D3 transmission oil change Interval and results

[Tote]

I got motivated to change the transmission oil on the D3 on the wekend and I thought I'd post the reults for interest.
My 2008 D3 has currently got 240,000 KM on the clock and I have owned it from new.
The transmission was replaced at 160,000KM due to the dreaded shuddering problem with a reconditioned unit so the new box has 80,000 KM on the oil.
My Disco has until the beginning of the year been used as a daily driver covering about 100KM a day of easy highway commute with maybe 3 fairly serious off road trips a year ( Simpson Desert and Hay river, High country and Mt Pinibar being a couple of examples on this oil)
The process for doing the oil change is well documented elsewhere and took about an hour including pulling off the guards etc, my transmission has a steel pan of BMW origin on it ( the sealed for life sticker next to the drain plug refers to BMW oil for refilling).
I purchased 6 litres of Lifeguardfluid6 from a vendor on the internet for around $50.00 per litre. When drained cold I managed to use only 4 litres to refill following the instructions and filling to full at 40 degrees with the engine running.
A look at the diluted oil that overflowed as part of the filling process leads me to believe that 80,000 KM is too long between oil changes for my use pattern. The oil that was coming out was significantly discoloured (think golden syrup coloured) compared to the new oil which was the colour of honey, although it still smelt OK. I will do another change at the next service which will probably only be in another six months with 5,000 KM due to my current usage paterns.
I thought this might provide some feedback to people who are trying to work out a suitable distance to do the oil changes on the boxes. I reckon the 48,000 B service is probably the best time to do the trans oil change given my use pattern with a significant amount of sand and low range work. Interestingly enough this is the same period recommended by the aftermarket service provider who did the transmission change.

Regards,
Tote

[~Rich~]

Thanks Tote

I'm a firm believer that replacing the fluid at 48,000 or 50,000k is the go for a longer service life too.

[discotwinturbo]

I had my oil tested on my Touareg with the ZF 6 speed at 120000.
The oils test confirmed condition of oil and no need to replace. It has done a lot of heavy towing.
VW tried to talk me out of having the oil changed stating it was not necessary based on the lab results.
Anyway, I still forked out to have it done as it made me feel better after reading advice on here.
Just wondering if oil tests are worthwhile ?
I plan to have my Disco changed at 80000 with a steel pan added.....it tows the same heavy weight, but has not towed as much as my Touareg.
Brett....

[101RRS]

Oh course Tote you have only replaced about a 1/3rd of the oil in the system. I would be tempted to do a total of three changes, 1000km apart to minimise the amount of old oil still in the system.

The alternative would be to drain all the old oil out via the cooler pipes and pump new oil in but that is harder to do.

Cheers

garry

[Plane Fixer]

I am approaching 55000 on my 2012 D4 and I will be changing the gearbox oil at about 70000 as most of my mileage is country miles. I will also get the full flush as well.
There are too many horror stories about these boxes. I feel basically that as the torque converter locks in every gear, it is the lining from the clutch faces which tend to do the damage to the very fine orifi in the mechatronic unit and it goes down hill from there.
That being said it is the most enjoyable and smooth auto I have driven.

[Graeme]

My D4 travels mostly country kms with the torque converter locked in top gear so by my reckoning the oil's condition should not deteriorate quickly. I normally upshift manually with reduced throttle as soon as the engine will pull the next gear so the clutches should be getting an easy life. The oil was assessed by the dealer at 90K as being like new but now with 120K I hope to fit the steel sump and do a full oil change-over within about the next 10K. However the kit and oil has been in the shed since February so I'm not making any promises to the gearbox.

[Torb]

My local LR specialist (independant) tells me that my 2005 D3 needs to have a transmission service done for $900.

When I rang a LR dealer in Brisbane they said the D3's don't need that as they are sealed for life, it was only the D1 and D2 that needed regular servicing.

My D3 has travelled about 156,000 kms.

I'm confused!!!:eek:

[101RRS]

Well you LR Dealer does not know what they are talking about - the standard LR service interval in their documents is 240,000km or 10 years BUT in arduous conditions it needs to be done sooner. Arduous means towing, urban stop start driving, high speed, almost anything.

