 | Home > Modifications & Maintenance (L663) > Gearbox Oil Change - wow! |
 
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| Cheshire110 Member Since: 26 Jul 2013 Location: Cheshire/London Posts: 2748  
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Had a major service done today including a gearbox oil change as the car does some towing etc and I thought it was a good idea.
I knew that it can sometimes improve the drive but my goodness, what a nice surprise! Drives buttery smooth now… obviously hadn’t quite tuned in to the slow deterioration of gear change quality over the years… Not cheap but I would definitely recommend it if anyone is coming up to a few years since it was done! 110 V8, 2021, ~25k miles Cheers, David Land Rovers of all shapes S3 onwards… Daily is a 110 V8. |
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21st Aug 2024 9:50pm |
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| Co1 Member Since: 19 Aug 2018 Location: North Yorkshire Posts: 3667 
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Out of interest, what did you pay?
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22nd Aug 2024 5:16am |
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| Cheshire110 Member Since: 26 Jul 2013 Location: Cheshire/London Posts: 2748
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Wasn’t doing anything particularly bad so I thought; maybe noticed the odd slightly hesitant gear change but it’s just so smooth now the quality had obviously deteriorated a bit in many gradual ways
The car is almost 3.5yr old but I’m off to Morocco later in the year and so decided to do the 4yr service a bit early anyway… it included pretty much everything else (engine oil, diff oils, transfer box oil, air filters, …) so I thought I’d do gearbox as well anyway to complete the set. Not cheap for sure (parts including the new pan were about £500inc vat) but glad I did it and will happily leave it for another 3 years or so now I guess. Worth considering though as an early step if anyone has any qualms about the way their gearbox is behaving. I need to look up if it’s possible to do it myself now… Cheers, David Land Rovers of all shapes S3 onwards… Daily is a 110 V8. |
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22nd Aug 2024 11:36am |
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| Moo Member Since: 01 Oct 2021 Location: UK Posts: 1338 
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Interesting. I might also be off to Morocco next year and the car will be over 40,000 miles so ill probably do the same having seen this.
 Eiger Grey MY23 D250 SE with bits. Known as Noddy. |
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22nd Aug 2024 12:20pm |
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| Chicken Drumstick Member Since: 17 Aug 2020 Location: Near MK Posts: 707
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3 year old vehicle and only 25k and an oil change made a huge difference to how it drives???? That is either placebo or there is something wrong with it surely. |
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22nd Aug 2024 1:14pm |
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| H1Tad Member Since: 20 Jul 2024 Location: Maine Posts: 110 
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How much is "some" towing?
Do you know what the condition of the fluid was coming out of the transmission? Was it burnt? If you regularly tow heavy loads, the heating of the fluid will cause it to breakdown over time which can degrade its effectiveness as a lubricant. 2022 Defender 110 SE P400 Tasman Blue Expedition and Cold weather package 2003 Hummer H1 P400 Firehouse Red 2008 Toyota FJ Cruiser |
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22nd Aug 2024 4:10pm |
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| Retroanaconda Member Since: 04 Jan 2012 Location: Scotland Posts: 2635 
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Mines on 87k/3.5 years and it’s original fluid, not noticed any issues but as you note it’s difficult to see gradual deterioration.
I’ll change it at 100k next year, officially it’s due at the 105k/10 year service. It’s a fairly simple DIY job, there is a thread on here from a few years back with the detail. |
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22nd Aug 2024 5:59pm |
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| nebc100 Member Since: 07 Nov 2023 Location: Altlinster Posts: 88 
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100K is too much imho
On my D5, I now do a quick drain & refill of gearbox oil every 18 months. This is because you can’t get all the oil out even when you change the filter. It certainly does make a change!! The gear changes are now almost imperceptible!! |
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22nd Aug 2024 9:00pm |
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| Nuclear Nick Member Since: 21 Aug 2021 Location: Southwest Posts: 281
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Would this not achieve the same result? https://www.defender2.net/forum/topic90095...rbox+reset
It certainly does in other manufacturers' vehicles. For example, a similar procedure resets the Porsche PDK 'box back to default settings. This produces noticeable improvement in change quality following a period of 'Driving Miss Daisy' use as the gearbox does learn the habit over time. Maybe the transmission is reset back to default, along with all the other systems, at a service but perhaps LR workshops only do it if the customer complains of poor gear changes. 23.5MY 90 V8 Carpathian |
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23rd Aug 2024 6:03am |
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| lightning Member Since: 23 Apr 2009 Location: High Peak, Derbyshire Posts: 2707
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It could be that the gearbox oil level was a bit low, l was told by my LR specialist dealer that they found sometimes the vehicles are delivered with slightly low oil level in the transmission.
