[s-cars] Auto stuck in 1st

[Paul Heneghan]

Thanks for the replies chaps.

I've got a bit more information now. When it happened, I was away from
home, so I advised my wife to take it to a local garage where they've
helped me with a few things before.

When it arrived, they said it seemed to be very low on power and they had a
little difficulty reversing it into a parking space. The next day they
started it up and it seemed fine so they took it for a four mile drive and
it seemed OK. Very similar to an S2 that they happened to have in round
about the same time. Went up and down through the gears.

I've asked them to do a fluid replacement - best done on a hoist, also it's
freezing here at the moment so I'm not inclined to do it myself! They've
ordered a strainer and it will be here the week after next.

If anyone has any tips on the procedure for checking fluid levels or
draining/filling (no filler or tube on this car) that would be really
helpful. I'll fire up my old laptop and see if Bentley has any tips.

When I drove it home, I could tell that it wan't 100% happy. I could feel
the odd miss at low rpm under partial load. I'm now wondering if that could
be the root cause - an engine problem followed by limp mode (does an auto
box this old have one?). If it was struggling for power, it might not reach
the 4k revs needed to change from 1st to 2nd when it's cold.

Car has had new plugs (and timing belt) about 10k ago and is now at 145k.,

The garage pulled the codes and said there were a few trivial ones and one
serious one - engine sensor which they thought might be due to the engine
not running. I confirmed that this was the case. I have VAGCOM so I can
look for codes.

I won't be doing any work on it until the weather improves.