Technical Gearbox fault 9 speed

[Pmartin173]

Not sure if this is the correct place to post, but I have a gearbox problem on a new Motorhome fiat ducato van

It keeps jumping into neutral whilst driving then back into gear. This is the new 9 speed auto box
It keeps going into neutral at a stop with the auto stop start turned off then goes back into gear when you loose your foot off the pedal and jumps forward.


I have just seen another customer complaint about the same issue and has not had it resolved. The dealer can’t find faults and thinks it ok, but it’s not as 6 out of 10 times it stops in drive and the other 4 it goes into neutral.

Other customer wrote in his letter below

Posted on 13/05/2022 15:18 by 777


We have a 2022 Fiat Ducato based motorhome with the superb 9 speed automatic gearbox. have found one anomaly, and wonder if anyone else has found the same.
Stopped at for example traffic lights, gearbox in Drive with the annoying start/stop function disengaged, and foot on footbrake, the gearbox drops into a sort of neutral. When lights change, foot off the brake, it takes a couple of seconds to re-engage the drive, and it does so with a mild "clonk". If you accelerate before it re-engages, there's quite a big "thump" as in engages again. I guess there's not too many of these new boxes out there, but has anyone come across this, and is it considered normal for this gearbox? Thanks

 

[varesecrazy]

Hi

Is this a Proper Auto.. or the semi.auto?

Being 9 speed Im guessing its the ZF type the US have had for a while..,

No direct experience from me Im afraid

500x ( and Jeep) has run 9 speed option for a while

 

[varesecrazy]

Tranny issues | FIAT 500X

Hi fiat owners, my 2016 fiat 500x has the ZF 9 speed transmission Car started up and put shifter in reverse and herd a banging noise. Put it back in park and thought I herd the noise again. Now shifter is stuck in park. Dashboard message says cannot engage drive. Service transmission. I’ve...

www.fiatforum.com

9 speed ZF information... hope it helps a little

 

[PQ6]

I saw your post and thought I'd reply with my experience.

2021 Fiat campervan with 9 speed automatic 140. Again. the new 9 speed box. Nice gearbox although does tend to rev high when going down hill. Engine braking apparently but I digress.

On a dual carriageway I pressed the mode button to change from power to normal as I was trying to see what difference the gearbox modes make. After pressing from sport to normal I pressed the throttle fully down to kick down. The gearbox dropped into neutral and I lost drive power. Although I was still in Drive, the power was not being delivered to the drive wheels and the revs felt unresponsive, what I mean is Pushing down and liftign up on the throttle pedal did little to affect the revs.

I pulled over. Turned everything off and restarted. Problem was gone and everything back to normal.

My concern is I have 2 months left on warranty and I'm not sure what to do about it? I havn't been able to replicate problem so if I take it to a dealer theres nothing to show them....

I get somethines there are glitches. I had a Discovery one that went into limp mode. Trun on and off and it ran again for years and never repeated the problem. I am curious though to see if anyone else has had this issue with the ducato 9 speed automatic box?

 

[varesecrazy]

I saw your post and thought I'd reply with my experience.

2021 Fiat campervan with 9 speed automatic 140. Again. the new 9 speed box. Nice gearbox although does tend to rev high when going down hill. Engine braking apparently but I digress.

On a dual carriageway I pressed the mode button to change from power to normal as I was trying to see what difference the gearbox modes make. After pressing from sport to normal I pressed the throttle fully down to kick down. The gearbox dropped into neutral and I lost drive power. Although I was still in Drive, the power was not being delivered to the drive wheels and the revs felt unresponsive, what I mean is Pushing down and liftign up on the throttle pedal did little to affect the revs.

I pulled over. Turned everything off and restarted. Problem was gone and everything back to normal.

My concern is I have 2 months left on warranty and I'm not sure what to do about it? I havn't been able to replicate problem so if I take it to a dealer theres nothing to show them....

I get somethines there are glitches. I had a Discovery one that went into limp mode. Trun on and off and it ran again for years and never repeated the problem. I am curious though to see if anyone else has had this issue with the ducato 9 speed automatic box?

There may be stored error codes..

As somebody pointed out New Warranty claims are ruled out out of time,

But investigations into current issues could continue,

They appear to be figuring out the 4 or so regular modes of failure,

IF stored codes point to one of these, you might get decent support

 

[Jockstrap]

2022 Ducato 9 speed auto 140 campervan. Covered 12,000 miles over the 13 months, and no faults or complaints.

Having said that I am driving a near 3.5tonne campervan so I don't change driving modes on the hoof or floor the juice. The "start/stop" is always off (re-map pending to delete when out of warranty). Foot off downhill and engine does rev-up as it brakes - normal.

 

[Kel66]

Not sure if this is the correct place to post, but I have a gearbox problem on a new Motorhome fiat ducato van

It keeps jumping into neutral whilst driving then back into gear. This is the new 9 speed auto box
It keeps going into neutral at a stop with the auto stop start turned off then goes back into gear when you loose your foot off the pedal and jumps forward.


