I have read all the posts related to this but still have a question. I bought a 2006 LR3 HSE with 140K miles on it, and now it is approaching 150K. I am going to change the diff and transfer case fluid but I was worried about the ATF, since it had never been changed. I just called the service center at the LR dealer in Madison WI and he said, "performing a transmission fluid flush on those is not recommended". I also talked to an independent shop that works on a lot of Land
Rovers and he said that changing the fluid on a transmission that old causes more problems.

Any opinions?

 

Old fluid causes issues. ATF contains additives that break down over time.
Periodic changes are essential to longevity.

"Changing old fluid will damage your transmission" is an old wives tale. Total BS. If all that is holding your transmission together is dirty fluid, it is going to fail on you anyway, fluid change or not.

8 months ago, a customer with a BMW 528i (6HP19, little brother of the 6HP26 found in Rovers) came in with a faulty EDS Solenoid. Suggested replacement of all solenoids while Mechatronics was out, since all the solenoids were highly discolored due to fluid never changed). Replaced all solenoids, changed fluid and pan/filter and re-adapted the mechatronics and it shifted good as new. Stilling going strong today, 8 months later. The kicker to this???? 358,000 miles.

I do plenty of 100,000+ mile services. Knock on wood, no failures yet.

 

So LR Techniker, do these Mechatronics solenoids generate codes when they start going bad? On my oldest LR3 I get some hard shifting in lower gears, and some of the reading I've done suggests replacing all of these solenoids might help. But I'm not getting any codes at the moment. They are a LITTLE pricey, so I'd hate to throw money at it if it's unlikely to fail without codes.

 

No, they don't always set codes. What makes these solenoids different than other transmissions, is that these are not "ON/OFF" solenoids. Many transmissions, when shift needs to occur, and shift solenoid goes from ON to OFF, or OFF to ON. Pressure either starts to flow, or stops flowing. The ZF solenoids vary the flow to each of the clutches. They are not simply ON or OFF, but anywhere in between and as the solenoids start to go bad, its flow characteristics change. Often times shift feel can change way before a code sets. When solenoids start dropping flow, you get a shift "flare" in between gears (sudden spike in RPM before the next gear). When it gets bad enough, you will eventually get a "gear monitoring" error.
Occasionally, you will get a solenoid circuit code as well. I like these codes the best, because gear monitoring could be solenoid and/or internal. Circuit codes are always electrical.

Solenoids are not hard to do, but you do need a way to reset shift adaptations. The transmission will over time adjust to the changes in flow characteristics. If the solenoids gradually changed over a long period of time, all those "adjustments" will be stored and when you put a new solenoid in, it may shift even worse since it is trying to compensate for issues that are no longer present.

However, if you think its solenoids and don't want to pull the trigger just yet, you can swap solenoids around and see if the problem moves to a different gear. There should be three yellow solenoids and three blue solenoids. They can be swapped to any location of the SAME COLOR. there will be one black, can't move it anywhere.

There are some things inside the valvebody that can also go bad, PM me if interested.

 

Thanks. I'll probably wait until blackbox adds the adaptive values reset feature to the nanocom before I mess with it... unless of course it sets a code before then.

I wonder if something like this is worth the cost:
Land Rover 6HP26 Rebuilt Valve Body A052 B052 Separator Plate ID | eBay

It looks pricey but about half of that is a core charge.

 

These guys do good work. They are 15 minutes from my shop and I have purchased Audi 09G valvebodies from them. I would recommend them to anybody.

You can go two ways with this:

1) get from remax and save $$$$$ Downside: You need to pull the pan and get the ID off the seperator plate before ordering. It also does not come with TCM. I rarely see an issue with TCMs, but you will need to swap yours over and since it is yours, you still need to reset adaptations when done.

2)order unit from ZF. A reman unit from ZF runs $1500 but comes with TCM and is pre-programmed. (plug and play). For that price, you also get adapter seal, sealing sleeve and new pan. You just provide the fluid. You can also order from ZF using S/N off side of case, no need to drop pan before ordering. ZF Parts Eriksson Industries (Eriksson Industries)