Technical Problems with my semi auto gearbox

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Technical Problems with my semi auto gearbox

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supertuffy

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Hi all


I wanted to see if anyone has had a similar experience to me and my beloved 500C Abarth convertible.


Whilst driving this afternoon in 3rd gear the car came almost to a stop and went into neutral. Now its stuck in neutral and wont change gear at all. Its 2 months out of its 3 year warranty, and sat at a fiat dealership waiting to be looked at.


I've only had the car 3 weeks.


If there is anyone out there who may be able to shed some light as to what has happened, I would love to hear from you.


thanks
Lisa
 
Hello and welcome to the forum :wave:.

Sorry to hear about your difficulties.

Have you been following this thread? Probably worth reading in its entirety, but I'd sit down with a stiff drink before you begin.

If it's out of warranty and you're not the first owner, getting a contribution toward repair costs from Fiat might not be so easy - so if it does turn out to be something expensive, and you bought it recently from a motor trader, you might want to think about rejecting the car.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you that it's not that serious. Wait and see what the fiat dealership say, then come back and let us know and we'll do our best to advise you further.
 
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Hi all


I wanted to see if anyone has had a similar experience to me and my beloved 500C Abarth convertible.


Whilst driving this afternoon in 3rd gear the car came almost to a stop and went into neutral. Now its stuck in neutral and wont change gear at all. Its 2 months out of its 3 year warranty, and sat at a fiat dealership waiting to be looked at.


I've only had the car 3 weeks.


If there is anyone out there who may be able to shed some light as to what has happened, I would love to hear from you.


thanks
Lisa
What!? You too? Is there some kind of curse with the Dualogic? Sounds like it needs a complete unit replacement to me. Either that, or do a cheap temporary repair to get it back on the road and then sell the car ASAP.
 
What!? You too? Is there some kind of curse with the Dualogic? Sounds like it needs a complete unit replacement to me. Either that, or do a cheap temporary repair to get it back on the road and then sell the car ASAP.

+1.

Why are we seeing such a sudden spate of dualogic failures? They're not even all on old (i.e 2008 era) cars.
 
Hi all


I wanted to see if anyone has had a similar experience to me and my beloved 500C Abarth convertible.


Whilst driving this afternoon in 3rd gear the car came almost to a stop and went into neutral. Now its stuck in neutral and wont change gear at all. Its 2 months out of its 3 year warranty, and sat at a fiat dealership waiting to be looked at.


I've only had the car 3 weeks.


If there is anyone out there who may be able to shed some light as to what has happened, I would love to hear from you.


thanks
Lisa
by the way do let us know whats happening!
 
I've only had the car 3 weeks.

Does the car have a complete service history? Then FIAT has some serious explaining to do.

I suspect what might be happening is that owners with faulty Dualogics are clearing the error codes and then flogging them on to some other hapless person :(
 
+1.

Why are we seeing such a sudden spate of dualogic failures? They're not even all on old (i.e 2008 era) cars.

Yeah exactly - some of us are driving around in 2008 models without a hint of a problem. It's weird.

To the original poster; as you have had the car for so little time, I suggest liability rests with the person who sold the car to you, as you have been sold a car 'not fit for purpose' - let them sort it out?

Checking the Dualogic special hydraulic fluid (CS Speed/Selespeed fluid) level is not a regular service task - but it should be. When the level gets too low, the system will select neutral and no gears.

The reservoir is on the front of the gearbox under a heat shield - this heat shield is difficult to remove from the 500 due to a lack of space. I moved the radiator fan to one side. There is a green mark and a moulded arrow to indicate the correct 'full' level. Mine was full, but I have seen other cars that were very low. Top up only with genuine CS Speed fluid (less than 1L required).

So, there is the possibility that a simple top-up could make the system operational again and if this top-up is required less than once a year, it's not a big deal. I would also change the oil in the transmission (the gearbox part, with the gears, has separate and typical GL4 gear oil) as the special hydraulic fluid may have leaked into the gearbox.

