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joey

Weird transmission issue

14 posts in this topic

I did a search but couldn't find a thread with the same issues I'm having. 

 

I was in my '06 CDI in slow moving traffic when all of a sudden the transmission acted like I popped the clutch. The tires squealed and the car lurched forward. After that the car wouldn't go. The engine didn't stall, no 3 bars and when I selected reverse,  neutral or A that all worked but the car just wouldn't move. I pushed the car off the road and turned it off. I restarted it after about a minute and it worked fine... for about 5 minutes.. then it did it again but this time a quick restart didn't fix it. I pushed the car into a parking lot where it stayed for about 6 hours while I went off to work. When I returned the transmission worked fine and I drove it home which was about 3 kilometers. About a year ago I repaired the clutch actuator wire harness where after it rubbed through on the engine so I don't think thats the problem. I'll pull the clutch actuator later on today to see if there's any issues there. 

Any other ideas?

 

Thanks! 

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did your abs & orange triangle warning lights come on also?

i had pretty well the exact same problem a couple of years ago with my 05,   i removed, cleaned, lubed the clutch actuator.   the problem never happened again.

also my preload on my actuator was way off.  

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The orange triangle light came on but only after the second incident. It was off after the six hour wait. I checked the clutch actuator and there was very little preload there. I’ll remove it and do a clean and re lube. 

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There’s a hole but I have a brass acorn nut on the end of the rod. I used brass so it would be the sacrificial part.. not the fork. It’s been on there for several years now. 

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I finally got time to remove the actuator. When removing the connector I don't think it was fully seated as it came off quite easily. I plugged it back in making sure it was fully seated then tried removing it and it took much more effort to remove it. The brass acorn nut is still doing its job preventing the actuator rod from poking through the clutch fork. The grease inside the actuator wasn't hard and is still clean. I put it all back together and took the car for a 10km drive and all seems fine. It's shifting much smoother so the actuator definitely needed adjusting.

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Great to hear.   (nice to see there are still plenty of smarts zipping around the roads of Nova Scotia)

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Well.... my Smart acted up on me again and I had to get it towed home. I bought a used clutch actuator off ebay since mine looks like something from the bottom of the ocean. It's clean inside but the motor's case is badly rusted and actually has a pin hole in it. 

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what happened when it acted up?   hard banging shift, stall, yellow triangle & mabey 3 bars?

have you tried it with the replacement actuator yet?   hopefully you got it pretty cheap off e-bay.

 

Edited by Sydney

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I got all what you mentioned except it didn’t stall. Several hour later it worked fine again which I don’t understand.  $182 for the actuator and it should be here tomorrow... I hope. 

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I finally got my "new to me" clutch actuator. Its in great condition - a bit dirty but zero corrosion on it. It came from Poland. It works perfectly. I drove about 20 km and so far no problems. My water pump leaks a bit of coolant (next project) and I always know when I need to top up the coolant because the engine reaches temperature (3 blobs) rather quickly. Both times I had the transmission issue the coolant was a bit low... could this be related to the problem? 

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no,  coolant leak is a problem all by itself.   great  to hear that the replacement actuator is working fine.

how bad is the coolant leak?   water pump replacement is...  (how should i word it correctly)...   not very fun.  lol 

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Lift the body up away from sub frame even if you just take out the front bolts and loosen the rears, this will allow large hands the space to get at the water pump from above....Better way is to lift it up as far as it goes and chock the wheels and when finished lower it back down....after you have done this procedure once it will be the way you always work on your engine in a Smart Car...imho.

 

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I’ve probably put another 50 plus km on the car and all still seems well. 
 

I’ve never dropped the engine via the sub frame before. When I replaced the thermostat a few years ago I disconnected one of the engine mounts which gave me enough room to do the job. 

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