Hi everyone,

I recently ran into some problems with my 2003 Disco 2 TD5. I'm sure it's a combination of a few issues, but I currently don't really know where to start. I'll write up everything that came to attention, maybe someone here recognizes the symptoms.

There were on/off problems with losing coolant since I got the disco, but I thought I had fixed it by changing the seals on the fuel cooler. During a 30 minute drive it overheated anyway without the thermostat showing it, and something popped, causing me to lose all/most coolant. I refilled the coolant with distilled water (it remained inside), and while I waited few hours for someone to tow me home, I tried moving the disco over to the side of the road. The engine would rev normally, but the car wouldn't move. After trying a few times it did move very slightly and sluggishly, but wouldn't even go up the curb.

I had to set the transfer box into neutral for towing, and now that the disco is back at home, it went back into H one time (car wouldn't move still) and now I can't get the shifter out of N. Auto gearbox shifter seems to work fine, displays the correct choice. Nanocom doesn't show any faults except for missing road speed, but gives a connection error when trying the valeo bcu menu option (other settings/inputs work fine).

Where do I go from here?
I guess I might have an issue with the transfer box. The disco stands on a bit of a slope though, and I wasn't able to get the wedges out yet. Maybe it's nothing, might just shift into H once it can roll/move a bit.
There certainly is some issue somewhere around the gearbox, and it went really south once the coolant drenched everything down there. It did have trouble getting 'grip' right after starting the engine before, but never to the degree that I experienced before it stopped moving altogether. Only other noticeable issue around the gearbox was it jumped into emergency mode with M/S blinking rarely when driving in muddy offroad surroundings, and shifting into highest gear only after 5-10 minutes of driving.
Last issue I know of would be the thermostat, as it didn't show the temperature rising, leading to this unfortunate climax. I guess I should test the thermostat and pressure test the coolant circuit to see if/where it might leak. Either the thermostat doesn't work right, or I had enough air trapped inside that the coolant wouldn't circulate regardless, after leaking enough of it. Any good ways to do test this?

Thanks for reading and for any hints/pointers that help me troubleshoot these issues!

 

I did move the car a bit and managed to switch around the transfer box in either setting, with no movement. The symptoms of the story HERE sound very similar to what happened to me. Assuming I lost enough transmission fluid to stop it from working, is the right way to check to open the refilling plug first and confirm that nothing comes out?
I did not see an obvious spot where the fluid might have disappeared, should I just refill it and see what happens or is there a better way to find the leak?

 

That sounds reasonable. Before starting, fill the trans to the filler hole, then start the engine and service it per the book.