Thread: D3 TDV6HSE sticking in first gear???

I disconnected my battery as I was going to be away for a couple of months. The change in the whole car was noticeable when I come back home and drove it again as the engine and gearbox were a lot smoother and there was also a lot more get up and go.

I have had my gearbox innapropriately hold first - in a consistent spot all the time, so wrote it off to 'normal behaviour'. Then had an AMK compressor fitted, paid the dealer to do the update (suprisingly reasonable $66 and done on the spot while I waited btw) and whatever they did has eliminated the problem and made the car more sparky and smooth. I'm thinking they cleared adaptive learning and will get around to asking them one day.

Further to my last, my D3 had reverted to it's bad old ways (inappropriate gear shifts / "slushy" unresponsive feeling) after an electrical fault (now fixed).

So I used my IIDTool to reset both transmission and engine ECU adaptive learning and ... it's back to it's normal sparkly self. I also noticed that the IIDTool manual recommends that 'reset adaptive learning transmission ECU' is recommended when fluid is changed in transmission.

On a not totally related note, I also noticed that the latest update to IIDTool includes the ability to update the compressor software to the latest version for the AMK compressor.

HTH someone !

Hi and thanks for all your advice.
I know it's been a while - but here's the story.
I tried the battery disconnect and had a number of discussions with the mechanics.
As it remained intermittent there was little to do and I didn't want to spend lots of money on the chance something might or might not work.
The problem slowly worsened until I just used manual select all the time.
I was sick of it and ready to sell and never look at another Land Rover but before I had the chance something else went wrong.
Driving along Pacific Highway at 70k suddenly got chime warning and dash message - "suspension has been lowered - HDC not available" (or something similar) and the suspension warning light came on. Suspension was on the bumper stops as we limped to a friend's house and wondered what to do. A few hours later started up and - no warning lights and as we gingerly accelerated suspension came up to highway level.. Decided to return home but halfway there the same thing happened - slowly limped home and then to the mechanic next day.
When picking up the car, the mechanic explained he had fixed the problem --BY REPLACING THE BRAKE LIGHT SWITCH - What!??? What about the DSC warning and the suspension drop etc. - Response "It seems like there are a few things connected to the brake light switch, but that was the diagnostic indication and it's fixed the problem". Needless to say I was happy about the cost to repair what I thought was going to be a major disaster - but incredulous that could really be the cause.

Drove very carefully for a few days and the probelm did not recur BUT..
BUT..
YES - you guessed it - The gears - in auto - changed nice and snappy exactly like it's supposed to. I thought this was just becaus it had been an intermittent problem, but it has been a few months now and the auto gear shift has not missed a beat ever since!!!!!

I don't get it but I'm not questioning it - the faultyBRAKE LIGHT SWITCH must have been responsible for an electrical fault in the auto shift.


(I had originally said to the mechanic I thought it was an electrical problem rather than a gear box problem as the maunal change never had any problems).

Despite advice from non-Landy friends to "sell it quick before something else goes wrong" I am once again in love and it's been beautiful to drive for months - so I think I'll be keeping it!
Thanks again all for your advice - it may be worth storing this in the communal memory banks for future use!!

I always carry a spare brake light switch!
Funny how brake light globes or the switch can result in a multitude of other problems.