Gear Selection

We are having problems with selecting the gears on our 05 Freelander. It is a bit notchy and first and reverse are the worst. I can manage but my wife is not so strong and wants a gear selection like every other car.
We have had it for over 6 years and 63000 miles.

Is there anything that we can do or must it be a new clutch. This is quite expensive so I must be sure that it will return the gear selection to smooth normal.

Please help.

A local garage here in Lewes in Sussex has suggested that the slave cylinder could be changed as it is a complete unit and this may make a difference. We thought that the slave cylinder was inside the gearbox but apparently not.

There must be someone out there who knows the best route forward.

Please help.

why don't you try introducing yourself first in the intro section then posting help questions

I'll even link you

Introduce Yourself - Land Rover Zone

richardtr3a said:

A local garage here in Lewes in Sussex has suggested that the slave cylinder could be changed as it is a complete unit and this may make a difference. We thought that the slave cylinder was inside the gearbox but apparently not.

There must be someone out there who knows the best route forward.

Please help.

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Before going down the route of pulling the engine & gearbox apart, have you checked the level of fluid in the clutch master cylinder?

Thanks for the link. I am not very good at finding my way on the new forum but will soon get the hang of it.

richardtr3a said:

Thanks for the link. I am not very good at finding my way on the new forum but will soon get the hang of it.

Click to expand...

Ignore the link. That is just some embedded advertising crap in the forum script. The clutch cylinders on a Freelander are permanently joined together, and must be replaced as a whole unit, stupid I know . They are not too difficult to remove, just a bit fiddly. As I said earlier, check the fluid level in the reservoir before pulling the cylinders off.

Check nylon ball joint at gearbox where selector linkage from lever goes to, ball joint wears and causes stiff gears, can feel like its blocked sometimes and need to go into a different one then come back for original

Thats if its the same transverse box design with the gearbox linkage cables that BMW, VAG and other companies use

I have just done a gear box oil change on my TD4, and it has made a lot of difference with the gear selection.

Thanks this may be a good tip as I do not think that we have ever changed the oil in the gearbox unless it was done at the last service.

richardtr3a said:

Thanks this may be a good tip as I do not think that we have ever changed the oil in the gearbox unless it was done at the last service.

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Mine is an 06 TD4 with 60,000 miles on the clock. I have had mine from new and don't think the gear box oil has ever been changed. The old oil wasn't a very nice colour when it came out and was a bit thick, noticed a difference right away after putting the new oil in.

If you are doing the oil change yourself make sure you can undo the fill/level plug first. Sometimes they are hard to undo and you don't want to be left with a drained gear box and no way of re-filling it. Good luck.

Need to know what engine it is cos there are two very different systems fitted! If its a 1.8 there's loads of issues caused by the clutch fork seizing, this can fracture the slave mount so it flexes and you don't get full travel at the clutch, it can cause damage to the thrust bearing causing the same, but in this case it'll break down pretty soon! It makes the pedal very heavy and causes juddering too!
Its hard to say without trying it but if its really hard to get in gear with the engine running but it goes in fine with the engine off its usually caused by the clutch not releasing fully! Mine did it, as above first symptom was heavy pedal (should be very light) it juddered badly taking up drive, this lasted for a year! Then the release bearing got very noisy, then it wouldn't go into first at junctions without forcing it, then you had to turn it off, put it in gear and start it cos it just wouldn't go in, shortly after that I ended up being towed home It was all caused by the clutch fork pivot seizing, this caused the thrust bearing to stay in contact causing premature wear and failure. I fitted a new clutch and bearing, freed off the fork and its like a different car, nice light pedal, no juddering and goes into gear much easier than it ever did!
Hope that's not too depressing