'99 Disco II Transmission Gremlin

[pclloyd]

I recently purchased this vehicle for my son and am trying to work out the bugs. It has 117k on it and has been well taken care of throughout it's lifetime but I purchased it in the north and it has spent plenty of time on wet salty roads.

That said, my first transmission issue was with the simultaneous Manual Mode and Sport Mode lights flashing which was quickly cured by turning the vehicle off and restarting it.

Today, (of all places at the Land Rover garage where I was picking up a wheel nut) it wouldn't go into reverse and the red diodes alongside the selector either did not match up or were out all together. It would go into drive but did not show the gear selected in the dash. When I selected the Reverse position, the hill descent light came on.

I spoke with the service manager and got the confused $2k look from him so I decided to push the vehicle backwards so that I could exit their garage as quickly as possible.

It drives fine, shifts normally through all the gears and manually downshifts with the selector and when I stopped for coffee, I was able to select reverse momentarily - the lights were still not matching the gear selection but it tells me that it is an electronic issue and not a mechanical issue.

My question for the helpful experts is where should I start with a diagnostic? I have downloaded the workshop manual and will try to locate the EAT ECU and check the connectors and do the same with the Gear Position Switch Connector.

Also, do these parts fail and require replacement?
Can I dismantle and clean the Gear Position Switch?
If I am going to replace these parts one-by-one, which should I start with?

Thank you for your insights!
Peter Lloyd

[Disco Mike]

First thing to do is check, clean and tighten you battery cables and grounds. Then go get your voltage checked at a local parts store, looking for voltage between 13.6 and 14.4 volts.
If the voltage is OK then you may want to talk with a tranny shop about the XYZ switch to have it checked.

[pclloyd]

I will follow your suggestions and post the results here.