Ok so Ol' Ms Unreliable broke down on me and I am not sure what has happened.
Driving on I-40 outside of Amarillo, TX at 55 mph with our 4000# camper on the back (driving since Arkansas) and got the red temp light on upper R hand side of the dash.
Before I can get to the next exit and safely pull off I get the orange "gear shaped light" on upper L hand side of the dash.
get stopped and off the side of the road and now have fluid spraying from under the vehicle (transmission fluid pan? Some random seal?) and a cloud of steam.
Cant tell where the fluid is coming from at present - seems to be everywhere in the tranny/diff area has been saturated by now.
**** down truck and it refuses to restart (need to pull further off the road for safety's sake before we leave it for the night).
have a code reader with me but aren't getting any non-O2 sensor codes.
Where do I start to trouble shoot this one?
Thanks

2000 D2 with 190k (rebuilt engine @ 170k and factory (?) tranny)
Pilsner

 

If memory serves that overheat light is for the transmission/transfer case. What color fluid is leaking out? Once it cools off make sure it's in park and try to pull it off the road.

Could have blown a seal or a trans cooler line

 

Will check the fluid color in the morning.
Thanks.

 

I had this happen once with a Chevy, I hope it is not the same problem you have. My Chevy blew the front pump seal, pumped all the fluid out on the ground and stopped pulling.

If that is the case, the pump seal can be replaced without rebuilding the entire trans, but it does have to come out to do that. With 190k on it, you might want to rebuild or replace the trans anyway.

I will share some fourth hand hearsay information. I had a close friend who was a powertrain development engineer at BMW in SC. He made some inquiries for me with the ZF rep at the plant regarding the life expectancy of the Rover spec ZF, suggested it should last 400k no problem. Information is probably worth what you paid for it....

 

A transmission failure wouldn't prevent the truck from restarting though, would it? I had a tranny cooler line come off and lost all my fluid so the truck wouldn't move, but the engine would still run no problem.

 

Don't know if this helps, but once I blew a coolant hose on my Jeep which ended up giving an underhood steam bath to the engine which was causing a short on the spark pulgs / wires. Might be worth pulling the wires off the spark plugs and making sure everything is dry

 

If it won't start you are back to 3 things required, fire, fuel, and compression. Very unlikely you suddenly lost compression, so you only need to check fire and fuel. Start by checking for spark with a screwdriver in a plug wire close to a metal ground - spark should jump. if it does not you can try a spark plug. Still no spark - likely a security system lockout or your tranny issue ruined the cps (right at the flywheel area). Spark present? Check for fuel pressure at the port - Oreilly has fuel pressure gauge you can rent for free.

 

I had an issue last summer with tranny fluid light coming on a few times. Ended up being a leak going into the tranny rad.....didn't even know my truck had a tranny rad until that happened. It was an easy replacement.
Probably not your issue but one more place to check. Good luck.