Mark-w wrote:

Transmission was flushed nearly 4 years ago when I got the car, I remember Geoff commenting at the time that the old oil was as good as he had seen, but I don't know if that was the original oil or not.
With regards to the box being u/s at 110,000 miles apparently the judderis caused by a pressure issue within the box causing the tc to glaze, something to do with the pressure the zf box runs at. Martin sounded extremely knowledgeable and the explanation was good so I'm happy in that way, but as you say 110,000 miles does not seem much for an auto box although many seem to experience transmission judder at around that mileage.

Mark,

How much have you been quoted for both the auto box and TC please, as mine is going in on the 14th for the same

Thanks

Bodsy wrote:

Sean, changed the TC or the gearbox as well?

Mark-w wrote:

About a year ago after towing a long way I noticed a very slight judder in 3rd gear, research on here lead me to believing the torque converter was on its way out, however at the time it was very minimal,
Fast forward a year and over the last couple of months it's got considerably worse and I've been thinking about what to do, the car was checked over by my friends garage who have always done the work in the car including the last service (it had a full Land Rover dealer service history till then, but at 110,000 miles and 10 years old I decided dealer serving was a pointless expense) at that check the propshaft centre bearing was found worn so a new propshaft was fitted, this didn't stop the judder, but then again I wasn't expecting it too.
After towing again last Saturday I decided things were too bad and I needed to take action, I considered changing the car but as it's 2006 there's not all that much value left in it and any discovery 4's I could find seemed to be around £18,000+ and at that price had around 90,000 miles on them. The decision was simple it wasn't worth changing the car. It doesn't do many miles and it was too much money to change, I might as well stick with the car I know.
So the research started on here to see about changing the torque converter, I contacted one transmission specialist who was prepared to fit an exchange tc but I wasn't totally convinced, I then contacted Martin Lowe transmissions at Barnsley after reading good things about them on the forum, they said fitting a tc alone was a waste of money saying it would curr things short term but as the overall issue was wear in the box the judder would eventually return, they explained things very well and came across as very knowledgeable.
I had a word with my mechanic friend who looks after a few D3's and has one himself, he agreed and thought it not a good idea to fit a tc alone, saying it wouldn't be a job he'd be prepared to do unless a customer was totally insistent on it,
So know I'm booked in at Martin Lowe's for a full transmission rebuild including a new tc, from talking to them I believe they fit an exchange unit to save time, they described this as an uprated transmission, they want the car about a working week as apparently once complete they put some miles on it making sure it's 100%, the work then has a full guarantee.
The car should come back good as new, at least in the transmission department, seeing as the car has always had everything spent on it that it needed hopefully we should be good for a good few more years life from it,
Not a cheap job, but hopefully money well spent and certainly cheaper than changing the car,

My D3 is currently with:

http://reengineeredtransmissions.co.uk/

Who quoted me £1860 + VAT for a brand TC and a rebuild of my box (£895 of that total) and a change of all the seals for the transfer box. They came to me highly recommended. They handle around 150 gear boxes per month. They have a massive location and there are gear boxes piled up everywhere. They had a RRS in whilst I was there.

My car has 178k on the clock. Their words were "anyone getting more than 120k out of one of these boxes is living on borrowed time"

Interestingly, their view of the "flushes" was that they were a complete waste of time and money.

They estimate my "new" box will last about 50-70k. That should see my ownership of the car through to the end.

I am due to pick the car up next week and then drive it to Croatia on Friday night!

EDIT:
The opinion of the projected life of these boxes and flushes is their opinion not mine. I don't have a strong opinion as I am not a gearbox engineer. Might as well be discussing flux capacitors for all I would know.

EDIT 2:
Completely forgot to say that the advice I received was virtually the same as that in red

D&G wrote:

Sean
What was your milage