gearbox overheat

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strange lover

New Member
Posts
7
Hi my diesel p38 auto keeps telling my gearbox is overheating, it has done this on and off since i bought it 11 months ago, last week i had it serviced and the gearbox oil and filter changed (landrover parts) now the problem seems worse. It only does this when you are in town out of town no bother. any ideas please.
 
first of all, do you have fog lights fitted in the bumper at the front??

if you do then thats your problem, the auto diesels were never designed for the front fog lights to be fitted into the bumper as the gearbox cooler is right behind the bumper on the passenger side where the fog light should go.

If not then have you checked the sensor?? I would begin with checking the sensor connections, make sure they are clean and making good contact. Next if its still bringing the message up get one of those gun infrared temp guns (not much from Maplins) and when its actually claiming that the box is overheating, stop, get out and check to see if it is overheating - i.e. check the gearbox radiator for its temp, also check the lines to and from it.

If its not overheating then you have a faulty temp sensor, if it is overheating then I would assume there may be a blockage somewhere at some point, probably in the gearbox rad.

Let us know how you get on.

-Wills :)
 
Hi I have the same problem , I thought the rad was in a poor place for cooling , will remove the fog light and see if that works, thanks for the info
 
hi wills, thanks for your info. I have no foglamps and the gearbox rad has an electric fan, i unplugged this and put a live feed on it and it works, tonight on way home message come up so i stopped checked fan and its not working, so whatever switches fan on must be faulty,there doesnt seem to be any other wires or switches on rad,the fan wires go into the loom.Does the sensor you mention located on the box? if so where should i look? the box has a big shroud round it. thanks keith.
 
hi wills, thanks for your info. I have no foglamps and the gearbox rad has an electric fan, i unplugged this and put a live feed on it and it works, tonight on way home message come up so i stopped checked fan and its not working, so whatever switches fan on must be faulty,there doesnt seem to be any other wires or switches on rad,the fan wires go into the loom.Does the sensor you mention located on the box? if so where should i look? the box has a big shroud round it. thanks keith.

Ok, first of all, the gearbox rad should have NO electric fan. Its cooled by ram air only so it looks almost like someone has had problems and tried to throw something toghether as a fix.

The sensor is located on the rad from looking at RAVE (well it is on the V8 models, it doesnt say about the diesel models but if it was different I would of assumed it would say). You should grab yourself a copy of RAVE and look through the info in there for help. Get that from here.

According to the electronic troubleshooting manual that comes with RAVE the sensor connects to the wiring harness via connector C164 which is that connector you see if you open the bonnet and look on the side of the rad behind the power steering pump reservoir...

c164.jpg


and to show the entire circuit...

tscircuit.jpg


If the gearbox temp exceeds the acceptable temp (according to RAVE - 120-130*C) then the temp switch is earthed and the overheat message flashes up. This message clears when the fluid temp returns to between 82 and 88*C.

So, if it was me, I would follow the wires from the connector down to the rad and check the sensor is located and attached properly. Check the wiring to the sensor for any nicks or damage which could cause it to short out on something. If all appears fine I would honestly try the infrared temp gun thing to try and verify whether there is any overheating present or not. I used one to solve my engine overheating problems that I had recently. If it isnt electrical then I would seek the advice of a specialist s trying to diagnose something like this over the net without seeing teh vehicle is pretty difficult :(

Let us know how you get on or what you find...

-Wills :)
 
hi wills i have printed off what you sent, going to have a good look tomorrow, my freind has a heat gun. so will make it do it and check with the figures quoted. my car is a 02 reg so was probably one of the last p38 made the rad is aluminium and the fan and wiring is definatley factory fit, with it not working i am wondering if it is restricting airflow because it covers a good 50% of the rad front,if i get no joy i will remove it and try it. will let you know.
 
hi wills i have printed off what you sent, going to have a good look tomorrow, my freind has a heat gun. so will make it do it and check with the figures quoted. my car is a 02 reg so was probably one of the last p38 made the rad is aluminium and the fan and wiring is definatley factory fit, with it not working i am wondering if it is restricting airflow because it covers a good 50% of the rad front,if i get no joy i will remove it and try it. will let you know.

hmmm, ok, i stand corrected and take back what i said. it appears that from 1999 onwards they DID use a fan on the auto gearbox radiator. I went through the electronic troubleshooting manual for vehicles from 99 onwards and this is what it said...