ZF, the makers of the gearbox seem to think about 80 -90,000km is the distance before serviceing.

Practical experience based on user information on forums like this seems to indicate even less.

Get the work done. My car has just done 80,000km and I will be getting it done at 84,000km.

Garry

[justinc]

Just serviced and added a steel pan kit to a RRS today, 87,000km and definitely due. This vehicle has done a small amount of towing, and lots of city work, it is also chipped :cool:.

I advise to change the oil and filter/ modified steel pan kit at 80 to 90k at the most. Less if towing big stuff.

JC

[AnD3rew]

Just had mine done today at 70,000 and steel pan.

Noticably smoother on the changes I feel just from the short drive home.

[Ean Austral]

My local LR specialist (independant) tells me that my 2005 D3 needs to have a transmission service done for $900.

When I rang a LR dealer in Brisbane they said the D3's don't need that as they are sealed for life, it was only the D1 and D2 that needed regular servicing.

My D3 has travelled about 156,000 kms.

I'm confused!!!:eek:

Do a search for a thread I titled "gearbox oil change at 79,000ks" and have a look at the colour of the oil that came out of my trans at 79,000ks. You would swear I was holding a bottle of coke. The new oil is the colour of honey or cooking oil.

I will be doing mine every 60,000 ks. I would seriously think about looking at a different dealer to look after your car based on the advice they gave you. Think it is well known that sealed for life is not applicable in australian conditions. That is why the independant has given you the advice he did.

Cheers Ean

[ak]

So Land Rover first said the Auto box is a sealed for life unit. Then in the real world it became oblivious that the Auto box needs to be serviced due to failures? Have I got this correct?

[BobD]

So Land Rover first said the Auto box is a sealed for life unit. Then in the real world it became oblivious that the Auto box needs to be serviced due to failures? Have I got this correct?

Not really. The service schedule says that more frequent attention is required for arduous use. If you look at the definition of arduous use in the LR schedule it looks like it is talking about average Australian use including some towing.

My 3 year old sealed for life VW Multivan 6 speed auto lasted 105,000km, with some towing of an 1800 kg caravan in hot weather of about 1000km per year. Luckily VW paid for a new transmission and I paid for labour since it was out of warranty. The VW has a towing capacity of 2500 kg and the engine was 400 Nm.

Like Graeme, I thought that it wouldn't have a problem due to the lock up torque converter in most conditions and like the Landrover, the engine temperature never changed, no matter how hot it was outside. However, I was wrong and the dealer said that the oil was burnt.

Bob

[TerryO]

My local LR specialist (independant) tells me that my 2005 D3 needs to have a transmission service done for $900.

When I rang a LR dealer in Brisbane they said the D3's don't need that as they are sealed for life, it was only the D1 and D2 that needed regular servicing.

My D3 has travelled about 156,000 kms.

I'm confused!!!:eek:


Don't be confused, get your auto serviced its way overdue.

[tony66_au]

Oh course Tote you have only replaced about a 1/3rd of the oil in the system. I would be tempted to do a total of three changes, 1000km apart to minimise the amount of old oil still in the system.

The alternative would be to drain all the old oil out via the cooler pipes and pump new oil in but that is harder to do.

Cheers

garry


Im with Garry on this,

A simple hose setup and a bucket to measure old output a litre or 2 at a time replacing with new fluid.

You will find clutch material in the fluid as thats the nature of Auto trans and its the smell that is a good indicator of the old fluid.

[Graeme]

Like Graeme, I thought that it wouldn't have a problem due to the lock up torque converter in most conditions and like the Landrover, the engine temperature never changed, no matter how hot it was outside. However, I was wrong and the dealer said that the oil was burnt.A sample of mine's oil was visually assessed by the dealer at 90K and reported to be "like new oil". It wasn't tested but at least it wasn't obviously burnt or dirty.

[BDB]

I fixed my transmission shudder by a transmission oil change .The oil was very expensive tho.

[Stevepg64]

I just had my D3 auto fully rebuilt at a cost of $6,000.
We had really bad vibration through the box in 2,3 and 4 gears.
Back to its old self now, but that's to be expected I guess.

