[dangermouse]

Gotta love Range Rovers

Following on from my other thread, I have tonight suffered some kind of gearbox failure.

I used kickdown to overtake another car, all fine.
pulled up to the next set of traffic lights and the idle was high.

car pulled away in Drive, but seemed to stay in 1st gear.

pulled over in a layby and put the transmission into Park, the idle rose to 1500rpm

turned the engine off, waited 20 seconds tried to restart - constant cranking but wouldn't fire.

tried again a few minutes later, fired no problems.

put transmission into D, pulled away, same deal, first gear only.
tried putting the transmission into 1 and working my way through the gears manually - no joy, just stuck in 1st.

reached a steep downhill and backed off the throttle to allow the car to coast - it shifted up a gear and stayed there until I had to brake for the next roundabout, then downshifted to first and stayed there.

reverse selects and operates fine.
idle is normal when in drive, but 1500 when in N or P


Any ideas gratefully received????

 

[skippy3k]

Have you checked your transmission fluid?

 

[dangermouse]

Have you checked your transmission fluid?

Was changed 2000 miles ago, haven't checked since the problem though, will have a look tomorrow.

 

[Malafax_dand]

My vote is Throttle Position Sensor
A bad TPS can cause all the symptoms that you mentioned. High idle and delayed shifting can be caused by a TPS. The Engine management has no idea where the throttle position is nor does the transmission.

 

[tnfno]

I had something like that on my 1998 4.6. It was the Gear Position Switch that was full of water since the breather hose was missing. What you want to look for is if the actual gear and the lights by the stick and on the dash are the same. When I put it in D, I had 3 on the dash and N on the light by the gearstick. N gave D and 3 and so on... If the computer get a signal that you are not in P or N it will not let you start.

I was able to repair the Gear Position Switch, drilled open the rivets, cleaned it (remember to take out and clean the pins inside, they are inserted into the white areas on the picture) and riveted it together again. It is very easy to access on the side of the gearbox. You will have to adjust it after you fit it again. This is easily done by leaving the gearshift in D and rotate the switch until you are in the middle between where it jumps to N and 3 (you need a helper inside the car).

Pictures in my post here, scroll to around the middle of the thread:
http://www.lrforum.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=24344&hl=switch

 

[dangermouse]

Strangely this morning everything is working normally - very odd

 

[tnfno]

Strangely this morning everything is working normally - very odd

Sounds VERY familiar... if it is the gear position switch you can expect GEARBOX FAULT when you change gears and as mentioned wrong indicator lights after driving in wet conditions.

 

[dangermouse]

Have you checked your transmission fluid?

Was changed 2000 miles ago, haven't checked since the problem though, will have a look tomorrow.

Would appear that this was the problem, fluid was below the minimum mark.

Topped it up and in the 200 miles since, no problems at all.

Cheers!