Transmission Issue? Range Rover 2010 5.0 S/C
Discussion
Hi All,
I'm trying to figure out what's wrong with my Range Rover.
On Friday, driving home from work I put it into sport mode to pull out of an awkward junction. It pulled away fine in 1st (up to about 6,500 rpm and then changed into 2nd), but then in 2nd gear it got stuck at about 4,000 rpm. It didn't rev higher, and then ultimately the gear changed to 3rd.
I tested this again yesterday morning and the same thing happened. The car was otherwise running fine, smooth gear changes, but just this issue when planting foot. No warning lights, no limp home mode, so I figired I'd drop it into the specialist on Monday.
40 mins later, the engine cuts out. I glided the car to a stop, put it in park and then restarted it. Car then runs fine for about 200 metres. Engine cuts out again. A bit more of a struggle to start it this time. This happens about 3 or 4 more times until I crawl the car to a carpark to have it towed.
I'm not sure whether it's a transmission issue, a fuel issue, or an electrical/ECU issue.
Salient Facts:
- 2010 Range Rover (Big Body)
- 5.0 S/C
- 160,000 kms
- mostly urban driving (80/100kmh max, max revs approx. 2,500 rpm usually)
- no warning lights or messages
- car running smoothly and normally otherwise
- been using Sasol 95 unleaded recently (never used it before)
- haven't been filling the car up much recently because of short distance journeys so it's been running on 1/4 tank mostly.
- when it cut out yesterday it was at 29km range on the trip computer (was about to get fuel).
I'm trying to figure out what's wrong with my Range Rover.
On Friday, driving home from work I put it into sport mode to pull out of an awkward junction. It pulled away fine in 1st (up to about 6,500 rpm and then changed into 2nd), but then in 2nd gear it got stuck at about 4,000 rpm. It didn't rev higher, and then ultimately the gear changed to 3rd.
I tested this again yesterday morning and the same thing happened. The car was otherwise running fine, smooth gear changes, but just this issue when planting foot. No warning lights, no limp home mode, so I figired I'd drop it into the specialist on Monday.
40 mins later, the engine cuts out. I glided the car to a stop, put it in park and then restarted it. Car then runs fine for about 200 metres. Engine cuts out again. A bit more of a struggle to start it this time. This happens about 3 or 4 more times until I crawl the car to a carpark to have it towed.
I'm not sure whether it's a transmission issue, a fuel issue, or an electrical/ECU issue.
Salient Facts:
- 2010 Range Rover (Big Body)
- 5.0 S/C
- 160,000 kms
- mostly urban driving (80/100kmh max, max revs approx. 2,500 rpm usually)
- no warning lights or messages
- car running smoothly and normally otherwise
- been using Sasol 95 unleaded recently (never used it before)
- haven't been filling the car up much recently because of short distance journeys so it's been running on 1/4 tank mostly.
- when it cut out yesterday it was at 29km range on the trip computer (was about to get fuel).
Jaybmw said:
Fuel surge I'd say.. that big girl is demanding serious fuel and gravity I'd imagine played a factor here
The car cut out on a steep hill, as well as at the top, so the fuel situation makes sense (the car's also 10 years old, so maybe there's stuff in the bottom of the fuel tank that's part of the problem - especially with South African quality of fuel).What doesn't make sense to me with my limited knowledge of this stuff is why, before all of this happened, I was having an issue with the car getting stuck at 4,000rpm in 2nd gear when flooring it.
Would that be associated with the lack of fuel too?
smjhb-123 said:
The car cut out on a steep hill, as well as at the top, so the fuel situation makes sense (the car's also 10 years old, so maybe there's stuff in the bottom of the fuel tank that's part of the problem - especially with South African quality of fuel)
The devil is often in the detail, you would have been better offering up this information in your first post.I went out to a breakdown recently where the car had failed to restart in a car park after being parked not long before. The car just turned over and over, the fuel gauge was reading around half a tank, but the driver did offer up the information that the fuel gauge plays up and had been subject to a wiring repair in the past. He didn't have a clue really how much fuel as in the car, all he knew is that he'd put a tenner in a couple of days ago but had done three 20? mile round trips since then. He seemed to be relying on the fact that it was a 60mpg car!!! Upon further questioning it turned out that it had been a bit difficult to start at the chip shop and wasn't running quite right on the short drive to the car park. Sure enough, five litres of diesel added to the tank, a bit of priming and she was up and running again. The moral of the tale, for whatever reason, don't run a car so low on fuel that it can become a problem.
smjhb-123 said:
What doesn't make sense to me with my limited knowledge of this stuff is why, before all of this happened, I was having an issue with the car getting stuck at 4,000rpm in 2nd gear when flooring it.
If the fuel pressure isn't high enough it'll go into a limited mode temporarily to stop it leaning out. Chances are it was fast enough in 1st not to matter, but second is a few more seconds.Hopefully it's a sensible fix for you.
Okay, so as an update (to try and be useful), and a follow-up question (sorry, this is a bit long):
So the other day when the issue happened I was in a very bad neighbourhood so I got the insurance company to send security and a tow truck. The insurance policy states that they'll tow the car to the closest authorised dealership. They towed it to a Main Land Rover dealership on the opposite side of town (I'd rather have had it towed to a specialist nearer where I live, but hey!)
