75 Auto box failure
 

Hello all
Driving along happily ( to collect some food) the engine raced a few times when the auto-box shouldn't have.
I stopped , then, no drive at all in any setting R,D,2,3 etc STUCK!
RAC towed me away to a garage where there was much sucking of teeth!
The car has been well loved for 12 years at least ...but I do not know when the auto box fluid was last changed:duh:
Could it be just this or could its twentieth year be its last? (only 90666 miles (genuine) No fault light or any warning.
Love to keep her if I can, but new box would be beyond my means!
Thanks for any feedback....John

wait and see what the garage diagnosis is first but don't give them the nod until you have run it against some of the advice that you will probably get on here first. they are probably not autobox/rover experts anyway and could start a game of you throwing away good money after bad in an effort to cure. just take it step by step if I were you.

The auto boxes are normally reliable except for the solenoids failing and a cracked reverse piston.

I have found that a fluid change to try and repair an issue rarely works.

I have had one auto do exactly what you describe, unfortunately this was terminal.

Sorry to hear this. I worry about something like this happening to my now 20 year old Rover. Can you replace the auto boxes on these or convert to manual?

Yes the auto box can be replaced, it is a massive job to swap the gearbox to a manual.

Hi John,

I'd say that the first thing you should consider is an electrical fault rather than a mechanical one. As the automatic transmission ECU is under the bulkhead in the passenger footwell, check for signs of water ingress. Additionally, a T4 session to retrieve any fault codes would be interesting.

Xsport's posting is a realistic advice. The official diagnosis will almost certainly be a replacement gearbox. That's because:

• It's the quickest and easiest way to get the car moving again.
• Tracing the fault can be expensive in labour charges.
• "Specialists" don't fault-find, they just do a standard reconditioning.

We once had a Metro whose automatic gearbox one day sounded like a bag of bolts. The "specialists" quoted £1,500 to recondition. I decided to find out what was wrong and repair it myself. The gear train unit (similar to a differential) had shed some teeth. I sourced and fitted a second-hand one plus I sent the brake bands to JPAT in Somerset to be re-lined. With a refurbished torque converter it ran better than it had ever done and at a cost of just £300 including the engine crane hire.

Of course in your case John, make sure that you haven't lost a significant amount of transmission fluid through a leaking cooler hose since that would eventually cause loss of drive.

Simon

Throttle position sensor potentiometer
 

Hi John.
I had a phone call today from a Nano member whom had a similar situation as yourself, he says that he took his car to a local garage and the first thing they did was to put the ignition on II

Then without starting the car pressed the go pedal 10 times to the floor, they also checked the plug on the throttle body for corrosion.

This sorted his problem out.

He wanted to post this up just in case it would help? but is not sure how to do it therefore I said I would post it up for him, is name is also John.

remember reading somewhere pressing the throttle 10 times with ignition switched on 2 will reset the auto ecu.

that is the fly by wire system (on a diesel)

To reset the auto ECU you remove the fuse for a few minutes (no4 under the bonnet?) or disconnect the battery (but this will reset everything including the radio etc)

If you end up swapping it,go for a box that is later than 2003,they were upgraded and apparently more reliable.
I had to change mine last year after same symptoms as you,tried changing reverse piston first (which had sheared off altogether )but still was noisey and didn't operate properly.
There is a 'pin out' diagnostic on here that only requires a multimeter to test the box electrically.
Good luck,Ken.