Thread: Advice on towing with D3 auto please

Gday...

Please read the following I have pinched from another forum (non-Lr) -

"the advice you gave in your post (above) is 100% contradictory to what I was advised, by Land Rover Australia, to do when towing with an automatic Disco 3.

I specifically contacted them when I purchased my vehicle because I had heard many stories of "blown" auto trannies in all makes of vehicle.

Land Rover's advice is as simple as "put it in drive and the transmission will take care of itself". They specifically advised AGAINST using the manual mode of operation when towing.

The reasoning is that the trans is both adaptive and intelligent. It interacts with the engine ECU to ensure that the right gear and the right revs, fuel mix etc are made available to keep the gearbox within its operating parameters at all times. They argued that locking the trans in a specific gear would heighten the risk of overheating the transmission.

We pull a 3.5 tonne 'van and have done 83,000 trouble-free Kms so far. I don't know the circumstances of the trans failure that the original poster had but I do know that in the 6 months I spent working at a Land Rover dealer last year, not one D3 came in with transmission failure.

ZF are so confident in the transmission that they manufactured it so that you cannot check or top up the trans fluid and it is not checked by a dealer until the vehicle has done over 200,000 Kms."

So, we are towing a 2600kg van with our D3 TDV6 Auto Se. Bought it with 72,800km on clock 3 months ago and now has 81,000km on clock. It had been serviced at 72,124km according to the book. We are travelling full time, and, despite the Service Schedule stating 200,000km for ATF change, I was going to have it serviced (engine oil/filter & auto trans (transfer?) oil changed) at Toowoomba dealer mid next month.
I too was advised to "put it in drive and let it sort itself out - except in hilly country to move lever left into Sport and it will only use the lower 5 gears."
So far it is towing magnificently - and economically.
I am interested in the comments of the wise heads on this forum regarding the veracity of the statements in the 'post' above. Also, is it true that it is a major task to 'change the ATF' ... renewing/changing parts of the trans case or something?
Cheers

John

I've checked and Ford charge about $41 per litre for the ATF. I believe it is the same ZF 6HP26 auto as in some Falcons/Territories. The only difference is that the RH engine mount on a Ford may not need to be undone and engine jacked 50mm - as is the case with the D3. So if they could do it - it might well be cheaper as the ATF is cheaper than LR and the labour probably is too.