JATCO Transmission Troubleshooting

Freelanders are, well, let's just say "not a stranger" to transmission problems.  In the past, dealers usually respond to ANY problem with the Jatco Automatic as "you need a new transmission" regardless of what is even wrong with it. 

I spoke to a Jatco representative who claimed that almost NONE of the returned transmissions had a significant problem, if they had any problems at all. The most common failure is one or more electrical solenoids.  Land Rover dealers now have those solenoids available and they are anywhere from $35 to $55 each.  The problem is they are difficult to get to and time consuming, however it's much cheaper than a new transmission. With Freelanders coming off warranty, that means YOUR money.

The link below it to the troubleshooting process to determine if a solenoid is the failure in your transmission.  If the solenoid is NOT the problem, you probably have either an electrical control unit issue OR an internal failure. 

If you or your dealer put the wrong fluid in it, it's a fairly quick and permanent death- we've seen that before.  Some dealers STILL don't understand that it can't take anything other than the specified Texaco fluid and at least one dealer in VT has had to eat the cost of a new transmission because of it.

Jatco Automatic Electrical Troubleshooting Guide .pdf format