Originally Posted by JoeManley

I've recently purchased a one owner 2006 LR3 that is in otherwise perfect shape. The trans works properly but the "D" is always illuminated, the sport or manual shifting does not work and as soon as I put it in drive I get a transmission fault on the dash. My code reader shows P081C and after clearing will immediately appear as soon as I put it in drive. The gear indicator on the dash shows the proper gear, It's just the shifter indicator that shows "D" all the time even when the key is off. I assumed someone had spilled something on the console, but when I disassembled it and cleaned all the contacts they were as new. Looking back on the service records I have since new the shifter was replaced about 15k ago. I checked the shifter linkage on the trans which also looked like new, with absolutely no corrosion. I checked all the fuses. I inspected and soldered all the crimp connectors with the blue tape on the wire loom in the passenger footwell and found no corrosion. The sunroof drain is draining properly outside and there is no deterioration of the rubber fitting behind the side vent. The battery is brand new Bosch AGM bought last week. Does anyone have any suggestion on what I check next? Thanks in advance!

Originally Posted by Pjk

Hi

just had exactly this problem on my 2010 Range Rover sport. Turns out an interior light fuse was blown (F57), I had blown it the day before changing a bulb one of the sun visors, didn’t have a spare and so thought “it’s ok I’ll get one tomorrow”.
Tomorrow came and so did the gearbox fault message, lost command shift, but car still drove fine. After initial panic and torment, plugged in the code reader got the P081C, ended up on here. Still hadn’t twigged about the blown fuse the day before until I read the comment on here about turning your lights on. I then had my own ‘light bulb moment’ and changed the fuse, not really convinced that it could possibly be the cause!! But in true Range Rover fashion fault gone!!

Hope this helps somebody out

Originally Posted by aly.younes

So you have fixed the issue by only replacing the interior light fuse (F57)?

Originally Posted by Pjk

yes, surprisingly!

I couldn’t believe it was that but, there you go. I’m not usually that lucky with things like that.

Originally Posted by Pjk

yes, surprisingly!

I couldn’t believe it was that but, there you go. I’m not usually that lucky with things like that.