1997 BMW 740i Shifts into drive and dissangages

[Cuentas]

Hello everyone, hopefully I can get some feedback before I spend tons of money on my vehicle. Only has 85000 miles by the way, im the second owner.
Here is where it started. A few months ago it started to get COLD in Houston. I would start the car and put it in reverse worked fine and backed out of my drive way put into 1st and fine but it wouldnt come out of first until it warmed up a bit. So for now on I would just let my car warm up for 5 mins and everything is fine. I decided to do a drain and fill with proper CASTROL Import Trans Fluid LT71141 and refilled it properly with car on and went through all the gears, topped it off till it poured out, car was leveled. Didnt make much difference but I thought it would help. The fluid that I drained out was not burnt or didnt smell burnt at all. I drive the car about 120 miles each day back and forth to work. No problems. Yesterday I drove to work 60 miles and I always back in to my parking spot. When I put it in reverse it felt like the parking brake was pressed down, like I was forcing it to go backwards. So I put into drive, move forward a bit and back into reverse and everything was fine. 10 hours later when I get off, I let it warm up and put it into Drive, I gave it gas and felt like it was slipping as its moving forward. My cluster is not working very well i cant really make out what it says, but im pretty sure it went into SAFE MODE. I didnt want to drive it like that so I had it towed to my house. Parked it, disconnected the battery overnight.
I turned it on and let it warm up, put into reverse and works fine. I put into DRIVE and takes about 1 second to engage and it engages into gear and then lets go. I rev it up and forces it to engage again, but this time its a hard engagement into gear and then it lets go again, goes into safe mode. I tried all the gears and even in manual mode also, same thing. From all the videos I have watched, im thinking its the pressure solenoids. I checked the fluid level and its full when I take the drain plug out, fluid comes out. Again fluid is light brown translucent, no water in it and does not smell burnt, burnt. Please help me..... Thank you.

[goinstrong]

Are you checking the fluid with the engine running and the A/C compressor on? I couldn't tell from your post. If not, try that with the transmission temp about 100 degrees roughly, so not fully warmed up. Ask me how I know. It sounds like you are low on fluid, but also make sure your battery is fully charged and actually holds a charge. Again, ask me how I know. Haha!

[Cuentas]

Same thing. I ordered transmission kit and solenoids.

[racer2086]

I wish you did a search before just changing transmission fluid. The car is supposed to hold gear when it is cold until 30mph to help the cats warm up quicker. There was nothing wrong in the first place.

My guess is you refilled the transmission but it's still low. You must go through the gears but the fluid can't be warmer than 50*C when topping off. I would check the fluid level again at the right temperature and I would strongly consider using the proper zf lifeguard fluid since your transmission is low miles.