Automatic Gaerbox problems

Can anyone help? I have a petrol V8 classic with an automatic gearbox. I live on a hill, and park facing downhill, when I leave home in the morning the car will not change up out of first gear on the short journy to work.
I park on a level car park at work, and when I leave work the gearbox works fine. I've checked the oil levels in the box and they are ok.
Doese anyone know what maybe causing the problem?

Wow that seems really strange.
i would have suggested oil, but you say you have checked it.
I so not wish to try to tell granny how to suck eggs but how did you do it?
In some cases there is a sequence to check the oil.

Engine running vehicle in Park.
move selector through the gears (p,r,n,d,3,2,1,2,3,d,n,r,p) and repeat 3 times leaving it in each possition in each gear for a second. then dip the oil.
It could also be that the oil needs changing possibly.

I have not worked on any RR auto's but hope this helps a little.
I will keep thinking too, hope you find an answer

What box you got Darren?
Three Speed 'TorqueFlite' or four speed 'ZF'?
It is a bit wiered, but knowing which unit you have would be a start.
Now, sounds daft, BUT have you checked the linkage?
Rover used either rod or cable linkages between lever and box, at different times. I think that most of the ZF boxes got cables, and they are renowned for going slack and giving grief.

Consider: Drive home, park on hill, put on transmission brake, gravity conspires to pull landy down hill, but is restrained by the tranny brake. That in turn loads the gearbox mounts, and there is a small 'twist' between box and chassis. That 'twist' puts a strain on one or other of the cables, so when you go to engage drive in the morning, you are pulling from a different possition than the one you expect, and are possibly putting it in 1st, not drive. Anomalouse, becouse you would have thought that in that case you would have had to be in Drive, not park to begin with, But, if you have tension on one cable and slack on the other, not necesserily so! On a level carpark, parking wont pull the selecot cable, so it goes into D allright.

I dont KNOW that this is the problem, but I'm giving ideas of what kind of spuriouse effects you can get.

Another one might be that you have a leaking torque converter seal. In which case, parked over night, you may be loosing fluid, or if the fluid has already got to a minumum level, just be settling away from the vanes.

When you start up, the fluid is a bit thick and becouse there isn't much of it, it doesn't give sufficient pressure to latch another gear.

Leave it on the flat, and the level settles and effectively goves you more fluid, and the thing works fine.

And, on the 3-speed, you actually have three wet multiplate clutches in the box, which again, starved of oil over night by being left at an angle, amy be sticking closed, again preventing the selector mech up shifting.

Just Ideas, I think an Auto-Trans specialist is probably your best bet - there aren't many 'simple' things you can actually check for from the outside.

Best of luck.

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