I have a 2003 Freelander and a couple of weeks ago I went out to the parking lot only to find that my Freelander decided to back itself out of its parking space!

Yep, the parking pin does not seem to be engaging. If the car is on the slightest of slopes it will crawl downhill even when in park, first problem. A few days before it was to go to the transmission shop my son was driving down the freeway and it lost all forward power. It now does not engage in any gear forward or reverse. When you put it back in park it grinds for a bit then stops but the car will not move at all now.

Could this be as simple as VERY low fluid or is this tranny toast?

 

Anyone???

 

TTT Anyone?

 

The RAVE shop manual has a good write up on adjustment of the shifter cable. The normal for a transmission is to have the clutches burn out for forward gears, but still be able to reverse. So your problem may be more adjustment and not "wild child offspring peeling rubber".

 

If its rolling in park, and also grinding when you put it from drive/reverse to park when running, your problem most likely isn't with the transmission. With the parking brake on, have someone get in it with you looking underneath, check and see if either of the front axles(even just the inner part that goes into the trans/IRD) are turning, along with the rear driveshaft turning. If one of the front axles are broken, the IRD will not be able to overcome the torque difference from front to rear, and you will have no drive. This will also allow the car to roll when in park. If there is no movement at all, the problem is on the output side of the trans, or inside the IRD.

 

Ah, this sounds VERY interesting! I just replaced the right front axle a a little over a month ago now as the CV joint was starting to fail causing the car to shake at about 50 MPH. Maybe the other side has failed causing what you are taking about. This makes a ton of sense, sense it is making the grinding noise as if you were trying to put the car in park while you were moving.

Thanks for the info, can't wait to get home to see if this is the case as it would save me a ton of $$ to not have the tranny worked on and I can replace the axle myself!

 

Dave,

Is it "normal" to have these types of issues on such a low mileage (65k) Freelander? This would be the second axle to fail if this is indeed the problem.

 

The right front CV fails somewhat often due to it being so near the bank 1 catalytic converter, the heat breaks down the grease and just a matter of time from there. They often get replaced in sets, but thats not always necessary. If your vibration was fixed with the RH axle, the LH is probably ok, and the RH may have popped out, make sure its fully seated.

 

It did start to vibrate just before it stopped moving as it was going down the freeway so it sounds like the RF popped out or the LF failed.

Thanks again for your help!

-John

 

Dave,

Turns out that the RF axle that was just replaced 2 months ago failed again! It looks like the reman axle had a bad bearing in the CV joint. Anyway, I was able to pull it out and get a new one but I'm having one hell of a time getting the new one to fully engage/seat. I cleaned the splines with a brush but it seams that the "retainer" ring at the end of the new axle is not compressing allowing the axle to slide into the IRD unit. Is there a trick or helpful hint to getting the ring to compress and get the axle to slide in other than a BIGGER hammer?

Thanks Again,

-John