General Help me with Dualogic please!

Currently reading:
General Help me with Dualogic please!

ChantelleA

New member
Joined
Mar 5, 2012
Messages
8
Points
1
Hi all,

My husband and I have just purchased a 2007 Fiat Grande Punto 1.4 Eleganza with the dualogic. We didn't get shown very much by the lady at the garage (just the vert basics), and are starting to wonder whether this car is working correctly?! Neither of us have ever driven an automatic/semi before! Could someone help with the following?

1) Why when I open the drivers door is there an electrical wurring sound until I close the door?

2) When we are parked and want to leave the car, where are we meant to leave the gear knob? At the top right in "N" or in the middle/central? We got told in "N" by the garage, but the book say's NEVER to leave it there?

3) Why when we start the car does it constantly beep? The same when we have parked... it's driving us mad (and we have only had it two days!)

4) Why does the car sometimes not start? Do we have to keep our foot on the brake when we turn the key?

5) To drive in auto, are we to just leave the gear knob central, and then push to the left to make it manual? I had an issue yesterday in a car park where I reversed out of my space fine, but when I wanted to go forward I could only get it into manual?

6) Yesterday morning when we left in the car, it was juddering... is this because it was cold, or is this a fault with the car?

It is just such a frustrating car, we bought it as it was perfect in every other way for us and thought we'd get used to a semi-auto car, but I am starting to think there is either something wrong with it, or we just have NO idea or both! I am concerned to go out in it on my own, esp with my toddler in tow. Also where I work is very hilly, how do I go about going up/down hills with no clutch?! I wish there was a manual car available exactly the same... sods law there wasn't!

Any help would be appreciated, thank you - A completely clueless new Fiat driver! :confused:
 
Hi, i hope i answer your questions...

1) The electrical wiring the the hydraulic actuator for the clutch, this is a good noise as if it doesnt make this noise - essentially there is a problem with the gearbox - so as long as it makes the noise - you're all good.

2) When parking and leaving the car, you leave it in gear like a manual car. So if the car is parked on a downward slope and the front of the car is pointing downwards - leave it in reverse. If the front is pointing upwards on a slope and the car could roll backwards - leave it in first gear. This in combination with the handbrake ensures the car wont roll anyway. On flat ground, i just leave it in first gear with the handbrake up. It's not recommended to park the car in neutral as if the handbrake fails, it will roll away.

3) The beeping is to tell you that the car is in neutral, but you havent got the gearlever in neautral. To stop this beeping, whenever you get into the car to drive away, simply put the gearlever in neutral (the N position) and then put the key in, turn the engine on etc.

4) Does the engine try to start? or does the key just not turn?

5) Yep, thats how you change between manual and auto, basically if it's in auto it will say on the screen and if in manual it will just tell you what gear you're in.

6) I used to experience that juddering, it's simply because the car is cold and is a fairly normal characteristic amongst semi-auto cars.

There doesnt sound like there's anything wrong with your car :) It just takes a bit of getting used to :) I was exactly the same when i first got it - a bit disillusioned and annoyed.

When going up a hill, slowly release the handbrake as you accelerate to stop you from rolling backwards :)

Enjoy! :)
 
Alxandr is 100% correct, all is well with your car. Just one thing to know. The wurring when you open the drivers door is to provide the hydrolic pressure to shift the gears to neutral if the engine is turned off while in gear which is normally the case.If it did not do this the engine would not start as it would still be in gear. I must admit the beeping at every oportunity drives me mad.
 
Thank you both so much for the replies, both of you have been really helpful and informative :) Apologies it has taken me a while to respond, I didn't think anyone had as hadn't received any notifications?

I have actually got used to the car this week, and was starting to really enjoy it; that was until this evening. When starting the car up it said "check transmission - check handbook", but carried on driving as needed to get home. Then it refused to go up from second gear, so I pulled over. The light was on, which I have found from the handbook to be the dualogic transmission failure light. The car then refused to start. We had to call out the AA, and they have said that the fuse has gone, but didn't have one big enough so handmade something and presto it worked again. But we do have to get a new fuse. Is this just an omen that something is wrong with the car? I am very worried about owning a dualogic after all the reviews I have since read on the internet.... Should I return it to the garage & get a manual one elsewhere? HELP!!!!!!!! :cry:
 
i would return your car to the garage asap if your not happy with the transmision. depending on were the car is from you do get a 3 week period to return the car if unhappy i would go for a manual to be fair autos in my experience are just a pain
 
If you're happy driving a manual, i probably would take it back - although maybe it wasnt an omen and just a small glitch. Admittedly, as much as i love the Dualogic gearbox, i am replacing my GP with a manual car - but i still see the benefits of Dualogic.
 
Hi. Was the fuse that blew the 30amp one on the top of the battery under the battery cover? If it was then you have serious problem with the dualogic pump. This fuse is the line fuse to the pump and blowing of this fuse indicates either sizure of the pump or more likely a failure of the windings in the pump rotor. if the pump is now running DO NOT TRUST IT TO DO SO FOR EVER. Get it checked out at a dealer. It can, and probably will, fail when you are least expecting it miles from home and that will mean a recovery truck.
Good luck.
 
Thanks all again...

