Thread: Disco won't go uphill when cold?

with the waxing fuel issue preventing the rotary pump in the front of the tdis injector pump lifting the pressure in the pump correctly sorted by running good diesel through it the kick down cable is too tight for your driving style, there are 2 connections on the throttle plate on the tdi auto.

first is the accelerator cable, have some one step on the accelerator and watch which once tightens up. Correctly adjusted this should have just enough slack to allow you to rotate the clevis pin by touch and thats all. some people leave it a little loose as its easier to setup and lock of the adjuster screw on the cable.

the other cable is your kick down. the tighter you set this the longer the box will hang onto gears between changes. Setting it to the LR spec provides normal box operation for a normal engine tune.

very very roughly.

tightening it up is like pushing the sports button in an electronic box, it will down shift earlier and hold lower gears longer. Loosening it is like telling the box to relax you're not really pushing the engine and it can change up a gear.

Depending on how you drive and the terrain you're in going too far either way or going the wrong way will cost you fuel economy.

if you set it too tight you'll rev the nipples off of it and then back off to effect a gear change. set it too loose and it'll upshift to early and hold too high a gear for too long if the vehicle speed is high enough to support that gear, this leaves you working the Torque converter and turning fuel in to heat.

depending on which oil you're running you also need to allow of minor differences in shifting with lower temperatures. Generally this only becomes a concern when the oil temp is below about 5 degrees.

its not a brain sience adjustment and the spec settings are in the rave.

once you've tweaked the engine you need to make some minor adjustments to it to suit how you want to use the power (and how you set the pump/turbo up to deliver it)

the factory set is just a starting point for the hydraulic version of the ZF but if you tweak it too far away from the normal point for any reason and will be letting someone else drive your car tell them how its been adjusted.

Tried to replace filter yesterday but I didn't have a big enough shifter to get front pipe off.
So just refilled it.
Drained 5 litres out so replaced it with five.
I ran it down the road and gear changes were good, even had power taking off cold on slope. But then this morning it was as normal? (Lacking power/acceleration)
After driving it today I checked level (hot motor, but was running late this morning so couldn't check it cold) and it seems way too high.
Gear changes and acceleration is much better when warm but still feels gutless compared to my old tdi300, especially off standing start. Would hate to have to tow something heavy. One of the previous owners towed a trailer everywhere for his lawn mowing business so the tranny has been heavily worked.
I'll check it cold tomorrow morning.

Possibly it was over filled which is as bad as under filling it.

It was a good inch or two over the high mark so I drained it a bit, now it's just over. My wife had to take it so I dunno what difference it has made.

I adjusted the kickdown like Blknight.aus and others suggested. It made a big difference and now changes much smoother and when it's supposed to (it was too tight). I'll ask my wife if it lacks power still off a starting position when she gets home.

Noticed yesterday a shake coming from left front over 105 if highway is swinging right. Tie rod end, I suspect. I'll jack it up tonight and have a look. I hope it's not bearings.