Technical p1818
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Technical p1818
p1818 is an electrical control / pressure sensor issue. It could be the sensor, wiring or the battery beginning to fail. What year is the car and how old is the battery?
Hello! I had the same problem (gearbox going into neutral and only error P1818) and I found the solution! After removing the actuator has found that it needs cleaning. The actuator has a valve (part number 71732919), around this valve accumulates a lot of dirt and oil. After cleaning the actuator gearbox works perfectly! All work was carried out in the official Fiat service and cost 50 £. Hope I helped you 
PS Sorry for my English.
PS Sorry for my English.
Hello! I had the same problem (gearbox going into neutral and only error P1818) and I found the solution! After removing the actuator has found that it needs cleaning. The actuator has a valve (part number 71732919), around this valve accumulates a lot of dirt and oil. After cleaning the actuator gearbox works perfectly! All work was carried out in the official Fiat service and cost 50 £. Hope I helped you
PS Sorry for my English.
Which actuator? There are normally several iirc.
Actuator and valve (solenoid) on this picture
Hope you guys don't mind me bumping this thread, but I just wanted to give some additional info re. this issue. I found this topic through google and it helped me a great deal - hopefully others with the same problem will find it as well.
A few days ago I had the exact some problem (fault code P1818), gearbox going into N on the highway in automatic modus etc. The Fiat-dealer quoted me 1300 EUR for replacement of basically the whole big gearbox component in evg's picture and after I found this thread, I took the car to an independent Fiat-specialist who confirmed evg's story about the actuator being stuck.
What happens is that somewhere halfway down the middle in the gearbox, an oil seal of the gear rod fails and oil leaks into the other part of the gearbox and in the actuator as well, which leads to the actuator rod seizing.
You can remove it and clean it, my mechanic chose to drill a very small hole in the actuator and spray brake cleaner through it long enough for the actuator rod to start moving smoothly again. By drilling a hole in the actuator, the idea is that any excess oil will not have the chance to accumulate in it again, but worst case scenario is that I need a new actuator in the future (around 250 EUR in The Netherlands).
A permanent solution would of course be to replace the whole part but it is an expensive parts and stories about the problem occuring after a short time again float around the net as well.
Hope it helps.
A few days ago I had the exact some problem (fault code P1818), gearbox going into N on the highway in automatic modus etc. The Fiat-dealer quoted me 1300 EUR for replacement of basically the whole big gearbox component in evg's picture and after I found this thread, I took the car to an independent Fiat-specialist who confirmed evg's story about the actuator being stuck.
What happens is that somewhere halfway down the middle in the gearbox, an oil seal of the gear rod fails and oil leaks into the other part of the gearbox and in the actuator as well, which leads to the actuator rod seizing.
You can remove it and clean it, my mechanic chose to drill a very small hole in the actuator and spray brake cleaner through it long enough for the actuator rod to start moving smoothly again. By drilling a hole in the actuator, the idea is that any excess oil will not have the chance to accumulate in it again, but worst case scenario is that I need a new actuator in the future (around 250 EUR in The Netherlands).
A permanent solution would of course be to replace the whole part but it is an expensive parts and stories about the problem occuring after a short time again float around the net as well.
Hope it helps.
Thanks for posting this information, this was what finally persuaded me to check inside the black cover, this is how it affected my car (twinair with dualogic).
Symptoms: Gears unavailable message when stationary and stuck in neutral, randomly getting stuck in gear under braking with no throttle and then gears unavailable message and stuck in neutral when stopped. This mostly happened from a cold start and when the car had been running for less than 30 minutes, dependent on outside temperature.
DTCs: P060A, P2917, P2916, P1742 in various combinations.
Cause: There is a small aluminium piston in a bore behind the black cover at the back of the actuator near the bulkhead (see picture in post #6 above). It needs to be able to move backwards and forwards freely as this motion is the same as moving the gearstick in a manual car from side to side to align to 1st or 2nd, 3rd or 4th, 5th or reverse. If there is dirt in the bore, movement is not free resulting in incorrect location of the piston and hence the failure.
