Sick Smart car

[Triguy58 2]

 I am in the middle of nowhere in Middle Texas and I have a sick smart car. It is blowing codes u0073, control mod bus a, u0103 lost communication with gear shift control and p0500, vehicle speed sensor. The latter one it's only blown once, I have tested it four or five times and this is what it's done. I have cleaned every terminal I can find on the thing including the ABS terminal underneath the car and I am at a rock and a hard place now and I need someone's help or I'm going to have to bring it to a guy in this town who I don't believe knows anything about it and may make it worse. Other choices I can bring it 100 miles to a town to a guy that supposedly knows what he's doing but I'd have to drive it there and that would be terrifying. I really really would appreciate anybody's help

[LooseLugNuts 555]

i have no idea...but look at the bright side...at least youre not stuck trying to figure this out in  -30 degree weather during a snowstorm

[jwight 117]

What year and model?  I'd start with checking the battery, including a load test.  Then check out the reluctor rings on the rear axles - are you getting a stability system warning light?   You might also try posting on the Smart Car of America site...

 

https://www.smartcarofamerica.com/threads/u0103.155639/

[Mjolinor 85]

Check the carpet is dry at the left side.

 

The gearbox control unit is under the seat. It has a small loom of its own that goes through the floor and connects to clutch, gearchange and speed sensors. Another connection comes the other way to the SAM carrying CAN signals.

 

Water collecting in the footwell causes all sorts of problems for the control unit. The loom is also prone to breaking.

 

Just a matter of getting stuck in and checking it all. DO not trust it to someone that is not in the know with Smarts, it will bankrupt you.

 

Sounds to me like SAM to gearbox ecu has a broken wire somewhere.

Edited January 7 by Mjolinor

[Mjolinor 85]

This is nothing to do with ABS sensors at all. Different looms, different jobs. (IMO)

[Triguy58 2]

Thank you guys I really really appreciate any help you can give me. I'm pulling my hair out and I'm bald

[Mjolinor 85]

This is CDI so may not be correct though I see no real reason why it should be different.

 

I do not have a diagram of the loom to the gearbox but it is a very simple one anyway so easy enough to check out.

[Triguy58 2]

On 1/7/2023 at 11:38 AM, jwight said:

What year and model?  I'd start with checking the battery, including a load test.  Then check out the reluctor rings on the rear axles - are you getting a stability system warning light?   You might also try posting on the Smart Car of America site...

 

https://www.smartcarofamerica.com/threads/u0103.155639/

Thank you guys I really really appreciate any help you can give me. I'm pulling my hair out and I'm bald

[Triguy58 2]

It is a 2008 passion Cabriolet. Battery seems okay but I'll switch it with another car and see what happens. I checked the reluctor Rings and they were filthy and I cleaned them off the best I could with a wire brush. They do not appear to be broken in any way just dirty and worn. I am indeed getting a stability system warning light if you mean the triangle with an exclamation Mark in it. My only car down here is a 51 mg and I just bought it and not sure how good it is yet. So I'm trying to get this thing going.

[Triguy58 2]

I will take your advice and go to smart of America put the same Post in there

[Willys 741]

1 hour ago, Triguy58 said:

My only car down here is a 51 mg

Hmmmm....OK....this has perked my interest....lol
Pics????

Stability is usually them nasty reluctor rings, take a very good look at them.....just the slightest split will do it...front and rear.

 

Edited January 8 by Willys

[Triguy58 2]

It will not allow me to load a picture on here for some reason 

[Triguy58 2]

Another interesting thing this thing does is when you jerk the steering wheel back and forth, it acts up really bad really quick.

[Willys 741]

Check wiring connections for front abs sensors? Cracked or broken wire or connector?

Not sure if there is any wiring for ABS on steering collum or not..?

