Greetings, gents. I am a new member with a 96 4.0 SE, and a 99 Disco Series I. I am currently putting my mechanic's children through college!

Need help with a "gearbox fault." I've had it to the local LR dealer twice, but he is unable to diagnose the cause. The engine starts instantly and runs smoothly. With no warning or relation to whether the engine is warm or cold, hard acceleration or no acceleration, I get a "beep" and kick into "limp home" mode. Gear indicator goes blank, but not always. Sometimes it will indicate a gear even though there is no acceleration (stuck in 3rd or 4th). If I restart the engine a few times, the gearbox fault resets and I can drive off, but it happens again.

The transmission fluid is a nice pink and does not smell burnt. I think it is an electrical problem as I have had to replace the fusebox about a year ago. Maybe the crank position sensor? Help!!!

 

it surely sounds like a TCM problem, or something electronic. has this been doing this since you replaced the fuse box?

 

Sounds electrical. Are you moving when it happens? If so, have you checked the vehicle speed sensor? I believe that if this signal is lost, you can end up in a limp home mode.

 

Do you mean the crankshaft position sensor?

 

There are actually two sensors. One is the crankshaft position sensor. The other is the vehicle speed sensor.

I was talking about the vehicle speed sensor. It is located right near the transfer box. I am sure someone will correct me if I mispeak, but the failure of VSS can cause engine stall behavior and may cause you to limp home in other instances. It sends a signal to the ECM. I think (not positive) that a failure in this could cause the system to believe you have a damaged shaft or transfer case, and reduce the allowed output.

It could also be the crankshaft position sensor which provides an input to the ECM. If this goes, or the ECM is faulty, you could end up with the kind of behavior you have noted.

They are both areas I would look at.

 

I vote it's the VSS, you can get this from Nathan at a good price, the Crank Position sensor would in most cases cause the truck to run fine for a fem minutes the just die, if you are driving it it would prolly not sputter much, just die on you. VSS would cause sputtering, also cause the speedo to flucuate all over the place. If your speedo is going from a certin speed to 0 and back and jumping around, I can gaurentee it the VSS.