AL4 automatic gearbox 3E3E1 code.

Hi, all i'm new to the forum, I’ve been reading a lot of your posts regarding automatic gearbox related problems. I cannot seem to find answers on here or on the internet hence this post asking for help.

Car: Citroen C3 2005 on a 55 plate.
CC: 1.6L 16Valve.
Gearbox: automatic AL4
Fuel: Petrol
Miles on clock: 78k
Paint: Blue.

We bought this car around 3 months ago and quickly it started doing daft things. i.e.
From cold goes grate for about 1 mile then bang from gearbox and goes in to gearbox fault mode. I.e. Engine light along with flashing sports and ice indicators on the dashboard.

Also does the same if one manually changes the gears.
Seems to do it going from 3ed to 4th mostly when cold but has done the same from 1st to 2nd, also done the above when coming to a full stop at a junction but only within around a mile from cold.

The car will run fine all day clocking hundreds of miles up without any problems at all only when it’s cold even more so when temp out side is around freezing, if it’s worn out like today no problems at all. No bangs no warning lights and the car performs as it should.

the other thing is when its done the trick it just keeps driving as nothings wrong but with the warning lights on, obviously if one pulls over and restarts the car all warning lights go out as they should and normal driving can commence, like I say above one can drive the car has hard as one likes all day stopping and starting for miles without any problems.

I’ve also noticed it seems to have more than 4 gears when in second it clearly changers up slightly then again to 3ed and again into 4th, maybe it’s the torque converter that’s locking up im experiencing it’s very subtle.

After reading on this forum about oil problems I changed the oil in the box old oil was black ish but with a good viscosity. Car still has same problems, so allowing for any old oil that was obviously still in the torque converter I changed it again. Still the car drives the same.

Got hold of a Delphi DS-150E scan tool read the gearbox ECU and received the following codes.
20060 – Unknown fault code.
3E3E1 – Unknown fault code.
41211 – Unknown fault code.
ED4C1 – Unknown fault code.

Any help with this would be helpful.

Hi Phil Radford UK

Phil Radford UK wrote:Got hold of a Delphi DS-150E scan tool read the gearbox ECU and received the following codes.
20060 – Unknown fault code.
3E3E1 – Unknown fault code.
41211 – Unknown fault code.
ED4C1 – Unknown fault code.

The best tool for the C3 (which reads all the codes) is the lexia tool from HERE but read up about it here first .

Phil Radford UK wrote:From cold goes grate for about 1 mile then bang from gearbox and goes in to gearbox fault mode. I.e. Engine light along with flashing sports and ice indicators on the dashboard.

'Bang and fault' is often due to one of the solenoids going bad. There is a topic HERE that covers changing the solenoid valves that can give this fault , but I would get a lexia diagnosis first, so you change all the faulty parts and not just a guess.

I have this same problem exactly, except my c3 is a 2007 model did you have any luck identifying and fixing the problem