Freelander 1 Automatic TD4 problems

This site contains affiliate links for which LandyZone may be compensated if you make a purchase.
J

Julie Banks

Member
Posts
28
Location
wednesbury
Hi I am new to this. Having a few problems with me old freelander. I have just had all the solenoids changed in the auto gear box. It drove ok for 2 days, now when I start it in the morning, when the car has been standing, I drive off in D and it is not moving up the gears, it is stuck, then it goes into limp mode F4. I turn it off, re start it and it resets to D and drives normal. Can anyone let me know whats wrong with it, is it the new solenoids, the gear box oil, or something else. Also the orange engine management light comes on at about 50mph, is it not getting out of 3rd gear? or is there something else wrong with it?
 
Julie Banks said:
Hi I am new to this. Having a few problems with me old freelander. I have just had all the solenoids changed in the auto gear box. It drove ok for 2 days, now when I start it in the morning, when the car has been standing, I drive off in D and it is not moving up the gears, it is stuck, then it goes into limp mode F4. I turn it off, re start it and it resets to D and drives normal. Can anyone let me know whats wrong with it, is it the new solenoids, the gear box oil, or something else. Also the orange engine management light comes on at about 50mph, is it not getting out of 3rd gear? or is there something else wrong with it?
Click to expand...

Hi Julie, it might help the learned one's if you tell them the year, model of your Freelander.
I'm afraid the complicated auto boxes are well beyond my limited knowledge.
 
I'd be taking it back to whoever did the work. As clearly it's not fixed it or made it worse.
 
Julie Banks said:
I have called them and they said its noting they have done with replacing the solenoids, so wondered if it could be anything else?
Click to expand...
Oh that old chestnut, I'd go back and say it wasn't like that when you took it in.
If it had other faults they should have pointed them out to you and not wasted your money.
Guess you can check the oil, it should be nice and cherry red.
Sniff the dipstick, it will smell burnt if the internals are slipping or overheated.
I've not had an auto for some time but the old procedure was to check when you've driven it till it's fully warm, leave engine running and run it from drive neutral and reverse a few times, leave it running in park, take out dipstick, wipe it, put it back in and then pull it out for reading.
I'm sure if I'm wrong the knowledgeable guy's will slaughter me lol.
It may be different for a Freelander so check owners manual or look it up online but you wont do any harm my way. It might have two marks one for checking hot the other cold but as said I'm not sure.
 
Why did you have the solenoids changed?

F4 flashing is caused by an electrical fault in the wiring from the auto computer to the solinoids, or the solenoids themselves, and nothing else if your able to drive and change gears. It is very very rarely the auto computer IO electronics itself. Possible but as said rare. When F4 flashing it will default to 4th gear if it's able to select to allow you to limp home. It will feel under powered and if it's slipping. First thing to do would be to take it back as said above but the fact they advise it's nothing to do with them means they either don't khow enough about the Jatco auto setup (the auto gearbox yer has) or they're taking boll*cks to get rid of you.

First thing to do is look at the barrel connectors to make sure they're clean and connect tightly. Also look at the wiring harness for damage. Yer can do the resistance checks yerself to help fault find the electrical connections.All covered in the fred below:

https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/jatco-auto-box-is-this-true.231171/

The above advice on checking the auto oil level is incorrect. Only ever use the correct method posted on ere. Yer don't need to do it for the fault yer have at the moment but if the garage who changed the solenoids int too clever then it's something yer may want to check.
 
Last edited:
Hippo said:
Why did you have the solenoids changed?

F4 flashing is caused by an electrical fault in the wiring from the auto computer to the solinoids, or the solenoids themselves, and nothing else. It is very very rarely the auto compuetr IO itself but as said rare. When F4 flashing it will default to 4th gear if it's able to select to allow you to limp home. It will feel under powered and if it's slipping. First thing to do would be to take it back as said above but the fact they advise it's nothing to do with them means they either don't khow enough about the Jatco auto setup (the auto gearbox yer has) or they're taking boll*cks to get rid of you.

First thing to do is look at the barrel connectors to make sure they're clean and connect tightly. Also look at the wiring harness for damage. Yer can do the resistance checks yerself to help fault find the electrical connections.All covered in the fred below:

https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/jatco-auto-box-is-this-true.231171/

The above advice on checking the auto oil level is incorrect. Only ever use the correct method posted on ere. Yer don't need to do it for the fault yer have at the moment but if the garage who changed the solenoids int too clever then it's something yer may want to check.
Click to expand...
Many thanks your Lordship, knew an expert would give the correct advice, I imagine it's a very specialized job, I hope their not trying to fob her off.
Out of interest how do you correctly check the oil on that model ?
 
Stuart hall said:
I imagine it's a very specialized job,
Click to expand...


Most jobs on the Jatco box are beyond the skills of the average spanner monkey.
Stuart hall said:
I hope their not trying to fob her off.
Click to expand...
They have probably realised that they don't have the skills to do any more to it, so are now trying to wash there hands of it.
Stuart hall said:
Out of interest how do you correctly check the oil on that model ?
Click to expand...
Texaco N402 was the original oil spec needed. There are equivalents and compatibles out there now. I use Carlube ATF-U with great success.
 
