My P38 is reluctant to select gears

[mulsanne]

Hi fellas
Just clocked up 6 months ownership in my 1999 4.6 auto P38, loving every minute and getting to know its peculiarities. This weekend I started up from cold and put selector in reverse, but got no drive at first. Changed to P, D then back to R a few times and the car reluctantly started moving but with the feel you get in a manual gearbox when the clutch is slipping. It's done this each time I've driven the car since.

Forward is not so bad and when the car is warm, it's not noticeable at all. I'm not familiar with auto boxes in general let alone this one, my question is how serious might this be. Could it be just low oil level? I have no gearbox filler/dipstick on this model so checking levels is less easy. Rangerovers.net show how to cahange filter and refill, should I try this as a first action?

It's a really good car in all the other ways, so it would be a shame if this is an indication of something serious. Your comments or advice would be very welcome.

Thanks
Mark

[Denis O]

Gearbox oil & filter change is a good place to start. It's a service item on the P38, every 24k if I remember correctly, but often gets overlooked. When was yours last done?

Give that a bash and see if things improve.

If not prepare for a wallet bashing.