(G) Stilo Abarth Gearbox warning light

I have an '03 plate Stilo Abarth which has only done just over 33,000 miles and is the Selespeed version.

Tonight I had a "gearbox failure" warning light come on minutes after leaving work and whilst sitting in traffic, with the instruction to drive slowly to the dealer. Due to the time and distance I have driven the car home and it drove absolutely fine, changing up and down the gears with no apparent problem (I always drive the car in manual mode). Once home I switched off the engine and after a couple of mins turned it back on again and the system scan checked ok. I repeated this exercise a couple of times and each time it has checked ok. Can anyone suggest whether this is a known problem with the Abarth or do I really need to take it to the dealer if the light has now gone off, is it going to come on again randomly or this the start of a major problem - I can't afford one of the those.

I am beginning to think that as much as I like the car maybe it isn't the car for a non-mechanically minded female to own and maybe I should sell it to someone who knows these cars better!

It could just be that the brake switch has failed. The way to test this is to drive the car in automatic mode. If the car won't change up the gears but will change down if you manually move it up the gears, then the brake switch has failed. £10 to get a replacement + a bit of labour if you don't fancy doing it yourself.

Also... if the brake switch has failed, then your brake lights are on permenantly, so that's another easy way to tell...

Thanx for the quick and concise reply! I have just driven the car around the block in Auto and it changed up and down the gears fine, then drove round again in manual and again no problems so I am really struggling to understand why the light came on in the first place and if that is the end of that little drama or do you think that it signifies there is an underlying problem?

It could be a gearbox sensor with an intermittent fault or be on the way out. There are quite a few sensors in the Selespeed and the only way to truly know what caused the alarm would be to take it to a Specialist (or Fiat dealer if you're desperate! ). All you need is a garage which has the Fiat Examiner system so that they can hook up to the car and it can disclose it's woes.

You could take the risk and see if it happens again before taking it to a garage to see if it was a one off... the only downside to that is that if it does fail again, it could leave you stranded. If that happens though, it's quite likely that it could clear itself after leaving the car off for 15mins...

Good luck!