Wanted to share my experience w changing out tranny fluid on my LR3. I had hoped to do it myself but I could only my hands on the written procedure and the diagrams weren't clear to me. I thought it was too expensive of an item (if done wrong) to screw with. I paid my Indy guy 220 to drain and refill. I watched him do it. He did NOT change filter (which I still struggle with but that's for another day)

- he jacked car up on drivers side
- drained
- refilled.

For the next few weeks I noticed that my tranny was shifting rough and sort of jerking. It was doing that prior to the change (which is what lead to me doing the fluid in the first place. ). But, it was in fact getting worse!

My observations on how my Indy mechanic did it were as follows:
- he jacked the car up on drivers side so the car wasn't horizontal like the shop manual says it should be.
- I drove the car to him after work 60 miles. That said, he paid no attention to the temp of the fluid like the workshop manual says.
- he didn't replace the seal on the filler plug.
- In summary, he guesstimated on the fluid he put back into my tranny.


For kicks I decided to buy some more fluid, and put my car on stands in my driveway . i go exploring for the mysterious filler and drain plugs. Found them. Unscrewed filler plug and ....no stream. No fluid anywhere in fact. That said, just wanted to post a message to say... This job isn't that hard to do. I topped her off with fluid until I got the stream of fluid and I will tell you, she's shifting a million times better.


My overall experience w this car (2006 HSE 128,000) is that its not a complicated vehicle... Just follow the directions.

 

I'm pretty sure the engine should be running when you top it off too. With my hawkeye you can monitor the temps of the fluid too.

 

Yes. The engine needs to be at Idle. Thanks for catch.

 

Are You talking about the transmission or the transfer box? two totally different animals

 

This is a good place to mention, the differential fluid should be changed every 30k miles. The transmission and transfer case oil should be done every 60k miles.

 

Interesting, I just had my changed and I started a thread because I thought the was a noise in my transmission. The noise is gone but I'm have the same symptoms, rough changes. I'm going to do the same, I have two extra quarts, so I'll top it off.

Does the vehicle need to be level? Do I need to jack up both front and rear ends of the vehicle?

 

You guys putting the zf lifeguard 6 in it? Are you guys purchasing it yourself or your Indy guys have it on hand ?

 

I bought mine from British Atlantic it was less that half the price of the dealer.

 

Vehicle needs to be level, running at idle and at the proper temperature. If you fill it with the transmission hot, it will not be full enough.

Many people say that universal fluids are OK and some have had good luck with it, but I prefer to use the LG6. Many places online sell it, its not rare and if you shop around, it can be had cheaper than the dealer.

If you are chasing shift issues, you will want to start with having the transmission shift adaptations reset and re-learned. Low fluid (if that was the original issue) can cause the control unit to learn erroneous shift data.

 

If you're doing this yourself follow the instructions in the manual. If you're paying someone else to do it, pay someone who knows how to work on ZF Transmissions.