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View Full Version : Discovery 3 - Auto box - keeps sticking in gear!


DerbyTup
7th Sep 2008, 06:47
When I bought my new Discovery 3, almost 3 years ago, I didn't realise that having an automatic gear box would mean that the car would choose a gear it fancies and stay in it for some time.

The other week I drove from North to South and the blighter was stuck permanently in 3rd gear. I suppose it could have been worse. I took it into a Land Rover dealer the next day who asked me if I had a brake light out. Which I did. He said this can cause it to go into "safe mode" and stick in one gear. How bizarre!

Anyhow, there's been a couple of further occasions in the past few weeks when it has got stuck in 1st gear and 2nd gear. Well, at least it's trying to share the fault evenly across the gears in the box. Maybe it will be the turn of 4th and 5th gears next? I have no stop lights out as far as I'm aware.

So, I'm a bit concerned actually. I bought this car with the intention of keeping it forever, more or less. But if it is going to start playing up with something as potentially expensive as the automatic box then maybe I'd be best shut of it. It's done 75,000 motorway miles mainly, since new, 3 years ago. Yes - I use it for commuting North to South every week. And I prefer to do that 170 mile run using the full range of the gearbox!

On the last 2 occasions that it has stuck in gear I've managed to rectify the fault by switching off the engine and re-starting it again. But, if this quick cure fails then...?

Anyone got any experience of this? What on earth is happening with the thing? Is an expensive repair looming or is this some quirky Landy problem that is of no big concern?

jkelly
7th Sep 2008, 07:00
Naturally its of concern!

Did the garage tell you about the stop light and fix it, or did you drive away and replace the bulb???

Im not certain, but Id be guessing that there is still a fault registered in the ecu. Perhaps this needs clearing as well...

I would suggest that the man to speak to would be Pete Bell at BAS in York - He is the Land Rover ecu oracle... www.bellautoservices.co.uk (http://www.bellautoservices.co.uk)

Hope that helps.

DerbyTup
7th Sep 2008, 10:05
Naturally its of concern!

Did the garage tell you about the stop light and fix it, or did you drive away and replace the bulb???

Im not certain, but Id be guessing that there is still a fault registered in the ecu. Perhaps this needs clearing as well...

I would suggest that the man to speak to would be Pete Bell at BAS in York - He is the Land Rover ecu oracle... www.bellautoservices.co.uk (http://www.bellautoservices.co.uk)

Hope that helps.


The garage told me about the stop light and they fixed it.

You'll have to excuse my ignorance, but I've no idea what you mean by ecu? I'm afraid I'm not technically minded, assume it's some sort of engine management unit?

Thank you for the tip by the way.

jkelly
8th Sep 2008, 05:41
Ecxcactly. ecu = Engine Management = Brain! Without it nothing is possible.

When something goes wrong with the car, or more specifically one of its componenents, the ecu senses this and more often than not reverts to a default setting to "get you home".

I dont know exact symptpoms for the D3, but I have heard that the stop lights failing can cause problems and thus it will register such in the ecu.

Depending on where youa are located Id be going the the LR garage (or BAS) and speaking to them. Get them to read the error log in the ecu read and find our whats happening.

DerbyTup
8th Sep 2008, 07:13
Thanks again for the info. I think you might be right about the engine management system. I've noticed a number of odd things in recent weeks. For example, the radio clicks intermittently and the parking brake warning light flashes on at the same time, whilst driving. The sat nav sometimes switches itself off and comes on again. Operating the electric windows causes the sat nav to flicker. I have a constant message "low coolant level" and yet the coolant level is fine (presume this is a sensor - maybe not related to the management system).

It needs a good sorting out. I'll get it booked in. Warranty expires this month so...

DerbyTup
4th Oct 2008, 05:23
I thought you might be interested to hear what was actually causing some of the problems that I mentioned on here. It turned out to be a loose earth wire on the battery - that's all.

One pesky little earth wire has had my dashboard display flickering like candlelight, caused the car to stick in gear and ruined my enjoyment of the radio.

The "low coolant" error message (despite not having low coolant) was due, apparently, to the coolant bottle bracket having dropped somewhat, therefore it was sensing low coolant all the time. A new bracket fixed that.

So, I'm happy again with my Landy, at least for now.

nellynoodles
4th Oct 2008, 10:35
Yeah...it's a great relief when a silly little problem gets sorted and everythings running faultlessly:)