 

[Triguy58 2]

Well, it's fixed!. About 6 months ago or maybe a year I put in a cruise control, I thought it was from smart but who knows. It replaced the stock. Well the first thing I thought of when this happened out in East Texas is I removed the accelerator pedal and removed the wires for the cruise and plugged in the pedal again. Nothing happened it didn't get it any better so I thought that wasn't it and that's when I started doing this other stuff. Well guess what there's two wires that go off the thing one goes to the instrument cluster and I forgot to take that one off. I just did and now it runs fine. I really appreciate you guys I'm I really do if I can do anything for you guys let me

[Willys 741]

I always say....lol...if a human touches it, it can get F'ed up...lol.    We all can make mistakes but it's IF you are man enough to admit to them is what counts.   I make them on a regular basis it seems at my age...lol.  I look at them and have always as they are learning tools for other not to follow...lol.

Great to hear you have figured it out.....come back any time....enjoy the little beater....and that MG....great cars......ex-pat here.....when i was in search of one they all had far too much rust to mess with. 

[Triguy58 2]

Okay one more thing where's the best place to get the repair kit for the roof of the thing, or whatever it is I need for the rough to replace all the Fasteners up there, I got to take the thing apart anyway and they say to replace that stuff

[Triguy58 2]

I ordered a kit in some place in Great Britain, these folks never sent it and since then I have found that they're really terrible at customer service and I was wondering if anybody had any other place I could get these things

[Willys 741]

I will offer up another Smart Car site....it's not a chat but a virtual library/wealth of information that every Smart owner needs to visit at one point in their time with their Smart Car.
Yes you will need to donate a small amount to get deep into the information or struggle in the shallows...it's worth it imho as it takes years if not decades to gather this sort of knowledge. I'll bet what you are searching for has been brought up in one form or another there. It has a very good selection of photo's with descriptions of every mod/fix, repair you name it.
Again imho, worth the few dollars he asks.    To each their own, but you have already found it difficult searching for things so go take a peek, see for yourself...?   I found it worth every penny when I first owned these cars.  Hope this helps.....damn nearly forgot to say where it was...lol.

 

Evilution.co.uk  

[Triguy58 2]

Will do

[Mjolinor 85]

You should also mention https://fq101.co.uk/ .

 

Mostly the same stuff with some of the same mistakes.

 

Cost Zro.

 

 

[Willys 741]

2 hours ago, Mjolinor said:

You should also mention https://fq101.co.uk/ .

 

Mostly the same stuff with some of the same mistakes.

 

Cost Zro.

 

 

Not donating the smallest donation makes me laugh......people spend far more than that in one night at the local watering hole.    That lasts how many hours unless you have accidentally created a new family...lol. 
You can't expect everything for free....can you..? 

Again to each their own.....Hmmmm.....?

I have zero gains except maybe if he stops sharing his knowledge....and I happen to need that single tid bit of knowledge to keep my car going instead of gong to an expensive shop etc.

Yes there are a small handful of sites this one included that share openly......but we do not have the depth of info he has to offer and also where did we gain this knowledge in the first place....I wonder?

[LooseLugNuts 555]

5 hours ago, Willys said:

where did we gain this knowledge in the first place....I wonder?

 

 

by figuring things out ...sometimes alone ...sometimes with friendly help

 

for the record I am also opposed to paying sites for info 

[Mjolinor 85]

7 hours ago, Willys said:

 where did we gain this knowledge in the first place....I wonder?

 

The site was free until people contributed freely enough material to make it worthwhile closing it.

 

I used to contribute myself but I will not pay.

 

There is absolutely nothing on there that is not elsewhere. Having it all in one place is not an advantage. If you are interested then having to search gives you much more information around the subject. If your interest only goes as far as fixing something that you have a problem with then by all means pay.

 

Personal choice. The sump gaskets he sells are excellent though. I don't know if he still sells them, it must be 10 years since I bought one.

 

[MikeT 737]

I think Kane may have got the idea from someone who cribbed the info on his site when it was free, created a CD-ROM, and was marketing it on eBay with some success. I think it may have been around the same time, but I could be wrong, that the deep content on his site became paywalled.