I have an 05 LR3 with the 4.4. 130k miles.

I bought it with 114k for cheap because it had a transmission gremlin and electrical issues from a deteriorated sunroof drain elbow.

I’ve driven this thing for about 15k miles as is and have learned to make it work, however if anybody else hopped in I could almost guarantee that they would put it in limp mode, I will try to describe it as best I can but it is kind of a feel thing and is a bit esoteric, please bear with me as I am at the end of my rope.

The problem first manifested itself with a harsh California stop issue, and it would occasionally throw a transmission misshift code and show transmission fault while holding it in 3rd gear. The condition was if you were easy on the throttle at the shift points, the solution was to drag it through the shifts under power, and it would cycle through the gears and run great.

I don’t know when, but this behavior started changing maybe 10k miles in, it began to be unreliable when shifting under power later in the range and I found that I now needed to drag the rpms above say 2500 and let off the throttle completely to get it to shift 3-4 4-5 and 5-6, it is a bit of a chore and I found that running it in command shift helped give me a bit more control over it. If you try to let it shift under power the transmission lets go, the engine revs,I hear a schreech from the transmission, it harshly shifts back down to the gear it just tried to come from and throws a fault.

Recently, I have began to loose control with the command shift. Now when I get to my 3-4 shift it will shift into 4, then immediately into 5 and 6. The problem with this is I am typically doing 45 at this point so as soon as I get back on the power it downshifts to 5 under power, revs, screeches and faults.

I have changed fluid and filter and replaced solenoids. The solenoid swap eliminated my California stop issue but the rest still remains. The only other indicators of trouble that I can think of are a 2 second delay from park to reverse engaging, and I have also noticed that the parking brake light on my console sometimes lights up at the shift points. My parking brake has malfunctioned since the day I got it, it does appear to work but it loudly screeches whenever activated.

Has anybody got any advice? I really am at a loss on where to go from here, my leading theory now is some problem from the water damage from the passenger side sunroof drain, but I don’t know if the tcm is close to that area or not. And just to be clear, 1-2,2-3 shifts work all day under any conditions

Thanks for any help

 

I have very similar symptoms and also able to baby it around until i hit 4th gear at which point i have no issues @ 213k klms on the odo, i'm about to do a valve body service with new solenoids, separator plate and sonnax zip kit. You dont mention touching the valve body apart from solenoids which is possibly where the issue is, do you get any juddering or flaring ?

 

This is the first sentence under "6HP26 Typical Problems..." linked here: 6HP26 Transmission parts, repair guidelines, problems, manuals (go4trans.com)This article points to replacing the pump assembly for delayed engagement. If your delay is reverse only, this may not apply.Here's an in-depth article regarding fluid pressure and also mentions the "E" clutch and pump bushings as a common problem:The TCM is mounted to the valve body inside the transmission. It's that black plastic thing you had to remove in order to replace the solenoids. Ford calls this the "Leadframe" and had trouble with the integrated speed sensors going out and severely confusing the transmission at highway speeds. I have 2 Fords that had this problem. I have not read anywhere that the Land Rover version suffers from the same problem. A few years ago, I did install a Sonnax Zip-Kit and separator plate to a 2012 Ford 6R80 in effort to fix a really bad "California Stop" clunk which did nothing. Replacing the entire valve body assembly (with solenoids and leadframe) is what ultimately solved my problem on the Ford.

The bridge seal and tube seals are important to change out whenever you remove the valve body. I expect you did that already when you did the solenoids. If the problems are fluid pressure related, these seals would be the easiest fix, and maybe a Zip-Kit while your at it.

I checked and do not find any related TSB's in my LR3 Mitchell 1 DIY subscription. There's one TSB regarding a harsh 2-1 downshift where a software update is the prescribed fix.

Good luck! Please post back when you find a fix.

Loanrangie, please let us know your results on the Zip Kit.