I have a Punto Speedgear 1.2 2002 Reg and the Automatic Gearbox Failiure warning light has come on and is flashing.

First noticed it after breaking heavily 2 days ago. I haven't driven it that much since but didn't really notice any other symptoms when I did. A bit slow with the acceleration, but that could be in my imagination now!

Have tried re-starting the car to see if it's stopped but the light still stays flashing. This evening checked the gear box oil but that seems to be on a good level and haven't noticed any leak patches.

Have looked on here for similar threads and noticed that people have mentioned things to do with light bulb connections. However none of the posts I have found are very recent. A warning light that said I should check my lights did come on later on the same evening, and I think a side light may have been out but we have checked the lights tonight also and all the lights seem to be working correctly now.

It has been mentioned by a couple of people to check the earth wires on the rear lights as a possible cause -

Where will we find the earth wires and how should we clean them?

And does anyone have any alternative suggestions?

Many thanks for any advice you can give!

the plug and the bit on the back of rear lights is normally the bit that needs cleaning.

when you tested the lights did you have some one standing behind car, have head lights on and indicators and then press brake pedal at the same time?

is the dash gear display showing the wrong gear and can you hear a clicking coming from gear leaver if you brake when the stick is in drive?

Thanks.

Have just re-checked the lights, trying them at the same time with someone else looking as you suggested. They all seem to work fine except one front side light has a slightly dodgy connection - it wasn't working but when tapped it re-connected.

We did notice that the engine and exhaust sound changed tone when I pressed the break pedal in however - not sure if that is normal?

When changing the stick selector from Park through to Drive / Reverse / Neutral / Low the dash board display is reading the correct letter. Didn't actually drive anywhere though. The light now seems to have stopped flashing, but I don't know whether it'll come back on when I actually use the car again.

that dont sound like the bad earth problem, normally get wrong letter on dash display and/or disco lights on back of car when doing the above test. time to get codes read i reckon.

was it raining when it happened? some times water gets into the conectors on gearbox an puts warning light on. spraying them with wd40 fixes that one

Hmmmm, could be damp. It wasn't raining right at the time but we did have heavy bouts of rain on that day. Also I'm not driving the car quite as much as trying to cycle a bit to work.

I guess with less use damp can take longer to dry out maybe? Where abouts will we find the connectors on gearbox to spray WD40? Underneath where the dip stick is for gear oil?

Have never got on very well with having coded read before, but may have to go that route yeah. Warning lights usually go away before they know what problem is or come back after they say they've fixed it. We'll see.

LouiseMarie said:

I guess with less use damp can take longer to dry out maybe? Where abouts will we find the connectors on gearbox to spray WD40? Underneath where the dip stick is for gear oil?

Click to expand...

on top of box, just follow the wires.

codes should stay stored even when light has gone out, they should stay stored for 99 drives after the fault has gone away. if you have a laptop you can buy a lead and read codes your self, details here https://www.fiatforum.com/lets-talk-fiat/219467-free-fiat-diagnostic-software.html

Thanks for the info Dave. Car is due for MOT shortly and prob a service too, so may see about them reading the codes off at the same time. Will have a look at the lead idea too though as doing it yourself is probably a cheaper way to find out the fault codes I expect!

If the box is having trouble using it could cause expensive damage and those boxes are like rocking horse poo to find. Sometimes its best to go to an expert. That's not the bloke who couldn't read the gearbox codes properly.

Just a quick update...

Car passed MOT and nothing gear box related came up in the service. They didn't find any gearbox codes stored, just one to do with the engine management waring light (which to be honest has been on almost permanently for the last year and a half)

The gear box warning light, fingers crossed has not come on since and the car seems to be running okay to me.

I did have a look at following the link to buy a lead to read codes yourself with a laptop but it didn't look like a 2002 reg Punto was supported by the software, although I may not have been interpreting the page right.

Thanks to everyone who has given advice