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Hey everyone!

New to the forum and would like to ask for some advice from some more knowledgeable people. Recently obtained a smart fortwo CDI 2005 model. I've also owned another but have never experienced this problem. I was driving my smart fortwo CDI and was accelerating in the acceleration lane. I attempted a downshift (note that I don't have a tach on the dash) and the car had a bit of a kickback but continued on. About a mile later, there was another kickback (I forget if I downshifted or not) but the 3 dashed lines appeared on the dash. I was still driving at around 40mph and was still able to accelerate to 50mph but once there was traffic, I slowed down and realized the transmission was no longer engaged to the engine. I was unable to shift the car back into drive or reverse and when I do, it is accompanied by a rumble from the transmission. I am still able to start the car but unable to shift it into gear.

So the possibilities I came up with are:
1) First two gears in the transmission are stripped, which would require a new transmission.
2) Clutch was already worn and burned out due to downshift at high speed. Clutch actuator was already adjusted all the way in from previous owner which leads me to believe that it was already worn out to a certain extent.

Thanks in advance, Cheers!

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Check to see if your actuator has worn through the mating surface on your transmission. Remove the actuator and look in the hole on the transmission. If it has you can fix it using directions on this forum for adding a nut/cap to the actuator rod.

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A chafed wiring harness leading to the clutch actuator is quite common. The wires chafe against the edge of the intercooler scoop. See THIS post for some pictures.

Wouldn't that have been caused by gradual wear and tear as opposed to something sudden happening as it were in this case?

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  • 2 months later...

was there any resolution to this issue? My car is doing the same thing now, it won't shift into forward or reverse, but the attempts are accompanied by the same sound you hear when shifting into or out of reverse with the key on but the engine not running. - The attempts into reverse are noisier and closer together than the attempts into forward, and both result in three bars after a short period of time.

When the engine isn't running it seems to shift into gear. (the car will roll in neutral but not in reverse nor first.)

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