Yes it was the red 30 amp fuse that had gone (the one to the right), which is a large one & why the AA man didn't have any.

Well I took it to our local Fiat Dealership this morning after booking it in & it's come back with more problems that feared -

Control Unit Faulty
Hydraulic Circuit Pressure
Pump driving Relay Stuck

They've said if they replace the fuse, the faulty control unit will just blow it again.

I have therefore just called the Dealership (who have a good reputation) who are calling me back... hopefully not to fob me off. We have only had the car 10 days, and have asked for our money back, which I believe we are entitled too from looking it up on the net.

Fingers crossed... but I do have a suspicion that they will try and repair it for me...

Soooo annoyed!! If this does get resolved I am sticking to manuals!! :bang:
 
Update! Thankfully the dealer has been ok with us wanting our money back, so is arranging for the car to be picked up & is issuing a cheque. They did offer to pick the car up & bring us a courtesy car so they could take a look at it themselves & then fix it, but my husband and I have lost confidence in the car as we've only had it a short time; plus I have heard some horror stories over dualogics!

The question is now.... what do we get next? Must be reliable & not cost the earth! I just know it'll be manual this time! Fiat again or not??? :idea:
 
Hi. Was the fuse that blew the 30amp one on the top of the battery under the battery cover? If it was then you have serious problem with the dualogic pump. This fuse is the line fuse to the pump and blowing of this fuse indicates either sizure of the pump or more likely a failure of the windings in the pump rotor. if the pump is now running DO NOT TRUST IT TO DO SO FOR EVER. Get it checked out at a dealer. It can, and probably will, fail when you are least expecting it miles from home and that will mean a recovery truck.
Good luck.

Is this from experience? I was a little uneasy with having a dualogic to start & sadly this has confirmed my fears :(
 
It sounds like you got a faulty one, which is unfortunate.

I shared most of your other concerns when I first got mine, but my fears were largely pacified when I read the instruction book.

The beeper isn't the most subtle of things, but it essentially only beeps if the gearbox and the gearstick are not in the same place as each other (e.g. on starting the car goes to neutral, but the stick is left in drive), or if you ask it to do something it can't.
After reading the book, it's a lot more obvious why it's making noises.
 
Hi. You asked if my knowledge was gained from experience and yes it was.
I'm an engineer so when my pump failed I investigated what was wrong myself and it was the pump and I was 100% sure of it. The problem with with any car that has a manual box with auto clutch and gear shift facility is that there are so many components that can go wrong and bring the car to a stop or make it allmost undriveable and they are expensive to repair and mostly can only be repaired by a dealer. I could have changed my failed pump in about an hour but I did not have the software to " bleed " the dualogic system after the replacement so It was a dealers repair and expensive. My GP has only done 14,000 miles!! Glad you got yourself sorted out. Good news that you found the problems so soon after buying the car but most Dualogic's give no trouble but when they do watch out!!.
 
Thanks Energyman... Wow you had problems after only 14,000 miles? That is awful. Ours has done 54,000 and yes I guess we are lucky that it happened so soon otherwise we would have been landed with a gigantic bill! The garage are picking up the car next week, so we will be on the car hunt again... groan... Being an Engineer, what cars would you recommend for reliability? We have had a Peugeot and not going back there! ;)
 
Hi. This is very difficult to answer as everybody has their opinion on this. Many people have bad experiences with a particular car where the vast majority of people drive the same model car and have no problem at all. Well made cars with reasonable quality engineering are Hondas but i'm sure there are plenty of people out there that have had loads of problems with Hondas.
 
Very true... We have always heard good things about Honda, but are a little pricey for us unfortunately.

Well today we have gone and ordered a new Kia Rio, hopefully we will not have any issues with a brand new car. The 7 year warranty is brilliant, and managed to get a really good deal. £0 tax for the first year and £30 thereafter, plus on average 55mpg. They are even lending us a demonstrator for 2 weeks until the car is here at no cost to us.

This is the first brand new car we have ever had... I am actually quite excited!
 
Good choice. Very practical car what with the ever increasing price of fuel. It can only get higher and it won't be long at all before petrol is £1.50 ltr. Good luck and enjoy your new car.
 
Just to let you know my experience with the Dualogic transmission... Maybe it helps somebody... :)


I have a Grande Punto 2010, only 25000 km on it. Suddenly the Check transmission appeared... The 4th and 5th Gear were "unavailable"... The "Press brake pedal" message also appeared, so I could only start it in Neutral...

I had a Grande Punto before, a 2008, but that had been in an accident so I thought that it was the reason for the Dualogic to appear weird, with random error messages... I like the car so I decided to give it another try....

Anyway now my 2010... with only 25000 km gives up on me.... I was going to call Berlusconi and say that Fix It Again Tony is so true...

Also, living in the Carribean, with 4 hour drive to nearest Fiat dealer....


Anyway now to the positive news!!! :)

I also noticed that my A/C stopped working... the fuse looked good (fuse box to the left of driver seat)..but we changed it and voila the A/C worked AND AND AND..... no more Check transmission message... Everything worked perfectly normal again!!!


So happy... :) still kind of confused...and yeah my mechanic did not understand it either... :)
 
Back
Top