Purchased my D2 a few months ago. It was neglected by previous owner, so I'm not sure if a fluid flush has ever been done. I did 1 fluid change with a bottle of lucas, and am in the process of doing another one with filter change this time. Dropped the pan last night and there was NOT a considerable amount of debris on the magnet.

My issue - This is the only D2 i've ever driven so i'm not sure how it's SUPPOSED to shift, but to me it seems like the trans is short shifting. What I mean by this is that the trans shifts to the next gear at the absolute first chance it gets, and i'm getting TQ lockup in overdrive at 35mph. When the engine/trans is cool the TQ won't lockup which I think is normal, but as soon as it's warmed up it will (what I consider) prematurely lock up the TQ.

Is there something in the ECU, xyz, etc that's telling the trans to seek the highest possible gear? Valve problem? Kick down is also fairly poor. I have to go to at least 1/2 throttle usually more before I get downshifting.

All thoughts are appreciated.

 

To help diagnose, have you tried the "Sport" mode switch on the Shift surround? Try it in Sport mode and see if it is any better. You'll get a green light on the dash when it's engaged.

 

Yeah, Try the SPORT mode and see if helps any. My 2000 DII does the same thing so I'm thinking it's normal. If I'm pulling a trailer I run it in "3" instead of "D" untill I get "3" wound out pretty high in the RPM. Then push it up to "D." This helps tremendously. As far as just driving around town not pulling anything, you'll learn to know exactly when that last gear is shifting and if you just slowly and continously press on the gas pedal further to keep winding out that 3rd gear so that when it does shift into top gear you're rolling along pretty briskly and have a higher RPM starting point for top gear. You could also just drive it in "3" unless you get on a Interstate or freeway. It's no secret that the little Rover V8 is under powered for the weight of this vehicle, but I like to think of it as the Little Engine That Could. haha. Thats why they used a longer stroke crank in the '03 & '04 models(4.6 Liter) to give a little extra UGH!!

 

The tranny has it's own computer controls, so there is no adjustment. Do you , by chance, have a service engine light on, if so what are the fault code numbers?