Well, I guess that's good news although it doesn't help in diagnosing your issue lol. Check the battery with a multimeter and see how it looks. We are back to low voltage messing with the electronics in the tranny (which it will do). Or there being some sort of vacuum/fuel/ignition issue which resulted in your P0313 and other codes. Have you resolved those? When your truck does this, is it stammering when accelerating? You could just have a good ol' fashioned misfire. Do any of your plugs look "steam cleaned"? Ever gotten a flashing check engine light?

 

Yes for now I believe I have resolved those issues. I am really worried about the leak into the tranny. Since the tranny is a closed system without a dipstick, how do I check.

 

Item 17 on page one of the five page pdf link below indicates the two transmission oil feed lines from the tranny to the bottom of the radiator.

http://www.disco3.co.uk/gallery/albu..._Operation.pdf

I doubt that you have a leak in your radiator that is putting coolant into the tranny; the odds are if you appear to be loosing coolant, that the plastic bleeder tee on top of the engine or some of the plastic thermostat housing pieces have a crack and fluid is seeping out but evaporating before you see it as a fluid.

Remove the black plastic engine cover lid with Land Rover written on top and look for white like deposits on the cooling system plastic bits that may indicate a crack.

As far as the real problems are concerned, have you replaced a tail light bulb lately with non genuine? Alternatively, are all tail, signal and brake light bulbs genuine and are all working? If there is any doubt, replace them all.

Next is your battery. Put it on a trickle charger every night for a couple of weeks. I use a CTEK US3300 model. Most apparent "mechanical" problems with the 3 are actually electrical problems masquerading as mechanical.

Brake and Signal light bulbs due to their circuits being connected to the engine and transmission computers can really fib in a very convincing manner - the LR3 is a lady and should be regarded in that light.

This link is more on the tranny but it is not your problem - it will be something very difficult to find and easy to fix.

DISCO3.CO.UK Photo Gallery - ZF 6HP26 Automatic Transmission in LR3


This link is to the brake light switch - a new one is cheap and solves many problems.

DISCO3.CO.UK Photo Gallery - Brake Light Switch Replacement

 

I wouldn't start messing with the transmission fluid. (A) it's incredibly expensive; (B) these trucks have a filter/pan assembly in one complete unit. Remove it, and you're in for a replacement. Plus, this problem is perplexing enough to end up being electrical lol. Your time would be better spent tracking down an external coolant leak.

 

+1 on bbyer's post. That's what I was working around to with my earlier post. Regarding the brakes. Breathe a sigh of relief, I think we can move on from a tranny problem directly.

 

Ok, starting to feel a little better, BUT, I recently drained the radiator using the screw on the bottom of the radiator, passenger side. I then flushed (most likely incorrectly) the system out, drained it, and put green antifreeze back into the system. Now every time I look in the reservoir, it is red/orange in color. What does this mean?

 

You have mixed dexcool and green coolant. Get it out. They don't mix and can turn into a gel. I'll find the proper procedure for the V6 and post it, but it apart always involves removing the lower hose to drain the system.

I have gone to green in my DII, but only after using a commercial cooling system flush and running distilled water until it was totally clear. May be too cold where you are to run pure water now though.

 

The green antifreeze was the mix with any kind. Does that make a difference?

 

Orange good; Green bad!

The 3 is not a 52 Chev. Finding the correct coolant can be difficult; getting the wrong stuff is easy and bad.

You will have transmission oil mixing with the coolant if you leave the wrong colour in. The Land Rover coolant is orange in colour; yellow may be OK but green is bad. Left in the system, in time the green stuff will be squirting onto the inside of the windscreen when the defroster is turned on. A heater leak is not fun either, and if you have the rear heater, well there are a couple of long aluminum pipes that can go as well.

You would probably be better off with tap water in the mean time but it has no anti corrosion inhibitors within.

Land Rover specs Texaco XLC, a coolant with all the correct corrosion inhibitors and that is what it is all about, corrosion protection; freezing and higher boiling points are secondary concerns.

The attached Chevron pdf is about as close as what I could find and should be available in the USA. Chevron now owns Texaco.

Note that it is orange in colour.

 

haha, that is a question that will no doubt spur much debate (like the "which oil is best?" posts that pop up). But all being equal, an OAT coolant (Dexcool) and an IAT coolant (Peak, etc.) should NOT be mixed. Even if universal. As I understand it, aside from discoloration of antifreeze when the two are mixed together, a chemical reaction is caused when the carboxylate salts are mixed with the inorganic salts and caustics found in conventional antifreeze. If they are mixed, the antifreeze can become cloudy, precipitation can generate and the coolant will lose it’s extended life properties. <-- I copied that last part from here http://foryourbusiness.eco-freez.com...118&Itemid=134

If you didnt follow the proper procedure, there was probably OAT (Dex) in the heater core lines as well as in the block = bad news if left in.

V6 Drain/Refill/Bleeding procedure attached... (#6 in the procedure is the splash shield I was talking about when checking for the pooling thermostat leak)