A fairly common problem on the L322 Range Rover’s is an oil leak from the electrical connector on the ZF 6HP gearbox
This is usually due to the seal on the connector housing, fortunately is is a quick, easy and cheap to replace this part!
This job does involve removing the sump, so you will need to drain the gearbox oil first. It is a good idea to replace the gearbox oil anyway – despite these gearboxes being officially ‘filled for life’ better shift quality and a longer lasting gearbox is reported when changing the oil regularly, many people recommend every 60,000 miles.
The sump is held on to the lower face of the gearbox with a number of bolts and can be removed from underneath without jacking the vehicle up, if you don’t mind clambering around on the floor.
With the sump of you should be presented with something that looks like this:-
You can see the electrical connector behind the shift cable (it’s the black bit with the wires going into it!) It can be unplugged rotating the collar anti-clockwise. Here it is unplugged:-
The black plastic connector sleeve left in the gearbox is the bit we need to replace. It has a couple of o-rings to seal it and these tend to fail with age, allowing oil to leak out past the sleeve. The sleeve is held in place with the white plastic clip highlighted with the red ring on the photo below. Squeeze the white tabs together and pull the clip downwards to release it, the connector sleeve can then be pulled out of the gearbox.
With the sleeve removed you should be left with something that looks like this:-
Fitting the new sleeve is the reverse of removal, make sure that the bore in the gearbox that the sleeve goes into is clean and lubricate the new sleeve o-rings with a bit of gearbox oil to aid fitting. With it slotted into place you should be able to push the white clip back to to secure it. Here are the old and new connector seals side-by-side (note the new sleeve has black o-rings instead of the red o-rings on the original part, this doesn’t affect the functionality!)
If you are struggling to find a replacement connector sleeve for a Range Rover try searching for other vehicles fitted with the same gearbox – it was also used in many Jaguars & BMWs as well as some Aston Martins, Rolls Royces and Bentleys (and some foreign market Hyundais and Kias!)
With the connector back together just bolt the sump back on and refill the gearbox oil (make sure you follow the correct procedure, there are plenty of descriptions of how to do this on the internet)
Note – I am not a Land Rover mechanic, information on this website is just from my experience – tinker with your own car at your own risk and only if you are confident in what you are doing!
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