Hi guys,
Yesterday I was on a beautiful mountain track, when I got a beep and lost all power. I am not 100% sure what it the message said, it was either "Terrain response system overheat" or "Command-shift system overheat". The engine temperature was normal, but the car wouldn't want to rev. The road I was driving on, the Cheia pass on the Red Mountain in Prahova, was pretty steep and the car was pushing at about 2000 rev/min in first gear, for about 10 min. The terrain response system was in the Grass/Snow mode.
I've let the car idle for about 30 seconds and got the Terrain Responce system in Normal. After that everything was ok. After another 5 minutes, the car lost again power and wouldn't want to rev, this time with no warning message or beep. I had the car in neutral and after another 30 sec "idling session" the car finally made it to the top.

When I stopped the car the engine was quite loud, trying to cool itself. I had the engine run for a few minutes to be sure it cools down as it should. When I got out, there was hot air coming out beneath the car and a fiery smell.

Had anyone encountered this problem? Is there something I should check? I will most likely change the oil in the Haldex unit and in the diffs. Gearbox oil was changed 10.000 kms ago.

Thank you all!

I do wish members would put what model and year and mileage of freelander at least before asking questions. so easy to add so it comes up like mine below Ex 2010 Freelander2 GS-e Diesel manual Silver owner

hover your mouse pointer over ninelw's fl2 pic in his avatar for that info

does fl2 have a gearbox oil cooler in the front radiator pack? if so try cleaning

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NineLW icon shows as an Auto so yes there is an oil cooler in the radiator pack, I seem to remember seeing a large finned block at your right side as you lean over the front panel. (The actual left side of the Freelie).
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NineLW sounds like a Gardner diesel bus engine - am I correct?
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Kind regards from Fred.
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Terrain response uses the brakes to control wheelspin, and it is possible under certain circumstances to end up with the engine fighting against the brakes (I've had that on snow) and everything getting hot as a result. This might have been one of those occasions where turning the DSC off, or using M&R mode, might have been better than GGS. There may not be anything actually wrong.

A few things spring to mind -
it may be best to use command shift in cases like this, to prevent frequent gear changes: if the torque converter was slipping a lot then heat would be produced
as mentioned above, the brakes are used for traction control, so a burning smell is not unusual. Clutch also gets smelly but that doesn't affect you; when offroad driving through mud I always get a nasty smell
engine temp gauge is not particularly accurate, in that it shows "normal" for a wide range of temperatures
I suspect the message you got relates to transmission overheat, not engine
All that said, it shouldn't happen. I would get the transmission cooler and oil level checked. Ex AA Series III LWB Safari - Gone
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FR2 TD4 GS - Gone
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From what I am remembering, the instrument cluster has only these two messages about overheating:

TRANSMISSION FAULT AND OVERHEAT
or
TRANSMISSION OVERHEAT, SLOW DOWN

The first refers to autobox only, but the second could be generated by the autobox or the Haldex.

Regarding automatic gearbox, indeed, as said above, in 1st gear you'll rarely see a torque converter lock. This combined with the hard work of steep incline will quickly lead to a high autobox oil temperature.

As for the Haldex, if there was no slippery condition, it will rarely overheat.

Suggestions:
1. Use command shift as in this mode the TC will lock as soon as possible and oil temp will rise more slowly.
2. Use off-road modes only if really necessary and only in the difficult situations. Switch it to normal if the situation has passed.

I've had the temperature warning on steep slopes in mud ruts quite a few times. It's caused by the car "riding" the torque converter causing the auto oil to heat up. It also happened to Vesko when we were climbing a very long steep track a while back. I consider it normal for autos on long steep climbs and the answer is to stop and let it cool down again. If yours is a manual then disregard this...

I just had the same thing happen to me today, first time taking my new-to-me 2010 TD4 SE auto offroad. Like OP it was on a steep, sustained climb for about 20 minutes, and the car lost all power and flashed up the "transmission overheat" message on the dash. I was in sand mode (thought I was in M&R... only had it for a month, and first time offroad, got confused!) and there was a bit of wheelspin coming up some slippery rocky/sandy sections. let it cool down for a few minutes, and switched to actually be in M&R mode and didn't have an issue the rest of the day, with another 1,5 hours of pretty rough, steep tracks.

It sounds like this is a common-ish occurrence and not a huge issue? The car drove fine for the rest of the day as I said, another 1.5hrs of rough going on a steep & slippery track, then 2 hours home on the highway, so it obviously hasn't damaged anything. Should I bother taking it in to the shop to get looked at, or just have the fluid levels checked at the next service in 6000km time?

As I noticed in another of your posts that you've been crossing creeks you'll need to be aware that the various radiators/heat exchangers can get significant amounts of mud dried onto them as they dry between immersions if the water is at all muddy. This will reduce the heat dissipation from the radiators. The starter is also prone to collecting mud causing later failure. Not much you can do about it other that clean thoroughly at the end of the day.

Yeah there were a few creek crossings, but the transmission overheat warning came before any of them. You're probably right though, I'll check the oil cooler and make sure it's not blocked up with 4 years worth of dirt and gunk/

Transmission oil cooler can't be clogged.
Transmission oil is cooled by the use of a heat exchanger that's using water taken from the exit part of the engine water cooler. This one, the water cooler, must be checked.

Some people, that are using the car in harsh condition (towing, off-road) are installing an additional air blast cooler, besides the existing heat exchanger, in front of the cooler packs.

Hoges4870 wrote:

I just had the same thing happen to me today, first time taking my new-to-me 2010 TD4 SE auto offroad. Like OP it was on a steep, sustained climb for about 20 minutes, and the car lost all power and flashed up the "transmission overheat" message on the dash. I was in sand mode (thought I was in M&R... only had it for a month, and first time offroad, got confused!) and there was a bit of wheelspin coming up some slippery rocky/sandy sections. let it cool down for a few minutes, and switched to actually be in M&R mode and didn't have an issue the rest of the day, with another 1,5 hours of pretty rough, steep tracks.

It sounds like this is a common-ish occurrence and not a huge issue? The car drove fine for the rest of the day as I said, another 1.5hrs of rough going on a steep & slippery track, then 2 hours home on the highway, so it obviously hasn't damaged anything. Should I bother taking it in to the shop to get looked at, or just have the fluid levels checked at the next service in 6000km time?

Alex is right again
The auto transmission uses a heat exchanger that uses the engine coolant water to cool the transmission oil.
Therefore if the transmission oil is getting hot it is likely that the engine coolant radiator is inefficient.

In my case the radiator air passageways were blocked with baked on silt - less than 40% of the radiator was still working, it was sufficient for normal driving, but towing a caravan in the height of the British summer on Cornwalls hills saw several overheating warnings. The transmission did suffer before the engine temperature gauge went into the red.

Bearing in mind the intercooler is lower than the bulk of the radiators, so if the radiator is suffering the intercooler will also need a good flushing. Tangiers Orange - gone, missing her
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