Paranoid Newbie Or Autobox Problem?

[kelvin]

Hi. Newbie here. Advice/opinions would be welcome. Just bought a 2003 grand voyager, 92k. Seems very good for the year. Went well on the test drive and revved and changed gear as I would expect a 2.8 diesel to do, usually at about 2k revs.( Hills were encountered on the test drive.) Drove it home. First hour went really well. Second  hour- after going up one steep hill, it just seemed to change mode. After that even when driving on the flat it would then only change into top gear until afteer 60mph!   It revved to  about 3k to 4k before changing up.

It has no service history so timing belt and oil changes being done next week and I'm not using it until after that. (Oil on gearbox dipstick looked and smelt healthy.) Are these higher sort of revs normal? Surely not 'cos in the first hour it behaved really sweet. Or have I just got captain paranoia sitting on my shoulder?  

[crispinchurch]

my 2003 3.3 auto goes up to 4,500 even 5,000 rev before a change

done 179,000  chamge your filter and ATF+4 oil and only use ATF+4 oil  every 20,000 mile if not earlier

[bignev]

My 3.3 often won't hit top till at least 40mph on flat with very light throttle, not had a diesel.

 

But I presume you can get it to change up on the flat if you back off the throttle slightly?

[kelvin]

 Thanks very much guys for the feedback. Was backing off on the throttle to encourage a change up + I'm rarely heavy on any throttles but thanks for the suggestion.On the 2nd half of that 2 hour journey though  it wasn't changing up to top on the flat until about 60mph. 

 Re oil: Yes thanks I've read various threads here that warn about incorrect oil. Message received loud and clear. Can anyone recommend a supplier on the internet for ATF please.  I live out in the sticks. Regarding filters and spares generally. has anyone else read that the Range Rover and the Vauxhall Frontera used the 2.8 CRD motor? (Parts interchangeable and less expensive?)

Cheers

[bignev]

I recently had 5 litres ATF+4 and a Wix filter from ebay, seller usaparts_uk, for £58.

 

Does seem very odd to me about the gear change, mine "locks up" the torque converter around the 55 - 60 ish mph mark. But it doesn't have to rev that hard to change up with small throttle.

[soupstone]

Don't think the Range Rover or Frontera would have used the CRD. Range Rover did have a VM engine at some point in the past, don't know about the Frontera.

 

Never done it on the Grand Voyager, but I used to use Landrover fuel filters on 90's Audi/vws as they were cheaper. I got the part number off the filter, and googled equivilent to get other part numbers which lead to the cheaper filters. Just checked ebay, cheapest oil filter's £3.86 delivered, fuel filter £10.32. Don't know how much cheaper you would get. 

 

 

LDV might be an option, but I know the injectors were different shaped so there may have been other differences. 

When the timing belt went on my first CRD, I got most of the parts to repair from these people.

http://www.vmdieselspecialist.com/

On the auto front, generally, if I'm accelerating, mines is the same. Backing off a fraction gets it to go up.


 

Edited July 26, 2017 by soupstone

[GVCamper]

After a oil and filter swap on my box it holds top gear/lock up a whole lot better even if it's hilly.

[kelvin]

Thanks for the input guys.

Just to clarify, I meant that even when I backed off the throttle it still wouldn't change up into top..Anyway auto box oil change definitely the way forward.

Regarding recommended oils, in the 1970's people started putting the new multigrade oils in the old British motorbikes instead of the recommended monogrades. The problem was the new multigrades had detergents in them which washed out the crank sludge traps. Result.....bang.

Thanks again. I hope to be indulging in some trouble free motoring soon.