P38 gear box oil overheating warning light

[Nanglebadger]

Evening folks,

wondering if anyone can help. My folks recently bought a 2001 P38 Autobiography model. She is consistently throwing up the gear box oil temperature warning light. This is going to sound like a daft question to you guys i'm sure (i'm a toyota man sorry) but where is the gear box oil dip stick, or is there even such a thing on this beast??

Apologies if this is something of a naive question but we are new to Range Rovers.

has anyone had this fault before?? my dad read somewhere that it could be an electrical problem of some description causing it.

any help/guidance/advice/constructive criticism whatsoever will be greatly appreciated folks, especially as we bought her for weather conditions like we're experiencing in the UK right now!

Many thanks,

Phil.

[Meeja]

From 2000 onwards, the dipstick and filler on the gearbox were removed!

Suspect you may need an indy to service it and perhaps change the gearbox oil?

[Nanglebadger]

grand dude thanks. we did have a good look for it, but that explains why we couldnt find it.

thanks for the input dude, i greatly appreciate it. I agree that she's going to have to go into see someone with some experience of them, just wanted to check to see if anyone on PH had encountered the issue before.

many thanks

Phil.

[eliot]

If the oil was low enough to overheat I would expect other symptoms such as slipping. For the inexperienced on an auto its difficult to perceive at first, but would be apparent under heavy acceleration when changing gear - it would sound like a manual gearbox if you were to let the clutch out very slowly allowing the engine to over rev. (if it is doing this, then take it very steady - as you will burn the clutches out and that requires a rebuild)

I not familiar with the trans cooler flow, but it probably goes through the radiator and perhaps into an auxiliary cooler then back to the box. I would check the coolant level and check the coolant colour (not red and oily) and perhaps the state of the fins and any debris blocking the air getting to the rads and any aux cooler.

You may be able to use a generic OBD2 scan tool (ELM327) to read the actual trans temp.

I assume you are not towing a 3 ton horse box etc.

[Nanglebadger]

thanks for the advice dude, i shall pass this on to my dad.

no, no towing going on at all. we encountered the regular issue with the air suspension being temperamental in the cold weather, she has barely turned a wheel in a few weeks but we have now resolved this.

many thanks for the advice Eliot, as i said, we are new to range rovers, and figured the best place to ask for advice was PH!!

cheers dude.

Phil.