Technical New to forum but issue with fiat 500 dualogic when cold no reverse/gears

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Technical New to forum but issue with fiat 500 dualogic when cold no reverse/gears

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welshlad46

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so as per headline I am sorry as it has probably been posted already but having recently purchased a fiat 500 dualogic for my wife it has started to have a issue when it is very cold. she travels to work in it fine from parked outside the house (even selecting reverse first thing to get out of the car park) but when she arrives at work which is literally less than 1 mile away (less than 5 minutes drive) as she pulls into the carpark and goes to select reverse she just get the "N" and beeping noise. Now this only happens on very very cold mornings like if it is freezing conditions. If it isn't I don't believe the car has this problem. The car is still just under a 3 month warranty from the garage I purchased it from but it is obviously going to be very hard for them to find the problem anyway. Could it be the gearbox oil needs changing? It has a lot of service history and a fresh service when I picked the car up but I doubt the gearbox oil would of been done. Thank you in advance and I do apologise if this is a common problem that has been mentioned endless times previously :) :):)
 
It *could* just be a weak battery, unable to handle the demand from the pump motor, power steering and probably heater fan, especially with sub-5 minute drive to work.

It could also be the brake pedal switch, or the "well known" 500 tailgate wiring issue.

Or it could be the pump motor. Or a number of other things in increasing order of pain and expenditure.

Changing the gearbox oil is unlikely to improve this problem, unless the car has done serious mileage (200k+ miles)

Same with changing the gearbox actuator hydraulic fluid (which is a particularly lame suggestion regularly used by not-very-good mechanics to fob people off)


If under warranty, then tell them now, preferably with supporting evidence (a video of it happening would be ideal) in case they can't reproduce the problem themselves. Then, please report back what they say.
 
Thanka for getting back to me?. It litrally has to be freezing temperatures for it to happen. And once turned off and back on its fine. I havent been able to get it to do it when im driving it only my wife but as it is going to be cold over the next few days im going to use it and see if i can get it to do this problem. Battery sounds and appears in very good health. It is 2009 and has 74k on the clock. If i can get it to do it when i drive it il get straight in touch with the garage to get it checked. My wife said she could hear a clicking sometimes when she is trying to select reverse. Very anoying as car drives great any other time
 
Hello and welcome to the forum.

I'm sorry to hear of your troubles.

Read the long thread carefully.

The bottom line is that a 10yr old dualogic with 74k on the clock is a £1000+ repair waiting to happen.

IMO if it happens again during the warranty period, use your best endeavours to return the car for a refund. Once the warranty period comes to an end, I'd suggest you trade it in at the first hint of further problems.
 
Quick questions (...if you manage to recreate the problem)
Leave it running.

Press footbrake.
Select Neutral.

Press footbrake.
Select a forward gear. (Selected OK?, can you drive forward a couple of feet?)

Press footbrake.
Select Neutral.
Select reverse.(Selected OK? Can you reverse a couple of feet)

Press footbrake. Keep pressed.
Repeat the gear/neutral selections until you hear the pump top up the pressure (don't bother moving each time), or 10 cycles if pump doesn't run.
How long did the pump run? Did it sound smooth, grating, stuttering or strained?

Report back which steps worked or didn't.

( you should hear gearchange each time, more like a rifle bolt noise is good, crunch or multiple tries is bad)

Should help identify if pedal switch or pump motor is playing up.
 
It is 2009 and has 74k on the clock. My wife said she could hear a clicking sometimes when she is trying to select reverse. Very anoying as car drives great any other time

The Dualogic gets bad press on here, as there some 65 complaints on the unit across 35 forum pages!

Having said that, any 10 year old automatic car is going to need some work at somepoint and autos are always more expensive to fix than the manual versions.

At 74K miles, it could just be the clutch - the clutch fork bends on the 500 1.2
 
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Assuming the pump is running correctly (all previous checks were OK), the cold temperatures could be interfering with the gearchange position sensor on the front of the gearbox (causing the unwanted shift to N), especially if the sensor has filled with oil.

Have a look for an oil leak around the sensor housing. If found: a short-term fix is to replace the sensor, but the real cause is a leak within the actuator, so you would have to decide how much you want to spend; it’s usually best to ‘fix it once and fix it right’. :)

-Alex
 
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Thanks again for the reply's I do appreciate it. So I started work early this morning and it was 0c outside so I thought before I went to work I would go try and get it to do this issue for myself. So I drove the same route my wife does to work (literally probably 4 minutes tops.....its not because she is lazy it is more because when she finishes in the evenings it is dark and mostly lanes to walk in lol)...anyway as I got up to the car park with foot on brake and come to a stop .. went to select reverse and sure enough ..she isn't a complete idiot...it stayed in 1 but beeped constantly and I had the stick in R at this point. So I went back to drive and it just beeped again.. then went to N and the same.. I had the window open and could hear a slight clicking noise from the front end..I went back and for these actions from N to D to R a few times and eventually it went into 1st with no beeping...then when I went to select R it was fine. very very strange. It isn't so much a issue up where she works as the car park is very quiet but you wouldn't want that happening in the middle of a shopping car park really as it probably took a best part of a minute to finally get it to go into the reverse. A guy in work has told me to pop it to work tomorrow and he will plug it into his laptop to see if there are any error codes etc but I guess they would maybe only show when in the time it is having the issues ..such as very cold mornings. It drives perfectly any other time it is very strange. Ive not noticed any leaks on the car but when I take it to work tomorrow I will try and have a look underneath. The mechanic in work said it maybe could be the fact that the oil hasn't had time to warm up and is too thick. But why then does it work a minute later
 
Hi. There are 2 oils.

The conventional Gearbox Oil.

The SELESPEED fluid.

The fluid is in a plastic tank.. so just like screenwash.. there is a fair chance it can get really chilled.

As others have said 74k is enough.. but you could well find this is the factory fill.. and a little tired :(

Charlie . Abertillery.
 
So I have just returned home from getting my mate in work to connect his laptop system to the car and it brought up a error code. P2914 was the code and it said "gearbox sub system present. He could of cleared it but didn't as he said I should take it back to the garage and see what they have to say but told me not to mention the fact I have had the computer plugged in as some garages are funny and will void the warranty. Anyone heard of this error code and what it could be?
 
So I have just returned home from getting my mate in work to connect his laptop system to the car and it brought up a error code. P2914 was the code and it said "gearbox sub system present. He could of cleared it but didn't as he said I should take it back to the garage and see what they have to say but told me not to mention the fact I have had the computer plugged in as some garages are funny and will void the warranty. Anyone heard of this error code and what it could be?

Use the Forums SEARCH..

There are 3 threads that had that code ;)
 
Hi, I bought a 2019 Fiat Dualogic on Saturday. handful of miles on the clock. Lovely little car, I thought, but on both Sunday and Monday it came to a halt on a main road. The gear stick still in drive, but no forward momentum. Dashboard flashing up neutral. The second time nearly caused a serious accident because of car behind nearly ploughing straight into the back. I can see this is a problem on this forum, but cannot find it in such a new car. Has anyone else had this problem in a newer car. Despite reporting the problem first thing Monday morning, the garage are refusing to believe me ... :(
 
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