Thread: The dreaded transmission, HDC and suspension faults on 2007 TDV6 D3

Hello Folks,
I have a generally happy 2007, MY08 TDV6 Disco 3. Have had it since new. It does have LLMAS fitted. 226 thou Km with original transmission.

Was on a disco group drive to Bribie Island beach on Australia day and the run down onto the beach and along the beach encountered no dramas. Was in sand mode, think DSC was (not sure though) and LLAMs on. Low range.

We set up camp for BBQ etc down towards Caloundra end and it was decided to head back via the inland track.

I was second last to tackle the beach exit. DSC off, sand mode, low range, LLAMS on orange. Off I went and was about half way up when I got the dreaded "bong bong" dash lights everywhere, transmission fault, HDC fault and suspension lowering. All I could do was keep foot down as the sand was incredibly soft and managed to limp into the toilet area just over the ridge.

Comfort stop and did the lock / unlock 3 times reset trick. Started up, all looked good and off I went. Within 100m it did it again, stopped, turned off etc and off again. Into limp mode multiple times. Put LLMAS into extended mode on the fly to at least keep the body up off the stops and got through to where I could stop safely and think about it. To compound the problem had lost my prescription sunnies which were new in the surf and could not read instruments very well.

Got going again and was stuck behind a pajero dawdling which caused me to have to slow right down and again got the fault. Pulled over again, got going and had jut entered a really soft and deep sand area and Justas Ihi it the fault returned this time wit restricted performance. could not punch through it and down I went bogged. Tyres were at 18psi.

Go the shovel out and tried to dig sand away but as it was red hot and I only had thongs I was having trouble, hopping about and swearing! Ouch!

Couple of blokes in a troopy tray back and a triton pulled up an they had a set of trax. We lowered the tyres down to 14 psi, dug out more and shoved the tracks under the rears.

So with a little time to think about it all I decided to turn LLMAS off, DSC off ( I think) sand mode, offroad height, low range. Gave it a bootfull and once the tyres hit the track it shot out. The blokes said to not stop to help with the trax but to keep going!! I had thanked them before trying it.

Anyway it behaved itself! Got almost to the end of the track with only one fault out, stopped, rest and cared it ad off again with no further drama. No issues on he road though it felt sluggish. Day after I cleaned the MAP sensor and it is running nicely again even though the sensor did not look that bad.

Soooo the $69 question what is the likely cause? I also noticed that on the speedo cluster I got a flashing yellow headlight symbol.

I replaced the brake light switch last year. No failed brake lights. I've read of low battery voltage and other sensors causing it. I'm suspicious that when LLMAS was switched off it was 99% back to normal.

Hope somebody can shed some light. Zaps my confidence to take it on the beach again.

So very grateful to the blokes who stopped to help me, the group I was with were not even aware I had trouble and did not wait for me.

cheers
Peter

As Ean has alluded to, one of the reasons you get these cascading faults is poor communications between systems normally because of voltages being outside tolerances. If you read the codes you will find "communication errors" in most areas with normally only one "real fault" code in the area that is actually causing the problem. The issue is finding the source and code reading will give the pointer.

Though not likely to be your issue - recently I had an alternator failure with the battery still staying up around 12.8v - I had all that you had and more - even the doors were locking and unlocking. The suspension was saying it was going down but wasn't but the gearbox was locked in gear. Reading the codes showed up communication faults in all problem areas but the only real fault was a short to earth in the alternator - the cause.

So you need to get the codes read to find where the real issue is - possibly a combination of things - obvious is low voltage (maybe just a low battery at the time), earth fault, brake light switch.

Very frustrating but see what the codes say.

Garry