I have just seen another customer complaint about the same issue and has not had it resolved. The dealer can’t find faults and thinks it ok, but it’s not as 6 out of 10 times it stops in drive and the other 4 it goes into neutral.

Other customer wrote in his letter below

Posted on 13/05/2022 15:18 by 777


We have a 2022 Fiat Ducato based motorhome with the superb 9 speed automatic gearbox. have found one anomaly, and wonder if anyone else has found the same.
Stopped at for example traffic lights, gearbox in Drive with the annoying start/stop function disengaged, and foot on footbrake, the gearbox drops into a sort of neutral. When lights change, foot off the brake, it takes a couple of seconds to re-engage the drive, and it does so with a mild "clonk". If you accelerate before it re-engages, there's quite a big "thump" as in engages again. I guess there's not too many of these new boxes out there, but has anyone come across this, and is it considered normal for this gearbox? Thanks

Hi, did you get anywhere with this. I have just purchased a new Carrara 184 by swift and have the same issue.
Just wondering if this is how it operates or is it a problem.
Thanks in advance

 

[ETC]

Not sure if this is the correct place to post, but I have a gearbox problem on a new Motorhome fiat ducato van

It keeps jumping into neutral whilst driving then back into gear. This is the new 9 speed auto box
It keeps going into neutral at a stop with the auto stop start turned off then goes back into gear when you loose your foot off the pedal and jumps forward.


I have just seen another customer complaint about the same issue and has not had it resolved. The dealer can’t find faults and thinks it ok, but it’s not as 6 out of 10 times it stops in drive and the other 4 it goes into neutral.

Other customer wrote in his letter below

Posted on 13/05/2022 15:18 by 777


We have a 2022 Fiat Ducato based motorhome with the superb 9 speed automatic gearbox. have found one anomaly, and wonder if anyone else has found the same.
Stopped at for example traffic lights, gearbox in Drive with the annoying start/stop function disengaged, and foot on footbrake, the gearbox drops into a sort of neutral. When lights change, foot off the brake, it takes a couple of seconds to re-engage the drive, and it does so with a mild "clonk". If you accelerate before it re-engages, there's quite a big "thump" as in engages again. I guess there's not too many of these new boxes out there, but has anyone come across this, and is it considered normal for this gearbox? Thanks

Hi Pmartin 173,
We also have a 2022 Fiat Ducato based motorhome with the new 9 speed automatic gearbox.
Also same issues, foot off the brake, it takes a couple of seconds to re-engage the drive, and it does so with a mild "clonk". If you accelerate before it re-engages, there's quite a big "thump" as it engages again. One day we had a red transmission warning light come on and⁰ the motorhome went into limp mode. It’s been at a Fiat Service center for 4 months before it was finally fixed. A new CTU unit was fitted to the motorhome. Fiat had to build a new programme to load onto the motorhome computer. After the first attempt which failed, they built another program, with success. We have been using the motorhome for the last few weeks and it's going so much better, gear changes are so much smoother and at the lights, with the stop/start function on, when releasing the brake at take off, everything engages instantly & smoothly.
I believe that there was a problem with the motorhome from the day we purchased it.
Fiat should have all this information & programming now for the problems that you are having.
Hope this helps
Evan C from New Zealand

 

[Rick 74]

Hi, did you get anywhere with this. I have just purchased a new Carrara 184 by swift and have the same issue.
Just wondering if this is how it operates or is it a problem.
Thanks in advance

Hello. We bought a brand new Ducato based Burstner Motorhome with the 9 Speed auto box which suffered the same symptoms from day 1 (October 2023). Once rolling, the gearbox was silky smooth and very nice, but whenever you came to a standstill it was as if the gearbox dropped into neutral and then, upon transmission take up, it would 'slam' into 1st gear (as if the drive was not via a torque converter). We reported it straight away, it went back to Fiat and they did a load of diagnosis on it and then told me that everything was fine and that it was all down to my driving style! They told me it was a 'learning' gearbox and that you had to wait for at least 1 minute from initial (cold) start up before selecting drive. What absolute nonsense - I have owned and still drive several auto vehicles and this is completely different to all others! I challenged Fiat (via our MH supplier, who have been fantastic) and the vehicle was returned for 'further diagnostics'. This was then referred to Fiat Technical who stated that a new gearbox, flywheel and other parts were required. Then Fiat Warranty would not honour the Fiat Technical resolution, requiring further diagnostics and evidence. By this time, our MH had covered 900 miles, with almost half of them not driven by us (our supplying dealer was taking it back and forth to the Fiat Professional main dealership)
Anyway, after not seeing our MH for 4 months, we got it back last week with its brand new gearbox etc and it is all working very nice and smoothly.
So, and to give you some advice, go via your MH supplier/dealer and get the problem resolved under warranty ASAP. Beware though, as I was led to believe that Fiat Professional main dealers are not great, and this matches my own experience.