[rb30gtr]

Interesting. I have read a ton of these D3 gearbox topics and have been monitoring responses on oil life expectancy.

I am at 180km now, and will be getting a full flush done over the Christmas break and the steel pan.

The gearbox has not been opened yet. And drives perfectly (touch wood). I did have a slight shudder up until the new software update was done, now it is back to normal.

I'll post a topic of the progress and oil afterwards with some paper test samples. It will be very interesting to see what the oil is like.

[Redback]

Just had our 84,000k service done, all fluids and filters, brake rotors and pads, that included the Gearbox flush and pan, transfer case, front and rear diffs, the rear diff had the dirtiest oil, it's an E-Diff and we have used it quite a lot offroad where it was needed;)

Complete service including parts and labour $1400

Baz.

[phl]

Just had our 84,000k service done, all fluids and filters, brake rotors and pads, that included the Gearbox flush and pan, transfer case, front and rear diffs, the rear diff had the dirtiest oil, it's an E-Diff and we have used it quite a lot offroad where it was needed;)

Complete service including parts and labour $1400

Baz.

That sounds pretty reasonable; was that at an independent or a dealer?

[Rohan]

Just had our 84,000k service done, all fluids and filters, brake rotors and pads, that included the Gearbox flush and pan, transfer case, front and rear diffs, the rear diff had the dirtiest oil, it's an E-Diff and we have used it quite a lot offroad where it was needed;)

Complete service including parts and labour $1400

Baz.
That's good value!
Just picked mine up (well SWMBO did, I'm recovering from a knee op!)
Trans flush, oil was pretty bad apparently, full service, check & adjust park brake, replace pollen filter etc. 153,000km.
Steel pan was done by a previous owner. All up $1,150. Thank you Midas :)

[101RRS]

that included the Gearbox flush and pan,
Baz.

Baz was that a mega flush or just replacing the gearbox oil dropped doing the pan change.

Thanks

Garry

[Redback]

That sounds pretty reasonable; was that at an independent or a dealer?

Yes independent, Roving Mechanical


That's good value!
Just picked mine up (well SWMBO did, I'm recovering from a knee op!)
Trans flush, oil was pretty bad apparently, full service, check & adjust park brake, replace pollen filter etc. 153,000km.
Steel pan was done by a previous owner. All up $1,150. Thank you Midas :)

That's a coincidence I'm recovering front a back injury, the missus dropped the car off and picked it up.

We had already had the Park brake and pollen filter done.


Baz was that a mega flush or just replacing the gearbox oil dropped doing the pan change.

Thanks

Garry

Yes mate, well that's what we asked for, as per ZF instructions.

Baz.

[Nomad9]

Hi Brett,
Oil testing in my opinion is more worth while if you are going to continue to test and not do just one snapshot. Trending the data gives more value. I used to do my engine oil on my D3 and based on the trended data I was able to work out that it was more valuable to change the oil filter every 5k and change the engine oil every 10k, this gave the best results for oil cleanliness and oil quality without being wasteful.
And yes there was a difference albeit marginal using a genuine LR filter and an after market filter.

[sinistr]

Our D3 is at 194000 and from what I can tell the gbox oil had not been done yet...
I've had one quote of $800 including parts and labour so far.

Need to get it done.

[rb30gtr]

Our D3 is at 194000 and from what I can tell the gbox oil had not been done yet...
I've had one quote of $800 including parts and labour so far.

Need to get it done.

Any weird going-on's with gear changes and shudder and the like?

[sinistr]

Any weird going-on's with gear changes and shudder and the like?

I can say there is an occasional shudder on fast acceleration and if going up a steep hill but other than that no issues I can really feel, changes gears smoothly - goes well.

[Graeme]

Today I did some preliminary investigations for the task of replacing the pan and using a 12V pump to suck out retained oil. I found the 3.0's oil cooler under the front of the engine with the quick disconnect fluid lines very accessible. However my 8mm hex Allen key is in danger of snapping due to the fill plug being very tight. An 8mm hex socket has been added to the shopping list.