There was a Dualogic software update - at least for the Grande Punto model - to solve a fluid leak problem. I'm not clear on how a software update stops a fluid leak, but it must be worth a try to update the software using the FIAT Examiner (can only be updated with the genuine dealer tool).

If there are obvious leaks to the outside (sometimes found on the front of the actuator) then that leaves you with a choice of two options; have someone skilled dismantle the unit and fix the leak (FIAT dealers won't do this), or have the actuator replaced complete (dealers do this).

-Alex
 
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Yeah exactly - some of us are driving around in 2008 models without a hint of a problem. It's weird.

To the original poster; as you have had the car for so little time, I suggest liability rests with the person who sold the car to you, as you have been sold a car 'not fit for purpose' - let them sort it out?

Checking the Dualogic special hydraulic fluid (CS Speed/Selespeed fluid) level is not a regular service task - but it should be. When the level gets too low, the system will select neutral and no gears.

The reservoir is on the front of the gearbox under a heat shield - this heat shield is difficult to remove from the 500 due to a lack of space. I moved the radiator fan to one side. There is a green mark and a moulded arrow to indicate the correct 'full' level. Mine was full, but I have seen other cars that were very low. Top up only with genuine CS Speed fluid (less than 1L required).

So, there is the possibility that a simple top-up could make the system operational again and if this top-up is required less than once a year, it's not a big deal. I would also change the oil in the transmission (the gearbox part, with the gears, has separate and typical GL4 gear oil) as the special hydraulic fluid may have leaked into the gearbox.

There was a Dualogic software update - at least for the Grande Punto model - to solve a fluid leak problem. I'm not clear on how a software update stops a fluid leak, but it must be worth a try to update the software using the FIAT Examiner (can only be updated with the genuine dealer tool).

If there are obvious leaks to the outside (sometimes found on the front of the actuator) then that leaves you with a choice of two options; have someone skilled dismantle the unit and fix the leak (FIAT dealers won't do this), or have the actuator replaced complete (dealers do this).

-Alex
a normally working dualogic unit should never leak fluid. if it is, this is not good news.
 
Hi Lisa,

Exactly the same thing happened to me 2 weeks ago... Driving along and the car suddenly went into N while traveling at speed. Quite scary.
Luckily the roads were quiet as it was at night and I was able to stop the car and restart it.
The following day I had to phone the RAC as it wouldn't select a gear after I started engine.
He took me to the garage and it needed a new Actuator. As it's only 18 months old it was replaced under warranty so i'm unsure of the cost that would be involved.
I absolutely love the dualogic but I've lost all faith in it after reading so many have failed and after my experience of losing control of gears/acceleration whilst travelling at speed.
I'd be interested to know what the garage say and cost involved to you, if you could let us know?
 
Hi Lisa,

Exactly the same thing happened to me 2 weeks ago... Driving along and the car suddenly went into N while traveling at speed. Quite scary.
Luckily the roads were quiet as it was at night and I was able to stop the car and restart it.
The following day I had to phone the RAC as it wouldn't select a gear after I started engine.
He took me to the garage and it needed a new Actuator. As it's only 18 months old it was replaced under warranty so i'm unsure of the cost that would be involved.
I absolutely love the dualogic but I've lost all faith in it after reading so many have failed and after my experience of losing control of gears/acceleration whilst travelling at speed.
I'd be interested to know what the garage say and cost involved to you, if you could let us know?
oh dear same thing happened to me under warranty. they did not replace the whole unit, just the actuator but that never completely solved the problem; it only took me until the warranty expired and then i had to replace the whole unit at my cost with a 10% discount from fiat.

Want my advice? Sell the car the second the warranty runs out.
 
@jrkitching we have three recent threads on this issue shall we merge them?

That's a good idea.

One of them is in the A500 section so I'll need to think about the best way to do this...

OK, new thread started & this one now locked. All the posts in this thread have been copied across.

Please continue this discussion here
 
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