Stuck in France

Manxcat

Manxcat

Joined
Jun 22, 2011
Posts
533
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Location
Onchan, Isle of Man
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17,008
MH
Carthago
Exp
Since Nov 2010 after 25 yrs under canvas.
Any helpful advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Started our trip this morning and the van would not start first time. An error showed up saying could not select gears. Another try and we were on the road. Not for long though. Stopped at a supermarket and that was it. Stuffed. No gears. This is a conformatic gearbox, only done 10,000 miles.

RAC arranged a low loader to get us to a campsite and we will learn more on Monday morning .

My impression is that the gearbox in knackered and our trip along with it. Anyone here had similar problems? Is it something that was easily fixed or do we prepare for the worst?

Thanks in advance.
 
Sorry to read of your plight.
I don't know the box well gut I would put money on it being an electronic sensor that tells the clutch when to operate.
No clutch, no select gear.

Hope it's a quick fix for you.
 
How blooming frustrating for you and both a worry and a disappointment, we all feel for you.

Wonder if disconnecting the earth lead could clear whatever the fault is. I’ve had various little faults, including alternator issues cleared with the earth strap removed, left for a few mins and reconnected.

Keep us updated on how you get on please.
 
We had similar problems last year on the Outer Hebrides and unfortunately it took months to fix but I think that was done to the dealer not being able to work out the problem.

Hopefully you will have some error codes and those can be reset fairly easily by a mechanic otherwise would get it to a Fiat main dealer asap as they would have the tools and knowledge to diagnose and fix.

In our instance the play in the clutch flywheel was outside the tolerances the computer allowed for so once that was reset using a special tool from Fiat it was fixed and has not happened again since.

Another common problem seems to be with a sensor by the brake pedal but if you search this forum there are a few different issues and fixes people have had.

Good luck and hopefully nothing major for you.

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Manxcat said:
Any helpful advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Started our trip this morning and the van would not start first time. An error showed up saying could not select gears. Another try and we were on the road. Not for long though. Stopped at a supermarket and that was it. Stuffed. No gears. This is a conformatic gearbox, only done 10,000 miles.

RAC arranged a low loader to get us to a campsite and we will learn more on Monday morning .

My impression is that the gearbox in knackered and our trip along with it. Anyone here had similar problems? Is it something that was easily fixed or do we prepare for the worst?

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...


So sorry to hear about your problem. I had the same no gears on dash and it turned out to be the clutch and dual mass fly wheel,I wouldn’t of thought it was your gearbox. I hope you can get it sort and resume your holiday.
 
Does sound like an electrical/software problem rather than a mechanical one.🤞
Hopefully just a loose wire, I would check all main earthing points as suggested first, but its almost like the gearbox part of ECU is not rebooting properly.
An OBD reader may show what the fault is, but not many of us carry one of those, so if needed hopefully a mechanic can reset, or trace the fault.
Good luck, hope you get back on the road soon.
LES
 
Hi Manx
We had the same problem in France only 8,000 on the clock. In our situation it was the pump in the gearbox with not enough pressure coming from it. I really hope it’s not as it cost us 2,000 euros and a week to sort out. Ours was on a fiat and only a month out of warranty!
Stopped on a motorway and that was it, it had stopped about twice before that but managed to get going.
I would agree with previous posters and get it checked at at a main dealer.
Good luck 🤞
 
I wonder what would happen if such an incident took you over your 90-day allowance.?
 
Argh i feel your pain same happened to us it took months we ended up part exing dealership couldnt sort it
With hindsight id have gone to a commercial fiat garage (auto trail cheyanne)
 
Update .....

We are really pissed off with French garages. RAC got a low loader to a nice campsite and said they would find a garage on Monday. Eventually, at end of Monday a garage was found. They will take in the van next Tuesday and do the diagnostics on maybe Wednesday or Thursday next week. So nearly 2 weeks off road with nobody doing anything at all. IMO a diagnostics check should/could be done in minutes straight away. If a minor issue then could be back up and running much quicker.

Grrr!!

At least we now have a hire car and can salvage something of our trip.

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It is frustrating but if they have 10 days + regular work already booked in and are at capacity what would an early diagnostics actually do.

These things never take "minutes" and may mean another customer work is delayed.

Hope it is sorted soon
 
Manxcat said:
Update .....

We are really pissed off with French garages. RAC got a low loader to a nice campsite and said they would find a garage on Monday. Eventually, at end of Monday a garage was found. They will take in the van next Tuesday and do the diagnostics on maybe Wednesday or Thursday next week. So nearly 2 weeks off road with nobody doing anything at all. IMO a diagnostics check should/could be done in minutes straight away. If a minor issue then could be back up and running much quicker.

Grrr!!

At least we now have a hire car and can salvage something of our trip.
Click to expand...
I feel your pain, a broken airline in France, a job that a commercial mobile mechanic could have fixed at the side of the road for a couple of hundred quid in the UK, ended up costing nearly €2000 and over a week out of my trip in France.
 
Manxcat said:
Update .....

