2011 TD4 auto box lost drive

Hello peoples, hope you're all good out there in internet land...
Trying to help someone stuck in Italy with an issue on his Freelander, having never owned one I'm not familiar with them. I asked what the symptoms were, I'll copy and past his reply:

Driving to Rome on the autostrada at about 120km/h the engine revs went through the roof and the gears started slipping until they were not engaged at all. There was also a transmission failure signal on the dashboard.

As far as I know, he had no other issues with the car and this came out of the blue... Do any of you wonderful people have any ideas?

Thanks in advance

At 2011 it is due it’s 10 year service which includes drain and refill the auto box fluid. It would be interesting to see what came out of it if anything. If it’s just had it’s 10 year service did they forget to tighten the drain?

As above. It sounds like there's no fluid in the gearbox.

Thanks guys, I asked the same question, trouble is he has absolutely no mech knowledge what so ever. I wanted to see if there were any common issues first before spending an hour or so on the phone talking him through the procedure....
Thanks guys, really appreciate it.

Rallymantony said:

Thanks guys, I asked the same question, trouble is he has absolutely no mech knowledge what so ever. I wanted to see if there were any common issues first before spending an hour or so on the phone talking him through the procedure....
Thanks guys, really appreciate it.

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OK the "no mech knowledge" approch, is there a sticky patch under the car?

Stv123 said:

OK the "no mech knowledge" approch, is there a sticky patch under the car?

Click to expand...

The car got towed after breaking down, he's looking for someone to send it to.

Rallymantony said:

The car got towed after breaking down, he's looking for someone to send it to.

Click to expand...

If the plug came out or it developed a serious leak probably still dripping. If he stopped it quickly enough he might get away with topping it up? Best place for it is in a garage.

Thank you peoples, I'll pass on the info.