Technical Dualogic gear selection from cold start

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Technical Dualogic gear selection from cold start

PickleGP

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I'm having an intermittent problem with getting a gear on cold mornings from start-up. The symptoms don't quite match those I've seen posted on older threads. I would greatly appreciate any advice or suggestions.

The car is an 09 plate 1.4 Punto Grande Active with 5-speed Dualogic semi-auto box.

The car starts always starts without problem.

Normally there is no problem with putting the gear stick into Drive/Reverse and off it goes.

About 5%-10% of starts however putting the gear stick into Drive/Reverse results in an audible attempt by the car to select gear (with the window down I can hear the servos) but no gear is selected. The LCD gear indicator stays on N. At least once I know it was stuck in gear (we tried to push it,it was facing the wrong way for the towing arm and I'd called for a recovery).

There is no warning light on the dash cluster. There is no message displayed on the LCD panel on the dash cluster. An audible beeping alarm (the one you get if your start/stop the engine with the gear stick in the wrong position) comes on after about 5 seconds of trying to get a gear.

If you keep trying to select a gear, it eventually gets one. It could be the fourth or fortieth attempt.

Once it's got a gear it will keep on going,changing up and down the box without problem for the entire journey. The problem has only been observed from cold start, and usually only on cold and damp mornings/evenings.

I've taken it to the independent garage I've been using for years (non-specialist) and of course, the car behaved flawlessly. When they connect a code reader they get the following codes:

P060C Control unit faulty
P2916/P2914 Gearbox subsystem


But Fiat can't advise them what this means, I've known the garage owner for many years and he summarised the response he had from Fiat as, "Buggered if we know".

When I contact my local Fiat dealer (West's of King's Lynn - they were useless planks for Renault/Nissan, now they're the official useless planks for Fiat as well), I just get the helpful response,"We don't do automatics".


Any suggestions? - or names of Norfolk/Cambridgeshire dualogic specialists?
 
Good Luck, I've had this happen 3 times (only trying to select Reverse though) on my Bravo Dualogic after Desira Norwich have changed the clutch, clutch slave and clutch master cylinder, and they've given up on it. Potential legal action is still on-going atm. Except mine can happen when warm, like you put stick into gear, car sometimes tries, and then eventually beeps away with no codes stored on the ECU.

It may be worth changing the gearbox oil for some fresh stuff. Failing that, it'll be a main dealer only job TBH, and even then I suspect you won't get anywhere :bang:
 
Thanks for the response, I have this nagging idea that because it's primarily cold and damp starts from a cold engine that it might be a fluid-related issue.

I think we're stuffed when it comes to dealerships in the east for pretty much any marque. They're all a bit NFN.

I've heard there's an independent Alfa specialist in Norwich with a good reputation. I'm hoping the Selespeed-Dualogic overlap is strong enough.
 
I've heard there's an independent Alfa specialist in Norwich with a good reputation. I'm hoping the Selespeed-Dualogic overlap is strong enough.

Alfa Shop in Norwich are very good when I've used them for servicing of my Bravo. Also good with their knowledge on Alfa Selespeeds, so might be worth a try. Very friendly people who I can't recomend enough from personal experience, might be worth giving them a call? :)

http://www.alfashop.co.uk
 
Hi,

I own abarth 2010 with duallogic and have the same problem as well.

In the mornings, after a long weekend same scenario, pressing first gear and it is moving to N.

If you find a solution for the problem please share it, since our main dealer is about to replace half the gear :cry:

Thanks
 
hi ..i get the same problem sometimes! (when driving a warning come up) see transmission ..but car drives flawless always! to be honest i'm sick of this car & can't sell it in this state!!! think my dualogic control unit gets a glitch from time to time & if it is that ..it's expensive to replace! :bang:
 
After behaving itself for over a year it's playing up again. Dash shows "N", won't select any gear in A or M. Haven't tried rocking it yet to see if it's actually in N or if it's in gear. Never trust the dash indicator with this type of problem, it will show N if it's in error mode but you may have a gear selected - which is a bugger if you want to tow it or even just push it onto the road to make the recovery easier on a residential street.

Previously starting the car and letting it warm up made the problem go away - which made me think it was either a fluid viscosity problem (wrong fluid error by previous owner) or a damp in the electrics problem.

This time letting it warm-up isn't fixing things.

Getting the usual, "Check transmission - see handbook" message which is so unhelpful without an error code to search for.

Also noticed the boot lid warning lamp is coming on and I know I have a running lamp out. The lamp shouldn't cause a problem, but does the boot lid indicator shed any light on things? - although having driven with the boot lid tied down over an oversize filing cabinet I know this shouldn't prevent gear selection.
 
Did you ever get this resolved and if so what was the problem?
I had the garage change various fluids on the theory that it might have been that the original owner was confused and used a garage that treated it as an automatic rather than servo-assisted manual. But it's only ever manifested in cold, damp weather and clears up when the car warms up. Only a couple of blips this winter.

The running theories remain the same, either:
  • Fluid somewhere in the system is too viscous in cold weather, trips a safety sensor and loosens up when the car warms up; or
  • Damp gets into the electrics on cold, damp days but dries out when the car warms up.

Either way, starting the car and waiting five minutes for it to warm up has been the solution to date.
 
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I've had the same problem every winter since I've owned my 2008 GP Semi-Auto.
Usually within 5 minutes or so of starting it up it will find a gear (1st or reverse) but today I tried for 40 minutes with no luck before eventually giving up. I've called work and told them I can't make it in, called a garage, was about to call RAC but then tried it again and it worked first time :bang:

When going it's fine unless I have to brake sharply or put my foot right down, then it gets confused and throws itself into Neutral.

I don't know what to do now. It seems like I have a car that won't work until the temperature goes above 0 degrees. Which won't do seen as it's only November. If anyone has any suggestions I'd be hugely grateful.
 
Just curious to know how many times the dualogic robot has been serviced during its live ... Contaminants can make the hydraulic fluid strangely behaving in cold conditions, one of the first think I would recommend is to bring it to a true specialist and have the fluid entirely drained and replaced by fresh one. Nothing will last forever, 11 years old oil isn't certainly a good idea.
This was for the robot, but the gearbox oil itself can go bad and request too much effort for the robot that would consider this extra work as a failure and pop the "gearbox failure, check handbook" warning message.

BRs, Bernie

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