Gearbox Oil Cooler – Diesel
The gearbox cooling process relies mainly on ram air
entering through an aperture in the LH side of the
bumper moulding and is dispersed over the oil
cooler. The cooled oil is fed back to the automatic
gearbox via the return pipe, which is located parallel
to the feed pipe on the LH side on the automatic
gearbox.
A small electric fan is fitted to the front of the oil
cooler to cool the gearbox oil during long periods of
elevated gearbox oil temperatures i.e. during
extended idle in drive or low speed towing. A
gearbox oil temperature switch is fitted adjacent to
the warning light switch on the oil cooler. This switch
monitors the gearbox oil temperature. When the
gearbox oil temperature reaches 95  C ± 3  C the
switch provides the ground for the oil cooler relay
located in the engine compartment fusebox.
The relay receives a power supply on pin 86 from
shorting link 8 (J792) in the engine compartment
fusebox. The ground for the relay pin 85 is provided
through the gearbox oil temperature switch. The
relay therefore will not energise unless the gearbox
oil temperature switch reaches its defined limit of
95  C ± 3  C.
A separate power supply is connected to the relay
pin 30 from fuse F28 (30A). When the gearbox oil
temperature switch energises the relay, power is
routed via relay pin 87 to the electric fan located on
the front of the oil cooler.
As gearbox oil temperature decreases the oil
temperature switch deactivates the relay by breaking
the relay coil ground circuit. As the ground circuit for
the relay is interrupted, the power supply is
disconnected.
The ground for both the gearbox oil temperature
switch and the electric fan is via a ground point
(E0557).
So once again, sorry if I caused any confusion, should of asked the age of your vehicle first and then double checked the facts! Good luck though, this should give you some new leads to look at such as the relay and fuse F28, if either of these arent in good shape then the fan wont work.

Have you managed to download a copy of RAVE??

-Wills :)
 
hi wills, right then with your most recent info i think we are sorted out. took the car out today and would you beleive it wouldnt display message but drove around in slow traffic for half hour or more,i had the heat gun and kept checking but the highest reading i got was 71 degrees and other parts of the transmission was only reading 52 or so. took the car back to garage who lent me the gun and he said it must be faulty sensor like you first said, i said about the fan not working and he said its not getting hot enough to make the fan switch on. thanks ever so much for info and i will download RAVE whats the link i need? once again thanks for time you have spent on this matter.
 
first of all, do you have fog lights fitted in the bumper at the front??

if you do then thats your problem, the auto diesels were never designed for the front fog lights to be fitted into the bumper as the gearbox cooler is right behind the bumper on the passenger side where the fog light should go.

If not then have you checked the sensor?? I would begin with checking the sensor connections, make sure they are clean and making good contact. Next if its still bringing the message up get one of those gun infrared temp guns (not much from Maplins) and when its actually claiming that the box is overheating, stop, get out and check to see if it is overheating - i.e. check the gearbox radiator for its temp, also check the lines to and from it.

If its not overheating then you have a faulty temp sensor, if it is overheating then I would assume there may be a blockage somewhere at some point, probably in the gearbox rad.

Let us know how you get on.

-Wills :)
Please can you advise me how to fit new gearbox temperture sensor on my 2.5 Diesel P38?
 
