Yesterday I was called by a friend if I could have a look at his dad punto mk2b with a dualogic gearbox. He parked the car in front of his house and when he wanted to leave next day he was not able to start the car.

I haven't driven the car and have no prior experiences with the dualogic so I do not exactly know what normal behavior is.

The starter is not engaging, when you put the key in the MAR position the display it shows check for a couple of seconds and after that there is no message anymore but you cannot turn the key to activate the starter.
If you do not wait for the checking to complete and turn the key to the start position nothing happens, releasing the key it comes back to MAR and again you are not able to turn to the start position again.

The car is in gear, according to the display it is first. When you try to change gear to neutral, reverse or from auto to manual the buzzer makes a sound and displays that the gear is not available and after a while is shows defect gearbox.

the box has been rebuild just over an year ago and did not gave any problems or indications of possible problems earlier. Of course it just out of warranty.

- I checked if the break lights come on when pressing the pedal, they both come on and I do not see any signs of shortage.
- I disconnected the battery for a couple of minutes, this did not help
- according to my delphi odbc reader there are no faults stored in the system. (I tried multiscan as well but I have no experience with the tool and used the free version. Multiscan did not show me any problems)
- tried to jump start the car using jumper cables from a running car.

I thought that I heard the hydraulic pump running but now I think that I confused the fuel pump sound for that. I heard the sound every time I turned the key to MAR.

According to some posts here the hydraulic system gets primed when opening the driver side door.
How is this registered? is this the same make / brake contact as for the interior lighting? And how often is the system primed?

As I think of it the interior light did not always come on opening the door. The door catch itself seemed broken.

Can I check if the hydraulic system gets pressurized and can I manually put power on the pump if it does not get pressurized?

How do I check the oil level of the gearbox? Do I need to remove the aluminium heat shield for that? And is there a special procedure to check and fill if required?

Are there wiring diagrams somewhere to be found that would help a lot in fault finding.

And is there a manual way of putting the box in neutral or disengage the clutch so I can safely transport it?

I know, I have lot of questions but hopefully somebody can help me out. I tried the search which helped me a lot already.

There are two separate components here. The gearbox which has its own oil, and sitting on top and to the front is the Duologic unit. This has its own fluid level with a reservoir that can be viewed by removing a thin metal splash shield that sits to the front. When you open the driver's door you should immediately hear a loud whine as the dualogic pump activates and pressurises the system. It last for a good few seconds. If you leave the engine idling you will occasionally hear the pump kick in again.

First thing I would suggest is reading up about how to check the fluid level in the Dualogic unit.

Thanks for the quick reply.

sorry for the confusion, I'm not a native English speaker and did not specify clearly that I want to check the dualogic oil level. I understand the differences between gearbox oil and the hydraulic oil for the dualogic.

I could not find any documentation on checking the fluid level for the dualogic hence the question how to do so. I see many posts regarding the dualogic for other models are they the same or do they differ from the punto mk2b?

Check this thread out.

https://www.fiatforum.com/panda/449049-topping-up-dualogic-hydraulic-actuator-oil.html

Thanks again,

If I understand correct best way to de- and pressurize the system is using the MultiEcuScan software but the gearbox software is only available in a paid version.

I spotted a post where somebody stated if you disconnect the pump wires and repeatedly select gear until the warning lights come on the system is depressurized as well. from that point on you can correct the oil level if needed and by reconnecting the pump wires and opening the door it should pressurize again.

because the pump on the punto is not priming and I cannot select any gears at the moment I assume that the system is depressurized. Could I override the systems and put direct power on the pump briefly (if the fluid level is good) so that I can take the car out of first gear and into neutral so I can push it on the trailer and take it with me?

May sound a bit strange, but try tapping the pump motor, and the close and re-open the door.
Sometimes they get sticky (usually full of dust from the motor brushes wearing).
If that works then it's probably time for a new motor (you can fix them, but with varying levels of success)
If it doesn't work, check the fuse and the relay.
If fuse has gone, you may need a new motor, or possibly a new accumulator (or maybe both) as the pump gets over-worked with a duff accumulator. Sometimes it blows the fuse, sometimes it cooks the relay, sometimes it kills the motor.

thank you for the reply. I do not hope it is the motor as the box has been rebuild recently.

I'm still looking for pictures or directions where I can find the components like the dualogic fusebox, the fuses and the relays. I have the owners manual but there are only the normal fuseboxes described without the relays and the specific dualogic fusebox is only named but no location.

You can use the ePER catalogue located on this site. It may help.

Thanks to everybody who suggested things to check and pointed out where to look. I had another go at is last evening and with succes the car is driving again.

On opening the door I could hear a relay ticking but the pump itself did not prime. So i checked both the fuses in the dualogic fusebox, they where fine. took both the relays out and checked them and they where fine as well.
If I overruled the relay and put power with the power probe on the wires from the relays, this way i could activate the starter but the hydraulic pump did not work.

I took the cover off to expose the dualogic reservoir and pump. The fluid was more than sufficient. Then I spotted that 2 connectors (i think the pump power and pressure switch) where covered in oil/filth. I cleaned those and reconnected everything and when I opened the door the pump started buzzing and I was able to start the car and drive it around like there was no problem at all.

The oil is coming from a leaking seal behind the ignition so that will be replaced asap to prevent problems in the near future.

Excellent - thanks for letting us know. It's frustrating how little documentation there seems to be for dualogic so any insight is helpful.

Nicely done.
Usually when I've come across connectors that are wet and filthy it's been Selespeed fluid and the actuator is already in serious trouble.
Never even considered engine oil, but makes sense, especially if it's been leaking slowly for ages.
Glad it's working now.