Yo all,

Recently I changed-out the solenoids in my 2005 LR3 ZF HP26X transmission ahead of a big road trip. All went well except it appears a wire was damaged during the unhooking and slight stretching of the wiring loom/connector to get it out of the way of installing the new connector sleeve. Usually ALWAYS, if I crawl under and wiggle the wiring a bit the tranny will unlock from park and everything works fine all day...including stops and ignition offs where upon restarting it will shift from park just fine. It's when it cools-off overnight and I try to shift it from park with the trans cold, where it has relocked in park again.

I did unhook the connector and there was no corrosion present. I then liberally sprayed CRC electrical cleaner and then dielectric grease onto the pins and the connector itself. No improvement.

I can also reach under the right side of the console and press the shirt lock lever and then shift from park OK. However, usually either the dreaded "F" trans fault or non-F trans fault still appears in the dash display. When the "F" one appears, I have limited gears until I stop and then restart the engine.

Any experience and/or solution with that issue? Do you know where I can obtain a wiring diagram to figure-out how I would potentially run a new wire to and from? It obviously is a signal or ground wire that may have been weak...or at the "t" junction of the loom a few inches above the connector in the loom itself. (where the 90 degree bend and junction with another run of wires is may be where the stretch/damaged wire is). It's very tight up in there so removing the exhaust & cats from the manifolds (oh joy!), trans crossmember, and then supporting the rear of the trans & TC will be necessary to somewhat lower the back of the trans to hopefully get some better access to the loom. Worst case...a bad one...is that the trans &TC will need to be fully removed to be able to correct the issue.

CODES:
B1 C57-14 Unused relay drive
P0928-00 Gearshift lock solenoid - circuit/open (sometimes this is PERMANENT and sometimes INTERMITTTENT
B1 BA0 -66 Suspicious starting activity

OTHER
New battery and good voltage
Replaced the brake light switch just because it was old and did show the usual signs of wear
Has no rust or other apparent corrosion
Door sill wiring on both sides is bone dry
Wiring behind the battery is clean, free of corrision and dry.

It is definitely the wire loom...just looking for advice on how to deduce which wire and how to most easily bypass and fix it. Meaning...best way to gain access and/or make the repair.

Thoughts?

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UPDATE:
Well it turned-out to be a different issue thankfully. When I changed the solenoids I also replaced the plastic sleeve that provides a sealed tunnel for the mechatronics unit to connect to the wire connector/loom. Apparently the aftermarket sleeve I bought is not a perfect replica as it did not fully seat into the transmission housing and was about 1/8" out too far. It is interesting that the mechatronics slider retainer did snap in and "appeared" to secure the sleeve in-place. The reality is that it was sliding in BEHIND the sleeve and so the sleeve was only being held in place by the friction of the o-rings! Thus, the wire connector and mechatronics unit were not fully connected and that is why I was getting the issues. Because I could never get the aftermarket sleeve to fully seat-in, I went back to the old OEM sleeve and it slid right in-place perfectly. The key takeaway here is to:

1) Definitely take a photo of the sleeve's location relative to the body of the transmission BEFORE removing it
2) Only buy an OEM sleeve!
3) Make sure that once the connector is attached to the sleeve that the gap between the connector back and the trans case is no more than 2.5 to 3.0 mm. There are other photos showing this, such as on ZF's website.

BTW: It's a MASSIVE job on the LR3 to drain and pull the transmission pan and make this otherwise 5 minute change. It actually took about 4 hours to get to the point of being able to work on the sleeve itself. Why? Well, you need to drain the fluid, remove the heat shield covering the trans pan, remove the big skid plate that is partially covering the front bolts for the trans pan, remove the transmission cross member which includes the connector cover for the left rear O2 sensor, disconnect the front driveshaft where it connects to the transfer case (TC) so you can remove the frame that allows the heat shield to be connected, cut-down a 40 mm torx bit to be able to access the ridiculously hard to access front trans bolts (made easier if you actually disconnect the motor mounts, remove the exhaust pipes & cats, and then jack-up the engine.....but who REALLY wants to do that!), and lastly back-out all of the pan bolts progressively. Then have fun cutting the filter tube and maneuvering the pan to actually remove it.

NOTE: Absolutely buy the BritPart alternative separate filter and metal pan assembly! Otherwise you will need to do the whole remove the exhaust, undo the motor mount, jack-up the engine thing. British Atlantic sells this kit and has an excellent video on the process involved. You can also get the kit on Amazon.

Then you have to go through the 5 to 7 liter refill and heat-up/refill procedure with the engine running, the shifter having been first moved from PARK thru DRIVE with 5 seconds stops in each gear to fill-up the valve body and torque converter, etc.

NOTE: DO NOT TURN OFF THE ENGINE BEFORE YOU COMPLETE THE REFILL PROCEDURE...AT LEAST NOT WITHOUT THE FILL PLUG IN AND TIGHT. IF YOU DO SHUT OFF THE ENGINE WITH THE FILL PLUG OPEN, ABOUT 2 QUARTS OF THE PRECIOUS ZF6 FLUID WILL GUSH OUT THE HOLE (from the torque converter draining back into the pan) AND YOU'LL NEED TO START ALL OVER AGAIN. Be aware, the cat and exhaust are "right there" and you have a high risk of burning your arm or melting your fill hose. Consider using a leather welding glove or other covering to cover the exhaust pipe and cat. I have a nice scar to back-up this claim! All it takes is a brief millisecond to burn yourself on the mega-hot cat!!

Anyway....the work sounds simple enough but there are numerous sub-steps involved such as having to lower the lift to move the shifter from park to neutral and back to park to be able to spin the driveshaft to reach the driveshaft bolts, etc, etc. That's necessary because there is no other feasible way to hold the driveshaft from spinning other that when the tranny is locked in park. Yes, an impact helps speed the process along and can allow removing the bolts while the shifter is in neutral, but you still need to rotate the driveshaft to tighten the bolts upon reassembly as I do NOT recommend tightening them with an impact. NOTE: If yours are the original driveshaft to TC bolts they probably are ones with a short head on them. That makes the chance of rounding the heads high. Plan to buy new OEM bold from the stealership for a "mere" $4 or so USD. They newer design has a much taller head on them and rounding is unlikely unless you do not fully seat the socket over the head of the bolt.

I first did the solenoid replacement job without a lift and on my garage floor....and that took place over 2 days because I'm super **** and clean everything well, etc.. For the sleeve repair this time I had access to a lift at a friend's repair shop. While his compressor is marginal and raising the 2.5 ton LR3 took a lot of compressor recovery time, it made the job WAY easier. Consider making friends with someone who owns a repair facility with a garage who also will actually let you use it!

 

The whole transmission fluid change procedure really makes you curse Land Rover for making it a royal pain. Can definitely second the part about exhaust/cat burns and making sure the engine is running during the whole procedure. If the engine is not running, all the fluid runs back to the pan and will gush out. I also feel like the fluid level check procedure is super subjective (I believe the term used was a "steady stream" coming from the fill port) and I may have underfilled just to be eager to not be leaking too much fluid everywhere. The stuff stinks as well. Glad to hear you got it sorted!

 

Out of interest what were your symptoms/error codes and mileage before replacing the solenoids ? , did you fit a new valve body separator plate or zip kit while it was out ?