Hippo said:
Why did you have the solenoids changed?

F4 flashing is caused by an electrical fault in the wiring from the auto computer to the solinoids, or the solenoids themselves, and nothing else. It is very very rarely the auto compuetr IO itself but as said rare. When F4 flashing it will default to 4th gear if it's able to select to allow you to limp home. It will feel under powered and if it's slipping. First thing to do would be to take it back as said above but the fact they advise it's nothing to do with them means they either don't khow enough about the Jatco auto setup (the auto gearbox yer has) or they're taking boll*cks to get rid of you.

First thing to do is look at the barrel connectors to make sure they're clean and connect tightly. Also look at the wiring harness for damage. Yer can do the resistance checks yerself to help fault find the electrical connections.All covered in the fred below:

https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/jatco-auto-box-is-this-true.231171/

The above advice on checking the auto oil level is incorrect. Only ever use the correct method posted on ere. Yer don't need to do it for the fault yer have at the moment but if the garage who changed the solenoids int too clever then it's something yer may want to check.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your information. I will get this checked out. Will this cause the orange engine management light to come on, this comes on now and again usually at about 50 mph when I am going up hill?
 
I had the solenoids changed because I had a diagnostic test and 2 of them where faulty. So changed the lot. I have just had another test on it and it says P0733 3rd gear ratio out of range. Do you know what this problem is?
 
Last edited:
Hippo said:
First thing to do is look at the barrel connectors to make sure they're clean and connect tightly.
Click to expand...
I would agree with this. The connectors aren't great and it's perfectly feasible that when the garage did the solenoid work they disconnected or disturbed the barrel connectors and they haven't connected properly.
 
P0733 gear ratio is usually a spurious fault code caused by the box going into limp mode.
As said, unplug the 2 barrel connectors and re-seat them. Chances are this is a wiring fault.
That said, if they didn't unplug the battery when they took the solenoid pack out, they could have damaged the TCM (gearbox controller) or even the display binnacle (dial cluster, rpm etc) which will throw the Box into limp mode and make it do strange things.
Mike
Mike
 
Julie Banks said:
I had the solenoids changed because I had a diagnostic test and 2 of them where faulty. So changed the lot. I have just had another test on it and it says P0733 3rd gear ratio out of range. Do you know what this problem is?
Click to expand...
If the faults codes were cleared and this one wouldn't go or came back, then it's telling you 3rd gear has a problem. Not necessarily the gear itself. It will be the feedback signals when it's in 3rd gear or the control of it. You need to clear and read the fault codes in both the engine computer and auto gearbox computer to get a true state of what's going on. But as you have F4 flashing and a ratio problem then the resistance test is the first thing to do. Now I'm back on me pc I can post the link. It checks the resistance of the sensors and coils in the solenoids. Also confirms the wiring harness is connected.

Freelander 1 v6 Jatco Auto Gearbox - Measuring the Solenoid and Sensor Resistances
 
Last edited:
Julie Banks said:
Thank you for your information. I will get this checked out. Will this cause the orange engine management light to come on, this comes on now and again usually at about 50 mph when I am going up hill?
Click to expand...
If you pull away in Drive, then move the lever to the right to enter sport mode, then push it forward to change to second gear, continue accelerating to say 25mph, then change to 3rd by pushing forward again, will it get to 50mph by holding it in 3rd gear like this?

edit:
I wouldn't expect the engine management light to come on for an auto fault normally but there is an option for it to happen if the gearbox fault is likely to increase emissions. It's possible you have more than one fault. Everything seems to be working apart from changing up in certain gears. If the bus or gear lever wasn't reporting correctly then you wouldn't get this far.
 
Last edited:
Thank you for all your help. The problem is when my car has stood for a long time, eg over night or whilst I am at work for 8 hours. I then start it up, it drives but wont change gear, it runs for a while then it goes into limp mode and F4 flashes on dash, the first time I did this I turned the car off then re started it and it ran ok and changed gears. as each day this has happened it is taking me more stops and starts to get it to run normal, today it took 6 time to stop and start the engine before it ran normal. Is this a gear box oil problem?
 
It's very hard to say. This could be caused by numerous issues and you have to work through them one by one until you have the answer.
So it could be,
Barrel connectors
Oil level (ATF fluid)
Wrong ATF fluid
Faulty TCM (autobox controller)
Faulty display binnacle (dials and gauges bit) this is the hub for the CanBus, and also what was up with mine! Your fault is similar but not exactly the same.
Solenoids incorrectly fitted.
Or just a bad earth.
Either do each one, or if you feel you can not, find a gearbox specialist.
Mike
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

A
Electrical or computer starting problems
Replies
12
Views
389
Ashlett
A
acidK1
Auto specialist advice
Replies
19
Views
648
pwood999
pwood999
F
Freelander 1 TD4 Manual 1st Gear Switch
Replies
3
Views
347
freelounger
F
Z
Freelander 1 TD4 Automatic transmisson and shift selector
Replies
6
Views
401
Hippo
Hippo
C
Automatic transmission hesitation
Replies
4
Views
758
Captain_Black
C
Back
Top