Auto Box Problem

[seefive]

Hi

 

Having problems with my auto box. It sometimes doesn't engage drive, and I sit there with the engine revving going nowhere.

 

If I flick it back into neutral then drive, it engages with a thump, and I'm off again. Drives perfectly once it's going, changes up and down and manual sequential shift works fine.

 

Car has recently been driven through deep rainwater ( almost up to the sills with suspension raised), so I'm thinking it could be electrical and hopefully temporary fault.

 

From what I've read, most of the auto problems are electrical/electronic, rather than mechanical.

 

Car is a 2008 mk 2 petrol with 4 speed box

 

Any help appreciated

 

Thanks

[seefive]

Hi

 

Having problems with my auto box. It sometimes doesn't engage drive, and I sit there with the engine revving going nowhere.

 

If I flick it back into neutral then drive, it engages with a thump, and I'm off again. Drives perfectly once it's going, changes up and down and manual sequential shift works fine.

 

Car has recently been driven through deep rainwater ( almost up to the sills with suspension raised), so I'm thinking it could be electrical and hopefully temporary fault.

 

From what I've read, most of the auto problems are electrical/electronic, rather than mechanical.

 

Car is a 2008 mk 2 petrol with 4 speed box

 

Any help appreciated

 

Thanks

 

Update on this. The car completely refused to move today when I was in a traffic queue. Called out Green Flag recovery and in the 30 minutes I was waiting the car miraculously fixed itself! The recovery driver dove the car onto the loader, and drove it off and into the Citroen garage when we got there.

 

Garage have run diagnostics and can find no fault. Test drove at length and no problems.

 

Am I going mad??

[coastline taxis]

You have that look of madness about you mind. How long had you been in the traffic for and does your cooling fan work. Remenmber reading somewhere that the auto ecu will shut the box down if it gets told its to hot. And in the time it took for green flag the box cooled down. Just a thought mind. so could be wrong

[seefive]

You have that look of madness about you mind. How long had you been in the traffic for and does your cooling fan work. Remenmber reading somewhere that the auto ecu will shut the box down if it gets told its to hot. And in the time it took for green flag the box cooled down. Just a thought mind. so could be wrong

 

 

Thanks for that - could well be on to something here. It only happens when he car has been in traffic for maybe 10 minutes, although the engine is at normal temperature. Could be the gearbox getting too hot?

Also, it sometimes hesitates when starting from cold, feels like it's in the wrong gear, and I have to kick down to get going.

ECU problems?

[seefive]

Car is booked into Citroen garage for tomorrow. I've asked them to change the gearbox oil and check the linkage, plus given them precise instructions how to road test (simulate heavy traffic). Will post results. This car is giving a whole new meaning to the phrase "stuck in traffic"!!

 

Browsing aroud the internet, there are wildly differing opinions on th AL4 box - from brilliant to awful. Citroen say it's "lubricated for life" but some people recommend annual oil change. We shall see..

[Guest cfryve]

Ah welcome to the wonderful world of the AL4 auto gear box, check out my posts on my problems. Here's a couple of suggestions, if yours is the AL4 then there is a cable linkage going from the selector to the top of the box. There's a particular way to set this up, I know because I didn't do mine correctly and had similar problems selecting drive, it's described in the Haynes manual and not particularly hard. The box certainly insn't sealed for life and I've had great fun changing the oil. Don't believe Mr Haynes about capacity, it's not 4.5 litres, more like 2.5, after draining you just have to keep topping it up, let it warm up until it drips out of the level tube which is part of the drain plug, you obviously need to take the engine tray off to get to the drain plug assembly. Oh by the way it's pretty difficult to get to the filler so I had to make an extension to my funnel to get to it without spilling oil all over the top of the box.

The box certainly does suffer from over heating and there's after market coolers you can buy, I'm not too bothered as I don't do too much towing and it's cold up North.

Good luck

[seefive]

Thanks for that. One other thing I've noticed. The pull against the brake is much stronger in R than D. Does this point towards linkage problems, or is it normal?

[Guest cfryve]

I suppose it could happen if it isn't engaging drive properly. How did you get on at the garage?

[seefive]

I suppose it could happen if it isn't engaging drive properly. How did you get on at the garage?

 

 

The level plug was rounded - they coudn't loosen it. So a new one is on order then it's going back in to have it broken out. Burning some money here, but a stitch in time could save 2 grand!

[seefive]

Just to close this out, box is working fine now. I'm £280 down after 2 visits, loan car and fluid change (£45 for the fluid alone), but I'm now confident with the car. Driving to the snowy wastes of York this wekend, which will be a test (400 mile round trip)