What sort of masochist buys a Smart with a broken autobox?

[scaryoldcortina]

OK, put the gear sensor back so it's reading neutral while actually in neutral, car still doesn't want to play - transmission data implausible during self test it says.

 

Running a full scan and clear again at the mo.

[0ldCh0d]

I will offer my 2 cents worth here, But, I had a very similar thing happen on my old 2001 Mercedes clk 320, When it was code read, it came up with "Transmission Implausible" plus other shit.  It turned out it was the gearbox conductor plate that was at fault. It it an electrical part thing, Look up Mercedes 722.6 transmission conductor plate to see what i am talking about.

I will be getting this done on my 430 Soon.

 

Oh...It also needed new transmission fluid (From Mercedes), as the box is NOT 'sealed for life' as Mercedes said.

 

It may not be what is wrong with your car, but because it was Mercedes influenced, might be worth a look? 

[Eddie Honda]

 

Is it's an automated manual like the jazz I shit ?

Yeah, that's exactly what it is!

 

AMTs are such a pile of wank.

[SiC]

Crikey, I've spent years thinking that all this modern electrickery is black magic, but seeing it taken apart methodically by someone who knows what they're doing makes it almost seem straightforward !

 

Is there a "Modern car electrics/electronics for Neanderthals " type book around ?

Most of these robo-box's aren't that complex. Basically get a manual gearbox (most are originally just that), instead of the gear linkage, replace it with some motors to more the selector forks back and forth. Then get another motor in a box to push the clutch in and out. Finally connect some sensors on so the computer knows where everything is.

 

The gearbox on the ForTwo and Roadster is apparently a 3 speed box with overdrive.

 

The acutator on this look pretty much the same as the normal Smart.

[Asimo]

Should those potentiometers have a 10 degree dead patch? I think that is unlikely. A potentiometer output is going to get digitised and used by the controller. It would be difficult and daft to design it to work with a dead area in the pot's travel.

 

edit- reading your post again, if the dead area is outside the normal operating range it won't matter.

[scaryoldcortina]

The operating range seems to be about 270° so the dead patch is probably completely normal.

 

Can't seem to get it to clear the codes and do an adaption though, even though the live data looks plausible and the car is now in neutral the controller is still having a hissy fit and refusing to try.

[beko1987]

Wtf am I reading? Is this what owning shite has come to? Have you tried hammering a smaller sensor over it?

[SiC]

Tried the old trick of power cycling by disconnecting the battery?

 

That's what the old owner did to clear the gear fault on mine. Different ECU I know, but I bet similar software underneath.

[twosmoke300]

Neutral position maybe ?

[scaryoldcortina]

It's what it will come to soon - automated manuals are getting more common, so I thought it was a good idea to get one to play with that nobody needs to drive to work in tomorrow and doesn't matter too much if I break it.

 

edit

 

SiC - yes, I power cycled it, and the battery is off the car again anyway. TBH you have no choice because the battery and tray are mounted over the top of the gearbox.

 

twosmoke - car is now in neutral, and the motor and sensor read the correct positions for neutral. (neutral is 42° on drum 1 and 103° on drum 2.)

[twosmoke300]

Great idea . I'd love to do stuff like that but I'm so snowed under with normal , boring work I just couldn't fit it in

[scaryoldcortina]

I'd love a book full of normal boring work! It's so quiet I'd take a fortnight off if I could afford it.

[twosmoke300]

Shall I ship some up to you . ? 😄

[twosmoke300]

I'm booking a month ahead at the moment 😔

[scaryoldcortina]

If only you could post cars!

 

How do you advertise? I've been using mostly cards and word of mouth, but that's obviously not bringing in enough work. I do have a good pool of regulars, but all the new trade seems to end up somewhere else.

[twosmoke300]

Just a board at the local rugby club ( gets me two free memberships too ) and 100 quid or so on the mini juniors training kit .

[twosmoke300]

I also get a fairly steady stream of foreign workers cars from the big farm whose hi luxes I do .

[Noel Tidybeard]

Convert it to a Sturmey-Archer three speed.

 

peasant! sturmey archer 4 speed FTW

[scaryoldcortina]

Yes, I used to have a large number of eastern european factory workers bringing their cars but since the factories shut and production moved abroad none of them live round here any more. I think most of the problem stems from that - there are very few jobs around here now (the local council was the other major employer and they've shed 3000 staff in 5 years) and my retired/disabled customers have largely given up driving because they can't afford it anymore.

 

I'm hoping the new class VII MoT station brings in some work vans and pickups from the army of newly self employed ex factory workers....

[DodgeRover]

Can you advertise on any of your local Facebook groups?

[scaryoldcortina]

I don't do Facebook, but my daughter advertises her pet sitting/dog walking business there. She says in a year it hasn't generated a single actual job but plenty of timewasting enquiries.

[DodgeRover]

That sounds feasible about Facebook unfortunately

How about cards in the local shop windows?

 

Are you MOTing many builders/ tradesmans vans? Down here I often get asked on site who I take my van to as so many places leave you with the feeling you've just been done...

 

How about the local car sales yards - could you pick up any work fault finding for them?

[CreepingJesus]

I definitely wouldn't waste time trying to generate work thro FB: it's stacked against you so you have to pay, and pay again. Probably great if you're MegaCorp, otherwise nope.

 

I like your approach to solving this problem, I look forward to seeing how you crack it.

[fraser.innes.3]

I don't do Facebook, but my daughter advertises her pet sitting/dog walking business there. She says in a year it hasn't generated a single actual job but plenty of timewasting enquiries.

I advertise my villa in Florida on 4 groups on Facebook and have got £10000 worth of bookings through them this year. You just need to be on the right groups, so don't discount them.

 

Sent from my HUAWEI M2-A01W using Tapatalk

[SiC]

What's your internet presence like? Registered on Google Places and Google+ (helps on rankings)? Plenty of 5 star reviews? Doing a search for car repair, car mechanic, etc in Incognito mode show your business up?

[scaryoldcortina]

I'm just discussing that with my daughter as it happens!

 

 

Back to the original topic though, I was just looking through the scant data I have got and I found something interesting. There is a fusebox attached to the battery strap, and one of the fuses in it powers the EPS and the gearbox motors but not the sensors or the ECU. The only other permanant fault code is the EPS complaining about low power....

[scaryoldcortina]

Something else occured to me while wondering why it would pop a fuse.

 

 

Does this sensor look like it's spent 60k miles and 10 years living on the end of a gearbox? I think someone already changed it. The battery tray and gearbox mount came undone rather easily too, and the original list of codes does include some gearbox adaption limit reached and out of range codes....

 

Hmm. I know what I'm doing in the morning!

[SiC]

Popped a fuse, or dodgy contact/cracked fuse wire?

 

How old is the battery? Maybe some one caught and dropped a socket on the fuse while changing the battery? Given by the pictures online of the positive terminal show it close to the terminal bolt.

 

Is the gear change motor receiving any power when trying to change gear?

[scaryoldcortina]

I realized while looking at the fuse diagram that I haven't heard the motors move at all. I haven't checked for power yet, today was all diganostic data and physical testing.

 

The fuses are under a plastic cover on the side of the +ve battery connector.

 

Basically, I'm hoping that the original problem was a failing position sensor causing the gearchange motors to jam and pop the fuse. Someone else already bought the expensive sensor and fitted it but didn't know about the 20p fuse. Without power to the motors the car can't do the adaptions and therefore won't clear the code.

[Guest Hooli]

It'll be a result if it's as cheap as that to fix.