Hi!
I recently (Jan 2020) purchased a 2008 LR2 with 142k miles for $2k. I just finished replacing the rear diff myself with a remanufactured unit from Bell Engineering. What a difference that makes! I would highly recommend a new diff from Austen at Bell Engineering if you need it! The problem I have now is that I've noticed the rear main oil seal is leaking pretty significantly. I have the replacement seal and I'm fine doing the work, I'm just curious if anyone knows if the transmission can be separated from the engine and dropped out the bottom without having to remove the engine. I'm hoping that I will just need to remove the driver's side suspension and half shaft to gain enough room to drop the transmission.
I haven't purchased a service manual yet so I figured I'd check here first.
Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Mark

 

You don't have to remove the engine, but you will have to remove both half shafts and several other things to be able to drop the transmission.

 

Thanks for confirming that! It is much appreciated!

 

hi mate

is this job done, I have same issue now and want to hear your experience fixing this

 

Sorry, I can't actually comment on the difficulty as I actually ended up finding that the rear main seal wasn't the actual source of my leak as I initially thought it was. I ended up doing a VERY thorough degreasing and pressure washing of the engine/transmission and found that the o-ring on the transmission drain plug had become hard and brittle and was no longer sealing. I took the opportunity to flush the transmission fluid several times and refill. I used about 16 quarts of Mobil ATF3309 for several flush/fill with a final fill on the 4th fill. The process is well documented on this forum. I finished up that flush/fill process with a new o-ring. Happily, there have been no further leaks, and the transmission shifts beautifully!!
The initial draining of the transmission fluid was so incredibly black but after three flushes the transmission fluid was red again. For me, the whole process took about a half a day as I did a quick test drive between each flush to ensure proper mixing of new fluid with old before draining.