Unfortunately the procedure for checking it is far from simple. |
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25th Aug 2024 9:49pm |
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| Nuclear Nick Member Since: 21 Aug 2021 Location: Southwest Posts: 281
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OK, so no one knows about the gearbox reset then.......... 23.5MY 90 V8 Carpathian
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26th Aug 2024 5:30am |
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| TexasRover Member Since: 24 Nov 2022 Location: Paris Posts: 1021  
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Typically the way these systems are designed is that the controller adjust short term and long term settings in a 'table' based on measured conditions (equipment condition and driver behaviour - maybe).
When you reset these things it will default to factory settings but then continues to populate the various tables immediately and fairly quickly it will find itself at the same equilibrium and it will keep doing that so if you were to drive the car harder than say your grandma it will learn and adjust to that quickly (if it used driver input - I don't know) To truly make a difference you would probably have to go in there and remap the thing to work toward different non-factory settings, which I am sure there are companies out there that can do that, but is not without cost and possible risks In my experience however there is a large amount of unintentional confirmation bias going on here: people's tendency to process information by looking for, or interpreting, information that is consistent with their expectations. I know for a fact that most people will for instance perceive a simple (cable) clutch adjustment as a power increase, a trick often done by garages in the olden days. To truly understand if an improvement (to certain chosen parameters) has occurred you have to do painstaking before and after tests with proper readings taken. |
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26th Aug 2024 6:14am |
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| DFNDER Member Since: 02 Oct 2023 Location: Perth WA Posts: 123 
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The ZF transmissions and MagnaSteyr transfer boxes used are top shelf items. However, the fluid in these is not "lifetime" despite what JLR will have you believe.
Trans fluid and transfer case oil are separate of course. Resetting the adaptations only goes so far, note that the transfer case smarts can also be reset, but usually not required unless that has been rebuilt. Heavy loads (and that includes stop start city driving, towing and hard acceleration) burns the fluid. this creates carbon deposits in the fluid and lowers the viscosity (referring to the Temp. vs. Viscosity charts) which in turn leads to valvebody seal and torque converter issues such as harsh shifting, flaring and poor fuel economy. A full fluid flush, including the torque converter, fluid cooler, a new pan, gasket and filter would be the minimum at around 60-80 th k's. At double that, I would be replacing the above again, plus the valve body seals, solenoids and mechatronic seal. This would see you through to 320th k's, with fluid and filter changes every 60-80. It's possible to get 95% of the fluid out by flushing, only a small amount remains in the torque converter. It does mean that if the fill volume is 8l, it will take say 15l to flush all the old fluid out. A fluid change at 25th k seems very low, I expect that the adaptations were also reset, and that's what has been most noticeable. However it's beneficial to the transmission for sure. ZF lifeguard fluid is of course recommended, but there are aftermarket equivalent fluids out there. |
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27th Aug 2024 4:40am |
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| Nuclear Nick Member Since: 21 Aug 2021 Location: Southwest Posts: 281
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Thanks for the replies guys!
Yes DFNDR, it was my suspicion that the oil change included a reset and it was that which made the change in 'feel'. I've certainly found that with Porsche PDK transmissions. 23.5MY 90 V8 Carpathian |
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27th Aug 2024 6:15am |
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