RR 4.4 gear issue

[Wooden Horse]

Hi, just completed a round trip to Liverpool today and on the way back my RR would only go as high as 3rd gear. Left it for a while and is sort of cleared. It runs ok for a bit and then just drops to 3rd and sticks there. Anyone had this before?

[bigee]

The oil in the box is overheating so the car goes into a mode to protect itself,ie stays in a gear to hold higher revs to try and cool it down. well known problem,first thing to check/change would be the radiator itself which actually feeds the transmission cooler,if the rad is blocked/corroded (normally the bottom few rows) then the cooler does not have sufficient cooling hence the overheat/high revs.Either way have it checked out as a box rebuild is pretty painful.
Get over to Fullfat forum,loads of excellent advice.

[Wooden Horse]

Thanks for the information. I had a new rad radiator fitted in January. Looked at the FF website and it suggest sitting in a queue in drive could contribute to the issue, which is exactly what I did yesterday. It's ran fine today.

[IroningMan]

I knock autos into N whenever I would do the same in a manual - it's a useful habit and saves a smidgin of fuel as well as the wear and tear on the box.

[bigee]

This is good advice for any auto,not just Rangey's.

[bogie]

for a couple of hundred quid, might be worth getting the gearbox serviced ..I did that on my old 4.4.V8. Its supposed to be "sealed for life" but what that really means is that BMW were trying to get the fleet running costs down for business users on that box/engine

after 60 or 80K miles it could certainly do with oil/filter/magnets changing and will help keep things in good order....

[IroningMan]

Megaflush might be worth a Google. It's quite a challenge to change the fluid, but by all accounts very worthwhile, particularly if the box has overheated as per the OP.

[Wooden Horse]

Thanks for the advice.