I would suggest downloading RAVE so you know how to do things in future, or, at the very least, have a basic understanding of what you need to do before asking :)

To change the gearbox temp sensor - remove the front bumper, two bolts, two clips and then flip the wheel arch trims over the edges of the bumper and slide bumper off. locate sensor on side of rad, unscrew two screws, unplug sensor. refit is reverse of removal.

-Wills :)
 
I had a 2.5DSE on the road WITH FOGS, for 4 years and no trouble with gearbox cooling! Either cruising or towing.

When I first bought her, she had no fogs fitted, but it had blanking plates on both appertures...I had an intermittent gearbox overheat warning almost immediately during her test run before I bought her, but it turned out to be a faulty sensor. This was replaced...no problems thereafter, even after fitting the fog lights. Check your sensor!
 
Hi Guys.

This problem has just happened to me.

It there a way I can test the sensor form the connector? Or will I need to take the bumper off to get access?

Best wishes.
 
Ok, first of all, the gearbox rad should have NO electric fan. Its cooled by ram air only so it looks almost like someone has had problems and tried to throw something toghether as a fix.

The sensor is located on the rad from looking at RAVE (well it is on the V8 models, it doesnt say about the diesel models but if it was different I would of assumed it would say). You should grab yourself a copy of RAVE and look through the info in there for help. Get that from here.

According to the electronic troubleshooting manual that comes with RAVE the sensor connects to the wiring harness via connector C164 which is that connector you see if you open the bonnet and look on the side of the rad behind the power steering pump reservoir...

c164.jpg


and to show the entire circuit...

tscircuit.jpg


If the gearbox temp exceeds the acceptable temp (according to RAVE - 120-130*C) then the temp switch is earthed and the overheat message flashes up. This message clears when the fluid temp returns to between 82 and 88*C.

So, if it was me, I would follow the wires from the connector down to the rad and check the sensor is located and attached properly. Check the wiring to the sensor for any nicks or damage which could cause it to short out on something. If all appears fine I would honestly try the infrared temp gun thing to try and verify whether there is any overheating present or not. I used one to solve my engine overheating problems that I had recently. If it isnt electrical then I would seek the advice of a specialist s trying to diagnose something like this over the net without seeing teh vehicle is pretty difficult :(

Let us know how you get on or what you find...

-Wills :)

Post 99My modesl do have a cooling fan for the auto box oil cooler

The usual problem is a failure of the sensor located in the RAD:)
 
I would suggest downloading RAVE so you know how to do things in future, or, at the very least, have a basic understanding of what you need to do before asking :)

To change the gearbox temp sensor - remove the front bumper, two bolts, two clips and then flip the wheel arch trims over the edges of the bumper and slide bumper off. locate sensor on side of rad, unscrew two screws, unplug sensor. refit is reverse of removal.

-Wills :)


You can get at the rad and sensor from underneath without removing the bumper:)
 
Many thanks once again Datatek.

It has been 25 yrs since I worked my way around a car properly and taking on this p38 is bringing back lots of grey cells. Somtimes I take on a job without batting an eyelid then for some one to say it was a really big job to do and then there are the others like this job with the temp sensor that is so obvious and simple, and yet I ask for assistance.
Crazy. But again many thnaks for your assistance and all the others who have got me going.

My p38, today for the first time since getting it 8weeks ago is fully functioanl and a great drive.

Best wishes to all.
 
My 2001 diesel P38 developed the gearbox overheat message the last few days that's intermittent.
Strange thing is when it goes away without stopping the car if I pip the horn the message comes back up again.
After a while all is normal again and using the horn does not affect the gearbox message.

Any ideas? (Ps. I'm serious about the horn).
 
My 2001 diesel P38 developed the gearbox overheat message the last few days that's intermittent.
Strange thing is when it goes away without stopping the car if I pip the horn the message comes back up again.
After a while all is normal again and using the horn does not affect the gearbox message.

Any ideas? (Ps. I'm serious about the horn).

I can only think that the left hand horn is shaking something when activated, check all connections to the oil cooler temp sensor. And cooling fan.
 
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