Hi,

I have a 2011 TD4 XS auto with 96k's, with a full Land Rover dealer service history. It has been driving perfectly but yesterday I went for a drive up the Blue Mountains, which involved about 50 minutes of motorway cruising and then once in the foothills of the mountains there was a buildup of traffic, so it was much slower with a lot of stop / starts and slow crawls.

The car started to develop a bit of a thump in the transmission when changing down as it was coming to a stop, I think it would have been changing down to first. It also started to thump noticably when taking off - I read somewhere the transmission goes into neutral when stopped at lights to save fuel and then goes into drive when you start accelerating - it felt like there was a delay in engaging gear so the revs started to build in neutral causing a thump when the transmission finally engaged gear.

When I got out of the traffic and out into the dirt this seemed to clear. I didn't notice it on the way back down the mountains even when stuck in heavy traffic and crawling for an hour.

Is it time for a fluid change or is something else going on?

Do a ATF change first.
Unlikely to be changing to first gear on the move. Has to be selected manually in Command Shift. Unless climbing a wall, second gear is your normal “first” when in auto.

Bob 10MY (Sept 09) TD4 HSE Auto in Stornoway Grey (Now Gone)

08 FL2 TD4 SE Manual in Rimini Red (Now Gone)

Thanks Bob, I'll start with an ATF change and see how it goes.

For us dingo brains; what is ATF?

ATF= Automatic Transmission Fluid.

edit.... beaten to it.

dondiddy wrote:

ATF= Automatic Transmission Fluid.

I have exactly the same issue. Is yours now fixed?

Hi Paul, I haven't had the car serviced as yet but then again I've not had the problem again since that one time.. I have been on the same road in similar traffic twice since without an issue, but given it's a bit of a steep climb I flicked the gear lever over to sport mode to keep it in lower gears and it felt much better and less laboured.

Sport mode all the way for me, the car just drives better in every way.

Sorted same problem with software update. All okay since.

Done a lot of flushes and software updates to cure this recently, on Evoque too (shares the same gearbox)

And they will do it again in a while and then will be nothing to do until one changes the seals between the planetary shaft and C1 clutch pack.
The software update is released to mask/compensate this problem that it is manifesting itself at high oil temperatures (start/stop traffic, heavy usage, etc).
The new software is compensating for leaks at the software level. That is, the algorithm introduces additional correction factors that allow for the loss of oil pressure.
The new o-ring seals have a different construction, with a labyrinth seal and they were introduced in week 39 of 2015.