Gearbox fault

Hi Guys,
My dad has a problem with his auto box on his series 2. When he left mine last night he started up like normal but both the green ''S'' & ''M'' Cogs were flashing on the dash. The car drove home fine and selected all the gears like normal. Could anyone shed some light on it? He has looked through his workshop manual and owners manual but that says its an electrical fault.

Thanks for any help

Rob

Have the lights gone off now?

Mine did this the other day but after a few minutes it re-set itself
and has been fine since

I've read it can be caused from selecting a gear whilst rolling or even pressing the key fob as you start the engine, it confuses the ECU

Apparently the system can rectify itself

mine did it to, auto es TD5 2001,soon cleared its self.

Usually its caused by the XYZ switch or gear position switch, its on the side of the gearbox and tells the ECU what gear you have selected. Usually when the marks and spencer lights (M&S geddit? doh!) come on, the gearbag will default to third as a limp home mode. This can also be caused by low battery voltage, so before spending your money, put it on charge over night then try it, if it happens again, you'll neeed to have the fault codes read. If the fault "position switch monitoring" is stored then the XYZ switch will need replacing.