We are really pissed off with French garages. RAC got a low loader to a nice campsite and said they would find a garage on Monday. Eventually, at end of Monday a garage was found. They will take in the van next Tuesday and do the diagnostics on maybe Wednesday or Thursday next week. So nearly 2 weeks off road with nobody doing anything at all. IMO a diagnostics check should/could be done in minutes straight away. If a minor issue then could be back up and running much quicker.

Grrr!!

At least we now have a hire car and can salvage something of our trip.
Click to expand...
We had similar with the AA last year and was 14 days before they could even recovery us to the mainland for the repairs.

However we did escalate with them and they sent out a mechanic to run the onboard diagnostics to see if it could be a simple issue to clear the error so perhaps push them to do that whilst you wait.
 
I’m sure your motorhome will get fixed. S..T happens but it’s how we deal with it that counts. You seem to be doing great in my opinion - you’ve hired a car and are making the best of the situation. I always say things could be worse - you’ve not crashed, it’s just mechanical. Enjoy rest of your holiday. Please update us with what happens. Best.

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I had the same problem on a new Fiat in France with 5000 miles on the clock, on a Saturday, breakdown truck towed us to a space outside their yard saying that they will transport us to a Fiat garage on Monday which they did, on arriving at the garage they said that they would not be able to look at it for 14 days, Fiat camper assistance arranged for us to be transported to a site until the van could be looked at after 4 days Fiat contacted us to say they have found another Fiat garage that could look at it the following day, fortunately the site we were on had some empty chalets on, so we used one of them while the van was at the garage all site costs + food were payed by Fiat we were offered a hire car but that turned out just for the hire company which did not have any spare cars available they we’re going to drive us around hire company’s to try and find a car declined this offer and returned to the site by taxi. After 3 days the van was fixed a taxi was sent for us to collect the van, the problem was a failed sensor. I lost all confidence in the gearbox after that and replaced the vehicle as soon as we returned to UK.
 
Reading these reports takes me back to when we had the exact same issue, however, we were at home, but still had to be transported to the main Fiat dealer, it was 2 weeks before they had a slot when they could diagnose the problem...... fixed straight away after diagnosis ( £700 ), I am however still wary of this gearbox, although been down thro' France since, but, when money allows will be moving from Fiat, there seems to be too many instances of G/ box failure and I don't want to be caught again
 
We have twice had such a problem and both times diagnosed as the hydraulic pump not functioning.
 
With regard to the delay by the garage, bear in mind too that tomorrow, Thursday, is a bank holiday and so a lot of places close on Friday as well. That will probably be contributing to the delay. Good luck
 
Our semi automatic Renault Master did something similar a few weeks ago. Arrived on site but then refused to engage reverse or forward gears. I managed to find 2 places that would repair it as opposed to main dealer replacing everything but we needed new clutch, bearings and robot unit repairing. Unfortunately was not a cheap exercise!

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I hate all this modern technology, from Sat Navs to all this electronic ignition stuff and all the sensors. Most of my driving career has been with coaches and cars. I once drove from Cornwall to Folkestone with a 6 inch screw holding the distributer lead into the coil! It was still there when I sold it 6 months later. I have fixed filters on a coach near Desvres on a school trip, changed a coach wheel en route for Paris before I got on the ferry and carried out most of my mobility problems to get me home. I drove from St Omer to Calais stuck in 2nd gear on my Willys Jeep. Thankfully, it was on a Sunday and a kind farmer with a whopping great tractor pulled out in front of me and I stuck behind him near enough to Calais. Made it to the French passport control and it started in gear, but wouldn't do the same at the English one! However, a neighbour and his cadet group were behind me in a Land Rover and trailer, and they towed me on and off the ferry, left me in the lay-by outside Dover Docks until the AA took me home! It is getting increasingly hard to maintain your own vehicle, almost as if there is a conspiracy between the insurance companies, motor manufactures, rip-off garages and everything else to do with motoring.
 
Yes the manufacturers are trying to force you to main dealers imo.
I have just had an airbag warning light on my volvo £950 to fit new sensor. I could never of fixed it but the warning light returned. Took it back and they cleaned up some terminals and all good. Would this havd fixed it first time who knows only them.
 
I had exactly the same problem at 9k miles, turned out to be a clutch slave cylinder failure, gearbox out to fix, not cheap, £2.5k I think.
fiat aftercare were useless, not interested because it was 4 year old, fixed it, sold it and bought a manual.
 
Simon Meadwell said:
Yes the manufacturers are trying to force you to main dealers imo.
I have just had an airbag warning light on my volvo £950 to fit new sensor. I could never of fixed it but the warning light returned. Took it back and they cleaned up some terminals and all good. Would this havd fixed it first time who knows only them.
Click to expand...
We've just had a similar issue, there should be some comeback if a "repair" from a main dealer needs additional remedial work after they have certified it fixed.

Cheers
Red.
 
Our 2019 comformatic will sometimes have a hissy fit if I do not press the brake pedal hard enough it has always needed. A firm push to let the engine star. Silly suggestion, try disconnect the earth lead for a few mins, reconnect then with the ignition on get some one to check the brake lightS are on, let the system do its checks such as showing the oil level then try to start and see if any better. A long shot. But costs nothing but a few mins of time.

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