I took a trip up to the Ozarks last week and spent a little time In Arkansas on the TAT (Trans American Trail) before heading to my property in Missouri. I had the car loaded down taking enough stuff for a 4 day camping/trail ride (recovery gear, shovel, chainsaw and air compressor PLUS all the needed items to stay warm).

I did notice that mine only acts up with the Cruise Control on above 65. I suppose if the car was empty it may be a problem at higher speeds, but with the heavy load and high winds and all the stuff mounted on the roof rack bumper and such, the car needed to stay in 5th a lot more than usual. I found myself moving the gear shift lever over and engaging 6th very often.

So much so that the little plastic gate in the console broke (OK it was already broke but usually stayed in place during normal shifting events).

I got tired of hearing the plastic fence rattling around and did this


Put a Discovery 3 manual shift gaiter on it to avoid the plastic clatter when using the command shift

Still have not fixed the up shift problem in cruise mode when it is loaded down though.

 

I don't have that issue but love the gaiter. Where did you source that? Thanks.

 

I did not think to take any pictures of the process because
1. I did not think anyone else would care that much.
2. It was cold and rainy yesterday and the though did not cross my mind.


First off: Linky thing to the part

Be careful if you find this somewhere else for a much reduced cost. Most only have the cloth (or leather) gaiter but not the plastic mounting ring. So do your homework. I suppose you could contact a few junk yard (they call them wreckers) in the UK and find a used one.

A few notes if you do this.
1. pull up on the gear **** and set aside.
2.At this point, you have two choices, you can pull up on the whole terrain response panel or try to just pry up the small panel that has the gear shift lights. I chose the second approach.
3. Once the small panel is removed disconnect the flat pc type connector and take the panel inside where it is warmer and better lit.
4.There are two small circuit boards (one on each side of the opening) that are pushed over a few small plastic posts and then heated to form rivets. I took an X-Acto knife and cut the top off of those plastic rivets and removed the two circuit boards that are wired together.
5. Plug the circuit board back in to the wire harness and tuck away securely in the console.
6. The rear of the mounting trim conflicts with the shifter and makes it difficult to get into D and almost impossible to mover over to sport or command shift mode.I cut about 1/4 inch off of the rear portion of the trim piece which is about 1 3/4 inches wide.
7. Feed the shift **** into the gaiter. There is so much excess that It did not need to put a rubber band around it to hold it up.
8. Push shift **** back into the shift lever, and snap in the trim ring.

 

I see you have a dog hair issue like I do when it comes to the center console. LOL About once a year I actually remove the entire center console upper bit and break them all down and detail them. So much hair, dirt, etc. Yuk. I do like that shifter cover idea!

 

DakotaTraveler, I usually use the leaf blower after each camping trip to get the dog hair out. Otherwise it can go a month or more between leaf blower events. I only have 2 seats. I have the LR sear covers and I like the water repellent properties, but I am looking for something that does not keep slipping off. yes aside from the broken shifter fence, it did let a lot of hair into the inside of the console

 

Went for a long drive last Sunday and since there were some nice long flat sections i slipped it out of sport mode back into normal and i noticed the revs dropped to just over 1500rpm at 100kph, previously i couldn't see any difference which could be indicative of my failing transmission. From the cluster figures ( although not accurate) the fuel use also went down.

 

Seems the Land Rover Gods have taken pity on me. After doing “routine maintenance “ - changing front wheel hubs, tie rod ends, rear right upper and lower control arms and finally rear brakes (front half shafts just delivered and are next) I went for a test drive and to my disbelief the transmission is shifting correctly. Just drove down to Florida from Windsor Canada (18 hours at 75 mph) and is still ok. Fingers crossed that it will continue to shift correctly. I’m currently dealing with a front end wobble, vibration, that begins at 45 mph and gets better at 65 mph that I’ve had for years, but became much mor pronounced after front hubs and tie rod ends replaced. All Tires were replaced and balanced about 3000 miles ago. Went to get a four wheel alignment but was told the front end was too rusted to adjust. Was charging the front half shafts to see if that helps, since they have never been replaced by me figured it couldn’t hurt.