Thread: First Time Discoverer (Looking at D2 with Trans issues)

(Tips hat) Ladies and Gents,

I've been looking for a little while and I'm interested in 2004 TD5 that I found. Looks to be in pretty good nick going off the photos, black leather clean and supple, straight body work, looks almost completely original. Not a lot of detail on the cars mechanical history though, which is always concerning and prompts me to get my sherlock on!

The owner's description is as follows:

"Car has an issues with gearbox working only as manual so I have to move start with stick to gear 1 after go around 25 kh move the stick to D and works just fine I bought the car a year ago and I have been used like that without problems .Car has air conditioning New tyres continentals Apart of the gearbox not problems at all.Selling as is where is, not rwc not rego.$7000 or near offer."

I sent the guy a message asking for further details on the auto Trans, he said a mechanic advised him it is the XYZ Switch causing the problem with taking off in DRIVE.

My question: Is the malfunction likely to be a symptom of a failing XYZ Switch? Any advise would be greatly appreciated. Cheers!

If it is the XYZ switch, then you will see errors on the gear selection indicator on the dash. I doubt it is this.

I suspect you will be up for a gearbox rebuild. This text is from Ashcroft Transmissions:
ZF4HP22 - Ashcroft Transmissions

A common problem with all ZF 4HP22/24 boxes is the failure of the one way “sprag” clutch. Once the cams in this one way sprag clutch “flip” the unit will slip both ways resulting in the vehicle only pulling off with the shifter in position “1” not “D” and driving OK when shifted up to position 2,3 and D until you stop then you need to pull it back to “1” to start off again. It is not feasible to change this unit in each rebuild as this one part is approx £400. By disassembling the “sealed unit” we were able to examine the profile of the cams and understand how they work, from here the challenge was to find another cam from another type of autobox that would fit and had the correct profile to make the unit stronger by not allowing the cams to flip. After quite a lot of searching we found one, “re-cammed” some of these clutches and thoroughly tested them, we have not had one fail since. This is an example of how we are able to use our engineering background to understand a problem and cost effectively make the unit stronger without having to raise our prices.