After the advice that everyone has given me on this thread (and chatting to a few other people), yesterday I decided to go down to the dealership with a can of petrol, fill the car up some more, drive it around the carpark a bit to make sure it wasn't cutting out, and then drive it to my preferred specialist to give it a look at (and clean any dirty filters, etc if necessary).
To cut to the chase, the mechanic at this main dealer tells me that he thinks it's a coolant issue, rather than a fuel/transmission issue (although he wasn't able to plug the car into the computer for a fault code reading, because it's been a public holiday here and they were understaffed - this can only be done Weds).
He shows me that the coolant level is low in the bottle (it was - I had topped it up the other day, but I hadn't checked it over the past few weeks because I had just topped it up, and there were no low-level warning lights).
- There's a tiny leak in the top of the coolant bottle (near the cap, around the bolt that bolts it to the car, so it looks like minimal evapourating coolant, rather than a constant leak out the bottom, etc).
- When he took the plastic cover off the engine, there were a few red speckles/splashes of the coolant on the front end of the engine just underneath where the plastic engine cover sits (radiator side, not windscreen side of the engine).
- He says it's probably the coolant water pump that sits there (either the pump leaking or a pipe/attachment).
He says that he thinks THIS is what's causing the problem. Apparently, the engine could have been cutting off before as it might sense that the engine MIGHT overheat?
I mean, I feel like the explanations that everyone else gave on this thread sound more legitimate than this?
Any thoughts/pearls of wisdom?
So the other day when the issue happened I was in a very bad neighbourhood so I got the insurance company to send security and a tow truck. The insurance policy states that they'll tow the car to the closest authorised dealership. They towed it to a Main Land Rover dealership on the opposite side of town (I'd rather have had it towed to a specialist nearer where I live, but hey!)
After the advice that everyone has given me on this thread (and chatting to a few other people), yesterday I decided to go down to the dealership with a can of petrol, fill the car up some more, drive it around the carpark a bit to make sure it wasn't cutting out, and then drive it to my preferred specialist to give it a look at (and clean any dirty filters, etc if necessary).
To cut to the chase, the mechanic at this main dealer tells me that he thinks it's a coolant issue, rather than a fuel/transmission issue (although he wasn't able to plug the car into the computer for a fault code reading, because it's been a public holiday here and they were understaffed - this can only be done Weds).
He shows me that the coolant level is low in the bottle (it was - I had topped it up the other day, but I hadn't checked it over the past few weeks because I had just topped it up, and there were no low-level warning lights).
- There's a tiny leak in the top of the coolant bottle (near the cap, around the bolt that bolts it to the car, so it looks like minimal evapourating coolant, rather than a constant leak out the bottom, etc).
- When he took the plastic cover off the engine, there were a few red speckles/splashes of the coolant on the front end of the engine just underneath where the plastic engine cover sits (radiator side, not windscreen side of the engine).
- He says it's probably the coolant water pump that sits there (either the pump leaking or a pipe/attachment).
He says that he thinks THIS is what's causing the problem. Apparently, the engine could have been cutting off before as it might sense that the engine MIGHT overheat?
I mean, I feel like the explanations that everyone else gave on this thread sound more legitimate than this?
Any thoughts/pearls of wisdom?
smjhb-123 said:
Apparently, the engine could have been cutting off before as it might sense that the engine MIGHT overheat?
I can't see this myself (I have the same car btw). It's only going to take action if & when it gets to a pre-determined temperature and not because it thinks there is a small water leak which might get worse.For a bit of similar context, my previous L322, with the AJV8 petrol engine, shot a hose off the bottom of the engine and basically dumped all the coolant very quickly. Fortunately I was on a roundabout and the first I knew of it was when the viscous fan kicked in and made a hell of a row. That made me stop to find out why; by the time I stopped the engine was noticeably very hot already. The temperature gauge didn't move from dead normal (I'm told the sensor is in a plastic housing therefore only measure actual coolant temp, and if the engine overheats due to no coolant then the temperature gauge won't register the problem!
). Hi All,
Just to close this out, in case it helps anyone else in the future:
As I previously mentioned, I intended to go and pick up the car from the dealership where it had been towed so that I could fill it up with fuel and then drive it to the specialist repair centre that I usually use to address the coolant issue.
As it happens, by pressure testing the coolant pump, the mechanics at the dealership pretty much destroyed the pump, so I wasn't able to drive the car anywhere (there was a coolant lake underneath my car - I didn't want to risk overheating it and causing damage).
They stated that the bottle, the pump, and a pipe connecting to the top radiator would need replacing, and that this was the cause of the problems that I have been having.
They carried out the work, I now have the car back in my possession, and all of the previously mentioned issues seem to have gone away.
Turns out that it actually was the coolant issue, rather than transmission or fueling.
Just to close this out, in case it helps anyone else in the future:
As I previously mentioned, I intended to go and pick up the car from the dealership where it had been towed so that I could fill it up with fuel and then drive it to the specialist repair centre that I usually use to address the coolant issue.
As it happens, by pressure testing the coolant pump, the mechanics at the dealership pretty much destroyed the pump, so I wasn't able to drive the car anywhere (there was a coolant lake underneath my car - I didn't want to risk overheating it and causing damage).
They stated that the bottle, the pump, and a pipe connecting to the top radiator would need replacing, and that this was the cause of the problems that I have been having.
They carried out the work, I now have the car back in my possession, and all of the previously mentioned issues seem to have gone away.
Turns out that it actually was the coolant issue, rather than transmission or fueling.
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