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Guest Kam

2008 Smart passion automatic transmission problem ?

33 posts in this topic

Hi Shakey,I dropped the car off in the morning, the car was washed and ready to go by mid afternoon, all under warranty. Chuck

Thanks Chuck, I'm going to make an appointment today.Cheers,Shakey

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Took the car in last Friday (April 16). Nothing was replaced. They did do a "shifter" software update that will correct the problem of not going into reverse. Been driving it for a couple of days and (knock on wood) everything seems to be okay so far.Cheers,Shakey

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Yes, this has happened to me in my 2008 Passion more than once. I have had it in for service and apparently the shifter assembly was replaced. So, for about 3 months the trouble was not there. Now I find that every time I go out after the car has been sitting for a period of time, the R and D are not there at all. I turn it off..then restart it and then it is working fine. Last time I had to get the car towed to the Dealer as it would not go into any gear at all. I am not going to wait for this to happen again and will be taking it back again. I will let you all know the results.

I have been living with this issue as well. I bought a 2008 passion cabriolet in the early fall of 2009. Sometime after January 2010 the issue cropped up whereby I was unable to shift the car into R and D. The first time I took the car to the dealer, they replaced the gear shifter. The issue came back, so the second time I took the car in, service told me that a software update needed to be applied to the gear shifter. This was about a month ago and the problem has not gone away. I am now taking my car in a third time. This is very frustrating for a number of reasons. It is a hassle to continually be without a car, in addition to the issue not being resolved. I was not expecting to have this many issues with a Smart car. I'm hoping that the dealer can fix the gear shifter problem, but I'm losing hope. :huh:

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I have been living with this issue as well. I bought a 2008 passion cabriolet in the early fall of 2009. Sometime after January 2010 the issue cropped up whereby I was unable to shift the car into R and D. The first time I took the car to the dealer, they replaced the gear shifter. The issue came back, so the second time I took the car in, service told me that a software update needed to be applied to the gear shifter. This was about a month ago and the problem has not gone away. I am now taking my car in a third time. This is very frustrating for a number of reasons. It is a hassle to continually be without a car, in addition to the issue not being resolved. I was not expecting to have this many issues with a Smart car. I'm hoping that the dealer can fix the gear shifter problem, but I'm losing hope. :huh:

I took my smart in a couple of weeks ago for the 2nd time for the same problem. The first time I was told that I needed a software upgrade. That lasted about 2 weeks then the same problem came back. When I took it in the second time a "clutch actuator" was ordered (took about 2 weeks to get in) and was eventually replaced. "knock on wood" it has been about a week and there hasn't been a problem.Cheers,Shakey

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I am having similar problems with my '08 Passion. Not sure, but it seems to happen after I accidentally hit the paddle shifter while driving in "D". Sometimes only reverse doesn't show but other times I get blanks for other gears as well. Intermittantly, running through the gears help, as does turning the car off. If it will go in drive, moving ahead a few feet then trying again will allow it to go into reverse. Unfortunately, this happened a few months AFTER the warranty expired. I haven't taken it to the dealership as I feel if the problem doesn't happen when I take it they will only guess what the problem is and I'll end up paying for unnecessary repairs and be without my car for who knows how long, only to still have the problem. Any suggestions?

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If servcing was done at an M-B/smart dealership, they should be able to tell you what version of transmission software you are running. If it is not the most up to date version (2.03, maybe 2.04), insist that they up date the software for you, for free. If the dealer will not do this take it up with smart Canada.

Edited by Huronlad

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I have a 2009 Smart, and I occasionally get this problem. Although I find it's because the shifter didn't fully register the reverse position. Sometimes the shifter doesn't fully snap into place (blank indication on the display), sometimes it displays "R" but not in gear. The easiest thing I've found is to put it in Park then back to Reverse, but as gently as before. I move the stick a bit faster and let up on the "trigger" just as it comes in to place and make sure I can feel it hit the safety stop.Usually works for me.

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