brown automatic gearbox fluid help!!!!!!

hi,i have a leak on my automatic gearbox cooler,its leaking brown oil out ,is it a bad sign being brown? i dont have any probs with gear change etc.
i am gonna get a new cooler and two new pipes during next week ,should i also buy the automatic gearbox service kit and drain plug too and change the gearbox oil if brown or shall i just do the cooler and pipes,

rangerovers are an expensive hobby!!!!!

thanks

The oil being brown means it's cooked. Suggest you replace it, together with the filter a.s.a.p. before the gearbox dies.

cheers i-r ,yer ive got brown oil seeping ever so slowly out of the g/box cooler,gonna get all the bits this week,is it 5 litres of dexon iii,anything i should know about problem wise before starting as i know you got the experiance m8y,

cheers

May as well get an extra 5lts of ATF and change the transfer box oil whilst you are underneath getting dirty. If it's really mucky, it may pay to drain the oil off first then top up with a cheaper ATF first then give the car a run to allow this to flush through the box. Then drain the oil out, clean the sump and replace the filter screen followed by refilling with the Dextron. Reason I say this is that a fair amount of the crap oil will be held in the torque convertor after you drain the box so if you can "dilute" the bad oil it will help.