Died transmission, torque converter or auto gear box..transmission expert in Sydney

[tomwu]

Hi,
Unfortunatly after some offroad yesterday (including cross some water 50 cm deep), my transmission can't engage. oh, it's a 05 D3 TDV6 with 190K on the meter.


Was stuck in offroad tracks and eventually pulled out by my friend to a big road which it got towed.


1. First, found gear sometimes did not engage. Put back to N -> D and it engaged again;
2. After 20 min, we stopped and shut off the engine. When started again, it stopped engage.
3. Tried to put through P/R/N/D and found some clunking noise when it's in D or R.
4, Turned off the car for 30 min, disconnected batt. Felt the temp of the trasmission pan, it's alright. Hot but still can touch it. Kind of normal temp I think.
5. Turned on the engine again and no difference.
6. Since tow truck can't come into the track, my friend towed me out for around 10KM when engine is on and gear in N. Can hear some clunking gear noise when towing even in N. And the noise is worse then it was earlier.


So far, there's no engine light and the car is already in towing company (160KM away from my home).


Next i'm thinking of finding some knowledgable transmission expert to check how's the damage. Once I confirm which repair shop to go, I'll then call the towing guy to tow my car there.


So here's the question, what went wrong? Trany/touque converter for sure.


Also transmission oil changed around 50K earlier. Firstly ZF fluids but transmission seemed getting some shrudder (well, get worse actually).
Later around 20K (2 years ago), it developed some touque converter slip (slight rev rise/fall). I changed transmission oil again with FUCHS TITAN ATF 4400 (read some article some ppl has very good experience for the oil on ZF cases) and one tube of Dr. Tranny. I should say the transmission feels better after the oil change. Most times, very smooth, no shrudders, just a slight 'kick' from decelerate to accelerate (an old issue).


Just during the trip I was talking to my wife how beautiful the D3 drives and it's been over 2 years of issue free driving.


Then this happened....


Anyone got any ideas? Or any suggested transmission specialist please.


Cheers
Tom

[Tombie]

More likely an electrical problem than mechanical.

[tomwu]

More likely an electrical problem than mechanical.

Oh, so lots of clunking noise could be due to electric issue that certain sensor gone and caused mechanically went wrong?

[loanrangie]

Ye old water in the electrics problem, once it dries out should be ok.

[tomwu]

Ye old water in the electrics problem, once it dries out should be ok.

But with the clunking noise, I suppose there must have been some mechanical damage inside gearbox/TC.

[tomwu]

Just want to provide an update.

It got fixed weeks ago, turned out to be a front shaft CV failed. It causes all the power output goes to the broken half shaft and car won't be running.

I was wondering the car got central/rear diff that how come one half shaft broken could cause this issue. After I discussed with the repair guy, it's most likely that the diff locks will only engage when detected wheel is free rotating. Yet when CV got issue, wheel is not rolling and diff lock can never gets engaged...

[Graeme]

Rock crawl would have got you moving for a little while if the steering was pretty much straight ahead had you known the cause was a broken CV.

[BobD]

Graeme, most of us know about this issue but do you now if there is enough drive in rock crawl to get up steep hills?

I assume in the OP's case it would have enabled him to drive most of the way with assistance up steep hills and when turning rather than being a dead weight tow all the way home.

[Graeme]

My recollection of comments from people who have used the capability is that it doesn't take much for the electronics to cancel the locking of the centre diff, although speed above a crawl and more than just a little steering angle are well-known triggers. I had considered fitting an inline switch in the power line to the transfer case motor to cut power once the diff was locked and the vehicle was moving to prevent unlocking. Notwithstanding that the TC reportedly wasn't designed to be locked for extended periods, I would do it if needed and prepared to travel at moderate speeds.

Steep hills? IMO if the 2 rears and 1 front won't get the vehicle up then with no drive a single tug wont either.

I'm reminded of needing 2 4wd Subys to pull a 2wd passenger car up a steepish loose gravel slope due to insufficient traction far too many moons ago. The car had driven down but couldn't proceed up the next incline nor back up the one just descended.

[Ferret]

... Notwithstanding that the TC reportedly wasn't designed to be locked for extended periods, I would do it if needed and prepared to travel at moderate speeds.

Interesting comment and also a story concerning a friend's D4 last year.

Big hit by a rock to LH front wheel along a track. Inspection shows no obvious damage to CV joint at the time but then a day or so later it fails in the middle of nowhere. After stopping to inspect the cause of noise from the LH front wheel area and now obvious CV damage we find no drive on restarting.

We got it mobile by just pushing it until the centre diff lock electronics detected something was amiss and engaged (never even though about trying rock crawl to get it mobile). We drove it ~100k to get it to where it was recoverable by a commercial tilt tray.

Immediately after the drive to the recovery point we found the RH CV joint was now toast as well. And some months after the episode found the transfer box needed replacing too.

Would be interested to know why you say the TC case is not designed to be locked for long periods of time and perhaps any thoughts on if the failure of RH CV may also have been connected with combination of a blown LH CV, a locked centre diff and a long drive as well.

[Graeme]

All that I can theorise is the possibility of intermittent drive though the left CV that caused the centre diff to engage each time drive was momentarily lost throughout the long drive out that caused excessive jarring of both the right CV and the TC.

IIRC is was Gordon (GGHAGGIS) who made the comment about the TC diff actuator design being weaker then the rear e-diff's actuator. Of note is that the TC actuator motor does double duty as the range change motor and that may be a crucial factor.