Thread: Disco 3/4 Automatic Transmission FAQ - 6 Speed

Remove your top intake piping, remove visco fan and cowling, put intake piping back on, remove the inlet pipe for the auto trans cooler (it's the top 1/2" pipe going into the passenger's side of the main radiator, get a helper to turn the car on while you hold that hose into a 3L milk container.

Fill the container, turn the car off.

Be warned, it's pretty high pressure!!

This way you can drain enough of the fluid to drop the pan without it going absolutely everywhere (which it would otherwise, seeing as the correct trans fluid level is above the pan).

I thought that white plastic thing on the inside was not only a fill port but also a drain port - you have to use some sort of hooked suction device but ....

http://www.disco3.co.uk/gallery/albu...no_magnets.pdf

never heard that one before, you'd have a time getting ~3L that the pan holds out of the filler port that way...? You flat out couldn't do it with pump/sucker I have.

Hang on - I have been under the illusion that there was a drain plug in the metal pan and from the recent comments I take that not to be the case.

I thought the whole point of the metal pan was to make changing the oil and filter easier.

I will be getting a metal pan before too long - before I unstall it should I drill a hole at a convenient place and get a proper drain and plug welded in??

Garry

I would probably think very hard about doing that garry... Mine definitely doesn't have one.

Rich,

The plastic pan has a drain plug so I would have thought the metal one would have also. Do you have a ZF metal pan or some knock off??

In fact I just spoke the ZF Australia and they said the steel pan for the D3/D4/RRS and BMW X5 (same pan) has a drain plug but the steel pan for the Falcon and Territory does not. I am thinking your supplier has given you the wrong steel pan.

Garry

discovery 3 surging problem fixed
Hi everyone, have read a few threads about the surging problem with some of the Discovery 3 2.7 TD vehicles. I own a 2009 Discovery 3 S and had the surging problem. After reading the threads of others and seeking advice from 'The Rover Specialists' in Darwin I had my transmission serviced and torque converter flushed. Probably paid too much but they replaced the sump plate swith a metal ZF plate, zf oil and replaceable filter. Problem solved. No more surging and they recommend another srvice in 40,000 K's. My Discovery 3 has 117,000 kms on it.

The above is the thread I placed in January 2013. I have now done over 123000 ks and all is good. No shudder or surge at all. On and off I have been towing a 20" van. No I am very happy.

It's possible that I have the pan for the Falcon or Territory over the X5 pan then I guess?

Either way it does fit, has the magnets, etc. The drain thing is an inconvenience more than anything, as I can drain a set amount through the oil cooler.