3 times over the last week or so it has come up with 'Automatic Gear Fault' - at the same time the 'Sport' light and 'Snow' light start flashing - it feels as though it's stuck in 3rd gear, i.e. little acceleration from standing. If I stop, turn off, then start again, all seems ok for the rest of the day.
Also, and probably unconnected, I will hear the central locking operate while I'm driving - and find that the doors are locked! On a couple of occasions the doors have dead-locked as I've started up the car.
The car is going back to the main dealer on Friday - inevitably it won't show any symptoms while it's there! Has anyone else experience of this so I can make intelligent noises when they tell me how many hundreds of ££££s it will cost?
The only reference I could find to 'Automatic Gear Fault' in the Archives was in Dutch...
I've got an identical car from may 2002. This is what happened to mine.
Driving along M6 Toll the gearbox went bang and dropped into 3rd with both the sport and snow lights flashing. I pulled into services and checked things over visually. When I started the car again it ran fine for another 100 miles until I got home.
A couple of months later it happened again on the A1 so stopped and restarted the engine. I booked it into the dealer when I got back home. The dealer took it in and performed a software update saying that this would fix it. Next time I drove up the A1 it did it again several times. Any time I would be driving up a hill and using the accelerator to maintain speed it would go bang.
So, I took it back to the dealer the following week. This time they decided a switch (multifunction) needed to be replaced. Needless to say this didn't work. I drove the car for another week and it switched to third a couple more times. Also, the normal gear changes were getting increasingly erratic. Typically I'd get a thump from the box when I pulled up at a junction then a pause as I put my foot down to pull away.
On the third visit to the dealer they replaced a pair of control valves within the gearbox. This finally sorted it out, almost. The gearbox behaves perfectly now but they bust the switch they installed during the second visit. When it was in Drive it would say it was in neutral and there would be a few seconds pause before it went into Drive.
That got sorted out on the last visit (4th). The whole business took about six weeks. So if you've still got any warranty don't hang around. If there is any sign of the gearbox misbehaving get it back to the dealer asap.
Being supplied at the end of May 2002 I only just got this all done under the extended warranty. So, I can't tell you how much it would cost. I found an Australian website some time ago which described this problem and it suggested that the remedy is almost always the replacement of these valves.
Haven't had any other problems with the car, so far.
I hope this saves you a couple of trips to the dealer.
It sounds very familiar, though mine has not yet got as bad as you describe. I sometimes think the gear changing is a bit erratic, particularly going up hills. I haven't had an automatic before so am not sure what to expect. In nearly every other respect this car is exactly what I want and is a pleasure to drive after my old diesel Mondeo.
I have actually got some warranty left - so will give them grief until I'm satisfied; particularly as we will be driving to Spain in it later in the summer!
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