My Fiats just died on me....

Well not quite, when cold its fine but as soon as it warms up will only stay in low gear and reverse stops working.

Replaced fluid - No luck....

Is this disaster, i.e new automatic gearbox time, hence skip it or worth sorting out.

Most people seem to think the gearbox has gone, also noticed the handbrake goes up incredibly high.

Any ideas would be appreciated as otherwise its an incredibly nice car.

My mate had a "similar" problem in his BMW but it was not when hot it just happened, he lost Gears 1 & 2.

Turned out the ECU or computer that controlled the gear box needed needed Resetting.

there is usually a temp sensor on an autobox, if its faulty it could cause your symtoms.
the handbrake is easy to adjust, there's an adjuster you can use to tighten the cable, its under the handle. may be worth checking the rear shoes using the ispection hole on each drum. they may be getting low.

i have i 1.6 16v brava sx auto and one quick check to make is if like me u have a sport button sometimes if dirt gets in them they stick and can sometimes turn on and off and wene the sport mode is activated my car does not go in reverse nxt time it does it check ure dash were ure gear indicator is it should say normal but if it says sport then theirs ure problem also i droped my mobile on the sports button and didnt realise and i thought i had a flat tire but it turns out that wene the sport mode is on the power steering gets heavyer so theirs more feel so keep an eye out for that too its a shame the steering cant stay heavy all the time realy as the brava steering feels likethe front wheels are in mid air .

i want a sport button, even manuals could do with a juicy extra like that

Re: Fiat Brava 1.6 Automatic

jug said:

there is usually a temp sensor on an autobox, if its faulty it could cause your symtoms.
the handbrake is easy to adjust, there's an adjuster you can use to tighten the cable, its under the handle. may be worth checking the rear shoes using the ispection hole on each drum. they may be getting low.

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Hi Cheers, we did notice the sport & ice option, pressing this did make the dash cycle through the various options but still would not hit reverse although we could not get the ice option to appear.

If I need to get a new censor are these expensive or relatively easy to track down, is there anyway of determining that it is definetly faulty, or if it could perhaps be the ecu how would you go about resetting this.

How green am I, always grown up around cars, father being a mechanic and never took a blind bit of notice, how I now wished I listened to him......LOL

dont worry ure self with the ice button any way mine doesnt even work as it is full of crap and has jammed but all it does is wene u go to pull away it puts the car in a high ratio gear untill u hit 30mph this is basicaly to ensure u dont get stuck on a hill wheel spinning if its icy

a diagnostics test should identify a sensor problem. to reset the ecu leave the battery disconnected for an hour. see if that helps first

OKay had the car looked at, turns out the gearbox has welded itself in the forward position, so apparently needs new gearbox.

But something has worried me.

THey have said they have spent 1 hour diagnosing it, how do you know the gearbox has done this unless you take it apart and I can see how you can do that in 1 hour.

They have then offered me £200 to take it off my hands, why would they do that, unless there was some resale value, so weighing up my options now, what would you recommend

sounds like the usual "its f*cked so we'll take it off your hands" routine to me. they wouldnt buy your car for £200 if it really needed a gearbox because the auto box is very hard to find and will probably cost over £100. unless they happen to have a gearbox lying around, which i doubt, i cant see why they would want it.

you are correct it is impossible to know for certain what the problem is after a 1 hour diagnosis. i've never heard of an automatic gearbox welding itself, in fact i doubt that is possible. removing the gearbox to inspect for damage isnt a realistic choice because the labour costs would be so high its better to get a new box fitted if you're removing yours. then you either find your box was damaged or you have a spare gearbox to sell. either way it sint worth removing your box to inspect it.

they wouldnt want to buy it unless they knew what was wrong, it would be a risk if they weren't sure, yet they cant be sure after 1 hour that the gearbox is definately damaged. in my usual sceptic way i think they know whats wrong and its easy to fix but they're trying to pull a fast one. get a second opinion, most garages will have a look for free.

anyway i know the gearbox is fine because it works when cold, you said the problem only occurs when its hot, the gearbox cant weld itself when hot and then unweld when it cools down. thats just stupid. they are obviously trying to take you for a ride.

cheers for confirming my thoughts, kind of sounds stupid now, so I just need to find a way of transporting it 30 miles to my old mans garage and get that second opinion.

one thing you have to remember about auto boxes never ever tow them with the front wheels on the ground even wene it is in netrual it will totaly feck the box.