Hello, my son has a 2010 FL2 manual with 53K miles on it. This week he complained that on occasions he couldn't get it into 5th. The problem seemed to be intermittent. Anyway I have have the gearlever gaiter off and made sure that everything looks OK and is nicely greased in there. I also greased the gearbox ends of the cables and checked that they didn't look loose etc. I then started it and with car stationary and the handbrake on in each gear slowly let the clutch out to see how it would "bite", on some occasions and only in 5th there was a wiring sound and it jumped out of gear. I took the car for a drive and no matter how many times I went up and down the gearbox in and out of every gear combination I could think of everything was fine.

Is this likely to be a cable adjustment issue or am I looking at a replacement gearbox. Any thoughts anybody?

Thanks

Sounds more like a selector issue than a major gearbox problem to me. I seem to recall that the lockout which prevents you from selecting reverse on the move can break and jam the selector - could be something like that?

There is a Lock Out Solenoid, it is on the gearbox, easily seen if you remove the Gaiter, should be a couple of wires attached to it, prevents you accidentally selecting 5th and 6th.

Do you mean one of these plugs on the gearbox or do you mean the gear selector end?

I have looked at the plug on the solenoid under the gear stick and moved it around to ensure good connectivity. My son just called me to say that the car is still jumping out of 5th on occasion, he was driving it at the time (hands free) so I asked him to put it in 6th, that was OK then back to 5th OK, try 4th OK, now back to 5th OK again. What's the next step? replace the solenoid ? Can it be sourced separately?

The solenoid should stop it changing into 5th and 6th. If it's jumping out I'd suspect something worn within the box.

I'd try searching the forum - there are threads relating to gear selection issues and the solenoid. See, for example http://www.freel2.com/forum/topic7445.html

Thanks but I think it's a bit more subtle than just jumping out of gear, it's more of a rattling noise as it goes into gear as if the gear lever hasn't gone fully forward into 5th When it does go in properly you feel that it's moved in a bit further.

Dorsetfreelander
This may help

The manual gear lever action in the older FL2's (and I note the one in question is a MY2008) is not the smoothest in the car world, and certainly not one for "quick shifting". However it does get better with use, and it is worth having the ball pin's torque on the tranmission's shift lever at the gearbox end checked for correct pressure - should be 20Nm (+/-3Nm). Some have been found to be loose which results in "stiff" or "partially" seized gear selections.

Get your LR dealer to refer to SSM 44149 dated 26.04.2010.

The car is actually a 2010 model but we do have a 2008 one in the family too. I have looked at the linkages and both cars seem to be similar in the degree of "tightness" of the linkages ie they are both a bit sloppy. However does anyone know which of the linkages in the image below is the one in question?

Click image to enlarge