Pain in the rear transmission service...

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I had the misfortune of having to service the transmission on a 2008 Land Rover Range Rover Sport yesterday. Besides the fact that you have to remove the passenger side cat and pipe, transmission cross member, and a bunch of other crap to get the pan off, I ran into another issue: you can't physically remove the pan even once everything is out of the way!

The ZF 6hp26 uses an integral plastic pan and filter assembly. That's right, the pan and filter are molded as one. Not a bad design in and of itself, but the issue is this: the neck of the filter is TOO LONG TO CLEAR THE VALVE BODY! The pan hits the (welded in) forward cross member before is clears. Couldn't be more than... 1/8 inch, but it won't clear. I even unbolted the passenger side engine mount and jacked everything as high as I was comfortable, no go. I broke the old one on removal, there was just no way to get it to clear.

I decided to do some digging, and boy am I glad I did. This is a COMMON complaint among the LR guys, apparently it's only the "Sport" model that has this issue. The solution? Surprisingly simple. Get parts from Ford!

Ford builds the 6R80 under license from ZF, and uses it in everything from F150's to Transit's. I ordered up a pan, filter, and gasket from the local dealer (all for LESS than the pan/filter combo costs). I used 21 new M6x20mm bolts with washers to compensate for the shallower pan rail, and torqued it to Ford spec vs. LR spec. The fluid capacity stayed about the same, the Ford pan may hold a half quart more or so.

We let the customer know all this ahead of time, and also let him know that as a bonus from now on he can just have the fluid and filter serviced, as the pan and gasket are reusable. He was thrilled, and spent less. It was a win-win, after all the aggravation.
 
Reminds me of the old joke:

Q: "Why do they serve beer warm in England?"
A: "Because the refrigerators are made in England."

And as a former Land Rover owner, I get the punchline well.
 
Even you pros sometimes have a learning curve!

This Youtube gentlemen shows using a hack saw to cut the filter tube off: @ min 9:00 + https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuaohqXnPM8

He also shows that Range Rover has a kit to replace that factory installed monstrosity: https://www.roverparts.com/Parts/ATFCK $124 for new pan and separate filter.

Seems that most vehicles have an Achilles heel or two when it comes to maintenance that should be easy. Gives us old duffers something to complain about. Thanks for sharing. Even though I will never own a Land Rover, this reminds me to always seek work-arounds for nasty maintenance jobs.
 
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