Solution: I flushed it out with a can of brake cleaner and then regreased the pins before closing it up again. I also removed the solenoid from the side of the bore and cleaned that, if you do this be careful not to lose the little spring from inside.
Considerations: My car is almost 5 years old and started having this problem a couple of months ago. My wife has the same car and had the same issue just after she purchased it at just over 3 years old and 13,000 miles. The actuator on my wife's car was replaced under warranty, but it probably just needed cleaning. I don't believe a drop of oil in the bore would cause an issue, but there was a lot of aluminium sludge caused by wear from the back and forth movement. It is a simple job to do and so for me, I will just check / clean / regrease as required once a year.
Hope this helps others with dualogic issues.
Symptoms: Gears unavailable message when stationary and stuck in neutral, randomly getting stuck in gear under braking with no throttle and then gears unavailable message and stuck in neutral when stopped. This mostly happened from a cold start and when the car had been running for less than 30 minutes, dependent on outside temperature.
DTCs: P060A, P2917, P2916, P1742 in various combinations.
Cause: There is a small aluminium piston in a bore behind the black cover at the back of the actuator near the bulkhead (see picture in post #6 above). It needs to be able to move backwards and forwards freely as this motion is the same as moving the gearstick in a manual car from side to side to align to 1st or 2nd, 3rd or 4th, 5th or reverse. If there is dirt in the bore, movement is not free resulting in incorrect location of the piston and hence the failure.
Solution: I flushed it out with a can of brake cleaner and then regreased the pins before closing it up again. I also removed the solenoid from the side of the bore and cleaned that, if you do this be careful not to lose the little spring from inside.
Considerations: My car is almost 5 years old and started having this problem a couple of months ago. My wife has the same car and had the same issue just after she purchased it at just over 3 years old and 13,000 miles. The actuator on my wife's car was replaced under warranty, but it probably just needed cleaning. I don't believe a drop of oil in the bore would cause an issue, but there was a lot of aluminium sludge caused by wear from the back and forth movement. It is a simple job to do and so for me, I will just check / clean / regrease as required once a year.
Hope this helps others with dualogic issues.
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Hi,
I serviced the Dualogic thoroughly replacing all the o-rings and changing the oil. It worked very well for 10 days and now I got the problem described here: gearbox into neutral and fault code P1818. When I scanned I saw that before this code was the P1810. Can any of you guys show the picture on post #6 because I cannot see it.
Thanks a lot.
I serviced the Dualogic thoroughly replacing all the o-rings and changing the oil. It worked very well for 10 days and now I got the problem described here: gearbox into neutral and fault code P1818. When I scanned I saw that before this code was the P1810. Can any of you guys show the picture on post #6 because I cannot see it.
Thanks a lot.
(Re: p1818
Hi,
I serviced the Dualogic thoroughly replacing all the o-rings and changing the oil. It worked very well for 10 days and now I got the problem described here: gearbox into neutral and fault code P1818. When I scanned I saw that before this code was the P1810. Can any of you guys show the picture on post #6 because I cannot see it.
Thanks a lot.)
I have the P1818 code discussed here on a Panda 1.2 8v , and have come to the conclusion that the Dualogic actuator discused on this thread, must be different from the Selespeed unit used on a 2007 Panda. However I too was looking for the picture on #6 of this thread .
I have removed the Panda actuator now and sending it away for repair on this issue of dropping gears to neutral.
Hi,
I serviced the Dualogic thoroughly replacing all the o-rings and changing the oil. It worked very well for 10 days and now I got the problem described here: gearbox into neutral and fault code P1818. When I scanned I saw that before this code was the P1810. Can any of you guys show the picture on post #6 because I cannot see it.
Thanks a lot.)
I have the P1818 code discussed here on a Panda 1.2 8v , and have come to the conclusion that the Dualogic actuator discused on this thread, must be different from the Selespeed unit used on a 2007 Panda. However I too was looking for the picture on #6 of this thread .
I have removed the Panda actuator now and sending it away for repair on this issue of dropping gears to neutral.
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