Re: sensodrive problem

My sensodrive citroen c3 vtr sticks in neutral and I have had to tap the brake pedal to get it into 1st gear bit of a nightmare. The car will not reverse, its comes like a rage boiled over when it does this. It will not communicate with gear stick, its no longer bilingual it talks to itself not to the engine, holds no currency. Can't park anywhere unless I am willing to break my back to push it out of a space to reverse it, parking on pavements. This happened in a few days. Only remedy is to leave the car a few hours goes back to normal. Told it could be the solenoid, went to specialist gearbox mehanic, reluctant to say what is causing it only that it will be costly. He says its a big flaw in the sensodrive gearbox with it being so great only that it is very temperamental. Gearbox does not stick or displays any secondary indications of a broken gearbox.

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My Citroen c3 sensodrive gearbox vtr automatic has developed a gearbox fault. The car reads gearbox fault and will not go into drive or reverse, it sits in neutral. The gearbox has shown no signs of any skipping gears or crunching them. Taken the battery lead off to reset it. This problem is intermittent comes and goes. Tapping the brake pedal clears it and the gear stick positions show on the lcd panel. I have been told by the mechanic the car has fault codes, one says it is the gearbox (transmission) sensor, the other is an electrical fault in the wiring in the gearbox. The car is only 5 years old.

alexphoto1 wrote:My sensodrive citroen c3 vtr sticks in neutral and I have had to tap the brake pedal to get it into 1st gear bit of a nightmare.

I am sure that is pointing to where a fault is, but I can't think of where

alexphoto1 wrote:Only remedy is to leave the car a few hours goes back to normal.

That is also interesting, have you tried to remove the 'park shunt' from the BSI or disconnected the battery to see if it resets?

Does a lexia read bring up any fault codes for the gearbox ecu? This may shed some light on where the fault could be.

Have disconnected battery no joy. Can you claim insurance for it? Might have to go to Citroen to get it looked at see if they can find the problem. Rac could not get any codes. The gear specialist got the fault codes will not clear. It may be a loose wire in the gearbox who knows. I hope it is the solenoid, not anything else. Car was driving me nuts at the gearbox specialist, he's quite keen to wrestle with the problematic Citroen, hopefully, he finds the problem

alexphoto1 wrote:Have disconnected battery no joy.

OK

alexphoto1 wrote: Can you claim insurance for it?

Do you have a mechanical breakdown insurance?

alexphoto1 wrote:Rac could not get any codes.

They didn't use lexia.

alexphoto1 wrote:The gear specialist got the fault codes will not clear.

But did they tell you what the codes and their descriptions were?

alexphoto1 wrote: I hope it is the solenoid,

Really? That's an expensive hope.

alexphoto1 wrote:Car was driving me nuts at the gearbox specialist, he's quite keen to wrestle with the problematic Citroen, hopefully, he finds the problem

If they do, can you find and share the codes that won't clear, the work that was done and if you want to share that too, the cost of it all please?

Gearbox specialist said the fault code is for the gearstick. Getting a secondhand gearstick to try and see if it sorts it out. Quick question a year ago I had a leak in the drivers door that caused the drivers footwell to be flooded could this be the problem with the electrics as the wiring loom is in the footwell? If its not that then he thinks it could be the brain of the brake causing the problem.

cheers

Car fixed, it was the gear stick unit that wasn't working. So glad it wasn't anything else. Topgear https://www.topgear.uk.net/contactus.html fixed it. Great place Robin has a wealth of knowledge about gearbox problems and has many contacts in the industry for advice.

alexphoto1 wrote:Car fixed, it was the gear stick unit that wasn't working. So glad it wasn't anything else. Topgear https://www.topgear.uk.net/contactus.html fixed it. Great place Robin has a wealth of knowledge about gearbox problems and has many contacts in the industry for advice.

Great news, thank you for the information

It cost £270. It did, however, take a while to diagnose as the fault code was saying it was a gearbox sensor and it looked like it was the brain of the car was gone. I thought it was the abs as the esp light came on a while ago then disappeared. Strange how it happened, the gear stick not working. It's back again the problem.