against the radiators insurance liability coverage.

 

You can only check the trans fluid cold or it will show way over full. ( 1/2 way up the stick)
It sounds like you drained out to much.